Lesson video

Hello, everyone, my name is Mr. Brown, and I am here with your English lesson for today, and we are going to be writing, writing a recount of a school trip.

So let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is, "I can write a recount about a school trip." The key words we'll be using are fronted adverbial of time, past tense, and first person.

Let's say those together, my turn, then your turn, fronted adverbial of time, past tense, first person, excellent, well done.

So here's our lesson outline.

We will start by preparing to write, and then move on to writing a recount, so preparing to write.

The sections of a recount look like this.

We have the introduction and then the recount.

The introduction has already been written.

In this lesson, we are writing the recount.

Here is an example of an introduction of a recount.

So we will not be writing a recount, an introduction today, we'll write just the recount.

Here is an example of an introduction.

"Last week, my class and I went on a school trip to the zoo.

It was so much fun, and we saw so many interesting animals.

I saw tiny insects, beautiful birds, huge mammals, and scaly reptiles.

Read on to find out more about our memorable day." Now, an introduction needs to say when the trip took place, make the trip sound interesting so the reader wants to find out more, and that's there.

You can see where I say where the trip took place was last week.

Then, we have make the trip sound interesting.

That's where I do it there.

I say, "It was so much fun, so many interesting animals," list some of the things that we did or saw.

So that would be, "I saw tiny insects, beautiful birds," et cetera, and command the reader to read on, "Read on to find out more about our memorable day." So that's an introduction, but we are just writing the recount.

Now, you may have a plan to help guide you when writing a recount, and if not, that's not a problem at all, because you can use this one for a trip to the zoo.

You can see you have your key moments down the left, your expanded noun phrase is down the right.

You may have a plan which is specific to a trip that you have been on, but if you haven't been on a trip, or you don't have a plan, you can use this one and write about my trip to the zoo.

When we are recounting, we're talking about things that have already happened, and this is called the past.

Writing in a recount, we're mostly in the past tense.

Past means happened before now, and tense tells the reader when something happened.

Recounts are mostly written in which tense, past, present, or future, A, B, or C? Pause the video and decide, is it A, past, B, present, or C, future, now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see if you found the right answer.

Recounts, well, they are all about things that have already happened, which means that they are in the past.

Well done if you said A, past.

Writing in the past tense means that the verbs used will describe actions that have already happened.

So let's take a look at some examples.

These words mean something is happening now, travel, walk, see.

Travelled would be the word if it has already happened if it's in the past tense.

Walk will become walked, and see, saw.

These verbs are written in the past tense, travelled, walked, saw.

Which of these is a past tense verb? Is it A, visit, B, visiting, or C, visited, A, B, or C? Pause the video and tell me which one is a past tense verb.

Off you go.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see if you were right.

So one clue I can give you is lots of past tense verbs end in E-D.

So which one do you think it is? Well done if you said C, visited.

Visited is a past tense verb.

Recounts are written about events and experiences that the writers have themselves.

This means a recount should be written in the first person.

When writing in the first person, a writer uses words such as these to show the reader that they're writing about themselves, and those words are I, me, my, we, us, our.

These words all signal to the reader that the writer is talking about themselves.

Let's check your understanding on that.

Tick the sentences that are written in the first person, A, "The class walked into the zoo, and they couldn't believe their eyes," B, "I loved watching the majestic lions eat their food," C, "We travelled on a big red bus to get to London Zoo." Which one is written in the first person? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see if you managed to find the right answer.

Which one's written in the first person? Which one is written as if the writer is talking about themselves? Well, that would be B.

"I loved watching the majestic lions eat their food," but there is one more correct answer.

Can you spot it? Well done if you said C, "We travelled on a big, red bus." So we and I are the words that should have given away which were the correct answers.

Well done if you said B and C.

Now, a recount is written in chronological order.

This means the events are written about in the order in which they took place.

A good way to show that something is in chronological order is to use fronted adverbials of time at the start of your sentences.

A fronted adverbial of time is a sentence starter that tells the reader when something happened.

Fronted adverbials of time tell the reader when the events happened.

For example, "First, we visited the lions." First is the fronted adverbial of time.

"We visited the lions," is the statement with a full stop.

Let's look at another example.

"Next," comma, "we watched them feed." Next is the fronted adverbial of time.

Statement with a full stop is, "We watched them feed," one more, "After that," fronted adverbial of time.

"We went to the reptile house," is the statement with a full stop.

Time to check your understanding.

Please put these fronted adverbials of time in a suitable order.

There isn't an exact correct order, but there are some fronted adverbials of time that must come before others.

So some fronted adverbials of time are interchangeable, but some must come before others.

Let's have a look.

So we've got later on, next, finally, then, first, after that, soon after.

Your job is to put those fronted adverbials of time in a suitable order.

Pause the video and have a go now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see if you managed to do this task correctly.

So we had first.

Now, that would have to go right at the beginning.

There is nothing that can be before first.

First is first.

Then, I went for next.

But you could have chosen then or after that.

Then, I had then and after that.

But those three are kind of interchangeable.

Soon after also could be changed around later on, but finally must come at the end.

So first at the beginning, finally at the end, and then the others are interchangeable, so you could move those around.

Okay, time for a practise task.

I would like you to say the first three sentences of your recount out loud.

I would like you to use fronted adverbials of time at the start of each sentence and use this plan below to guide you.

If you are not using this plan, if you're using your own plan but a different school trip, that's absolutely fine.

You'll use that plan instead, so first three sentences of your recount out loud.

Please try and get those expanded noun phrases in there from your plan and use fronted adverbials of time at the start of each sentence.

Over to you now, pause the video and say the first three sentences of your recount now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's take a look at how you got on.

So here's an example, but just before I show you that, take a moment to pause and think.

Did you include those frontier adverbials of time for every sentence? Did you use past tense verbs and speak in the first person, too? If you want to, you can pause the video now to have another go.

If you think maybe you didn't include a fronted adverbial of time or a past tense verb, pause the video if you need to.

And now, we're ready to move on.

Let's have a look at my example.

"First," so straight away there's my frontal adverbial of time, "First, we left school and caught a large, red bus to the zoo.

After we arrived, our class teacher told us that we would visit the lions straight away.

Next, my class and I saw the majestic, powerful lions up close.

Then, I witnessed their sharp, pointy teeth slicing through juicy meat when they ate." So that is my example.

Yours will have been different, but I have those fronted adverbials of time in there, first, next, and then.

I'm using the past tense when I say things like, "We left school, we caught a large bus, then, I witnessed," witnessed is a past tense verb, and then, of course, first person.

So there's lots of I, we, me.

Great, I think we are ready to move on to writing a recount.

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

We try and 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.

Let's check your understanding of that, so important.

Which of these do we always try and do when we're writing? Is it A, write letters neatly on the line in joined handwriting, B, write simple sentences all the way through, or C, write with as many commas as we can? Which do we always try when do in writing, A, B, or C? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back, let's see if you found the right answer.

Which of these do we always try and do? It is A, write letters neatly on the line in joined handwriting.

Well done if you said A.

So here's the success criteria we're going to be using today.

We have got, "I have written in the past tense in first person." We've done a lot on that in this lesson, so you should be familiar.

"I have used my plan to include expanded noun phrases.

I have used at least two fronted adverbials of time with commas after them." We know a fronted adverbial of time has a comma after it, and, "I've read my writing back to check for any mistakes." So you are going to use your plan.

Here is my plan.

If you need to use it, you can.

If not, you might have your own plan.

We've got the key moments on the left and expanded noun phrases on the right.

If you want to keep this for a little bit longer to make some notes down to copy this, you can do.

You can pause the video at any time to be able to take this information.

Okay, so now, it is over to me.

I'm going to write the first few sentences of my recount.

It's my turn, and then it'll be your turn to help me with my success criteria.

So let's have a look.

"First.

my class and I left school and jumped on a huge," comma, "red bus." So that's my expanded noun phrase from my plan to the zoo, full stop.

"Next," comma, so already I've got two fronted adverbials of time in first and next.

"Next," comma, "we arrived at the wonderful," comma, "vast zoo that was full of people." So wonderful, comma, vast zoo, that's an expanded noun phrase, again, taken from my plan.

So I'm using my plan that's in my success criteria, so I'm hoping I'll be able to tick that off.

"Then," comma, another fronted adverbial of time, "Then," comma, "we rushed to visit the majestic," comma, "powerful lions because it was feeding time," and I've used an exclamation mark there because that's a particularly exciting part of my recount and a particularly exciting part of the day in the zoo.

So let's come together.

I need your help.

We are going to check using the success criteria.

First thing, I have written in the past tense and first person.

So I've got, yeah, "My class, I left school, we arrived, we rushed." so definitely that's a tick.

I have used my plan.

Well, I talked about this while I was reading through my writing.

I used my plan constantly to be able to add in those expanded noun phrases.

So I can definitely tick that.

I have used at least two fronted adverbials of time.

Let's have a check, first, next, then, yes, that's three.

However, have I used commas after them? First, comma, next, comma, then, comma, perfect, good.

Okay, so I can tick that.

And last one, I have read my writing back to check for any mistakes.

I always like to hold back on this, and wait until I've completed the entire piece of writing, and then decide if I did that consistently for every sentence, but so far, in the three sentences I've written, I read back every one to check if there are any mistakes.

So I think I probably can tick that, but I will do at the end.

Now, it's your turn.

You're going to write your recount of a school trip.

Use the success criteria and your plan to guide you.

You have seen a model, you've seen my process, I've talked about it, you know what a recount needs to include, so now it's time for you to go for it.

I will see you soon.

Pause the video, best of luck, off you go.

Welcome back, everyone.

I am so hopeful that you had a really good experience when you were writing, that you found that you were able to achieve your best.

But just before we have a look at an example, I would like you to take a moment to read your writing back to check it makes sense and to edit any punctuation errors.

Even the best writers have the occasional punctuation error, so check for those.

Then, tick each box in the success criteria when you've completed each part.

So pause the video, read your writing back, check and edit any punctuation errors, and complete the success criteria.

Can you do that for me now? Welcome back, everyone.

I hope you read carefully, checked.

I hope you made some meaningful edits, improved your writing.

Let's have a look at an example.

"First, my class and I left school and jumped on a huge, red bus to the zoo.

Next, we arrived at the wonderful, vast zoo that was full of people.

Then, we rushed to the majestic, powerful lions because it was feeding time.

Soon after, my friends and I watched the lions use their sharp, pointy teeth to eat juicy, raw meat.

Later that day, we went to the reptile house and observed long, slimy snakes and green, scaly lizards.

Before long, it was time to catch our bus back to school, or we would be late.

I had the best time on this school trip and loved seeing all the impressive animals." So that's a full recount.

And if I use my success criteria, I have written in the past tense and first person.

Yes, I've got past tense words like jumped, arrived, watched, and first person, my friends, my class, we, I, so that's definitely a tick.

I have used my plan, absolutely.

Those expanded noun phrases from my plan, long, slimy snakes, wonderful, vast zoo, they're all there.

So I can see I've used my plan.

That's a tick.

I have used at least two fronted adverbials of time with commas, first, before long, later that day, soon after, absolutely, and I've read my writing back to check for any mistakes.

I am constantly reading my writing back after every sentence.

It's handy to take a moment and read what you've written to capture your flow again.

I'm always reading back so I can tick that off, too.

Let's summarise our learning today.

A recount is written in the past tense.

A recount is written in the first person.

A recount is written in chronological order and will use fronted adverbials of time.

A fronted adverbial of time is a sentence starter that tells the reader when something happened.

Brilliant work today, you have used a plan to be able to write a detailed recount about a school trip, and that's a really impressive skill to have.

Well done, I will see you again very soon.