Smart English: Survival – Animal survival (part one)
Learning objective:
To understand how to vary sentence structure for effect (WAF5)
Learning outcome:
To rewrite a paragraph, using a variety of sentence structures to engage the reader
Success criteria:AF Level 4 / All students can … Level 5 / Most students can
…Level 6 / Some students can …
WAF5 Sometimes vary length, structure or subject of sentences
Vary sentence length, structure and subject for clarity and emphasis
Alternate between simple and complex sentences for purpose and effect
Aiming for Levels 4 to 6, Lesson 14
Aiming for Levels 4 to 6, Lesson 14
Smart English: Survival – Animal survival (part one)
Activity: Look at the verbs below and think about the kind of scene they could describe. Then choose four of them and write a paragraph that uses the verbs you have chosen. Try to make your paragraph as exciting as possible.
pulled
lunge
sink
splashed
THRASHINGTHRASHING
flickeredcrashing
Aiming for Levels 4 to 6, Lesson 14
Smart English: Survival – Animal survival (part one)
The writer creates a sense of tension and shock in this extract by
varying the sentence structure and length …
An independent clause that expresses a complete idea. A simple sentence contains a subject and a verb. For example:
The lights on the ship flickered.
Aiming for Levels 4 to 6, Lesson 14
Smart English: Survival – Animal survival (part one)
A complex sentence contains at least one main,
independent clause and a subordinate clause. For example:
Although the waves were thrashing against me, I managed to sink myself into the lifeboat.
Sentence types
Simple
Complex
Smart English: Survival – Animal survival (part one)
The elements allowed me to go on living. The lifeboat did not
sink. Richard Parker kept out of sight. The sharks prowled but
did not lunge. The waves splashed me but did not pull me off.
I watched the ship as it disappeared with much
burbling and belching. Lights flickered and went out. I looked
about for my family, for survivors, for another lifeboat, for
anything that might bring me hope. There was nothing. Only
rain, marauding waves of black ocean and the flotsam of tragedy.
The darkness melted away from the sky. The rain
stopped.
SimpleComplex
Key
Aiming for Levels 4 to 6, Lesson 14
Aiming for Levels 4 to 6, Lesson 14
Smart English: Survival – Animal survival (part one)
Activity: Rewrite the paragraph below, using a variety of simple and complex
sentences for effect.
I could smell the boy and I was hungry and I also felt seasick from the rocking boat and I wanted to jump in the water, but I felt if I jumped in the water there would be no land. I remembered the cage tipping and I fell out and then I jumped through the air and landed in a smaller boat and then there was rocking and I started to feel sick. I could feel the power of my body creeping away from me and there was a smell of death in the air and I wanted to eat.