Lesson video

Welcome to today's English lesson.

In this lesson, we're going to be doing our first piece of writing.

We're going to write the opening paragraph of our non-chronological report about tigers.

I'm very, very excited to see what you produce because you have all been working so hard.

And this is your opportunity to apply all of your skills in this piece of writing.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or some lined paper, a pen or pencil to write with and your notes from our last lesson.

So you'll need the research that we did into tiger subspecies and their appearance features.

If you don't have some of those items with you right now, just pause the recording and go and get them.

In our lesson today, we're going to start with an introduction to non-chronological reports, to remind ourselves what they are.

We're then going to discuss their features.

And then moving on to our modelled write, where we're going to write an opening together.

And then your independent task would be to write your own opening paragraph.

What it is a non-chronological report? Can you remember from our previous lesson, what we said it was? Pause the recording and write down anything that you can remember now.

A non-chronological report is a type of non-fiction text.

It provides factual information about a subject person or event and it is written not in time order.

We are going to be writing our report about tigers to feature in this National Geographic text below, All About Tigers.

Now is your opportunity to retrieve the learning from your previous lesson and remind yourself of some of the features of non-chronological reports.

Can you remember anything about the language and the sentences? Think about, when we looked at the grey wolf example.

Pause the recording and write down what you can remember now.

So the language that we would expect to see in a non-chronological report, would be formal, scientific language.

We would expect to see subject-specific vocabulary, formal conjunctions, referring to nouns in different ways and not repeating the main noun, for example, tigers, but referring to the main noun in a different way.

And then we would also have some past, present and future tense.

In terms of sentences, we would have simple sentences, compound sentences and complex sentences.

In particular, those relative clause complex sentences that we practised before with the who/which either in the middle of the sentence or at the end of the sentence.

Now, can you remember anything about the layout or how non-chronological report is structured or anything about the punctuation? Pause the recording now and write down what you can remember.

So, the layouts, we're going to start with the title and then the report will be broken up into sections marked by subheadings.

There'll be an opening paragraph and a few main paragraphs and closing paragraph.

And then within each paragraph, there'll be an opening sentence.

And then the last sentence would either link onto the next, or it will be a closing sentence at the very end of the report.

Punctuation of course, we're going to have capital letters, full stops and commas as normal, but in reports you might see brackets and question marks more frequently.

Brackets or parenthesis are to add extra information.

And question marks would of course be used for question, which are really good to use in an opening to hook your reader in.

What is the purpose of the opening paragraph? Is to introduce the subject of the report.

So it provides general information about the subject.

So our report is going to be about tigers, so our opening is going to tell our reader that our report is about tigers and give some general information.

So not specific details.

It also is really important to hook the reader in.

And we can do that as I mentioned by using a question, but also by making our reports sound really interesting.

So there's a little bit like our opening paragraph needs to be like a fishing rod, hooking a fish.

We need to hook our reader in, make sure they're interested and they want to read the rest of our reports.

So we've got success criteria of today's writing and I've chosen a few of those features.

'Cause I want you to try and include.

I've included an opening an a linking sentence.

I've included a relative clause and brackets to add extra information.

I have used formal conjunctions and subject-specific vocabulary.

I have included a question to reader.

And we'll work through this together as we do our modelled write.

It's also really important when you're writing, that you always say your sentence out loud, you write it down, you then read it back and check it.

And I'll be modelling that as we go through our opening paragraph together.

I hope you're ready because this is our first opportunity to do a piece of writing together.

So I'm going to model to you, we're going to work together and then you're going to go off and do a little bit on your own.

And we'll work through the opening in chunks.

So let's remind ourselves of our success criteria to start with.

Now, the first feature on my success criteria was to include an opening sentence.

Remember that sentence needs to give very general information to the reader.

I want to introduce that my report is about tigers and tell my reader what type of animal a tiger is.

So I'm going to start with tigers are a type cat, full stop.

That tells them what type of animal they are.

Tigers are a type of cat.

Maybe I could add in some extra information.

Any ideas, anything else I could tell them about the type of cat it is? I know, I could tell them it's the largest type of cat.

So tigers are the largest type of cat.

That might interest my reader and make them want to read on.

So that's some good stuff, a good first sentence.

It introduces what a tiger is.

It's a good general sentence to open my report.

But could I add in a relative clause? We look back at the success criteria.

I can see that it says I have included a relative clause and brackets to add extra information.

Maybe, I could do that in my first sentence.

I know my relative clause adds extra information about the noun.

So maybe I could add one in here after tigers.

What extra information could I give about the tiger? Any ideas? That's a good idea.

I know, I remember that scientific, Latin name, the tiger.

Can you remember what it was? Brilliant, good memory.

Panthera, tigris.

Can you say that? Panthera tigris.

That sounds very scientific.

So let's put in tigers, which are known scientifically as Panthera tigris.

I need a capital letter for Panthera and a lowercase for tigris, comma, are the largest type of cat.

That's an excellent first sentence.

I've managed to already take off.

That's I've included my opening sentence and I've included a relative clause.

I'm doing really well considering I've only written one sentence so far.

Now, I've told my reader that the tiger is a type of cat, but I know that there are actually six subspecies of tiger.

So I want to tell my reader that now.

I'm going to write, there are six subspecies.

Now, what were they named after? Can you remember what each subspecies was named after? Can you remember? That's it? They were named after where they were found, where they came from.

So there are six subspecies named after the area, I'm not going to call it a country because it's an area in which they live.

Let's read that second sentence back.

There are six subspecies names after, Oh, I've made a mistake there.

That should be named after, the area in which they live.

Now, is there a more scientific word for live? I know where they live is called their habitats or their environments.

I know, I could use the word in which they inhabit.

That means the area in which they live.

That would be a more formal, scientific word to use.

Now, if I remember on my success criteria, it also said I needed to use brackets to add extra information.

Maybe I could do that here.

Maybe I could list off the names of the different subspecies of tiger.

Can you remember them? They were six.

Let's give it a go.

I remember the first one where's Bengal.

What's wrong, what have I forgotten? Sorry.

A capital letter you're right.

I need to remember a capital letter, because it's the name of a subspecies of tiger and it's named after a place.

An area in which they're found.

So Bengal needs a capital letter and then going to have a list, so I need commas after each of my nouns in my list.

So it's Bengal, South Chinese.

I'm remembering my capital letters now.

Indo-Chinese, I need a hyphen in between those two names.

Malayan, Sumatran and Siberian.

Well done, if you remembered all of those six subspecies.

So let's read that, that second sentence again.

There are six subspecies named after the area in which they inhabit.

Bengal, South Chinese, Indo-Chinese, Malayan, Sumatran, and Siberian.

Wow, I look at my success criteria.

I've included my opening sentence.

I've got my relative clause and my brackets to add extra information.

Pause the recording now and try and write your first two opening sentences.

Let's remind ourselves what else is on our success criteria? It says here I have used formal conjunctions.

I haven't done that yet.

So maybe, my next few sentences I could use some formal conjunctions to link them together.

Now, what else would be good, useful general information to give my reader about tigers? I know, I could tell them about the ages that they can live to.

So I'm going to start with tigers, can live, now hang on a second, I've already used the word tigers.

Could I refer to tigers in a different way, so I'm not repeating that now? I know, I could use, these felines.

That's a really good scientific, subject-specific word to use to refer to a type of cat.

These felines can live up to 20 years, I remember, of age in zoos.

Well, actually, maybe I could use a more formal word for zoos.

Maybe I could say in captivity.

That means anywhere where they are captive and they not wild.

Let's read that back and check it makes sense.

These felines can live up to 20 years of age in captivity.

That's a good sentence.

It tells my reader about how old they can live.

But what about in the wild? I can remember in the wild, they actually only survive up to 15 years.

So I'm going to say they only survive for a maximum of 15 years in the wild.

Now, that's a bit of a contrast, isn't it? An opposite because in captivity they can live the 20 years, but in the wild, they only live for 15 years.

What conjunction could I use to show that those two are opposites or contrasts to each other? Can you remember? Tell me.

A but conjunction, excellent.

One of those but formal conjunctions that we learnt.

I'm going to use, however.

And remember that is always followed by a comma.

However, and I need a lowercase T, they only survive for a maximum of 15 years in the wild.

That's a really good example of a but conjunction there.

Now, is there anything else I can remember about the age of tigers? Want to add some more information using an and conjunction? I know, I could say moreover, half of all cubs only, I've said only already, haven't I? Half of all cubs die during their year of life.

Oh, that's so sad, isn't it? I can't believe that.

That only half of tiger cubs manage to survive a year.

Must be very dangerous out in the wild where they live.

So let's read about those three sentences and check they make sense.

These felines can live up to 20 years of age in captivity.

However, they only survive for a maximum of 15 years in the wild.

Moreover, half of all cubs die during their first year of life.

Well, I definitely included my formal conjunctions there, I've got two examples.

I've got an and conjunction and I've got a but junction.

I now want you to try and write the next few sentences of your opening.

Try and see if you can include some of those formal conjunctions.

Remember, you could use an and conjunction, a but conjunction, or maybe you could use a clausal conjunction.

I haven't used one of those yet.

Pause the recording and have a go.

We are doing so well with our opening paragraph.

Let's remind ourselves again, of our success criteria.

Now, one feature that I know I haven't included yet is my question to the reader.

Remember we want to hook our reader in a bit like a fishing rod, hooking a fish.

We want to hook our reader in and make sure they are interested and read the rest of our report.

So a question is a really good technique to do that.

Let's go back to my text.

So a really good way to start a question is, did you know.

That introduces to my reader that I'm asking them a question.

Now, what could I ask them? What else can I remember about tigers? Any ideas? I know, I'm going to tell them about the fact that they spend most of their time on their own.

What was that word for when animals or people spend time on their own? Can you remember? What was it? Solitary, that it.

That's a very formal word that we could use.

So did you know tigers are generally solitary? I'm going to say generally because they're not always solitary but generally, usually they are.

Are generally solitary animals.

Anything else I could tell my reader to add a bit more information to that sentence? Maybe I could extend it with another clause.

Let's get rid of that question mark.

Did you know tigers are generally solitary animals? And I could tell them that they roam across large areas.

And roam across large areas.

Hold on, wasn't there a word that we learned for the area of land that a tiger defence.

Can you remember what it was? Oh, well done, it's territory.

So and roam across large territories, I'm going to make it plural.

Territories, an I-E-S on the end for my plural spelling rule.

Let's read that back and check that question makes sense.

Did you know tigers are generally solitary animals and roam across large territories? That's definitely going to interest my reader.

Now, let me check back to my success criteria.

I think there's one more feature I haven't included yet.

My linking sentence.

So this sentence needs to link to the rest of the report and tell the reader what the rest of the report is going to be about.

I'm going to start with, this report will provide you with information.

Actually, hang on, using you doesn't sound very formal.

And I'm writing a formal non-chronological report.

Let's get rid of that.

This report will provide, let's just say, will provide information about this.

Now, which words have I used? I've used tigers, I've used felines, I've used animal.

I know, I could use the word creature.

This report will provide information about this creature's.

What was it going to about? It's about its appearance, diet and habitat.

Now, what have I forgotten here? Can you tell me? Piece of punctuation that shows that the appearance, diets and habitat belong to the creature? Can you tell me what it is? Brilliant, an apostrophe.

So it needs to have an apostrophe before the S to show that the appearance, diets and habitat belong to the creature.

Let's read that last sentence back and check it will make sense.

This report will provide information about this creature's appearance, diets, and habitats.

I think that's a pretty good closing or linking sentence that introduces what the rest of my report is going to be about.

Let's have one last check of my success criteria.

So have I included an opening and a linking sentence? Yep, I definitely did that.

I could take that off.

Have I included a relative clause? I had that in my first sentence.

And brackets to add extra information.

I have brackets in my second sentence.

I can definitely take that off.

I have used formal conjunctions and subject-specific vocabulary.

I know, I've thought really carefully about some of the words I've chosen and I definitely had an and conjunction and a but so I'm going to tick that one off.

Have I included a question to the reader? Yes, I had that in my penultimate.

To my last but one sentence so I can definitely take that one off.

Now, can you go and write the last few sentences of your opening? Remember to try and include, a question to the reader and that linking sentence to tell your reader what the rest of the report's going to be about.

You have done so well in today's lesson.

You should now have written your whole opening paragraph, congratulations.

The last thing we need to do before we end today's lesson is we must read back the whole paragraph as one piece of text.

Even though we've read back each sentence as we wrote it.

So I'm going to read mine and you're going to follow along and then you'll have a chance to read back your own opening and make any changes that you need to.

Tigers.

Tigers, which are known scientifically as Panthera tigris, are the largest type of cats.

There are six subspecies named after the area in which they inhabit.

Bengal, South Chinese, Indo-Chinese, Malayan, Sumatran and Siberian.

These felines can live up to 20 years of age in captivity.

However, they only survive for a maximum of 15 years in the wild.

Moreover, half of all cubs die during their first year of life.

Did you know tigers are generally solitary animals and roam across large territories? This report will provide information about this creature's appearance, diets and habitats.

So you should already have written your opening, but if you haven't, this is now your chance to finish off or write your whole opening of your non-chronological report.

Remember, the name features in the success criteria that we mentioned earlier.

So including your opening and your linking sentence a relative clause and brackets to add extra information, formal conjunctions and subject-specific vocabulary, to give your writing that formal scientific tone.

And lastly, a question to hook your reader in and make sure they read the rest of your report.

In our lesson today, we introduced non-chronological reports.

We recap the features.

We then had a go at writing together.

And lastly, you are going to finish off your paragraph.

If you've already written your whole paragraph, this is your chance to read it all back, make sure it all makes sense and make any changes that you want to.

Well done with today's lesson.

That is a fantastic achievement that you have written a whole paragraph applying all of the learning that we have covered so far this unit.

If you would like to, please share your work with your parents or carer.

I will see you in our next lesson, goodbye.