Hi there, I'm Mr. Buckingham and I'm so glad you decided to join me for today's lesson.

Today we're taking our first steps towards completing a piece of narrative writing based on the events in the climax of "When the Sky Falls" by generating lots of fantastic ideas.

Now, this is the crucial first step in the writing process and it's going to help you make your writing really engaging, so let's get going.

Today's lesson is called Generating Ideas for a Narrative Climax Scene in "When the Sky Falls." And it comes from a unit called "When the Sky Falls," Narrative and Journalistic Writing.

By the end of today's lesson, you will have generated ideas for writing part of the climax of "When the Sky Falls," including descriptive and emotional details.

And for this lesson, you will need to have access to the 2021 Andersen Press edition of "When the Sky Falls" written by Phil Earle.

If you have that with you, let's begin.

Here are our keywords for today's lesson.

The climax is the point in the narrative where the suspense and excitement reach their highest point.

Our senses are the physical abilities of sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste.

And emotions are strong feelings that result from a personal circumstances, mood or relationships with others.

Here's today's lesson outline.

We're going to start off by generating ideas for descriptive details in a narrative climax, and then we'll move on to generating emotive details.

Now, we know that the climax of a narrative is the high point of the action and tension in the plot.

And we can see that in our story staircase where the climax is the highest bar to show we have the highest tension.

So, which events are found in the climax of "When the Sky Falls?" Pause the video and have a chat to the person next to you.

Well done, good job.

We can say that the events around the air raid on the zoo are the climax in the story, because it's here that Joseph is in the greatest danger.

He's tested the most as a character with many difficult and terrifying events happening all around him.

Can you put these events in order from one to five as they occur in the climax of "When the Sky Falls?" Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, great job.

Hopefully you started with this one.

We have Joseph running through the streets towards the zoo.

Then, we have, inside, Joseph gets the rifle and trains it on Adonis.

Then, we have Joseph knocked over by repeated explosions and knocked out.

Then, we have him awaking to find Adonis gone and finding he's stuck under the rubble.

And then Adonis standing guard over Joseph and helping to free him.

We've got some of the key events in the climax there in the right order (indistinct).

Now, there are many events in the climax and we've seen some of the key ones there.

We won't be able to include all of them in our own retelling of these events, which we're going to do as a narrative, as a story.

We're going to focus on the events of chapter 42, which is a big part of the climax.

I'd like you to pause the video here and either read chapter 42 yourself, or listen to your teacher read chapter 42 of "When the Sky Falls." Pause the video and do that now.

Well done, good listening.

What were the key events in this chapter that you've just heard or read? Pause the video and have a chat to the person next to you, or a think on your own.

Well done, great job.

Maybe you picked out these key events.

We've got Joseph running through the streets towards the zoo.

He scales the wall to get into the zoo, grabs the rifle and runs to Adonis' cage.

Then the office behind him is bombed, but he realises he can't put out that fire.

So, he returns to point the rifle at Adonis and then he's knocked down the several times by explosions nearby, and he in fact loses the rifle towards the end of that chapter.

We've got four really key events there in chapter 42, and we're going to focus our narrative writing on just some of those events within chapter 42.

Which events of chapter 42 make them part of the climax of the story? Why are these events from the climax? Why aren't they events in the opening, or the buildup, or the resolution? What makes them part of the climax? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, great thinking.

Here's what Laura says, "The climax of the story is where the tension is highest.

And here in chapter 42, we are seeing Joseph in incredible danger running through an air raid.

It's hard to imagine something more tense for him." And here's what Jacob says, "Not only that, but we are also seeing the climax of his relationship with Adonis.

He is literally having to decide if he can actually kill him if he needs to, while he is at risk of dying himself." Joseph is at risk of dying from the air raid.

At the same time he's having to decide, am I capable? Am I willing to kill Adonis if I have to? As Jacob says, a big climax in his relationship with Adonis as well, the most tense point in their relationship so far.

Now, one of the main things that adds tension to this part of the climax is the fact that it occurs during an air raid.

So what mood will this lend or give to this part of the climax? What mood do you think we'll have in this part of the narrative? Pause video, and have a think.

Well done, great ideas.

Here's what Alex says, "I think the mood will have to be very panicked, scary, and fast paced at this point.

Joseph is darting through the streets and avoiding bombs and buildings collapsing, and he could die at any moment." We need to show that this is a terrifying experience where something could go wrong at any moment.

Alex is saying as we write this section of the climax, our mood and our writing should be panicked, scary and fast paced.

And that will help the reader to understand the danger that Joseph in at this moment.

So which of these events were covered in chapter 42? Pause the video and decide.

Well done, good job.

Hopefully you spotted that it was the first three here.

Joseph running through the streets, climbing into the zoo and getting the rifle and then aiming at at Adonis, but being knocked to the ground.

We don't have Joseph waking up to find Adonis missing and the cage collapsed.

And we don't have Adonis there standing guard over Joseph.

Those happen later chapters.

We are going to focus on the events of chapter 42 in our own retelling, and we've got those first three events there included in chapter 42.

Well done.

Let's think about Joseph now as he runs through the streets.

What are his motivations in this chapter? Why is he so keen to get to the zoo? Pause the video and decide what's motivating Joseph as he runs towards the zoo here.

Well done, good thinking.

Here's what Aisha says, "He knows that the reason Mrs F got drunk was because it was the anniversary of her daughter's death and he wants to make sure that things don't get even worse for her.

He wants to get there to the zoo to do her job.

And here's what Lucas says, "And he's made a promise to her that he will do her duty and guard Adonis.

I think he feels a lot of compassion for Mrs. F, because he's been in a similar situation and he wants to help her." He can imagine Joseph keeping going towards the zoo, motivated by wanting to keep his promise to Mrs. F.

We've got Joseph running through this air raid towards the zoo.

What dangers would he have faced as he ran through the air raid and while he's at the zoo and the zoo is being bombed? Let's think about the dangers he's facing.

First of all, what risks is he putting himself in danger of? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, great thinking.

He's got the risk of being hit by a bomb, hasn't he? He's got the risk of being hit by debris from bombed buildings which are falling apart.

He's got the risk of being knocked down by the vibrations from explosions nearby.

We know that a bomb exploding would make the ground shake, wouldn't it? And that could knock him over.

We've got the risk of tripping on rubble and debris in the streets.

And we've got the risk from flames as buildings catch fire.

And we've got that heat coming from these fires as well.

We know that some of the bombs would've been incendiary bombs, which set fire to things, which is part of why we've got all these buildings ablaze.

And those fires would obviously be very dangerous for Joseph as well.

He's facing a huge amount of risk and danger as he runs towards the zoo, and also when he's at the zoo, as the bombers come closer and closer.

Really good at this.

Now, as we describe the events in this section where Joseph's running through the raid and is at the raid at the zoo, we want to include details about what Joseph's senses experience at this time.

We know that we've got five key senses, don't we? We have hearing, smell, sight, touch, and taste.

Which senses do you think will be most relevant to our descriptions of Joseph during the raid? Pause the video and have a chat to the person next to you.

Well done, good thinking.

We're gonna use most of our senses here, aren't we? Joseph will be seeing things, feeling sensations, and hearing lots of chaos around him.

And he might also be smelling the fire around him as well.

But, we're probably not going to use our sense of taste in this description.

Really well done.

Can you match the descriptions on the right to the sense it uses on the left? Pause the video and have a try.

Well done, thank you.

For feel, we would've gone for the heat of the flames made Joseph flush red.

So he's feeling hot.

For smell, we could say the scent of smoke hung sickly in the air.

For sight, we've got the sky was orange with the glow of the flames.

That's something he'd seen.

And for hearing, we could say shouts of pain and desperation filled the air.

Can you see how already by using those different senses, we're building a really clear picture of the chaos and the horror of this situation for Joseph.

Why do you think it's important to include details about several different senses as we describe these events in the climax? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, great thinking.

Here's what Andeep says.

"We need to show that all his senses are being bombarded by what's going on around him.

It's almost like he's being attacked from every direction by the situation he's in." And here's what Sam thought.

"Yes, being in this situation would be totally horrifying, and I expect all your senses would be heightened.

You'd be feeling things more strongly." So, you'd be feeling every explosion and your eyes will be looking everywhere for the next danger.

By describing all these senses in detail, we help to create this image of Joseph being bombarded by all these sensory experiences, and showing how heightened his emotions and his sensations will be in this very stressful, tense moment.

Really well done for your thoughts there.

Let's do our first task for this lesson.

For each of the senses below: feel, smell, sight, and hearing, can you think of ideas for what Joseph might have experienced during the air raid in the climax.

For example, for feel, you could say rubble crunching beneath feet, and for hearing bomber swooping low.

I haven't written full sentences here, just ideas for what each sense might be experiencing during the air raid.

Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, great job.

Here are some ideas for each sense.

You will have lots of different ideas.

I've just got a few here for each one.

For feel, I could say the heat of the fire against his skin.

The tremors of the ground, and the dust on his skin or in the air.

For smell I could say, smoke filling the air, fires from nearby buildings, and burning grass and wood.

For sight, buildings tumbling down, bombers swooping low, explosions lighting up the sky, flames leaping high, and debris flying everywhere.

And for hearing the crackling of flames, cries of pain or fear, the roar of plane engines, explosions nearby, and Tweedy the dog barking as well.

You can see if we described all those things would really create a picture of this bombardment of Joseph's senses as he goes through this very stressful, very tense situation.

Really well done for your ideas there.

Keep those safe because they'll be so useful to you when it comes to plan your writing in the next lesson.

Now we're going to move on to looking at ideas for emotive details.

Details linked to Joseph's emotions.

We've used our senses to come up with the descriptive details we could use in retelling part of the climax in "When the Sky Falls." We'll also want to show Joseph's emotions and thoughts in various different ways in order to give our reader an understanding of how stressful and difficult this situation is.

And we can do this in several ways.

One thing we can do is simply to state what character's thoughts and feelings are.

For example, Joseph was more terrified than he thought possible, but he knew he had to make it, Mrs. F was depending on him.

We've stated that Joseph was terrified and we've stated what he knew.

He knew he had to make it because Mrs. F was depending on him.

We've just said exactly what Joseph is feeling, and exactly what he's thinking, and that is a great way of helping our reader to understand emotions.

Another technique you can use is to show, not tell emotions.

Instead of stating what the emotion the person's feeling is, we can show it.

Here's an example, as Joseph held the rifle and pointed it at Adonis, his hands were trembling and he was choking back tears.

Here we're showing Joseph's emotions by describing what his body is doing, His hands are trembling, he's choking back tears.

That indicates us that he's very upset, and very saddened by what he's having to do.

We've shown the emotion without saying Joseph was sad and anxious.

And finally we can use rhetorical questions to show Joseph's inner thoughts.

For example, would he be able to do it if he had to? Would he really be able to kill Adonis? Or would he let Mrs F down? Here, even though we're using the third person, we're saying he and the past tense we're describing Joseph's inner thoughts, the questions he's asking himself.

That's another great way in to a character's emotions.

Sue said, "You can state character's thoughts and feelings.

We can use show, not tell, and we can use rhetorical questions all as ways of showing a character's emotions." Each technique for showing Joseph's emotions and thoughts has been used in each of these examples.

Can you match them up? Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, great job.

If you're stating character's thoughts and feelings, which is saying what their feeling, we could have this one.

Joseph felt the ground vibrate beneath him, but he knew he had to continue.

Knowing he had to continue is a thought, isn't it? For shall-not-tell, we could say this one, Joseph's heart was pounding his chest, but he narrowed his eyes in determination.

We've got a pounding heart, narrowed eyes indicating the emotions, showing the emotions without saying them out loud.

And for a total question we could say this, why has Mrs F abandoned him when he needed her the most? That's Joseph's inner thought that we are describing to show his emotion.

Really well done for matching those up.

We're not gonna be able to describe every point, even within just chapter 42, so we can identify a few key points in this section of the climax.

We've got Joseph running through the air raid to the zoo, Joseph, climbing the fence, getting the gun, training it on Adonis, and being knocked down several times by explosions.

These are far from being the only points in the chapter, but when we a narrative, we don't have to include every single event.

We are using the events which are most important to the story, and we want to show how Joseph's emotions and feelings change at different points in this part of the climax.

How do his feelings evolve across these three points? Let's discuss that.

How do you think Joseph thoughts and emotions change across these events in the climax? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, great, thank you.

Here's what Izzy says.

"I think as he runs, that's the first event.

he's totally focused on getting to the zoo.

But when he gets there, he realises he may have to kill Adonis, which will be so difficult for him.

And then the explosions come so close that he's distracted by that and he's worrying he might fail because he gets knocked over so much.

He's very determined as he's running, as he gets to the zoo and gets to train the gun on Adonis, he's feeling kind of fear about what he might have to do.

And then he's almost panicked and worried that he's not gonna be able to do what he's supposed to do because of these conflicted feelings, but also because of the explosions that are happening around him.

Now you might disagree and you might notice different emotions or imagine different emotions for Joseph, and that's absolutely fine.

Make the story your own by showing what you think Joseph might be feeling at these different points.

If you take a different point of the story, first of all, to practise with, we can imagine Joseph's emotions and thoughts using those three techniques we discussed.

If we take that moment where Joseph sees Mrs F snap Clarence in front of Mr. Gryce, let's see if we can think of each of our three techniques to show Joseph's emotions at this point.

First of all, we're gonna state his thoughts and feelings.

We could say Joseph looked on in shock.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

That's his thoughts, isn't it, in that moment? We could do some show-not-tell.

Joseph felt a laugh of joy rising in his throat.

He couldn't suppress, that means push down, a smile.

So he's almost bubbling over with excitement.

And then rhetoric questions, was this really happening? Was he dreaming? Using all these techniques helps us to show the emotions really clearly, and in a way that feels real to the reader.

I can use all three to help paint a really clear picture of the character's emotions.

Now you try that for a different event.

We've got Joseph learns that Adonis to be killed by the council.

What ideas can you come up with to show Joseph's emotions for this point in the story? Under each of our three techniques stating their feelings and thoughts, show-not-tell, and rhetorical questions.

Pause the video and have a think for each category.

Well done, great ideas.

Maybe you came up with some like this for my stating thoughts and feelings.

I could say Joseph couldn't believe his ears.

He had only just got to know the ape, and now he was going to be killed.

I'm just stating what Joseph was thinking.

For show-not-tell, I could say this, Joseph felt his stomach drop, he opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.

And for rhetorical questions I could say, was Mrs F just going to let this happen? Wasn't she going to fight for Adonis? You can imagine if we included all three of those in our narrative, then our reader would really understand everything about what Joseph is feeling emotionally at this moment.

Really well done for your ideas there.

Let's begin our second task of this lesson.

For each part of this section of the climax, we're going to note down ideas to show Joseph's emotions and thoughts.

We've got these three events running through the air raid, climbing the fence, getting the gun, and training on Adonis, and being knocked down by those explosions.

I'd like to try and use a range of techniques for showing emotions, including stating the thoughts and feelings, using show-not-tell, and using rhetorical questions.

And you might decide you want to use different events in the climax.

And that is up to you.

I'm going to continue with these three events throughout my narrative writing in this unit.

Pause the video here.

For each of those three events or your own three events, can you use the techniques we've discussed to generate ideas to show Joseph's emotions and thoughts? Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, great job.

Here are some ideas for the first two points.

Let's start with Joseph running through the air raid to the zoo.

I've got, felt nothing but determination.

He knew he had to get to the zoo and keep his promise to Mrs F, desperate to get there alive.

These are stating the thoughts and feelings.

I've got heart pounding, breath racing, feet moving as fast as possible.

That's show-not-tell.

And then I've got were the bombs coming closer? Would he get there alive? Would he be able to keep his promise? My rhetorical questions.

Then for the second event, I've got Joseph climbing the fence, getting the gun and training it on Adonis.

First of all, I've got knew he could do what Bert had done.

Knew he had to do his duty and find the rifle.

Here I've got my stating thoughts and feelings that I've got hands trembling as tears filled his eyes, breathing hard, gasping for air.

That's my show-not-tell.

And then I've got, could he really do it? Would he ever pull the trigger? And those are my rhetorical questions.

In each of these we've got loads of ideas to show the emotions.

Some ideas for the final point.

Joseph being knocked down several times by explosions.

I've got, first of all, knew he had to get up, knew he had to find the rifle and keep guard.

Didn't want to let Mrs F down.

Then I've got bones aching, lungs choking on dust, heaving himself up.

And then I've got, would Mrs. F give up? Would she lay here and forget her duty? I'm imagining Joseph on the ground having those thoughts and feelings.

Most of mine there relate to the idea of Joseph being knocked down and on the floor and unable to do what he was supposed to do.

Really well done for generating all your ideas there too.

When we come to plan our retelling of this part of the climax, we want to combine these details that showed Joseph's emotions with the descriptive details we already wrote, based on Joseph's senses.

And this will help to paint a really clear picture for our reader of the chaos and carnage of the air raid.

We've got descriptive details and emotive details now, and when we pair them together, we'll have a really detailed plan that we can use to show our reader exactly what this might have been like for Joseph.

Now let's do our final task for assessment.

A final way of showing emotions is through speech.

And we only have one human character in this section of the climax, which is Joseph.

But we know that Joseph might interact with both Tweedy and with Adonis.

He might speak to them even though we know they can't speak back to him.

For each section below, let's think of something that Joseph might say that would help to show his emotion at each point.

When he's running through the air raid to the zoo, what might he be shouting to Tweedy.

When he's climbing the fence, getting the gun and training on Adonis, might he be saying something to Adonis? And finally, when he's knocked down those times, might he be shouting something out even just to himself? Here I'd like you to just say aloud your speech in role as Joseph to the class, what you might say in each of these situations in role as Joseph.

Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, great job.

Here's some examples of what you might have said in role as Joseph.

Running through the air raid, maybe you would say to Tweedy, Tweedy, wait, I'm coming.

And to yourself, hurry up Joseph, Mrs F is relying on you.

For climbing the fence, getting the gun training on Adonis, maybe you said it's okay, I'm here now to Adonis, or don't worry, I'm here, I'll keep you safe.

Finally, when you're being knocked down, you might be shouting out to Adonis.

Adonis, are you there? And then to yourself, come on Joseph, you can do this.

You need to do this.

So sometimes Joseph might be speaking to the animals, and sometimes to himself, but these can you see again are helping us to show Joseph's emotions at these different points in our climax.

Really well done for your ideas there.

Now, let's summarise our learning in this lesson.

We've said that we're going to retell a section of the climax of "When the Sky Falls," where Joseph runs through an air raid to the zoo and has to try to guard Adonis with the rifle.

We know that when we're generating ideas for what to write, we can consider the character's senses, what they're experiencing in different ways at a certain point.

And we can also consider their emotions and use a range of techniques to think about how we would show these in a narrative.

I hope you've really enjoyed this lesson.

You should have generated loads of ideas now that are going to feed into our planning and writing later in this unit.

I'd love to see you again in a future lesson to put these ideas into practise.

Goodbye.