Lesson video

Hi everyone and welcome to today's lesson.

Today we're going to be using our planning from our last lesson to write a setting and character description based off "The Highwayman".

In today's lesson, you will be able to use your plan to write a setting and character description based on "The Highwayman".

Today we're going to be using some of these key words, apostrophe for possession, figurative language, atmosphere, well done.

An apostrophe for possession is a punctuation mark used to show if a noun belongs to another noun.

Figurative language is the use of simile, metaphor, and personification to create vivid imagery.

Creating atmosphere is how a writer constructs their writing to convey emotions and mood to the reader.

Today we're going to be writing a setting and character description based on "The Highwayman".

We're going to begin with preparing to write and then we're gonna move on to actually writing our setting and character description.

A noun is a person, a place, or a thing.

Nouns can be singular, meaning just one, or plural, meaning more than one.

Here are some examples of singular nouns.

Dog, child, woman, tooth.

All of these are singular nouns because in each example there is only one of them.

Now let's look at some plural nouns.

Dogs, children, women, teeth.

These are all examples of plural nouns because in all of these examples, there is more than one of the noun.

When a noun possesses another noun or owns another noun, we show this possession using an apostrophe.

For example, let's read this together.

The hooves belonging to the horse.

We can show this with an apostrophe with the horse's hooves.

Let's read this one.

The coat belonging to the Highwayman.

We can show this as the Highwayman's coat.

In both of these examples, the horse and the Highwayman are the owners and they are singular nouns.

That means there is one horse, that's one owner, and there is one Highwayman, one owner.

So this is singular possession.

The noun that possesses another noun can be singular, as we've just seen, or it can be a plural when there are more than one owner.

For example, let's read this one together.

The branches belonging to the trees.

This would be written as the trees' branches.

And notice how the apostrophe goes after the word trees.

Light belonging to the stars.

This would be written as the stars' light.

Again, the apostrophe goes after the word stars because they are the owner.

In both of these examples, we have got plural nouns as the owners because there's more than one tree on the moor and there's more than one star in the sky.

So we're referring to lots of different owners here.

This is plural possession.

How would we use apostrophes to show singular or plural possession here? So here's an example.

We've got the force belonging to the wind.

So the owner here is the wind and it owns the force.

So I would write it as the wind's force.

Again, the apostrophe goes after the word wind.

It goes after the owner.

Here we've got the shadows belonging to the trees.

In this example, the trees own the shadows, so we would write it as the trees' shadows with the apostrophe after the word trees.

Now it's your turn.

How would we use apostrophes to show singular or plural possession here? Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you spotted that the path belonging to the moor would be written as the moor's path because the moor is the owner.

The silhouettes, that's like an outline, belonging to the hills would be written as the hills' silhouettes because there's more than one hill so this is plural.

Throughout this unit, we've been learning about how authors can use figurative language and other devices to create atmosphere.

What devices to create atmosphere can you think of? Take a moment to have a little think.

Well done if you can recall that we've been talking about metaphor, simile, personification, alliteration, and repetition.

These are all things that we can use in our writing to create atmosphere.

Match the figurative language and linguistic devices to their definitions.

Pause the video while you do that.

Well done if you spotted that metaphor compares two things by saying that one thing is another.

Simile compares two things using like or as.

Personification assigns human characteristics to non-human things.

Repetition involves the repeating of key words and phrases, and alliteration is where many words begin with the same letter.

Now it's time for your first task.

Read the model setting and character description and identify one example of the following features.

So one metaphor, simile, personification, alliteration, and repetition example in my model.

Let's begin by reading the model through together.

In the ink-black velvet sky, the moon danced behind the clouds, which cast eerie shadows on the land below.

As the violent wind howled and sighed, the stars above illuminated the vast heather-covered moor.

On the ground below, trees begged for mercy from the ferocious wind whilst it battered the landscape.

The path was a silvery ribbon of moonlight, winding infinitely across the land.

Charging across the miserable moor, a solitary figure rode on horseback.

His claret velvet coat fanned out behind him like a proud flag as he rode onwards, onwards, onwards on his powerful steed.

Pause the video now while you complete your task.

Brilliant work everyone.

So one example of metaphor was the path was a silvery ribbon of moonlight.

Remember when we compare two things by saying that one thing is another.

An example of simile was his claret velvet coat fanned out behind him like a proud flag.

Simile is when we use like or as to compare.

So like a proud flag is an example of simile.

Personification is when we assign human characteristics to non-human things.

The moon danced behind the clouds, the violent wind howled and sighed, trees begged for mercy from the ferocious wind whilst it battered the landscape.

Alliteration is when multiple words start with the same starting letter.

The miserable moor is an example of alliteration and repetition of key words, onwards, onwards, onwards.

And I've used this word to show the Highwayman's determination to keep on driving onwards, galloping forwards on his horse through the storm 'cause he's so desperate to get to his destination.

What a brilliant start to our lesson, everyone.

Now we're gonna move on to writing the setting and character description.

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

We plan and say each sentence before we write it.

We use punctuation when we know the rules.

We showcase each sentence type we know.

We write letters neatly on the line in joined handwriting.

We use spelling strategies to spell words accurately, and we check and improve our writing when we think we've finished.

We've also got some success criteria to guide us.

Success criteria is really, really important because it acts as a reminder for us to remember which key skills we want to showcase in our writing.

Let's read our success criteria together.

I have included adverbial detail to explain when, where, or how something happened.

I've used three different types of complex sentences.

I have used a range of figurative language and devices to build atmosphere.

I have used an apostrophe for singular or plural possession.

Now, all of these writing skills are skills that we have been learning about in this lesson or in our last lesson, which was our planning lesson.

Now you're going to use your plan to write your setting and character description.

Build on your ideas from your plan when you're writing today.

Make sure you have your plan with you, ready for writing.

Let's just remind ourselves of how we're structuring our writing today.

So we're starting up in the sky, then we're coming down to the landscape, then to ground level.

And finally, we're introducing the Highwayman to our writing.

Use your plan to help you write about the relevant part of the setting and character description.

So we're starting off with the section about the sky.

Make sure you're looking at the right part of your plan.

Here's my class plan.

So you take a moment to reread your personal plan from our last lesson.

Pause the video if you need some extra time to do that.

Now you're going to use your plan to draught your sentences about the sky.

You could use my sentence opener.

I've gone for a time adverbial.

In the darkest hour of the night.

I've remembered my capital letter and my comma after my fronted adverbial of time.

You can use my opener or you can use something different.

Pause the video now while you do that.

Great work everyone.

Here's my first sentence.

Now, remember, it's gonna be different to your first sentence and that's great because we want to have lots of different ideas and different writing outcomes.

My first sentence is in the darkest hour of the night, the moon was a ghostly orb in the jet-black sky as clouds danced across it.

Stars silently dressed the sky like glittering diamonds.

In my two sentences, I've included some adverbial details.

I've got my fronted adverbial of time.

I've also used some figurative language.

The moon was a ghostly orb, that's a metaphor.

Stars silently dressed the sky like glittering diamonds is an example of a simile, like glittering diamonds.

Now we're going to use our plan to help us write about the relevant part of the setting and character description.

This time we're focusing on the landscape.

This is all going to form one paragraph, but we're taking a section at a time.

Here we're focusing on the trees, the moor, and the wind.

Here's the part of your plan.

Here's my plan.

Pause the video if you need a moment to reread your planning from our last lesson.

Okay, so now you're going to use your plan to draught your sentences about the landscape.

I've got a suggested adverbial subordinate clause that you could use to open your first sentence if you want to.

As the wind tore furiously at the battered landscape.

You can choose to open your first sentence in a different way if you would like to.

Pause the video now while you complete your task.

Brilliant work everyone.

Now here's my sentence.

Let's read it through together.

So as the wind tore furiously at the battered landscape, trees' branches cracked and their trunks bent against the wind's force.

The moor was covered in heather, which blanketed the hills protectively.

So I've got my apostrophe for possession.

I've got trees' branches, so the branches belonging to the trees, that's plural possession.

And the wind's force, so the force belonging to the wind, that's singular possession.

The moor was covered in heather, which blanketed the hills protectively.

So firstly, I've personified the heather to make it sound like it's blanketing, like it's protective over the hills.

Remember, heather's a purple plant that grows over the moor.

I've also used a relative complex sentence where my relative clause goes at the end of the sentence, which blanketed the hills protectively.

And I know that's a relative clause 'cause it starts with which as the relative pronoun.

I've also personified the wind in my first adverbial subordinate clause.

As the wind tore furiously at the battered landscape, so I'm making the wind sound like it's absolutely raging and really trying to inflict damage on the landscape.

Now we're going to move on to the next part of our plan, which is where we're going to be describing the ground level.

So the path, the heather, and the grass.

Take a moment to reread your planning.

Here's my plan.

Pause the video if you need a moment to reread yours.

Okay, everyone.

So now we're going to draught our sentences about the ground level.

I have suggested winding across the moor.

This is a non finite subordinate clause, and I know it's a non finite subordinate clause because it's got winding, that I-N-G suffix on the progressive verb.

You can use mine or use something else from your plan.

Pause the video now while you draught your sentences about the ground.

Well done everybody.

Here's my sentence.

Winding across the moor, a silvery path snaked like a serpent towards the distant hills.

Either side of the path, grass swayed and sighed in the wind.

So to start with, I've got my non finite complex sentence, starting with my non finite subordinate clause.

A silvery path, snaked like a serpent.

So like a serpent is an example of a simile and snaked, silvery, and serpent all start with that S sound, that ss.

So this is alliteration.

Either side of the path, so I'm telling my reader where the grass is, so that's an adverbial detail of place.

Grass swayed and sighed in the wind.

Again, sighed is personification.

Grass can't actually sigh like (sighs) but I'm just describing the sound it's making in the wind.

So I've included adverbial detail, I've now used three different types of complex sentences 'cause I've used my non finite subordinate clause, my non finite complex sentence, a relative complex sentence, and an adverbial complex sentence.

I've used a range of different figurative language and devices to build atmosphere.

Now we're going to come on to the Highwayman section.

Now, this is going to be a new paragraph when we come to writing this up as a whole thing because our first paragraph is about the setting, and our second paragraph is going to be about the Highwayman.

Take a moment to reread your planning about the Highwayman so that you're ready to write.

Now, you're going to use your plan to draught your sentences about the Highwayman.

I've given you a potential way to open your sentence with a non finite subordinate clause, racing across the path.

But you can use any way of opening your first sentence that you would like.

Pause the video now while you complete your task.

Brilliant work, everyone.

Here's my sentence.

Racing across the path, a mysterious horseman rode on his powerful steed with his pistol and rapier glinting in the silver moonlight.

Who was this solitary rider? So here I've included adverbial detail, across the path, that's telling us where the horseman was.

I've used three different types of complex sentence so I've got a non finite complex sentence here in this section.

I've also decided to end my writing with a rhetorical question.

This helps me get inside the mind of my reader and ask the questions that they may be asking themselves.

Who was this solitary rider? Solitary just means alone.

So I really want to have my rhetorical question here, capturing the sorts of questions my reader might be asking themselves.

Now you're going to reread your draught sentences.

Can you make any edits or improvements? Have you met all of your success criteria? When you've done that, rewrite your sentences as a full setting and character description.

So, remember, paragraph one is going to be all about the setting.

So the sky, the landscape, and ground level.

And paragraph two is going to be about the Highwayman.

Make sure you use the success criteria to help you and pause the video while you do that.

Well done everyone.

Here's my piece of writing before I edit it.

So in the darkest hour of the night, the moon was a ghostly orb in the jet-black sky as clouds danced across it.

Stars silently dressed the sky like glittering diamonds.

As the wind tore furiously at the battered landscape, trees' branches cracked and their trunks bent against the wind's force.

The moor was covered in heather, which blanketed the hills protectively.

Winding across the moor, a silvery path snaked like a serpent towards the distant hills.

Either side of the path, grass swayed and sighed in the wind.

Racing across the path, a mysterious horseman rode on his powerful steed with his pistol and rapier glinting in the silver moonlight.

Who was this solitary rider? Now I've met all my success criteria and I've included all the parts of my plan that I wanted to include, but still, whenever I reread this, I spotted some things that I wanted to change just to help my writing flow that little bit better and avoid some repetition of the same words.

So I made a few edits.

So rather than stars silently dressed the sky like glittering diamonds standing as a standalone sentence because it sounded a little bit sort of stilted and didn't really flow, I've joined it to my first sentence using the coordinating conjunction and.

Now it flows much better.

In the darkest hour of the night, the moon was a ghostly orb in the jet-black sky as clouds danced across it and stars silently dressed the sky like glittering diamonds.

Because both parts or both of those sentences describe what was happening up in the sky, I can link them together using the word and, and it works really well.

In my second sentence here now, I found that I was repeating the word wind.

As the wind tore furiously, the trunks bent against the wind's force.

So I've just changed the second wind to a pronoun instead, its.

And finally, either side of the path just didn't quite sound right so on each side of the path, just made those minor edits, and, again, I was repeating the word path.

So on each side of the path and then racing across the path was a little bit repetitive because those two sentences, although they're across two different paragraphs, they were consecutive sentences.

So I changed the word path in my second paragraph to moor, racing across the moor.

So I can refer to it in different ways.

So I've included adverbial detail to explain when, where, and how something happened.

I've used three different types of complex sentences.

I've used a range of figurative language and devices to build atmosphere, and I've used an apostrophe for singular or plural possession.

Take a final check now to make sure that you've met all of your success criteria.

Well done everyone.

That now brings us to the end of our lesson where today we've been writing a setting and character description based on "The Highwayman".

Today we've been learning about how apostrophes can be used to indicate singular and plural possession.

Writers can use a range of types of figurative language and literary devices to build atmosphere in narrative writing.

Using a range of complex sentences enhances text cohesion.

We can use our plans and success criteria when writing to help us be as successful as possible.

Planning, drafting, editing, and rewriting are all parts of the writing process.

I hope you're feeling really successful about the writing that you've completed today.

If you have really worked hard to meet all of your success criteria and you've made edits and improvements to your work, then I think you should be feeling so proud of yourself and really successful in our learning today.

Well done everyone.