One of the first pieces of writing that I had success publishing was an inspirational article that contained imagery.  I wrote comparing a concert I gave with a youth choir at Disneyland to a concert we gave in a nursing home.  I concluded that the nursing home concert was more significant because we reached out to people instead of competing with other theme park attractions for attention.  I intentionally used all five senses to describe each experience.

Introducing imagery is fun and I have included several ideas for doing just that.  What writers struggle with in their work is how to make description helpful to the reader and not just the section to skip. 

Writing with imagery helps the reader share the experience.  It takes time to write description well.  Students need to learn to use precise nouns and strong verbs.  Good description gives clues to the setting and plot without giving every single detail.

This unit teaches concrete strategies to write descriptively.  If you are interested in teaching metaphors and similes, I have a freebie in my Teachers Notebook store called Color Poems: Exploring Metaphors and Similes.

I hope you enjoy these activities with your class.