Reading a Classic Novel

Charles Dickens offers an excellent example of sensory writing in this reading comprehension instructional activity. Learners read excerpts from the novel Hard Times in which he describes the New England industrial city of Coketown. They consider why Dickens uses so much detail and examine his sentence structure and word choice. Readers also look for sensory adjectives, metaphor, and simile. Finally, they match words from the excerpt to definitions and synonyms.