Lesson video

Hi there, I'm Mr. Buckingham, and it's so good to see you here for today's lesson.

Today we're going to be learning some rich vocabulary that we could use in our retelling of the build-up of the story of "Beowulf and the Dragon." This is going to be really useful to us when we come to write, so let's get to work.

Today's lesson is called generating vocabulary for the build-Up of 'Beowulf and the Dragon," and it comes from our unit called Beowulf Narrative Writing.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll have developed a bank of vocabulary to describe settings and characters in a narrative retelling of the build-up in "Beowulf and the Dragon." And for this lesson, you will need to have with you the text map of the story of "Beowulf and the Dragon" that we created in the previous lesson.

If you're ready, let's begin.

Here are our keyword for today's lesson.

A text map is a visual representation of a series of events where pictures represent events, and the build-up is the part of a story where problems are introduced and tension rises.

Rich vocabulary refers to words chosen intentionally to convey a certain impression to the reader of a place, person or thing.

And an expanded noun phrase is a phrase where a noun is described by one or more adjectives.

Here's our lesson outline for today.

We're going to start off by rehearsing our text map, then we'll move on to looking at some rich vocabulary to describe settings in the story, and finally, rich vocabulary to describe characters in the story.

As you know, we've prepared a text map that covers the build-up, climax, and resolution of the mini-story of "Beowulf and the Dragon" from the story "Beowulf." Now in the next four lessons we're going to prepare, plan, and write a narrative retelling of the build-up of this story.

We'll then move on to writing the climax and resolution in another set of lessons.

So the build-up is the part of the story, of course, where problems are introduced and tension rises, as you know.

And in our text map, the build-up starts when the dragon burns down the stronghold because this is the big problem being introduced, the dragon terrorising Geatland.

And the build-up ends just before Beowulf starts to fight the dragon because of course the fight with the dragon would be part of the climax because it's the high point of the action, the most dramatic part of this story.

So the build-up goes from when the Geats' stronghold is burned down by the dragon up to the point where Beowulf is about to fight the dragon.

So I want you to have a look at your own text map that you created in the previous lesson and find the events that make up the build-up.

Then I want you to point to each of those events and say, this is where something happens, explaining what's happening at that point in the story, just as we practised in the previous session.

Pause the video, locate your build-up in your text map and practise saying there's events using this is where.

Have a go.

Well done, good job.

So here's the builder in my text map, and you can see I finished at the point where the dragon is slithering towards Beowulf.

He's about to approach and about to start fighting the dragon.

So here's an example of what you might have said.

This is where the dragon flies over the stronghold, and then this is where the dragon burns the buildings down.

So I've just explained what is happening in that part of the story.

Really well done for doing the same.

So before we think about what we'll write in our build-up, we should practise storytelling this section of our text map to make sure we really understand what these events are all about.

So we can take our events and we can say things like this.

When night fell, the huge dragon swooped down over the Geek stronghold.

That's my first section there.

Then I've written it breathed its fiery breath and the small, wooden buildings were turned to ash.

So storytelling means saying the events out loud and trying to make it sound like a story.

So I've used words like huge dragon, swooped down, fiery breath, small, wooden buildings.

I'm not going to be able to write incredibly complicated sentences because I'm just saying this out loud, but storytelling like this really helps us to start to think about what we might come to write in the future.

And then when we do write, we'll be able to really add in all of our writing skills to make it a really effective piece of writing.

This really helps us to get to that point.

So I've got here in the purple box, part of my text map told using storytelling.

Which section of my text map has been told there? Pause the video and see if you can work it out.

Well done, good job.

So I've said, "Beowulf summoned all the Geat warriors to a meeting in front of the burned-down buildings.

'I will defeat this terrifying beast!' he bellowed.

Wiglaf was shocked because he thought Beowulf was too old.

'I am the only one who can do this,' Beowulf roared." So I've started to use some more interesting, detailed, descriptive language there.

And it's representing this section, isn't it? We've got Beowulf gathering the meeting, saying he's the one who should defeat the dragon, Wiglaf responding to that and Beowulf saying he's the only one who could do it.

So I took my text map and I said it out loud.

Sounding more like a story using my storytelling skills.

Really well done for spotting the section I used.

So I want you to have a go at doing that now.

Using your text map, practise storytelling events of the build-up of "Beowulf and the Dragon." So we're going to stop at this point where the dragon's approaching Beowulf and he's getting ready to fight it.

So I want you to point to each sentence as you say the part of the story it represents trying to make it sound like a story by adding some description where you can as you've seen me do.

And I want you to repeat this as many times as you can because you'll get better every time.

And the more you do it, the easier your writing is going to become in our future lessons.

So pause the video and have a go at storytelling, the build-up of your text map.

Well done, fantastic job.

So here's how I use storytelling for that final part of my build-up here.

"Beowulf and his men, including Wiglaf, put on their best armour and they headed to Eagleness.

When Beowulf saw the dragon's cave, he roared with anger and bashed his sword on the rocks.

A puff of smoke came from the cave and the huge monster slithered out of its hole." So I finished at that point there because we're about to enter the fight at that point, which would be part of the climax.

Really well done for storytelling your build-up so well.

As I said, it's going to be so useful to you in the lessons to come, good job.

So you've had a go at rehearsing our text map, now lets explore some rich vocabulary we can use to describe settings in this story.

So because we put so much effort into storytelling there, we now know the part of the story we're going to write really well and we can start to think about writing it.

And one important part of writing of course is choosing appropriate, rich vocabulary in order to have a particular effect.

And one way we can use rich vocabulary is to paint a picture of a setting for our reader where parts of the story take place.

So what settings will we see in our build-up? Pause the video, think back to your text map and discuss with a partner or have a think on your own, what settings are we going to see in this part of our story? Well done, good thinking.

So we'll need to describe of course, the destroyed stronghold left behind by the dragon and we'll need to describe Eagleness and the dragon's cave.

So two quite interesting settings that we get to describe in our story there, really well done for spotting them.

So if we're going to describe the setting of the stronghold and the way it's burned by the dragon, we need to know what we might find in an Anglo-Saxon stronghold.

So here's a picture of what one might look like.

So you can see lots of different features here.

We might see the wooden palisades or walls around the stronghold.

You can see them in the picture.

We might have a moat or a ditch beneath the palisade as like a defensive mechanism.

We might have gates and a guardhouse.

We might have thatched huts and outbuildings.

At that time we know most of the buildings would've been made of wood.

We know that there is one stone house in the village, which is Wiglaf's hut.

We might have a granary for storing grain like wheat and food, and we might have a mead-hall.

We know these well for drinking and singing in.

And remember all of these might have been destroyed by the dragon.

So when we describe the destroyed stronghold or the act of the dragon destroying the strong stronghold, we can talk about all these buildings and the way in which they're being destroyed.

So let's learn some rich vocabulary to describe things which have been burned or destroyed as the stronghold was.

We can use the word ablaze to mean still on fire.

Incinerated means burned down to nothing.

We might say it was completely incinerated.

Smouldering means still smoking after a fire, and after a fire things might be charred or blackened with soot and reduced to ashes or reduced to embers means completely burned.

So you might also refer to smouldering embers if the embers, the ashes are still giving off smoke after they've been burned.

So we can use this rich vocabulary to describe our ruined stronghold after the dragon's fire.

So we could say that the dragon set the palisades ablaze.

So I've paired a word about the stronghold with one of these rich vocabulary words to describe things which are burned or on fire.

I could say thatched huts were reduced to smouldering embers.

We could talk about the incinerated mead-hall or the charred remains of the granary.

So notice how we've got some rich descriptions now which show the level of destruction that the dragon has caused in the stronghold.

That's going to really help our readers to understand what a big problem this dragon's presence is in Geatland.

So can you choose an appropriate piece of rich vocabulary from the list on the right-hand side to complete each description of the ruined stronghold? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, good job.

Here's what I chose.

For A, I said, Beowulf looked at the blackened palisades surrounding the ruined stronghold.

So they've been turned black by the smoke.

For B, I would say on the left, the thick-walled guardhouse was still a blaze.

So still told me I needed to use ablaze there because ablaze means something is still on fire.

And for C, I've put the mead-hall which stood in the centre of the stronghold, had been totally incinerated, and totally was a clue there for incinerated because we know that incinerated means burned down to ashes, burned down to the ground, which is what we've suggested is happening here to the mead-hall.

So in each of these cases, we're painting a picture for our reader of the level of damage caused to the stronghold by the dragon.

Really well done for matching those up.

So we've described the burned stronghold.

We'll also need some rich vocabulary to describe the setting where Beowulf meets the dragon.

And in the book, Eagleness is described as a headland sticking out into the sea that is precipitous and desolate.

So we know that precipitous means very steep and desolate means very lonely and bleak.

And the dragon's cave is here at Eagleness.

So here's a picture of a headland and we can see it's a piece of land sticking out into the sea.

So the slave took Beowulf and his men to a spot near the cave entrance and then Beowulf shouted and banged his sword.

They were searching for the dragon's entrance to the cave and then the smoke appeared from the cave entrance and the dragon slithered out.

And all of that happened at this headland called Eagleness.

So let's learn some rich vocabulary to describe that setting.

If somewhere is bleak and barren, it's rocky with few plants.

Somewhere windy is windswept or we could even use wind-whipped as a compound adjective there with a hyphen.

A headland can also be called a promontory, and waves might be battering that headland.

And we know that steep cliffs could be described as sheer, as well as precipitous as we saw on the last page.

So we can use this rich vocabulary to describe Eagleness.

We could say it is a bleak promontory.

We could say that high waves battered the barren headland and combining the words together to make a rich description.

We could say that Beowulf stood on the bleak, wind-whipped headland, or we could say he gazed at the sheer cliffs searching for the cave entrance.

So we've taken our rich vocabulary words and we've created descriptions of Eagleness.

And can you see how those descriptions really build this mood of it being a bleak, desolate, lonely place? We don't want it to appear beautiful.

We don't want it to appear sunny and nice because we're trying to hint that this is a place where danger is lurking because the dragon lives there.

So looking now at the list on the right-hand side, can you choose an appropriate piece of rich vocabulary to complete each description of Eagleness? Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, great job.

So for A, I could say Beowulf stood on the rocky promontory gazing down at the grey ocean.

For B, I could say the windswept headland was barren except for a few areas of gorse and heather.

Those are plants that often grow in moorland, barren type areas like this.

And for C, I could say Beowulf peered at the sheer cliffs, desperately searching for the cave entrance.

So all of these descriptions really build that negative, bleak mood that we're trying to create for Eagleness here to match the threat that Beowulf faces from the dragon there.

Good job for matching those up.

So let's do our second task.

Use these two pictures of the stronghold and of Eagleness and the rich vocabulary that we've learned to generate some short descriptions of the stronghold and of Eagleness.

We want the stronghold to sound devastated and ruined, want Eagleness to sound desolate and bleak.

So you might want to use a thesaurus or to come up with your own rich vocabulary to add to the ones that we've learned.

So you're just creating short phrases to describe different elements of these two settings.

And I suggest you keep them in two separate lists so that you're creating these impressions that we're trying to achieve.

Pause the video and have a go at generating your descriptions of both these settings.

Well done, brilliant job.

Here are some examples of the descriptions you might have come up with using our rich vocabulary.

First of all, for the stronghold you could say blackened palisades, the incinerated mead-hall, thatched huts still ablaze or a granary reduced to smouldering embers.

For Eagleness, you might have chosen bleak, barren promontory, battered by icy waves, sheer, wind-whipped cliffs, and the windswept headland.

So all these descriptions really help to build that clear picture for our reader, give them that clear impression that the stronghold is being completely destroyed by the dragon and that Eagleness is this bleak and desolate place where the dragon is lurking.

Really well done for your thoughts there.

So finally, let's move on to looking at some rich vocabulary to describe key characters in our story.

So we want to also have some rich vocabulary to describe two of our main characters, Beowulf and the dragon.

So we want to give the impression of course, that the dragon is fearsome, that it's a real serious threat to Beowulf.

So what body parts could we describe on the dragon to help us out here? Pause the video and have a chat to the person next to you or think on your own.

Well done, great job.

So we could describe its scales, couldn't we? Its claws, perhaps its teeth, its mouth, and its size.

And when we describe all those things, we're trying to give the impression that the dragon is scary and fearsome.

So we can use rich vocabulary to describe these body parts in a way that sounds intimidating and terrifying for Beowulf.

So let's learn some rich vocabulary to describe a dragon.

We could describe its frame, something's frame is its body.

We could describe its maw and maw is an open mouth, a wide open mouth.

If something's very shiny, it could be iridescent.

Something spiky is barbed and something strong could be called mighty.

And finally, something with lots of curves in is sinuous.

Really good word.

So we can use these to make descriptions of the dragon's body.

We could describe its gaping maw, it's vast frame, it's barbed tail, it's sinuous neck, it's iridescent scales, and it's mighty arms. All of those help to build this picture of the dragon as being fearsome and terrifying.

So can you choose an appropriate piece of rich vocabulary to complete each description of the dragon from the list on the right-hand side.

Pause the video, and have a go.

Well done, good job.

So we could say the dragon uncurled its sinuous neck.

For B, it eased its mighty frame down the rocky headland.

For C, the dragon opened its terrifying maw.

And for D, it swung its barbed tail as it paced forwards.

So there are some examples there where you might have chosen them in different spots.

We can see all these subscriptions help to build a negative impression of the dragon.

Our impression that it's a fearsome opponent for Beowulf.

Really well done for your thoughts there.

Now when we write a story, it can be easy to keep repeating the same words.

We can keep saying the dragon did this or it did this.

So we want to avoid repeating those words too often.

And instead we can use expanded noun phrases that combine nouns and adjectives such as the vast beast.

So instead of saying the dragon all the time, we could say the dragon to start with and then we could say the vast beast to add variety and description for our reader.

So we could use nouns like these to replace dragon.

We could say serpent, beast, worm or predator, or even treasure-guardian, which is a bit of a kenning, isn't it? And we can use adjectives like these.

We could say fearsome, monstrous, murderous, colossal or dreaded.

So can you use those nouns and adjectives to create expanded noun phrases that could replace the dragon, just like my example, the vast beast.

See how you can combine them together and see how many good ones you can come up with.

Pause the video and have a try.

Well done, great job.

Maybe you came up with some like these.

I've said the fearsome serpent.

I've used the adjective fearsome and the noun serpent instead of just saying the dragon.

I could say the monstrous worm.

The colossal, dreaded beast, or even the murderous treasure-guardian.

So can you see how using these interchangeably, mixing these different expanded noun phrases up will really add variety to our writing instead of just saying the dragon all the time.

And we also want to avoid repeating the words Beowulf and the word he too often.

So we can do the same thing.

We can use expanded noun phrases to combine nouns and adjectives, for example, the old king instead of Beowulf.

So we could use nouns like these warrior, hero, monster-slayer, king of the Geats or protector of Geatland.

And we could use adjectives like these.

I have valiant, brave, ageing, because we know he's getting quite old now, noble and renowned, meaning famous.

So again, we can combine these together to create expanded noun phrases.

So have a go at doing that yourself now.

Can you use the nouns and adjectives below to create expanded noun phrases that could replace Beowulf, such as the old king.

Pause the video and see what you can come up with.

Well done, good job.

Here are some examples of what you might have thought of.

I came up with the valiant, monster-slayer, the noble protector of Geatland, the fearless hero, and the ageing, renowned warrior.

So again, we can mix these expanded noun phrases up so that we're not always saying Beowulf.

They add variety and description for our reader.

Really well done for your thoughts there.

So let's do our final task for this lesson.

We're going to do a quick sketch.

I want you to draw a quick sketch of the dragon slithering down towards Beowulf as you imagine them.

And I want you to label the dragon with descriptions of its body using the rich vocabulary we've learned.

So for instance, describing different parts of his body.

And then I want you to label the dragon with expanded noun phrases you wish to use to describe it.

So instead of saying the dragon, maybe you can say the monstrous serpent and then label Beowulf in your sketch with expanded noun phrases you'd like to use to describe him.

And you might want to use, again, a thesaurus to come up with your own rich vocabulary to add to what we've learned.

So pause the video, draw your sketch quickly, and then label it up with descriptions of the dragon's body parts, the dragon in general, and Beowulf in general.

Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, great job.

Here are some of the descriptions you might have written.

For the dragon's body, I've gone for leathery spines, razor-sharp talons, gaping maw, sinuous, barbed tail and dark, glowing eyes.

For the dragon, I've put the vile worm, the blood-soaked serpent, the slithering beast, and the colossal creature.

And for Beowulf, I've put the weather-beaten hero, the wrinkled old king, and the valiant protector of the Geats.

So all of these help build the impressions we want to create of these characters.

We want to create the impression the dragon is threatening and intimidating and that Beowulf is brave, but perhaps getting a little bit old as well.

So these descriptions, this rich vocabulary really helps us to create those impressions.

Really well done for your ideas there and make sure you keep them safe for the next lesson.

Let's summarise our learning in this lesson.

We've said that we're working towards writing a narrative version of the build-up of "Beowulf and the Dragon." And to do this effectively, we'll want to use rich vocabulary to describe the devastated stronghold and the bleak headland where Beowulf meets the dragon.

We'll also want to use rich vocabulary to describe the dragon's physical appearance.

And we know we can use a range of expanded noun phrases to replace the character names Beowulf and the Dragon in a way that's more descriptive.

Really well done for all your effort in this lesson, this vocabulary is going to come in so useful to us when we plan our version of this story in the next lesson.

And do make sure you keep practising using your story map, doing your storytelling to help you lock in those events into your head, which again will make your writing so much easier.

Really well done, I'd love to see you again in the next lesson, goodbye.