Think about what you want to say.
• Write down a few words that will help you.
• Use different kinds of sentences and choose interesting words.
• Make sure your ideas follow each other in a way a reader can understand.
• Check your work for errors of spelling or language use.
(f) Read your partner’s short story. If you think it can be improved, make suggestions in writing. When you receive your own story back from your partner, read the suggestions, and if you agree, improve your story.
(g) Hand in your final version for your teacher to evaluate.
Your teacher will use the following rubric to assess your work:
Looking at the way we use language
A writer always thinks about who will be reading what he or she writes. Will it be children or the general public or people who know a great deal about a certain subject? The writer will also think about the purpose of writing, the why. Is it to entertain, to teach a lesson, to inform about something?
What can a writer do to provide different kinds of texts? The writer can:
• choose words carefully.
• use different kinds of sentences.
• use direct or reported speech.
• use formal or informal language.
In the next activity you will decide on the kind of language used, and what audience it was written for and its purpose.
1. Look at the picture below carefully. Tell your partner what you see. Do not look at the sentences in 2!
2. Below are four sentences describing the picture. Below them, in the table, are words describing the kind of language, the audience, and the purpose. Draw a table like the one below. The words are jumbled up. Your task is to arrange them correctly to match each sentence.
(a) The little boy first looked carefully around to make sure that the bent old man was not following him (from a fairy story).
(b) The youngster glanced about to ensure that the elderly man was no longer behind him (formal language, from an adult novel).
(c) The little guy checked around to see if he had lost the old geezer (informal).
(d) ‘Then I saw the boy turn around and look behind him. I think he was making sure that the old man had gone’ (direct speech).
Looking at the language of rhymes and stories
In the next activity we are going to look at how language is used in nonsense rhymes and a short story. You need to remember that the writers have chosen their words and the ways they use them for the effect they create, whether it is for fun or to tell a story.
Edward Lear lived in London in the 1800s. He wrote nonsense rhymes.
His little poems are called ‘nonsense rhymes’ because they do not make sense even though the language and grammar are correct. Often his purpose was to make fun of the people or the fashions around him. Sometimes he even made words up.
1. Below are two of his rhymes and their drawings, also done by him. Read the poems aloud softly to yourself. Notice the beat or rhythm of the words.
Poem A
There was an Old Man in a Barge,
Whose Nose was exceedingly large;
But in fishing by night,
It supported a light,
Which helped that Old Man in a Barge
Poem B
There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, “It is just as I feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!”
(a) Write down a list of the rhyming words in each poem.
(b) Write down one sentence for each poem explaining why it is nonsense.
(c) Fill in the missing words in the following sentence:
Lear is mocking people with big…in the first poem, and people with…in the second one.
(d) Do you find the poems funny? Do the drawings make them funny?
Discuss these two questions with your partner. Give reasons for what you say.
(e) Who do you think these poems were written for? Write down your answer.
(f) Write a nonsense rhyme yourself, using the same form as Lear did: five lines, the same rhyming, and the same rhythm. Share it with your partner.
2. (pairs) The tale of the lion and the rabbit has been told to generations of children before you.
(a) Look at the picture below and see if you can either recognise the story or predict what it is about.
(b) Read the first two paragraphs aloud to your partner and listen while your partner reads the last two aloud to you.
Formal Assessment:
When your teacher assesses your reading aloud skills as part of the Formal Assessment Task 1, he or she will use the following rubric.
The lion king and the rabbit
An ancient African story
1. The lion, who was king of the forest, was feared by all the other animals. He used to hunt and eat one of them every day. One day he called all the other animals together. ‘I have to hunt and eat one of you every morning. Nothing can change that. However, if every evening you decide which one of you it will be, that one can come to my cave in the morning to be my breakfast and I can leave the rest of you alone and you won’t have to run away.’
2. The animals agreed, and every evening they drew lots* to see who would be eaten the next morning. Each morning the unlucky animal who had been chosen went to the lion’s cave to be eaten, while the other animals peacefully grazed. One evening the rabbit was chosen. He said he did not want to be the lion’s breakfast, and would think of a plan.
3. The next morning he arrived late at the lion’s cave, apologising for keeping the king waiting. The lion demanded that he come closer. The rabbit said: ‘I wouldn’t eat me, if I were you. I have promised to return to the cave of the real king of the forest, so that he can eat me. He will be very angry if you do, and chase you out of the forest.’ The lion demanded to be taken to this other lion, who the rabbit said was bigger and stronger than he was. The lion said he would kill the intruder or chase him away.