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Year 6 - English

Writing the second half of the build-up 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 write the second half of the build-up of 'Beowulf and the dragon', using a range of narrative elements and cohesive devices to connect ideas.

Key Notes

  • Writing is most successful when structure, content and vocabulary are planned.
  • We aim to use a range of narrative elements in our writing and to set an appropriate mood with them.
  • We use a range of cohesive devices to connect ideas, including a variety of fronted adverbials.
  • We can create compound adjectives using hyphens to add descriptive detail.
  • We can use dialogue to add to the tense mood of our writing.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • narrative elements: the content of a narrative, often including action, description, dialogue and emotions
  • compound adjective: an adjective formed of two hyphenated words
  • cohesive devices: language structures that develop text cohesion
  • fronted adverbial: a sentence starter followed by a comma
  • direct speech: when the exact words spoken by someone are written down, enclosed in inverted commas

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • Pupils may struggle to connect ideas with appropriate cohesive devices.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

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

Writing is most successful when structure, content and vocabulary are planned. We aim to use a range of narrative elements in our writing and to set an appropriate mood with them.

2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'narrative elements'

the content of a narrative, often including action, description, dialogue and emotions.

3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.

Mistake: Pupils may struggle to connect ideas with appropriate cohesive devices. Correction: When completing shared writing, model considering and rejecting different ways of combining or connecting ideas; there is almost always more than one 'right' way and it is up to us to decide which we want to use.

More Lessons In This Unit

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