Year 4 - English
Planning a setting description based on 'A Christmas Carol'
'A Christmas Carol': narrative writing and reading
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit, pupils explore A Christmas Carol, learning about its context and developing comprehension through targeted questions. They analyse characterisation, themes, and the story's ending. Pupils then plan and write a setting description, along with the opening, build-up and climax.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to generate precise vocabulary to plan a narrative setting description.
Key Notes
- 'A Christmas Carol' is set in Victorian London during the Christmas period.
- The atmosphere is the tone or mood created in a narrative.
- Precise vocabulary, including a range of sensory details, conveys the atmosphere in a narrative setting description.
- Personification is a linguistic device used to describe a non-living thing as if it acts or feels like a human.
Vocabulary To Learn
- atmosphere: the tone or mood created in a narrative
- sensory details: descriptions that include touch, sight, taste, sound and smell
- personification: a way of describing a non-living thing as if it acts or feels like a human
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Children may find it difficult to identify appropriate adjectives and verbs and develop their own pieces of personification.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.
'A Christmas Carol' is set in Victorian London during the Christmas period. The atmosphere is the tone or mood created in a narrative.
2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'atmosphere'
the tone or mood created in a narrative.
3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.
Mistake: Children may find it difficult to identify appropriate adjectives and verbs and develop their own pieces of personification. Correction: Brainstorm as a class and create a shared bank of human adjectives and verbs that would be appropriate for personifying elements of the scene. Children can then use this bank to support them in forming their own pieces of personification.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Analysing the ending of 'A Christmas Carol' Study Guide
- Developing comprehension of 'A Christmas Carol' Study Guide
- Editing the build-up of 'A Christmas Carol' Study Guide
- Exploring and engaging with themes in 'A Christmas Carol' Study Guide
- Exploring characterisation in 'A Christmas Carol' Study Guide
- Learning about the context of 'A Christmas Carol' Study Guide
- Planning the build up of 'A Christmas Carol' Study Guide
- Planning the climax of a 'A Christmas Carol' Study Guide
- Planning the opening of 'A Christmas Carol' Study Guide
- Writing a setting description based on 'A Christmas Carol' Study Guide
- Writing paragraph one of the build up of 'A Christmas Carol' Study Guide
- Writing paragraph two of the build up of 'A Christmas Carol' Study Guide
- Writing the climax of 'A Christmas Carol' Study Guide
- Writing the opening of 'A Christmas Carol' Study Guide
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