Lesson video

Hello and welcome.

My name is Mr. Santhanam, and this is lesson four of 10.

Today's learning objective is all about how to vary sentence length for effect.

Last time I told you a joke and I said that I would tell you the answer in this lesson.

The joke was, when should you buy a bird? Now we've been learning all about the little bird in our new story.

So, when do you think you should buy a bird? The answer is when it's cheap.

Cheap, cheap.

Do you get it? Amazing.

For today's lesson, we're going to start off with a guessing game.

So I'm going to pretend to be a character and you are going to guess which character it is from our story.

Are you ready? The first one is "Little bird, little bird, what are you doing? "You are too small and this fire is too great." Can you guess who it was from the way that I said the words, and my intonation, and my actions, and my voice? That's right, it was the eagle god, Garuda.

Okay, next one.

"No, I love my forest "and I will do anything I can to save it." Did you guess who it was for my expression this time? I used a lot of emotion there to show who it was.

That's right, it was the little bird.

Okay, two more.

"Run away with us, run away with us, "you'll be burned if you stay." Who do you think that was? That's right, it was the little bird's friends trying to get her to come with them when they ran away and left the forest.

Okay, last one.

"Ha ha ha ha, look at that silly little bird, "she'll surely be cooked if she carries on doing that." Who do you think that was? That's right, it was the gods up in heaven.

Okay, here's our agenda for today.

First, we will do our grammar focus.

Today we'll be looking at varying sentence length.

Then we're going to play a sentence structure game to help us mix up our longer sentences and our short sentences.

Then we're going to do a bit of detective work and look for where we have used past tense verbs in our writing.

And then finally, we'll have a little bit of reflection time to think about what is the effect of long sentences and short sentences.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or some paper, a pencil or a pen, and your brilliant brain.

Pause the video now while you go and get those things.

Brilliant, I can't wait to begin.

First of all we're going to be having a look at our grammar focus, which is all about sentence length.

When we're writing, we should always aim to use a variety of sentence types.

A variety means a mixture or combination.

This means sometimes using long sentences and sometimes using short sentences.

Think about what this sounds like when I only use long sentences.

The little brave courageous bird who loved her forest began to fly back and forth from the water to the trees in order to put out the fire.

Every time she returned she threw this little droplets of water onto the fire and it would make a vicious hissing and fizzing sound.

Even though she was tired, she continued to drop the water on the fire because if she didn't that meant the forest would have no hope, it would surely be destroyed, which the little bird did not want to happen.

Okay, pause your video now and think about what that sounds like when I only use long sentences.

What did you think? Did it sound good? Were you engaged, where you listening the whole time? Was it easy to listen to? Pause the video now while you think about what's it like when we only use long sentences? Okay, now let's have a think about what it sounds like when I only use short sentences.

The little bird was scared.

She had to do something.

She looked around.

She had a plan.

She decided to collect water.

Then she threw the water on the fire.

It made a hissing and fizzing sound.

It was difficult.

She soon became tired.

She did not give up.

She had to keep trying.

Now think about what is the effect when I only use short sentences? Do you feel like you're listening to it? Is it easy to listen to? Is it enjoyable to listen to? Pause the video now while you think about that.

So I don't know about you but I found it quite difficult to listen to those two versions of writing.

The long one seemed as though it was very difficult to listen to because there was all really long sentences and it was all a lot of information, and I tended to kind of zone out sometimes.

The short one seemed easier to listen to, but it was very boring and robotic, and I got a little bit bored and it seemed a bit static like this.

So it's good if we mix them up to make sure there's variety.

First of all, let's imagine that we are the little bird again.

Say hello little bird.

Imagine you can see the raging fire in the distance of the forest.

You might say, I could see the fire burning.

My turn, your turn.

I could see a fire burning.

My turn, your turn.

I could see a burning fire.

What kind of sentence do you think this is, is it a short sentence or a long sentence? Of course, it's a short sentence, that's easy to see.

But it's not just a short sentence, we call this a simple sentence.

That means it has one clause or one idea, it's just saying one thing.

It can create a choppy, punchy rhythm 'cause it's just short and snappy.

It draws attention to just one idea and it really makes you emphasise on that one point.

And it also creates a sense of urgency, all the information is right in that little sentence.

So my eyes go straight to it and that information goes straight into my brain.

So we call this a simple sentence.

Now, what kind of sentence do you think this is? The fire seemed as if it was alive and it snaked through the forest, destroying everything in its path.

My turn, your turn.

The fire seemed as if it was alive and it snaked through the forest, destroying everything in its path.

Now what would you call this sentence? We actually call this a compound sentence.

A compound sentence is, it usually has two clauses, so two ideas that are put together.

So the first idea is that the fire seemed as if it was alive, and the second idea is that it destroyed everything in its path as it snaked through the forest.

It uses a conjunction to join two ideas together.

So here I can see my conjunction is 'and', joining those two ideas together.

And it also adds description and detail.

So there's a lot more description and a lot more detail in this sentence.

And it creates a slower rhythm, so I really have to listen to those words and really think about what it's telling me.

It's not just a shock, shock message, I really have to pay attention to those words.

Now that we know some different sentence lengths that we can use in our writing to make sure that it's varied, we're going to play a sentence structure game.

And that's going to help you really mix up those long sentences and short sentences.

Let's start.

You could play this with your friends at school, you could play it with a family member, whatever you like.

All you need to do is to put some sentence starters into a hat like this.

We're going to write our sentences about when the bird first saw the fire in the story, but you can write about anything you like, it doesn't have to be about the bird.

Now, I'm going to pull out a sentence starter from my hat.

I'm then going to check what kind of sentence it should be by looking at the colours on the boxes.

If it is pink or purple, it's going to be a simple sentence, and if it is green or navy it's going to be a compound sentence.

If it is a compound sentence, there are lots of conjunctions here for you to use to make sure that you're linking those two ideas together.

The conjunctions you could use are; and, but, because, so or as.

There are loads more conjunctions out there, but these are just the ones that I've given to you, so if you want to use other ones, that's absolutely fine.

Okay, are we ready to look at the first sentence opener? Oh I wonder what it's going to be.

Ah, interesting.

The first sentence opener is, the little bird saw.

So now we're going to think about what she could see.

So I know that my sentence starter is going to be the little bird saw.

Going to start with my capital letter.

The little bird saw.

I know that I want it to be a simple sentence, so it's only going to have one clause, one idea in that, it's not going to have any conjunctions.

And I want it to be short and snappy and dramatic.

The little bird saw.

Ah, I know, I'm going to use some personification to describe the fire.

The little bird saw angry flames.

Now of course the flames aren't actually angry, but I'm describing them as if they are, full stop.

So I've got a short, snappy sentence that really shows that drama and that intensity.

Okay, so I've written one simple sentence now, let's have a look at what the next sentence is going to be.

Ah, it's a purple box, so that means it's going to be a? That's right, it's going to be a simple sentence again.

Let's find out what my sentence opener is this time.

Ah, interesting.

My sentence opener is going to be.

Oh, approaching her.

So what was coming towards her? Pause the video now while you write down your simple sentence.

Remember we want it to be short, snappy, dramatic.

Okay, so I know that the little bird saw angry flames, I know that my sentence opener is going to be approaching her.

What was approaching her? Was a hmm, how can I describe the fire in a dramatic way? I know, a mighty blaze.

It's only one idea, there are no conjunctions in there to link to different clauses.

It's a short, snappy dramatic way to describe the fire.

Okay, so we've written two simple, short sentences now.

Next time our box is going to be navy.

So that means we're finally going to get to write a compound sentence.

Let's have a look at what our sentence starter is going to be.

My hand into my hat, pull out my sentence starter, ah.

It looks like.

Now, I'm going to have to use a conjunction in this because I know this is going to be a compound sentence.

I'm going to have two clauses that I'm going to join together using a conjunction.

Okay, so I know that my sentence starter is going to be, it looked like.

I know that it's going to be a compound sentence, I'm going to have two different ideas I join together.

So what did the fire look like? I know, it looked like a giant, ferocious wall of destruction.

That's my first idea, my first clause, it looked like a giant, ferocious wall of destruction.

And it tore down the trees one by one.

Here's my first clause, it looked like a giant ferocious wall of destruction.

Here's my second clause, it tore down the trees one by one.

I've joined my two clauses by using a conjunction here, and, and in that way I've made it a compound sentence.

Let's read through what we've written so far.

The little bird saw angry flames.

I've got my short sentence.

Approaching her was a mighty blaze.

My second sentence.

It looked like a giant ferocious wall of destruction and it tore down the trees one by one.

My compound sentence.

Okay, now that we've written two simple sentences, two short sentences and one compound sentence, one long sentence, we're going to have a go at writing some others.

Now I've modelled to you how to write simple sentences and how to write compound sentences.

So now you're going to pause the video at each one and have a little go at writing a sentence yourself.

The next sentence opener is, what if.

I can see that it's a purple box so that means this one's going to be a simple sentence.

It's starting with the word what, which means it's going to be a question.

Questions are sometimes great ways to make the reader really feel like they understand what was going on with the character in the story.

So what if.

Pause the video now, write your simple sentence.

The next one is a navy box, so that's going to be a compound sentence, you're going to have to use a conjunction again.

She felt.

Pause the video now while you think of two ideas that you want to join together using a conjunction.

Well done, we're halfway through.

The next sentence opener is, she knew.

This one is a green box so it's going to be a compound sentence again.

Remember, two ideas, join them together using a conjunction, and it should be quite a long sentence with lots of information there.

Pause the video now while you write your compound sentence.

Okay, the next box is another green box.

So that means it's going to be another compound sentence.

And it's going to begin with, so she decided to.

Two ideas joined together with a conjunction.

Whew, I don't know about you guys, but we've had three compound sentences all in a row.

So I'm glad the next one is going to be a simple sentence.

Remember, this one's going to be short, snappy, dramatic.

Just one clause, one idea.

And the sentence opener is, soon she began to.

What did she begin to do? And finally the last one is another simple sentence.

So to end our paragraph, we're going to have a really short, snappy, dramatic sentence to finish off our ideas and summarise what we're saying.

But.

Maybe this is going to be a bit of a cliffhanger, leaving the audience wanting more, leaving your readers wanting more.

Pause the video now while you write your simple sentence beginning with.

Okay, so what sentences have we created? Here I've written up all the sentences that I wrote to using this sentence structure game.

You can reflect on your own ones afterwards.

As you can see, the green sentences are all simple, short sentences.

The pink sentences are long, compound sentences.

And there's a sneaky purple one in there too.

Can you think about, as a challenge, what type of sentence this might be? Okay, so let's have a look through the sentences that I wrote.

The little bird saw angry flames.

Approaching her was a mighty blaze.

It looked like a giant, ferocious blanket of destruction and tore down the trees of the forest one by one.

What if it destroyed her tree? She felt heartbroken at the thought of her home burning and she began to panic.

She knew she had to do something to protect her home, which she loved so much.

So she decided she had to do something quickly, because if she didn't the forest would soon perish.

Bravely, she swooped down to the river.

But it was useless.

I can really see that the short sentences make it very dramatic, and they make it very choppy and snappy and urgent.

But the long sentences really draw out the time and really make me think about the description and the detail in the story.

Did you notice the purple sentence? Do you think you might know what it's called? That's okay if you don't know, that's a challenge question.

We have simple sentences, compound sentences and we also have complex sentences.

And the purple sentence is an example of that.

That's because I've used a relative clause to add detail to my sentence.

But don't worry about that too much for now, we'll pick back up on that another time.

Okay, it's now time to do some detective work, so get your magnifying glass and we're going to try and spot some past tense verbs.

Where can you spot the past tense verbs in our writing from today? Let's have a look at our paragraph.

If you think you can see a past tense verb, I want you to shout out with me as I read.

Suddenly, the little bird saw angry flames.

In the distance, a fire raged, it looked like a giant ferocious blanket of destruction and tore down the trees of the forest one by one.

What if it destroyed her tree? She felt panic and heartbreak as she watched her forest burn.

She knew she had to do something to protect her home, which she loved so much.

So she decided she had to do something quickly because if she didn't the forest would soon perish.

Bravely, she swooped down to the river.

But it was useless.

Now, I've already spotted lots of past tense verbs, did you? Shout out your favourite past tense verb that you saw.

I love that one too.

Remember, some past tense verbs end in -ed, but some of them are irregular past tense verbs and they don't end in -ed.

Let's see which ones we found.

I found saw, which is the past tense of see.

I saw raged which is the past tense of rage.

I saw looked which is the past tense of look.

I saw tore, which is the past tense of tear.

I saw or destroyed, which is the past tense of destroy.

I saw loved, which is the past tense of love.

I saw decided, which is the past tense of decide.

I saw swooped, which is the past tense of swoop.

Pause your video here and write down all the past tense verbs that you saw in your writing today.

You can underline them maybe with a coloured pencil, and you can pick them out and show that they are the past tense verbs in your writing.

Okay, amazing work today everyone.

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