Lesson video

Hello everyone.

My name is Mr. Brown and I'm here with your English lesson for today, and we are going to be writing, writing the opening of the animated story "Otherwise".

So let's get started.

The outcome for the lesson today is I can write the opening of "Otherwise".

The keywords we'll use are verb, adverb, and expanded noun phrase.

Let's say those together.

My turn, and then your turn.

Verb.

Adverb.

Expanded noun phrase.

Fabulous.

Let's look at the definitions.

A verb is a doing or being word, an adverb is a word that describes a verb, and an expanded noun phrase is a group of words with no verb that adds detail to a noun.

Today, we'll be writing the opening of "Otherwise".

We'll start with preparing to write and then move on to writing the opening.

Stories can be structured on a story staircase.

They start with an opening, a buildup, a climax, and then a resolution.

In this lesson, we are writing the opening.

Here is a story staircase of "Otherwise".

So here's the story of "Otherwise" structured onto a story staircase.

And you can see in the opening we have Anders coming out of his egg trying to shake hands with the green chameleons.

That's basically the opening of "Otherwise".

Now, the purpose of the opening is to do these things, introduce the main characters, and introduce the setting.

So that is what we are striving to achieve in today's lesson.

True or false, the purpose of the opening is to resolve the problem.

Is that true or is that false? Pause the video and decide now.

And welcome back.

So the purpose of the opening is not to resolve the problem.

There should not be a problem shared in the opening, and it certainly shouldn't be resolved.

That will come much later.

In the opening, we are introduced to the setting, which is the jungle and the characters, of course, Anders and the green chameleons.

Let's watch the opening again.

You are going to pause the video and watch the opening of, "Otherwise".

The clip will take you through just the opening section because that's what we're writing today.

So pause the video and watch the clip now.

(calming music) (egg shells cracking) (saw whirring) (saw whirring) (calming music) (sombre music) (egg shell cracking) And welcome back.

Okay, let's have a look, shall we? Here's an example of the opening, which we are going to aim to write by the end of this lesson.

So you've now seen the opening.

Let's look at an example written down in sentences.

"One warm, sunny morning, a small, white egg lay in a tropical, leafy jungle.

Suddenly, the round, delicate egg began to crack.

A friendly little chameleon called Anders popped his head out and smiled happily.

Anders had red, scaly skin and wide, bulging eyes.

A moment later, he merrily walked over to four other chameleons.

They all had green, slimy skin and stern expressions on their faces.

Anders reached out his hand to introduce himself, but the others ignored him and rudely walked away.

Anders felt disappointed." When describing a setting and characters, a writer will use lots of expanded noun phrases.

Can you spot any in this opening? Are there any expanded noun phrases? Remember, an expanded noun phrase is often made up of two adjectives and a noun.

So adjective, comma, adjective, noun.

Ah, I can see a few.

I can see warm, sunny morning.

Small, white egg.

So for the jungle, I've got tropical, leafy jungle.

So jungle is the noun.

Tropical and leafy are the adjectives with that comma in between.

Round, delicate, egg.

Friendly, white chameleon.

Red, scaly skin.

Wide, bulging eyes.

Green, slimy skin.

So lots of expanded noun phrases in this opening.

True or false, a writer will use expanded noun phrases to add detailed description.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see if you were right.

A writer will use expanded noun phrases to add detailed description is absolutely true.

They will use expanded noun phrases to add that detailed description to help create an image in the reader's mind.

Well done if you said true.

Here are the notes from our plan for writing the opening.

So these are the notes that we prepared last lesson for the three key moments of the opening.

We have Anders cracking out of his egg.

And today, it's all about turning these verbs and adverbs, and adjectives and nouns.

These ambitious vocabulary we generated into full sentences.

So I'd like you to take a moment now to use this part of your plan to say the first two sentences of the opening of "Otherwise" include two expanded noun phrases at least.

So we've got a key moment, that's Anders cracking out of his egg.

We have verbs and adverbs, gradually cracked, happily popped, excitedly looked.

Your job is to include those in your sentences if you can.

And then adjectives and nouns.

So white, delicate egg, red, scaly chameleon, and bright, curious eyes.

Okay, it's over to you now.

I'd like you to pause the video and have a go at saying the first two sentences of your plan for "Otherwise" for this key moment and including expanded noun phrases if you can.

Pause the video and have a go at this task now.

Welcome back.

How did you get on? Sometimes, saying our sentences can feel a little strange at first, but the more we practise it, the more confident we will be.

And I promise you, the more confident you'll be when it comes to writing.

Saying your sentences first is an excellent way to be able to help prepare you for writing.

Let's have a look, shall we, at an example? "One warm morning, a white, delicate egg cracked open and a red, scaly chameleon happily popped his head out.

His name was Anders and he excitedly looked around with his bright, curious eyes." So you can see I have included one, two, three expanded noun phrases from my plan.

I've also got some verbs and adverbs, but the expanded noun phrases that I was concentrating on including are there.

Now, let's move on to have a go at this key moment.

And this time, we're gonna focus on verbs and adverbs a little bit more.

So I'd like you to really focus on getting those verbs and adverbs in there.

Things like cheerfully walked, happily tried, warmly smiled, get those into your sentences.

So say the next two sentences of your opening, trying to get those verbs and adverbs in there.

Pause the video and have a go at this task now.

And welcome back.

Let's see how you got on.

Let's look at an example.

"Anders cheerfully walked over to a group of green, grumpy chameleons and tried to shake their hands.

He warmly smiled at them with his wide, friendly grin." So I have got cheerfully walked in there.

I've put tried, but not happily tried because I'd already used cheerfully and I thought in the same sentence, cheerfully and happily might be a bit too much saying the same word again, basically.

So I didn't need happily, I just used the verb.

And then he warmly smiled at them with his wide, friendly grin.

I got warmly smiled in there from my plan too.

I also used adjectives and nouns like wide, friendly grin, that was from my plan as well.

Okay, it's now time for the last key moment of the opening.

That's the green chameleons ignoring Anders and walking away.

And this time, I'd like you to focus on including verbs, and adverbs, and expanded noun phrases.

So we're gonna try and pull everything together to say at least two complete sentences for our opening.

Pause the video and have a go at this task now.

And welcome back.

Okay, let's have a look at the example.

I wonder how close this is to the sentences that you said.

"The green, grumpy chameleons rudely stared at Anders.

They did not shake his hand and unkindly ignored the poor, lonely lizard instead.

After that, they all coldly shuffled away.

So you can see I've got verbs and adverbs in there, things like coldly shuffled away.

I've got rudely stared, unkindly ignored.

I've got green, grumpy chameleons in there, poor, lonely lizard, they are all there.

So I've got lots of evidence of verbs, and adverbs, and expanded noun phrases made up of adjectives and nouns.

Let's move on to writing the opening.

I think you guys are ready to go.

When we write, we always try to do these things.

Plan and say each sentence before we write it.

Use punctuation where we know the rules.

Vary our sentence types.

Write letters neatly on the line in joined handwriting.

Sound out words to spell them accurately.

And read our sentences out loud to check they make sense and edit to improve our writing if necessary.

Which of these do we always try to do in writing? Is it, A, use punctuation even if we don't know the rules? B, use punctuation where we know the rules? Or C, use as much punctuation as we can? Which of these do we always try to do when we're writing? Is it A, B, or C? Pause the video and decide now.

And welcome back.

Which of these do we always try to do when writing? Well, it is, of course, B, we try to use punctuation, but only where we know the rules.

When in doubt, don't use punctuation.

If you are not sure whether a comma should go there, don't use it.

But if you know there is a rule, then use the punctuation.

Here's the success criteria for your writing today.

The things you need to include in your writing to be successful are, I have used my plan to write about each key moment, I've included expanded noun phrases, I've included ambitious verbs and adverbs, I have read my writing back to check for any mistakes.

If we could do all of these in our writing today, you would've produced an excellent opening and you'll use your plan to help guide your writing.

So here's an example of a part of our plan, the key moment where Anders cracked out of his egg.

Your job is to be able to use the plan to help guide and support your writing.

Okay, I'm going to write the first two sentences of the opening.

So I'll start with one sunny day.

So that's my fronted adverbial of time.

That's me saying when everything happened.

One sunny day.

I'm also describing the weather there.

One sunny day, a delicate, comma, oh, it looks like we're describing the egg, isn't it? A delicate, white egg began to slowly crack open, full stop.

Okay, new sentence.

A moment later.

Another fronted adverbial of time.

A moment later, a red, scaly chameleon called Anders happily, so that's my adverb, Happily popped, that's my verb, his head out and looked around with his bright, comma, curious eyes.

That's an expanded noun phrase, bright, comma, curious eyes.

So we are going to check against the success criteria just to see how I'm getting on.

I've only written two sentences, so we may not expect to complete our success criteria, but it's a good way to see if we're thinking in the right way.

So I've used my plan to write about each key moment.

Yeah, I've been using my plan to carefully make sure that I'm including everything.

And the first part is Anders coming out of his egg.

I've included expanded noun phrases.

Yes, we spotted a few of those, didn't we? We had red, scaly chameleon, bright, curious eyes, delicate, white egg.

Verbs and adverbs.

Let's see.

Oh yeah, happily popped.

Absolutely.

That's a verb and adverb.

Slowly crack open.

Good.

And then read my writing back to check for any mistakes.

I've done that.

I did that a little bit as I was going, but I certainly need to hold back on ticking that until the end.

When I have written everything, I will then read back my writing and check for mistakes, and that's when I think I can tick that box.

Okay, it's over to you to have a go now.

I'd like you to write your opening for "Otherwise" and use your success criteria and your plan to help you.

The success criteria is on the screen if you need it.

You have your plan from our previous lessons.

Make sure you are using those together to write your opening.

Pause the video and have a go at writing your opening now.

And welcome back.

How did you find it? I'm so interested to see your writing.

Before we look at my example, let's just take a moment to read your writing back and edit any mistakes.

That's the last thing in our success criteria, and it's so important.

Check your writing carefully and then tick each box where you think you've met your success criteria as well also.

So reading your writing back, checking, editing mistakes, then reading and checking have you done everything else in your success criteria? Take a moment, pause the video, and do that now.

And welcome back.

Okay, let's have a look at my example.

"One warm morning, a small, white egg began to crack.

A friendly little chameleon called Anders popped his head out and smiled happily.

Anders had red, scaly skin and wide, bulging eyes.

A moment later, he merrily walked over to four other chameleons.

They all had green, slimy skin and stern expressions on their faces.

Anders reached out his hand to introduce himself but the others ignored him and rudely shuffled away.

Anders felt disappointed." Let's see how I've got on in terms of my success criteria.

Have I used my plan to write about each key moment? Absolutely.

You can see I've got the first key moment, which is Anders coming out his egg, then walking over to the chameleons, then them ignoring him.

So it's all in order.

I followed the plan so I can tick that.

Expanded noun phrases, yep.

Small, white egg, red, scaly skin, wide, bulging eyes, green, slimy skin, perfect.

Verbs and adverbs.

Let's have a look.

Ah, yeah, rudely shuffled, smiled happily, merrily walked.

Great.

And then read my writing back.

I have read my writing back carefully.

I've read it a few times, checked, made sure that I've edited any mistakes so I can tick that now too.

Let's summarise the learning we've done today.

An opening will introduce the setting and main characters.

A descriptive opening will contain expanded noun phrases.

A descriptive opening will contain ambitious adverbs and verbs.

We can use notes from our plan to form full sentences.

Excellent work today.

You have written the opening of "Otherwise", and I look forward to seeing you again soon so that we can write the next part from our story staircase, which is of course the buildup.

See you again very soon.