THE FIVE SENSES: Writing with Imagery

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1. What does this experiment (Swaddling) reveal about the importance of the senses to human beings?

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2. What does this experiment (Romanian Orphans) reveal about the importance of the senses to human beings?

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3. Name the five senses: __________________________, ______________________, ________________________, ______________________ , _______________________.

4. Which two senses impacted the babies the most in the first video? Explain.

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5. Which two senses impacted the babies the most in the second video? Explain.

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6. Read “Twenty Fascinating Facts About Our Sense of Smell.” What is the claim the article is making?

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7. List the concrete evidence provided in the article to support that claim. __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________

CONCLUDING QUESTION: Why is the best writing the most vivid writing?______________________________________

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DIRECTIONS: With your partner, fill out the chart below using HIGHLY descriptive words (use phrases-multiple words-- in each box) from the word bank handout. Speak in a whisper so other teams cannot hear your answers—do not compare with other teams while you are working.

Describe your real location without naming it. The goal is to make the description vivid enough that one could guess where you are without directly saying it. Be prepared to share your answers. Keep your goal in mind!See?

Feel?

Hear?

Smell?

Taste?

BEFORE SHARING QUESTION: With their eyes closed, can my audience identify my location based on my description?

DIRECTIONS: Independently and silently, recall a place you have actually been--a special or meaningful place. Follow the same directions you used for the partner activity, but now use your imagination to complete the chart. Your goal is the same as in the partner activity. Consider the time (summer? night?) in your description. Do not make your location too broad such as “the beach” or “Florida.” Be specific such as “my grandmother’s kitchen on Christmas Eve.”

See?

Feel?

Hear?

Smell?

Taste?

My location is:

What emotion(s) is/are suggested (from the emotion flower) by the images?

BEFORE SHARING QUESTION: With their eyes closed, can my audience identify my location based on my description?

(Pics from clipart)

KEY: Possible Teacher-Created Answers

QUESTION 1: The five s’s strategies used with infants in pain shows that touch and sound are important senses to appeal to a human being’s need for comfort. Babies who are put on their stomach, swaddled, swung on the knees, and shushed after a shot almost immediately respond: they stop fussing and crying. Apparently the sound and feeling recalls the baby’s comforting experience of being in the womb.

QUESTION 2: When volunteers improved conditions in orphanages in war-torn Romania after many children were left without parents, they responded by no longer rocking to comfort themselves. Volunteers provided physical (massage) and mental (speaking) interactions to the babies who were not provided those things before because of the sheer number of them and the lack of people to provide it. Many of the terrible consequences of learning and emotional problems were circumvented as a result, showing that without human interaction, primarily sensual, human babies will not thrive. Through the senses babies learn to survive.

QUESTION 3: sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste.

QUESTION 4: In the first video, touch was most important because swaddling, swinging, and pressure on the stomach were primary, while shushing (sound) also contributed to comforting the baby in pain.

QUESTION 5: In the second video, touch was also most important because tactile stimulation and massage was provided to help the babies’ motor skills. The volunteers also spoke to the infants adding to the babies’ sense of well-being and calming them from the constant self-rocking they did without the volunteers’ interactions.

QUESTIONS 6/7: The sense of smell is a vital part of human life. Studies have shown that smell is the most sensitive sense as people can recall a smell with 65% accuracy after a year verses visual recall, which is only about 50% after just 3 months. Research has shown that smell is most linked to emotional recollection. A study showed that 65% of emotions triggered by smell which is linked to pleasure, well-being, emotion and memory. A survey found that 85% of people remembered their childhood when exposed to the smell of Crayolas. NOTE: Students might point out that this article seems to contradict with the information in the videos which focus on touch and sound while the article focuses on the impact of smell.

CONCLUDING QUESTION: The best writing is the most vivid writing because one major point of written expression and reading is that the reader and writer connect and share a common human experience. It is through the senses that the writer most effectively makes that intimate connection with the reader. (See lesson plan.)

PARTNER DESCRIPTION (Reference the word-bank handouts for other options.)See? Red, blue, green colored pencils, clusters of desk-chair connected furniture, posters with famous quotes by major authors, books, shelves, heads together in collaboration, paper, pensFeel? 0Hear? Whispering, chattering, occasional giggle, and squeal, bell, lockers slammingTaste? Minty gum, cherry, orange, green hard candy Smell? 0INDEPENDENT DESCRIPTION (Reference the word-bank handouts for other options.)See? Sun flashing through waving tree tops; pink, lavender, and white blossoms bobbing Feel? Warm breeze, cooling moist sweaty skin; drenched from the knees down Hear? Rustle of leaves and whishing of the clustered flowers, neighborhood barking of a lone dog echoing from one direction; children giggling and splashing from a distance in the other directionSmell? Burgers cooking over charcoalTaste? Sipping, cool, icy, refreshing mint tea

LOCATION: Sitting on my backyard pool edge in the summer at dinner time. EMOTIONS: serenity, joy, ecstasy