Hello and welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Miss Halliday, and I will be teaching you for today.

It's an absolute pleasure to have so many of you with me today, and this will serve us really well during our discussion tasks so that we can share creative ideas with one another, as today we are going to be working towards you writing your own thrilling and engaging Gothic piece of descriptive writing, and I'm really looking forward to seeing all of your incredible ideas and how you approach the task at the end of the lesson.

So let's get started.

So today's lesson is called descriptive writing about a small detail, and by the end of today's lesson, you will be able to write a multisensory and thrilling Gothic description.

I can't wait to read them.

Here are some keywords that you will need for today's lesson.

So first of all, imagery is words used to create a clear image in the reader's head.

And whenever we're writing a description, we're always aiming to create really vivid imagery.

So vivid means producing strong or clear images in the reader's head.

So basically it's something that the reader can picture within their mind as they're reading your description.

So one way of achieving this is by using multisensory description.

Now multisensory means involving more than one sense, and we think of our five senses, touch, taste, sound, smell, feel, and hear.

Now to congeal, means to begin to change from a liquid state to a more solid state.

And finally, timid means showing a lack of courage or confidence.

And these two last keywords are both words that you might want to use in your Gothic description today.

So here's today's lesson outline.

We're going to begin by writing about a small detail and looking at how we can beef up our descriptions of very small things to create tension.

We're then going to move on to giving you the opportunity to write your own fantastic and thrilling Gothic description, and I can't wait for that part of the lesson.

So let's get started first with writing about a small detail.

So we know that you can build tension and create vivid imagery for your reader by writing really descriptively about very, very tiny details.

So here's an example of this in practise.

I'm going to ask you to read this description.

I will read it and you need to be following along.

Make sure you're paying close attention as I will be asking you questions about this description in just a moment.

"Its deep, crimson colour clashed with the stark whiteness of the wall.

The red sliced through the white in harsh, jagged cuts, like open gashes.

In some parts, it had started to dry, creating a cracked, flaky texture, parts of which had started to peel away from the wall and tumble down towards the freezing floor, like tiny crimson snowflakes.

Other, fresher parts were brighter, more scarlet than crimson.

These parts had reacted with the cold air and had started to congeal and group together.

Droplets had solidified, giving the impression of melted wax.

A metallic and coppery smell lingered in the air.

It made me sick." So the first thing I'd like you to discuss using this description is, well, what actually is being described here? So I'm going to give you a moment to pause the video while you discuss that either with the people around you, or taking notes if you're working independently.

So pause the video, and off you go.

Brilliant discussions and a massive well done, as I heard that most of you identified successfully that this is actually a description of writing in blood on a wall, so how horrible, but a very, very Gothic image.

And Sam points out, "But we're not actually told that, so how do we know that that's what it is?" So what I'd like you to do is tell Sam how you know that this description is of blood, even though we aren't told that.

So what gives the game away that this is a description of some blood writing on a wall? So I'd like you to pick specific quotations that show you that this is a description of blood.

So pause the video while you discuss that with the people around you, and make sure you have your answers ready to give to Sam when we come back together as a group.

Off you go.

Brilliant discussions.

And I heard many of you agreeing with Jacob here in saying that actually, "We are given several clues that this is blood.

The writer has very clearly thought about what it is that makes blood really distinctive and has included this in the description so that we can work out what it is before we are told." And if you remember, it can be really, really effective to withhold information from your reader in order to build tension.

And that's exactly what the writer here has done by not revealing to us that this is a description of some blood.

So first of all, Jacob identifies when he was reading this description that "The writer has used a semantic field of hurt or injury to link to the blood." What I'd like you to do is discuss, well, where are some of these words that fit within the semantic field of imagery? So I would like you to identify specific words that the writer has used that fit together to create the semantic field of injury.

So pause the video while you do just that either with the people around you, or just bullet pointing those words, if you're working on your own.

And really, well done, if you identified the words that I've highlighted for you in purple.

So words like, sliced, words like, cuts and gashes.

All of these share a meaning of injury or hurt, and therefore they are a semantic field.

And that creates really gruesome imagery that is reflective of the gruesome nature of the site that the narrator here is witnessing, and that is obviously the blood on the wall.

Jacob has also really cleverly identified that "The writer uses figurative language here to create really vivid imagery for us." So to create a very clear and distinctive picture in our minds of exactly what this would look like if we were standing in front of it.

What I would like you to identify is, well, where are these examples of figurative language that have been used to create this really vivid imagery? So where can we really imagine this scene based on the writer's choices of language? So again, I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you discuss that with the people around you, and before we share some ideas as a group.

Off you go.

Again, some really fantastic discussions, and well done if you identified this example of, "Like tiny crimson snowflakes," and also this example of, "Giving the impression of melted wax," those are two really good examples of figurative language used to create very, very vivid imagery.

So let's talk about those in a little bit more detail.

So first of all, that simile, "Like tiny crimson snowflakes." I love this simile, because it is just so visually descriptive.

Everybody knows what a snowflake looks like, it's white, obviously it's very delicate, but I love how the writer has kind of switched that up by describing the blood and the flakes of blood as, like tiny crimson snowflakes.

And that's really unsettling to us as a reader, because obviously we know that snowflakes are supposed to be white, but here we're told that these snowflakes are crimson, and that creates a really disgusting image of kind of like a blood rain or blood snow here that is just utterly repulsive as we imagine these kind of particles of blood just covering the floor, like a blanket of snow.

So that is a really visually powerful description that the writer has used here through the use of this simile.

Secondly, we are told that droplets had solidified, and that this gave the impression of melted wax.

Again, that is absolutely vile imagery, because we can imagine the blood having kind of dripped down the walls and frozen in the cold air, and it almost looks like wax coming off a candle.

And again, it just creates really disturbing imagery, not only of the blood itself, which is repulsive, but the only thing more repulsive than blood is the thought of congealed and kind of solidifying blood.

That is absolutely repulsive, and it's very, very Gothic, because it makes us feel so uncomfortable, and we can literally imagine, you know, the blood dripping off the walls like melted wax here.

So again, that's really strong and powerful, and clever use of imagery by the writer here, because it creates this really vivid imagery for the reader.

So well done, if that's what you mentioned in your discussions, you are absolutely right.

These are two really solid examples of figurative language used very creatively to create this really vivid imagery.

So let's check for understanding before we move on.

What kind of figurative language has been used here: "like tiny crimson snowflakes"? Is it A, a metaphor? B, a simile, or C, personification? I'd like you to pause the video for a moment while you make your answer selection.

Off you go.

And a massive congratulations if you correctly identified that it is in fact a simile.

Really, well done.

As we said, we know that snow is supposed to be white, so calling these kind of tiny little drifts of blood, crimson snowflakes creates this just utterly repulsive imagery.

So really, well done, if you chose B, a simile.

So Jacob has also identified another one of the methods that the writer has used here to create very vivid imagery.

And he says that "The writer has used multiple adjectives and verbs combined together to create this vivid imagery." Again, just like we've done before, I would like you to discuss with the people around you, well, where can we see those combinations of multiple verbs or adjectives used together to create that vivid imagery? So again, pause the video while you discuss that, and choose specific examples of that that you can share with the people around you.

Off you go.

And again, fantastic analysis work, as I saw many of you talking specifically about this first one, harsh, jagged cuts.

Okay, again, here we're getting that very Gothic description, almost of violence in some way, or kind of pain or hurt, and again, we get this cracked and flaky texture.

And the fact that we've got both of those words together just creates a really vivid image for the reader as we can imagine some of them having, like some of the blood having dried and cracked on the wall, and then some of it obviously flaking off the wall.

Again, we got these multiple adjectives, brighter and scarlet together, which again really shows us the bright, bright, and kind of disturbing colour of the blood on the walls, which suggests that it is mostly fresh blood here.

And then again, these words, congeal and group, again, those are both verbs used together to describe the way in which the blood is solidifying in the cold air.

And then, finally, these adjectives of metallic and coppery combined together to give us that really strong kind of sense of what the scene would smell like to be in.

And again, that's very repulsive, and it leaves us with this really uncomfortable, kind of image of what it would smell like to be there.

And that really kind of solidifies our understanding that this is a description of some blood on the wall.

So again, massive well done if you identified those, they have been used really cleverly to create very vivid, but also very disturbing imagery.

So onto our first task of the lesson, and what I would like you to do is think, well, how has the writer created a sensory experience? Okay, so how has the writer kind of appealed to all our different senses, so touch, taste, sight, sound, smell, through this description here? And why is that so successful? So in order to do that, I'd like you to discuss the following questions.

Well, how many senses does the writer cover in this paragraph? And I'd like you to provide a piece of evidence per sense.

So go back to the extract and pick out an exact quotation that shows you that sense has been included.

Secondly, how does writing a multisensory description help us to form a more powerful impression of the scene in our minds? And thirdly, well, how is tension built in this description? Because this is a classic Gothic description, so we do get that sense of unease all the way through it, and that is done through the creation of tension.

And how is that done specifically? So what I'm going to do now is invite you to pause the video while you consider those three questions with the people around you, remembering to find evidence from the extract to support your opinion.

Off you go.

Brilliant and fantastic discussions, and some really insightful, and perceptive suggestions being thrown around there, so a massive well done.

Now, these are some of the ideas that you might have said, and I did hear many of you saying this first one specifically, that actually, "The writer explores three sentences in this description.

They explore sight, smell, and touch.

We are told about the blood's congealed appearance.

So obviously that's the way that it looks.

It's coppery smell, so the way it smells, and the fact that it had a cracked texture," so how it would feel if we were to touch it.

Now, the fact that the writer has used this sensory language, tells us how to respond to the scene.

Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing in the scene here, is left to the readers' imagination, because we're told exactly what it smells like, what it feels like, and what it looks like.

And that's a really important part of the description, because you should be telling them exactly how it feels to be standing in front of this scene.

Okay, and this makes the description way more powerful, because we're told how to imagine it in great detail.

So I guess what we're trying to say here is that using multisensory language is so important, because it means that every single aspect of the experience of how it would feel to stand in the scene has been described in great detail for the reader so that they feel as if they are there.

And finally, Jacob states that, "Tension is built through the detail that the writer covers.

We are actually never told that this is blood, but we don't need to be told.

So as we're reading through the description, we're trying to work out through the description of what is being described before it's confirmed by the distinctive coppery smell at the end of the description.

We suspect it might be blood, and we get kind of that feeling of dread, because we think it is blood, but it's not confirmed until the very end." So here the writer is withholding that information until the end of the description.

And that really creates tension, because in the meantime, we are trying to piece together the writer's description to think about what it is that the narrator is seeing in this moment.

So it's done really cleverly there.

So well done, if you've got any of those ideas, absolutely fantastic start to the lesson.

And I can't wait to see how you use your new knowledge in the next part of the lesson, where we are going to be looking at you writing your own Gothic descriptions.

I cannot wait to see what you come up with for this, so let's get started.

Here is a short extract from, "The Mysteries of Udolpho," by Ann Radcliffe, and this is a Gothic text published in 1794.

So in the 18th century, a little bit earlier than many of the Gothic texts that I'm sure you are familiar with like, "Jane Eyre," "Frankenstein," and "Dracula." The novel follows the tale of Emily St.

Aubert, who is an orphan and she finds herself imprisoned, rather evilly, in a mediaeval fortress by her evil guardian, Count Montoni.

Now, in one of the scenes in the novel that we're going to use as a bit of inspiration for our creative writing, "Emily stumbles upon a really mysterious black veil." Now, for those of you that don't know, a veil is something that is used to cover up something, to conceal something.

So, for example, traditionally a bride wears a veil at her wedding to cover her face until she's officially married to her husband.

She would then, you know, fling the veil back and they would share a kiss.

That's how it would work traditionally, although obviously many people have kind of moved away from that tradition now.

But that is what a veil is.

Now your task is to write a Gothic description of what Emily finds underneath this big black veil.

Okay, so this massive black piece of fabric that is hiding something.

So here's our extract, I'm going to read it and you need to be following along.

"She then hastily entered the chamber, and went towards the picture, which appeared to be enclosed in a frame of uncommon size, that hung in a dark part of the room.

She paused again, and then, with a timid hand, lifted the veil, but instantly let it fall, and before she could leave the chamber, she dropped senseless to the floor." So, Sophia is asking you to remind yourselves, well, what is it in your description that Emily is going to uncover? So I'd like you to take a moment to pause the video, and discuss with other people what it is that you think that Emily finds under this veil that causes her to react in such an extreme way and faint.

So pause the video, and discuss that with the people around you now.

Fantastic discussions and some really interesting suggestions there of things that she might have found.

You know, some people are saying that she found a portrait of herself from thousands of years ago, some people are saying that she found kind of a bloodstained dagger, some people are saying that she found an empty coffin.

All of these are fantastic suggestions that would fit within the gothic genre absolutely perfectly.

So, well done.

So what I'd like you to discuss now is, well, how can we create really vivid imagery and tension for our reader in our description? So, I want you to think back to the first learning cycle of the lesson.

How did that writer create vivid imagery and tension for their reader? And so what can you do in your description to, you know, create the same effect? So pause the video, and discuss that with the people around you now.

Fantastic work, and it was great to hear words like figurative language, and, you know, Gothic colours thrown around there, because you're absolutely on the right tracks.

So we asked our Oak pupils the same question, and these were some of the suggestions that they came up with that I thought might be useful for you to see as well.

So, as Sophia says, "We can use multisensory description in our writing, such as describing what the scene looks like, feels like, smells like, sounds like, and, in some cases, even tastes like," if it's appropriate.

And Izzy adds, "We can also create vivid imagery by using language methods such as semantic fields and figurative language to bring our scene to life for the reader." And I can't stress enough, or emphasise enough, how incredibly useful figurative language is in creating vivid imagery, because what you're doing is relating parts of the scene to things that your reader will be really familiar with, and that will help them to visualise the scene much more effectively.

So figurative language is absolutely key in creating vivid imagery.

And finally, Jacob adds, well, "We can create tension by revealing what Emily's looking at right at the very end of the description," so kind of withholding that information.

"Or, we can use fronted adverbials to elongate our sentences and therefore delay the action." So thank you for that advice from our Oak pupils, and I really hope you take that advice forward in the imminent writing task.

So let's check for understanding before you start to write.

Which of the following is an example of a fronted adverbial? Is it A, aghast, I stared at the scene in front of me? B, it was a truly horrific scene, the likes of which I'd never seen before? C, taking a short breath, I forced myself forward? Or is it D, I am doubtful, in fact certain, that I will never see such an eyesore again? I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you try and jot down the answer that you think is an example of a fronted adverbial.

So, off you go.

And a massive well done to those of you that identified there were actually two examples of a fronted adverbial here.

So this here, aghast, I stared at the scene in front of me.

Well, that's a fronted adverbial, because remember, fronted adverbials tell us the way in which the verb was done.

So in the sentence here, in A, stared, is the verb, and, aghast, tells us the way in which the narrator stared.

And then similarly, in sentence B, forced, here is the verb.

And again, we're told the way in which the narrator forced themself forward, and that was with a sharp breath.

So therefore, A and C are both examples of fronted adverbials.

And, well done, if you managed to identify that.

Great recall.

So onto our last task of the lesson now where you are going to write a Gothic description of what Emily finds underneath the veil.

And I'm so jealous of you getting to complete this task, because I just think what a fantastic prompt, and imagine all the really creative things that you can do with this.

So I'm really jealous of this task, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Remember, it needs to be something that fits within the Gothic genre.

We are writing a Gothic description, and therefore, I'm afraid, I don't want to be reading anything about Emily finding a new car, or a lion.

Okay, that is not appropriate for the Gothic genre.

And remember the advice that our Oak pupils gave to you about how to create really vivid imagery and how to create tension that characterises our description as really Gothic.

So Sophia, remember, advised us that we could use multisensory description that appeals to the five senses, so touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell.

We could also use language methods, such as semantic fields and figurative language.

So thank you very much to Izzy for identifying that.

And as Jacob puts, "We can use fronted adverbials to elongate our sentences and to delay the action." And finally, Alex points out that we can "Use ambitious vocabulary, such as aghast, dank, desolate, congealed, menacing, and antiquity." So I really want to see you being ambitious, but accurate with your choices of vocabulary in this task.

So what I'd like you to do now is pause the video while you write your Gothic description, making sure that you are making it Gothic, you are, you know, creating that sense of dread, and that the imagery that you create is really vivid for your reader, because you have used language methods successfully and made your description multisensory.

I can't wait to see what you come up with, so pause the video, and off you go writing.

Good luck! Wow, I am so impressed with your resilience and also your effort, and I could see that many of you have written multiple pages for this task.

So really, well done.

That is not easy to do, and I'm really impressed and proud of you.

So, great work there.

We're going to self-assess our work now to see how successful we've been in completing the task.

So I'd like you to undertake the following self-assessment.

I would like you to highlight and label each of the five senses that you've included in your description, and make sure that you've included at least three senses.

I would like you to highlight and label a fronted adverbial that you have used, and check that you have put a comma after the fronted adverbial, because that's really important.

I'd like you to highlight and label one example of figurative language, and this could be something like a simile, an extended metaphor, or personification.

So make sure you've highlighted your use of figurative language.

And finally, I want you to highlight a moment where you've deliberately built tension.

and I want you to annotate, to write really brief notes in the margin, how you have achieved this.

What was it that you did to build tension? Did you withhold information? Did you shift focus? Did you use a fronted adverbial? Okay, so I really want you to be specific about exactly how you built that tension.

So what I'd like you to do now is pause the video, while you undertake this self-assessment.

Off you go.

Fantastic self-assessment, and I'm seeing some very, very full margins and some colourful pieces of writing, which shows me that you have completed this task and smashed it out of the park.

So really well done, great effort with your original task, and even better effort with your reflection task.

Really, well done.

So to summarise the learning from today, well, in descriptions, you can focus on how the scene smells, feels, sounds and tastes, as well as just what it looks like.

Multisensory descriptions make the scene more vivid for your reader.

You can also use figurative language to create vivid imagery for your reader, and to build tension, you can use fronted adverbials, or you can try describing small details quite comprehensively.

I'd like to thank you for coming to today's lesson, it has been truly magnificent sharing ideas with you and hearing all of your creative suggestions.

I've been so impressed by the quality of your creative writing, and I definitely feel like we've got some future authors in this room.

So a massive well done, and thank you for your time and effort today.

Have a lovely rest of your day, see you later.