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Year 6 - English

Generating vocabulary for the climax of 'Beowulf and the dragon'

'Beowulf': narrative writing

Unit Summary

In this unit, pupils rewrite the build-up, climax and resolution of the historical classic 'Beowulf', focusing on interspersing dialogue to convey atmosphere and advance the action. Pupils work to generate vocabulary that is appropriate for each section of the narrative.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to develop ideas for rich vocabulary to describe elements of the battle and the emotions being experienced in the climax and resolution of 'Beowulf and the dragon'.

Key Notes

  • Writing is most successful when its structure, content and vocabulary are planned.
  • It is also useful to orally rehearse storytelling the events we're going to write.
  • We will need to include rich vocabulary to show the action in the battle between Beowulf and the dragon.
  • We will also need rich vocabulary to show the emotions Beowulf and Wiglaf experience.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • text map: a visual representation of a series of events, where pictures represent events
  • climax: the point in the narrative where the suspense and excitement reach their highest point
  • resolution: the point in the narrative where problems are resolved
  • rich vocabulary: words chosen intentionally to convey a certain impression to the reader of a place, person or thing
  • 'show-not-tell': a writing technique for showing a character's feelings with description of their actions, body language and facial expressions

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • Pupils may believe they are expected to tell a detailed story using various sentence types at this stage.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.

Writing is most successful when its structure, content and vocabulary are planned. It is also useful to orally rehearse storytelling the events we're going to write.

2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'text map'

a visual representation of a series of events, where pictures represent events.

3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.

Mistake: Pupils may believe they are expected to tell a detailed story using various sentence types at this stage. Correction: The oral storytelling here is the basis on which the more detailed, varied writing will be built - pupils should try to make their storytelling 'interesting', but it doesn't need to use all the grammatical structures they know at this point.

More Lessons In This Unit

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