Word Choice with mentor author Brian Jacques

Brian Jacques is a wonderful author to use as a mentor for descriptive word choices. He paints such vivid pictures of the characters, settings, action, and especially the food in his books in the Redwall series. This is way I chose him as a mentor for illustrating descriptive word choices for this minilesson.

"Martin the Warrior" is a tale told to the inhabitants of Redwall Abbey during a time when they had forgotten much about the mouse who helped found their abbey. They learn about Martin's life as a young mouse and how he escaped from a dreadful tyrant chieftain named Badrang.

I would begin the lesson by reading the first two chapters of the story for my students, occasionally pointing out some of the words used to describe some of the characters, setting, and action. Then I would explain how these words help me to see a picture of the story in my mind. After I finish reading the section. I would ask the students what some of their favorite descriptive words were. Then I would do the following.

1. Divide the students up into three groups.
2. Have the students read the next chapter.
3. Each group would look for one of the following types of descriptive words: characters, setting, or action.
4. Each group would share the words they found with the class.
5. Each student would then chose one of their journal entries and pick 5 words they could change or add descriptive words to the entry.

Ohio writing process benchmark E: Select more effective vocabulary when editing by using a variety of resources.