Writing the opening of a story

There are 3 common ingredients (conventions) in the opening of a story:

1) Establish setting
2) Introduce character
3) Create enigma (mystery)

Think back to the activity we did in class where we listened to the opening of John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men' and thought about the mood he created through describing the Salinas Valley in California, followed by the gradual introduction of the two migrant workers, Lennie and George.

We also discussed the following aspects of writing to consider:

1) First or third person
2) Past or present tense
3) Adjectives for developing description
4) Imagery (including similes, metaphors and personification)
5) Structure (paragraphs and how they link/develop)
6) Accuracy (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar)
7) Pace of writing (slowing down the action/speeding up the action)
8) Sentence Types (variety)
9) Appealing to the senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch)

Planning will be a key part of writing a successful story opening. Brainstorm ideas to do with setting, character and action before you begin. Don't forget to think back to the short story scheme of work we did too for further ideas and inspiration. Who was Talmar, for example?

Creative writing - Thinking about setting

In class today, we did some activities developing vocabulary about the following image. Please post the bits of writing you did here.

Using music and moving image to inspire creative writing

The following film clip comes from '2001: A Space Odyssey'. It has had a piece of music synced to it called 'Adagio for strings' by Samuel Barber. Please post your creative writing started in class here and develop it further should you wish too.

Using film images to inspire creative writing

The following image comes from the film 'The Shawshank Redemption'. Please post your creative writing started in class here. You may want to develop it further too.

Reflection on learning

Reflection is a skill which we must develop if we are to become better learners. It is important that we pause to think about our journey of learning in terms of where we have been, where we are now and where we will go in the future. I would like you to reflect on your learning in English so far this year by thinking about and responding to the ideas and questions below. You may do this here in this post on the blog or on the lined paper provided.

If you think carefully about what you have learnt and the progress you have made in English, this is about much more than simply considering whether your 'Level' for Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening has gone up or not. Simply thinking about this will only lead to momentary happiness, disappointment or prolonged frustration.

Here is an example of some great learning that has happened with regards to the study of 'Short Stories':
- We learnt that many short stories have 6 key ingredients (conventions) in terms of their structure including: the title, character, setting, plot, climax, and conclusion/resolution.
- We learnt that the short story (as a genre of writing) has many different genres within it such as Science Fiction (Barry), Dialogue form (Something to Tell You), 247 word limits (The Dragon).
- We explored our meaning and understanding of ideas, themes, characters, setting and structure.
- We practised developing our own skills in writing a short story within a given word limit, carefully considering form and structure, the significance of the title, creating a sense of enigma and establishing a setting, etc.
- We enjoyed these stories and responded with interest and emotion to them (Isn't this a key part of learning too?)

and so on...

Try to think about each unit of work we have done in this way. What knowledge have you gained in addition to the skills you have been developing? What have you enjoyed and why? What did you find challenging and why?

Below are the questions I wrote on the board in our first lesson on this last week, but I would like you to consider carefully what I have written above.

1. Reflect on the work you have done in your folders so far
- What skill areas have we covered and how? (Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening)
- What texts (novels, play, poetry, short stories, non-fiction, etc.) have we studied?
- What have you enjoyed and why?
- What do you feel you have learnt? (skills and knowledge)

2. Look in your white progress booklets at the Level you are working at.
- What pieces of work have you demonstrated these skills in?
- What do you need to think about now to develop and make further progress?
- Set yourself some targets (be specific)

3. How do the feedback/reflection sheets support your learning?

4. What has been the impact of using the blog in your learning?

Please also make any suggestions as to how we could improve our learning further through what we study and how we study it.

I look forward to hearing your responses.

Writing a newspaper article on an event from Arthurian Legend

Some key features of a newspaper article which you should consider using when you write your report:

- An engaging headline (puns, alliteration)

- Who? What? Where? When? Why? (format)

- Reported and direct speech (eye-witness accounts)

- Past tense (usually)

- Formal language

- Variety of sentence lengths

- Emotive/dramatic vocabulary (words like ‘shock’, ‘amazing’, ‘incredible’)

- Time and sequence connectives - as soon as; following; eventually

- Short paragraphs 
Please also use the following resources for further support:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/standard/english/lit_form/newspaper/revision/1/

Arthurian Legend - A Reflection of Learning

Please develop the discussion here about your learning from this unit of work on Arthurian Legend.