Lesson video

Hi, everyone, and welcome to today's lesson.

Today, we're going to be writing our narrative opening based on "How to Train Your Dragon." In today's lesson, you will be able to use a plan to write the opening of a narrative based on "How to Train Your Dragon." Here are some key words we are going to use: Atmosphere.

Linguistic features.

Complex sentence.

Atmosphere is the mood created in a section or the whole of a text.

Linguistic features are structures of language that use words.

A complex sentence is a sentence composed of a main clause and any type of subordinate clause.

Today, we're going to be writing a narrative opening based on "How to Train Your Dragon." We're going to begin with some preparation for writing, and then we're going to move on to writing the opening.

To meet its purpose, an opening has a range of linguistic features: Ambitious vocabulary.

Adverbial detail.

A range of sentence types.

Let's talk a little bit more about this range of sentence types: Simple, compound, and complex.

Can you recall which complex sentence types we have learned about in this unit so far? Take a moment to have a little think.

Well done if you've remembered that so far, we've learned about adverbial complex sentences, relative complex sentences, and non-finite complex sentences.

Match the complex sentence types to their examples.

Pause the video while you do that.

Well done if you spotted that an adverbial complex sentence was, "As the dragons descended on the Isle of Berk, the villagers rushed from their homes." A relative complex sentence was, "A small hut which stood on the edge of the hillside, housed all of the villagers' weapons." And the non-finite complex sentence was, "Gazing in horror at the scene before him, Hiccup stood, frozen." We can tell what type of sentence a complex sentence is by looking at the subordinate clauses in them.

Now it's time for your task.

Read the model opening and find one example of each of the following linguistic features: One fronted adverbial of time, place, or manner.

One adverbial complex sentence.

One relative complex sentence.

And one non-finite complex sentence.

But first, let's begin by reading through the model opening together.

"Above the island, the air was filled with the sound of rhythmic beating of powerful, vast wings as the dragons encircled the unsuspecting village.

Swooping down from the darkened skies, the winged reptiles descended upon the defenceless sheep.

Chaos erupted as the ferocious beasts preyed upon the villagers' livestock, their sharp claws and teeth tearing through the peacefully grazing animals.

With enraged roars, flames erupted from the dragons' mouths, which engulfed homes in fiery destruction.

The air was thick with smoke and the sound of panicked screams as the dragons unleashed their wrath upon the once serene village.

Brave villagers fought the huge demons with all their might, howling in fury.

Despite their best efforts, the Vikings were no match for the dragons' size and power.

The huge beasts preyed on the villagers' sheep before their eyes.

Amidst the chaos, a young scrawny boy named Hiccup observed the scene before him with an anxious frown.

Although he was determined to help, he struggled to lift the heavy axe in his hand and instead, stood petrified." Now, take some time to complete your task.

Great work, everyone.

So a fronted adverbial of time, place, or manner could have been "above the island," "with enraged roars," "despite their best efforts," "amidst the chaos." Any of these are correct.

An adverbial complex sentence could have been, "Above the island, the air was filled with the sound of rhythmic beating of powerful, vast wings as the dragons encircled the unsuspecting village." There, my adverbial subordinate clause is in purple.

You could have also done, "Chaos erupted as the ferocious beasts preyed on the villagers' livestock, their sharp claws and teeth tearing through the peacefully grazing animals." Or you could have used this one, "The air was thick with smoke and the sound of panicked screams as the dragons unleashed their wrath upon the once serene village." "Although he was determined to help, he struggled to lift the heavy axe in his hand and instead stood, petrified." Any of these sentences are correct examples of adverbial complex sentences.

Now, an example of a relative complex sentence could have been this one, "With enraged roars, flames erupted from the dragons' mouths, which engulfed homes in fiery destruction." My rich relative clause is highlighted in purple here.

And a non-finite complex sentence could have been, "Swooping down from the darkened skies, the winged reptiles descended upon the defenceless sheep." Here, I know this is a non-finite complex sentence because my non-finite subordinate clause begins with that verb with the -ing suffix in the progressive form, "swooping." Brave villagers fought the huge demons with all their might, howling in fury.

This time, the non-finite subordinate clause is at the end of the sentence.

Well done, everyone.

Now that we have prepared to write, we're going to move on to writing the opening.

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

We plan and say each sentence before we write it.

We use punctuation where we know the rules.

We showcase each sentence type we know.

We write letters neatly on the line in joined handwriting.

And we use spelling strategies to help spell words accurately.

We also check and improve our writing when we think we've finished.

Here's the success criteria that we are going to use today.

Let's read through it together.

I have used three different types of complex sentence.

I have used adverbial detail to describe when, where, and how something happened.

I have used ambitious precise language choices to create atmosphere.

We can do all of these things in our writing today.

We can also showcase other skills if we would like to, but these are the key skills we want to make sure we show in our writing.

When using success criteria, which of these should we do? Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you spotted that we should use the success criteria as a guide of what to include, and we should tick off each criterion as we'd include it in our writing.

So we want to be checking it and ticking it off as we go along.

We are going to now use our plan to write our opening.

We are going to build on our ideas from the plan when writing today, and we need to make sure we've got our plans with us, ready for writing.

So take a moment to go and get it if you don't already have it.

Let's take a moment to review our plans before we begin to write.

So in our plans, they're split into different sections.

The dragons approaching, dragons attacking, the villagers fighting back, and a description of Hiccup.

The first two sections form the basis of paragraph one, and the second two form the basis of paragraph two.

Let's take a moment to review what we've got on our plans.

In my plan, I had that the dragons were approaching or they were circling silently overhead.

I refer to the dragons as a group or a hoard of dragons that approached, and I described their wings as enormous, and vast, and that they beat rhythmically and powerfully.

When describing the dragons attacking, I wanted to use the term "swooping" in a non-finite subordinate clause.

I described the dragons as wing serpents, ferocious beasts, and deadly creatures that attacked the villagers' sheep or livestock.

I've described how flames erupted from their fanged mouths.

Huts were engulfed in balls of flame.

There was chaos and destruction all around, and villagers could hear the roaring of a fiery blast.

Then, when I described the villagers fighting back, I used some proverbial detail of manner.

So with bellows of rage, the villagers leapt from their beds, they grabbed their weapons.

Howling in fury, there's another non-finite subordinate clause I want to include, they fought the huge demons with all their might.

The dragons were too large and powerful and they preyed on the sheep before the villagers' eyes.

And finally, when describing Hiccup, I described him as a young boy, that he was scrawny, he wore an anxious frown, he was determined to help, he struggled to lift a heavy axe, and he gazed in horror at the scene.

Take a moment now to reread your plan, make any edits, and add any additional ideas you want to at this point, and then we're ready to write.

Well done, everyone.

Firstly, I'm going to show you how to draught the first paragraph because remember, our opening is going to be split into two paragraphs.

I'm going to show you how to write the first paragraph, which was the dragons approaching and the dragons attacking.

Then you are going to help me check that I've used my success criteria.

Thank you so much, everybody.

So I've got my success criteria stuck in, and now I am ready to write.

So remember in this paragraph, I'm describing the dragons approaching the island and the dragons attacking Berk's livestock.

I'm going to begin by using an adverbial complex sentence.

So I'm going to begin with my indent in from my margin, and I'm going to go with "As the sun dipped behind the horizon," or "below the horizon." "As the sun dipped below the horizon." Now, what was happening as the sun dipped below the horizon? I need to think about something else that was going on at the same time.

I'm gonna say, "An eerie silence fell over the land." So here, I'm creating some atmosphere for my reader, to give them that feeling that there's something ominous about to happen.

So let's take a moment to reread this sentence.

"As the sun dipped below the horizon, an eerie silence fell over the land." That is an adverbial complex sentence, but I forgot to use my comma.

So I've got to use a comma when my fronted.

Or when my adverbial subordinate clause goes at the start of the sentence, I must separate it from the rest of the sentence using a comma.

Now, I am going to go with an adverb of manner.

So this time, I wanna say that there was unease in the air, but I want to say how there was unease in the air.

So I'm going to go with, "Beneath the cloak of darkness." Now, this is an example of a metaphor, which we haven't really talked about much in our unit so far, but this is when we say that one thing is another.

So the darkness isn't actually a cloak, but it creates that visual in the reader's mind.

And I've used a comma here for my fronted adverbial.

"Beneath the cloak of darkness," comma, "a sense of unease lingered." Lingered in the air.

It means it hung around.

Hung around in the air.

"The air," full stop.

Now I want to use a different type of complex sentence.

Now I'm going to bring the dragons into this moment.

So I want to talk about the wings.

Rather than just going straight in and just saying that the dragons had arrived, I'm gonna go with the sound of the massive wings and the fact that they signalled the arrival of the dragons.

So I'm gonna use signalling.

So there's my progressive verb form.

Signalling the arrival.

Now, I'm not gonna say the arrival of the dragons, I wanna create more tension for my reader, "of an ominous threat." Threat.

Now I need a comma after my non-finite subordinate clause.

"The sound of massive wings," so the sound was what did the signalling.

So it has to be the same thing as the subject in both clauses.

"The sound of massive wings." "Wings beating rhythmically filled the air," and that really creates that idea in my reader's mind.

Now this is a tricky word to spell, R-H, rhythm, T-H, ically, filled the air.

Just stop and reread this sentence.

"Signalling the arrival of an ominous threat," comma, "the sound of massive wings beating rhythmically filled the air." Okay.

I'm now gonna explain what happened tonight.

I've kind of described the dragons arriving, now I'm gonna launch into them actually attacking the island.

So this is when I'm gonna speed up the piece a little bit.

"Panic erupted." I like that word "erupted", like a volcano almost.

"As the fierce creatures.

." "As the fierce creatures.

." Now, I could refer to them as dragons here, but I want to hold back from calling them dragons at this point and kind of still create the suspense for my reader.

"As the fierce creatures seized upon the livestock." And I can imagine them almost seizing them with their claws.

The livestock.

Okay.

"Panic erupted as the fierce creatures seized upon the livestock." Now there's an example of an adverbial complex sentence.

Now I would like to describe the livestock.

I'm gonna go with unsuspecting.

I've used defenceless in previous planning before as well.

"The unsuspecting livestock." Now my final sentence is going to be talking about the villagers and their reaction.

So I want to say that they were alarmed, and describing the flames, and sort of the chaos of the scene.

So I'm going to ref.

I've used chaos a few times in previous examples, so I'm gonna go with turmoil.

So, "In the midst of the turmoil," this is an example of a frontal adverbial, of manner.

"The turmoil.

." Comma.

What happened? The villagers' cries of alarm.

No, the villagers' cries of alarm.

Now, who do the cries of alarm belong to? Yeah, well done.

You're right, they belong to the villagers.

There's lots of villagers.

This is plural.

So it's a plural, possessive apostrophe.

It goes after the s.

"The villagers' cries of alarm mingled with the roar of flames." "With the roar of flames." Comma.

Now what did it do? It transformed their island, their haven, into a frantic battlefield.

So I'm going to go with transforming, forming, their tranquil haven.

Because the island of Berk had been a tranquil haven before the dragons arrived.

Haven into a frantic battlefield.

Frantic battlefield.

I'm going to.

Field.

Now you might be able to spot what type of complex sentence this is.

This -ing progressive verb form gives us a clue.

It's another non-finite complex sentence.

So in my writing, I have used two non-finite complex sentences and two adverbial complex sentences.

That means in my next paragraph, I want to make sure that I use a relative complex sentence.

So I can't tick off this top criteria just yet.

I've done two of the three.

I have used adverbial detail to show when, where, or how something happened, and I have used ambitious precise language choices.

Let's take a moment to reread the whole piece.

"As the sun dipped below the horizon, an eerie silence fell over the land." So I like that word "eerie," as a good adjective.

"Beneath the cloak of darkness," there's a metaphor, "a sense of unease lingered in the air." So it hung around in the air.

"Signalling the arrival of an ominous threat.

The sound of massive wings beating rhythmically filled the air.

Panic erupted as the fierce creatures seized upon the unsuspecting livestock.

In the midst of the turmoil, the villagers' cries of alarm mingled with the roar of flames, transforming their tranquil haven into a frantic battlefield." So I feel like now, I know really clearly what I need to do in my next paragraph to meet my third success criteria.

And I think this successfully describes the dragons arriving and attacking the island and creates atmosphere for my reader.

Thank you so much for your help.

Thank you so much for all your help just now.

Now it's your turn.

Using your success criteria and your plan to guide you, draught your first paragraph.

Make sure to reread each sentence as you write it, and check for edits and improvements you can make.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Great work, everyone.

Take a moment now, to reread each sentence and check that your writing makes sense and that there are no edits or improvements to make.

Here is my example of a first paragraph.

Let's read it through together.

"Over the sleepy village, which was blissfully unaware of what was to come, a symphony of mighty wings filled the air.

Descending from the shadowy heavens above, the dragons swooped upon the unsuspecting settlement with ruthless precision.

Pandemonium ensued as the ferocious creatures preyed upon the peaceful grazing animals, igniting chaos and destruction with their fiery breath.

Amidst the chaos, the villagers' cries battled with the roar of flames as their once idyllic home became a battleground for survival." Take one last moment to reread your writing.

If there are any bits that you would like to magpie from my example and edit into yours, then now is the time to do that.

Well done, everybody.

Now, using your success criteria and your plan to guide you, draught your second paragraph.

Make sure to reread each sentence as you write it, and check for edits and improvements you can make.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

So remember, the second paragraph describes the villagers fighting back, and Hiccup.

Off you go.

Great work, everyone.

Here's my example of a second paragraph.

Let's read it together.

"As the monstrous dragons descended upon the village, brave villagers rallied to defend their homes.

Despite their valiant efforts, the overwhelming size and strength of the dragons proved too much for the Vikings to overcome.

Helpless, they watched the colossal creatures mercilessly prey upon their precious livestock, leaving devastation in their wake.

Amidst the chaos, a young boy named Hiccup stood frozen.

His heart pounded with fear as he surveyed the scene unfolding before him.

Though his spirit burned with a desire to aid his kin, the weight of the axe in his trembling hands rendered him powerless to act." Take a moment now, to reread your second paragraph.

Are there any edits or improvements you can make? Or are there any ideas you can magpie from my example and edit into your own writing? Take a moment now, to complete those final checks.

Well done, everyone.

Brilliant work, everyone.

That now brings us to the end of our lesson where we've been writing a narrative opening based on "How to Train Your Dragon." In narrative writing, we can use a range of descriptive devices to create imagery and atmosphere for our reader.

Using a range of linguistic features such as ambitious, precise vocabulary and complex sentences, enables us to hook our reader in and achieve the text's atmosphere.

When writing, it's important to say each sentence out loud before writing.

Our plans and success criteria help us when we are writing.

I hope you're feeling so proud of your narrative opening, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what we continue to achieve in this unit.

Well done, everyone.