Lesson video

Hi everybody, it's Ms. Gardner.

Welcome to your next lesson from our unit, "The BFG, Reading and Narrative Writing." Thank you for joining me on today's lesson.

I'm really looking forward to it because we're going to be planning the final parts of the buildup.

For this lesson, you will need access to the 1989 film edition of The BFG.

So if you need to, you can pause the video now to make sure you have it.

Okay, great, hopefully we've all got access to the film, which means we are ready to get started on today's lesson.

Off we go.

In today's lesson from our unit, "The BFG, Reading and Narrative Writing" We are going to be planning part two of our buildup.

So the learning outcome is, "I can plan the second part of the buildup of a narrative based on The BFG." Here are your key words for the lesson.

So, there are two sections of our lesson today.

In the first we'll be preparing to plans, we'll be generating vocabulary that we want to include in our plan, and in the second part we'll be writing the plan.

So let's start with preparing to plan.

The BFG can be structured like this, an opening, which we've already written, a buildup, we've written part one, climax, and then the resolution.

In this lesson we are planning the buildup, part two.

The purpose of the buildup is to do all of these.

Develop the plot and characters and build up suspense and excitement.

And in part two of the buildup especially, we're really focusing on building up suspense and excitement.

In the buildup of The BFG, suspense is built up.

Suspense is when you are feeling anxious, so scared, or excited about what may happen.

So, have a think about this question.

How do you act or react if you are watching a film that is full of suspense? What do you do when you are sitting on the sofa watching the film? Pause the video now and discuss this question with your partner or whoever you're with.

Off you go.

So here are some possible responses to this.

"My eyes are glued to the screen." I can't stop watching.

"I'm holding my breath and I can't look away!" And, "I'm biting my fingernails." All of these are things that people do when they're watching a film that is filled with suspense.

So checking for understanding.

If a scene builds up suspense, it makes the viewer feel sad.

Pause the video now.

That is false.

Can you use A or B to justify your answer? Suspense is when you are feeling anxious or excited about what may happen.

B, suspense is when you are feeling really happy.

Pause the video now.

That's right, that is A.

Suspense makes you feel really scared, really anxious 'cause you don't know what's going to happen happen next.

So, it's now time to watch part two of the buildup so that we know what this section of The BFG contains.

So watch from when the giant pulls out a jar of green potion out of his suitcase to the moment the giant's hands snatches Sophie from her bed.

Pause the video now and off you go.

Okay, I hope you enjoyed watching that.

Let's now review the key moments of part two of the buildup.

So number one, the figure took a jar of green potion out his suitcase.

Two, the figure twirled a trumpet, and he blew the green potion through a window.

Three, the figure turned towards Sophie and she ran to her bed.

Four, Sophie hid under her covers as a giant hand approached her.

And five, the big moment, the most exciting moment of the buildup, the hand grabbed Sophie.

So, let's just check our understanding.

Here are the five key moments.

Can you number them one to five in chronological order? Pause the video now, off you go.

Okay, so number one, the figure took a jar of green potion out of his suitcase.

Number two, the figure twirled a trumpet and he blew the green potion through a window.

Number three, the figure turned towards Sophie and she ran to her bed.

Number four, Sophie hid her covers, under her covers as a giant hand approached her.

And number five, the hand grabbed Sophie.

Well done.

So, in the buildup of The BFG, suspense is built up.

The film version created suspense in different ways.

The music got louder and faster.

The characters moved slow and then fast.

So the hand was moving really, really slowly and then suddenly grabbed her.

There were pauses, so dramatic pauses.

Dark colours, which made it harder to see what was going on, which again, creates a bit more of a scary atmosphere.

And it ended on a cliffhanger.

Where was the hand going to take Sophie? What was going to happen next? As writers, we can create suspense in different ways.

So we can use show-not-tell language to show the character's emotions and make the reader understand how scared the character's feeling.

We can use rhetorical questions to build suspense and hook the reader in.

We can use exclamation marks, ellipsis.

Again, that creates a sense of a cliffhanger, and short, snappy sentences, especially in a row.

All of these are things that we can think about including in our writing in the next lesson when we are writing the buildup.

So, checking for understanding.

Which linguistic devices can writers use to build suspense.

A, full stops, B, ellipsis, C, conjunctions, or D, short, snappy sentences.

Pause the video now.

That's right, we can use B ellipsis or D, short snappy sentences.

Well done.

So we need to generate precise and ambitious vocabulary to describe each moment of this part of the buildup in detail.

So we want to include a range of nouns, which are people, places, or things, adjectives that describe the nouns.

Verbs, which are doing being or having words, and adverbs that describe the verbs.

We also want to include show-not-tell language to describe the character's emotions by describing their body language and their facial expressions.

So, let's look at the first moment in more detail.

That was when the figure removed green potion from his suitcase and he blew it out of his trumpet.

In a moment, you're going to pause the video and you can rewatch this moment in the clip, and I want you to be thinking about what you can see and what you can hear.

And then you're going to, with your partner or with your class or whoever you're with, or by yourself, generate some adjectives, verbs, adverbs, show-not-tell language to describe this moment.

So pause the video now and off you go.

So, here are some of the ideas that I've come up with to describe this moment in a bit more detail.

He opened the brown leather bag, so an expanding noun phrase there.

The long, golden trumpet.

Another expanded noun phrase.

The dazzling emerald potion.

Dazzling means shining, shimmering, and emerald is another word for green.

He twirled or spun that trumpet.

So verbs there.

The girl was mesmerised, she can't stop looking.

She's fascinated by what she's seeing.

You can describe again, the potion as being magical or sparkling.

And the girl had bulging eyes.

They're bulging because she can't believe what she's seeing.

So some show-not-tell language there to show how shocked she is, and amazed.

So, checking for understanding.

Which adjectives could you use to describe the green potion? A, murky B, dazzling, C, smooth or D sparkling.

Pause the video now.

So, the green potion we could describe as dazzling or sparkling.

Those would be excellent adjective choices to describe the potion.

Well done.

So now let's look at the next moment in more detail.

That was when the figure turned towards Sophie and she ran to bed in fear.

So again, you can re-watch the clip and think about what you can see.

What the figure's doing, what the girl is doing, how's she feeling, also what you can hear.

And then you can generate some ambitious vocabulary and show-not-tell language.

So pause the video now and off you go.

Okay, here are some of the ideas that I've come up with.

The figure turned and glared, so looked with his eyes directly at Sophie.

He stared into her soul, which made her feel really terrified.

So she bolted rapidly, bolted is a synonym for ran.

She ran really quickly, bolted rapidly.

Her legs were shaking 'cause she's so scared.

Some show-not-tell language there.

She sprinted, determinedly.

Again, ran and determinedly.

She's determined to get to the safety of her bed.

She was breathless, she can't breathe, she's out of breath.

And as quick as a flash in front of that verb there.

So, checking for understanding.

Which verbs and adverbs could you use to describe the way Sophie went to her bed? A, bolted rapidly, B, slowly strolled, C, carefully tiptoed, or D, sprinted determinedly? Pause the video now.

We can describe Sophie as A, she bolted rapidly, or D, sprinted determinedly.

She's not gonna slowly stroll because you do that when you are feeling quite calm and relaxed, or tiptoed because she's trying to not make any sound.

That's not what she's worried about, making a noise now.

Now she's just so scared she needs to get to her bed.

Well done.

So now let's look at the next moment in more detail.

Sophie hid under the her covers as the giant's hand grabbed her.

So this is the most exciting moment of the buildup.

So rewatch the clip again.

Think about what you can see, what you can hear and some show-not-tell language to describe Sophie's emotions.

So pause the video now and off you go.

Okay, here are some of the ideas that I've come up with.

The gigantic colossal hand, both of those synonyms for really big.

She hid or buried herself under the covers.

Her heart thumped because she's so scared, some show-not-tell language there.

Her breathing quickened.

The hand snatched or grabbed her, you could say.

You don't wanna just say it took her.

It snatched her quite aggressively from her bed.

She was petrified, we could call her the petrified girl.

She's so scared.

And then it dragged her through the window.

So checking for understanding.

Which verbs would you use to describe the way the hand took Sophie? A, grabbed, B, gathered, C, snatched, or D, collected.

Pause the video now.

Okay, so the hand you could say A, grabbed Sophie, or C, snatched her.

Well done.

So, it's time for task A.

You need to fill in the blanks with the ambitious vocabulary listed below.

So your words in the word bank are, gigantic, sprinted, dazzling and glad.

I'm going to read the sentences out loud now, and as I'm reading you can think about which word should go fill in the missing blanks.

The figure twirled its long golden trumpet and blew a, blank, magical potion through a window.

All of a sudden he turned and, blank, into the terrified girl's soul as her legs began to tremble at the sight of his wrinkled face.

As quick as a flash, she, blank, to her bed and she buried herself under the covers.

The, blank, hand edged closer and closer.

So pause the video now and off you go filling in the missing words.

Okay, well done everybody, welcome back.

Let's go through these.

As I read and as we say the missing word, I want to be able to hear you saying it really loudly too.

The figure twirled its long golden trumpet and blew a dazzling magical potion through a window.

All of a sudden he turned and glared into the terrified girl's soul as her legs began to tremble at the sight of his wrinkled face.

As quick as a flash, she sprinted to her bed and she buried herself under the covers.

The gigantic hand edged closer and closer.

Well done everybody for working so hard on task A.

I wonder if you'll include any of this vocabulary in your plan in the next part of the lesson.

Great job.

So, it's time for the second part of today's lesson where we are going to be writing the plan.

When we write a plan, we use notes.

Notes are concise and capture the key vocabulary and information and events.

The purpose of the notes is to help the writer to organise information easily for future use so when they're writing.

So that means we don't need to have full sentences in our plan.

We'll do that later in the writing process.

We can use bullet points when note taking and they look like this.

So checking for understanding, what is in a plan? A, full sentences, capital letters and full stops, B, bullet points for notes, C, ambitious vocabulary, or D, unnecessary information.

Pause the video now.

That's right, in a plan we need B, bullet points for notes, and C, ambitious vocabulary.

We don't need full sentences or any unnecessary information.

Good job.

So, it's time for task B.

Firstly, in the first part of task B, you need to fill in the plan to describe the first key moment, which was when the figure removed green potion from his suitcase and he blew it out of his trumpet.

On your plan, you want to include fronted adverbials of time, place or manner, ambitious vocabulary, and some show-not-tell language to describe Sophie's emotions.

So I've given you one fronted adverbial that you might want to use, moments later, a fronted adverbial of time.

You can use any of the vocabulary that we generated in the first section of the lesson, but I'm sure you've also got lots of amazing ideas yourself too.

So pause the video now and off you go filling in the plan.

Well done everybody, welcome back.

I'm going to go through some of my ideas and if you'd like to, you can add these to your plan as well.

So fronted out adverbials, I said moments later, carefully, fronted a verbal of manner, and mesmerised to describe how Sophie was.

The long golden trumpet.

He twirled or spun it, so some precise verb choices there.

The magical emerald potion, an expanded noun phrase to describe the potion.

Then show-not-tell language.

She squinted.

She's trying to look more closely, trying to see exactly what's going on.

She leaned forward, so she's showing that she's really curious, mesmerised.

And she had bulging eyes, again, showing how mesmerised she is by what's happening outside.

Well done.

If you need to, you can pause the video now and add any of these ideas to your plan.

Otherwise, let's move on to planning the second key moment, which was when the figure turned towards Sophie and she ran to her bed.

Again, you want to include some fronted adverbials, so an example there was fiercely, so a fronted adverbial of manner to describe how he turned and stared at Sophie.

Some ambitious vocabulary and show-not-tell language to describe how terrified Sophie is feeling at this moment.

So again, if you want to include any of the vocabulary from the first part of the lesson, you can, or your own ideas as well.

So pause the video now and off you go filling in the plan for the second key moment.

Well done everybody.

Here are some of the ideas that I've come up with, and if you'd like to, you can add these to your plan.

Fiercely, as quick as a flash and in panic on my fronted adverbials.

Then ambitious vocabulary.

He turned and glared.

He had a wrinkled face.

So Sophie bolted rapidly to her bed.

And then show-not-tell language.

Her legs were shaking, she was breathless and a wave of panic washed over her.

All of these show how scared she was.

If you need to, you can pause the video and add some more ideas to your plan.

Otherwise well done, and let's plan the final key moment of the buildup, which was when Sophie hid under her covers as the giant's hand grabbed her.

So some fronted adverbials you could use was slowly to show that that hand was slowly moving towards her.

And then you can include some other frontal adverbials, some ambitious vocabulary and more show-not-tell language.

So pause the video now and off you go just filling in the plan to describe the third and final key moment.

Well done everybody, welcome back.

Here are some of the ideas that I've come up with.

So fronted adverbials.

Slowly, across the room.

That's from where the hand was coming from.

And below the covers, that's where Sophie is hiding.

Ambitious vocabulary.

The gigantic or the colossal hand to describe, show how big it is.

It snatched or grabbed Sophie, and then it dragged her through the window.

Then show-not-tell language.

Her breathing quickened, her heart thumped and she was stifling a scream.

She's trying not to scream 'cause she doesn't want the giant to hear.

So again, if you need to, you can pause the video and add any of these ideas to your plan.

Make sure you keep your plan safe because they're going to be real useful in the next lesson when it comes to writing the buildup part two.

Great job today, everybody, well done.

Here is a summary of everything we've learned.

The purpose of the buildup is to build up suspense and excitement.

When we plan, we log a precise and ambitious vocabulary to help paint vivid pictures for our reader.

A plan includes notes, a sequence of events, and ambitious vocabulary.

Show-not-tell language shows a character's feelings by describing their actions, body language, and facial expressions.

Well done.