Key Connections
- Images and illustrations can communicate ideas and express emotions.
- Words can be visual and can create pictures in your mind.
- Combining words and images thoughtfully can deepen their meanings.
Instructional Objectives
Visual Arts and Writing
- Students will identify descriptive words.
- Students will understand that descriptive words can bring images to mind.
- Students will look at illustrated children’s books to see how images and words strengthen each other.
- Students will create images that illustrate words they have written in their journals.
Instructional Plan
Observe
Introduce this lesson by asking students to think of words that create vivid pictures in their minds. What are some examples of descriptive or “juicy” words? Ask students if they think the following words are juicy and, if not, have students replace the original words with other words that are more visual: cold, loud, nice, squishy, and good. What images do these words bring to mind? Choose a food (pizza, mango, cauliflower) or a place (home, bus, cafeteria) and ask students to come up with visual words to describe it. How do these words help them “see” what is being described? Tell students they will explore how images and words work together to communicate and create images that express the meaning of words, phrases, or sentences they have written.
A Closer Look
Read a short passage with lots of descriptive, visual words from an illustrated children’s book. Do not show them the illustrations. Read the passage again and then ask some students to describe what they “saw” as you read. Which words from the passage were most descriptive or visual? Show students the illustration in the book so they can see how the illustrator imagined the scene. How do the students’ visions compare to each other’s and to the illustrator’s? How are they similar or different?
For a list of suggested children’s books, check out the comprehensive lesson plan.
Discuss
Give students some time to look through the illustrated books borrowed you gathered and see the many ways words and images can work together. Point out some examples you think are interesting and ask students to share any that they especially like.
Create: Word Images
Supplies
- Student journals
- Student’s art exploration sheets, for reference
- Pencils, crayons, colored pencils, markers, watercolor paints, and brushes
- Drawing paper
Activity
Choose Your Word(s)
Give students a few minutes to review their journals and quick writes. Have each student choose a word, phrase, or sentence they think is “juicy.” Students can either circle the words or copy them down on a clean sheet of paper to refer to as they work on their illustrations.
Illustrate Your Word(s)
- Have students decide which art materials they will use.
- To create an image for the words or sentences they chose, they can begin with a quick, preliminary sketch or they can begin creating their final illustrations. The illustrations can be realistic or abstract.
- Have students look at the words while they work to make sure the images express the words’ meanings or feelings.
- Suggest that students include the words somewhere on the page. They can refer back to the illustrated books for different ways the text can be placed on the page.
Reflect
When students have finished, display their work in the classroom and give them a few minutes to look at each other’s images. Ask a few students to explain how their images and words relate. Ask other students to make observations about their classmates’ work. Have students use sentence stems, such as “I notice….” or “I wonder….” when talking about each other’s work.
Go Deeper
Check out related writing objectives, lesson extensions, and more in the comprehensive PDF lesson plan.
Vocabulary
Descriptive words
Descriptive words describe how things feel, sound, taste, look, or smell in a way that creates vivid images in our minds.