Lesson video

So to our final lesson of this unit.

You have done such a lot of work.

You have done such a lot of writing and learnt so many words and tried them out and done your speech, punctuation.

This last lesson is really fun.

It is a chance for you to have a go without too much guidance from me.

But first, let's look at how we've got here, so we want to just have a recap of the story so far.

Let's, well, let's get going and enjoy.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper, a pencil or pen and your brain and maybe your notes, your writing, in fact, not just your notes, your writing from the last few lessons so you can read your story so far.

We are going to do a warmup.

We're going to prepare to write.

We're going to write the ending of the story and then you're going to read back your writing.

And I've got there wow, you have worked so hard! And I think when you read back your whole story so far, you will see that.

Let's have a go at a warmup.

Simple, compound or complex? These are three sentence types.

Simple, we need to make sure we have a clause, a main clause, that's all it needs.

A compound has a joining conjunction: but, or, and.

A complex sentence has a main clause and a subordinate clause and those can sometimes be swapped around.

So let's have a look at the sentences and see if we can spot which is which.

The Prince became dull and grey.

Next one, when the Swallow and the Prince reached the heavenly garden, they could be together forever.

The heart was in the furnace but it didn't melt.

Can you pause and have a look and decide which is a simple sentence, which is the compound sentence and which is the complex sentence? When you think you know, press play again.

Okay, can you tell me, please, which one you think is the simple sentence? Shout out the letter.

Okay, which one do you think is the compound sentence? Shout out the letter.

Good.

And let's see the complex now.

Shout out the letter.

Okay, let's check.

Simple, the Prince became dull and grey.

So that just has one main clause in there.

The heart was in the furnace, but it didn't melt.

So that's our compound sentence.

When the Swallow and the Prince reached the heavenly garden, they could be together forever.

So that's our complex sentence 'cause it's got a main clause and a subordinate clause and those are actually swapped around in this example.

And that's why we have that comma in there.

So preparing to write.

We have got so far.

We've done our opening, we've done our build-up and now you are going to be writing on your own the climax and the resolution.

But you had that part of the story a while ago so we'll need to remind ourselves.

The story's so far.

Look how many pictures.

We've gone through all of that, all of that and then we've got this last bit here.

We'll remind ourselves of that part of the story but let's read the story so far.

So we shared, we wrote this bit together.

We did a shared write and these are all our shared writes put together.

So all of your contributions and what I typed in.

So let's read the story so far.

Down in the centre of a choked, busy city, hungry, grey children played and weary feet trudged to work.

Towering high above was a shimmering, golden statue of a Prince.

This beautiful monument has his feet fixed to a tall column and his head in clean, fresh air.

His sapphire gemstone eyes gazed down at the people below and his hands held tight to a sword with a huge, sparkling ruby on top.

He was called The Happy Prince.

One clear night, a tiny Swallow glided through the the air and perched at the huge feet of the Prince.

Oh, Swallow should be a capital letter I think there 'cause it's our character.

He was tired and wanted to rest.

As he lay his weary head down, the felt a drop fall on his head.

How odd.

He looked up.

The sky was full of stars, so it couldn't be raining.

Then, he saw the Prince.

Tears were falling down his golden cheeks.

The Happy Prince was crying! "Why are you crying?" inquired the Swallow as he perched on the statue's shoulder.

"I used to live in a palace of luxury, but I only cared about myself," wept the Prince.

"But why are you now sad?" asked the little bird.

"From up here I can see all the suffering of the people in the city and I regret not helping," said the Prince as tears streamed down his face.

"That is sad," replied the Swallow.

"Please can you help, kind Swallow?" pleaded the statue.

The tearful Prince told the Swallow about a poor seamstress who lived in a cold, cramped room in the city below.

Her rough, aching hands were red from sewing beautiful dresses for the palace.

Her small, cloudy eyes were drooping from working in dim candle light.

Beside her, lay her sick son.

His pale, sweaty face shone with fever as he turned in his hard bed.

His mother could not afford the medicine to make him better.

That was the first part of our build-up.

Second part.

"Sweet Swallow, please will you take the sparkling ruby from my sword and give it to the poor, suffering family?" asked the Prince.

"I will help you," replied the generous bird.

The Swallow carried the giant ruby over the troubled city to the family.

When they woke and saw the jewel, they smiled from ear to ear at the hope it gave them to survive.

Now, this is just a linking sentence.

I think it would be helpful to join in the next bit if you're writing.

The Swallow continued to fly around the city as the Prince requested.

He delivered all the Prince's treasures until the Prince was no longer golden, but just dull and grey.

Everywhere in the city the suffering of the people was reduced.

So that allows us to sandwich quite a lot of action just into a couple of simple sentences, three sentences there I think.

One, two, three.

Yeah.

So if you write a similar linking sentence of he did lots of good deeds around the city before you start writing your climax and resolution.

So I would like you to pause in a moment and reread your opening setting, your opening introduction of characters, your opening speech, then your build-up one, build-up two and use my linking sentence or something similar to show that he did a few good deeds until he was no longer golden on his whole body.

So pause now and reread your work.

And when you've read it, come back to me.

Okay, now let's think about the effect that it had on you 'cause that was so key, wasn't it to why we were writing this story.

We wanted to write an allegory.

So something that sends a message to our reader and tells them a moral.

So helps them to think about what's right or wrong.

So this is how I felt when I read the work that we had done.

I felt sad.

I felt curious about what would happen.

And I felt touched.

So I felt it was a very sweet friendship and I think the way that we wrote about the old lady and the, not the old lady, the seamstress and her son made me feel sad and happy also about the friendship.

What will the ending make your reader feel? And I think you want to think about that just before you're doing your writing.

So why did it make me feel those things? I could see that the Prince was feeling guilty.

The suffering to the people, I could feel it through the close-ups of what we'd written and showing rather than telling of the emotions of the characters.

I wondered what will happen next.

Is I was curious.

I felt touched by the kindness of the bird.

So the bird was a really good friend and I think we showed that very well in the writing that we did.

And the happiness of the people they helped.

That also touched me.

It made my emotions come to the fore.

So in the climax, we need to confront the main problem.

There's lots of action usually and it's very exciting or emotional.

In the resolution, it ties up any loose ends.

So it makes us feel satisfied at the end.

It gives the reader something to think about and that's what I was saying about the message or the moral of this story.

And it leaves the reader feeling satisfied.

So I mentioned that.

So remember, Oscar Wilde wanted his children to think about the unfairness of the society that they are living in.

It was an allegory, a message, a story with a message.

The message was to help your friends, to help people that have less than you, to be kind or not to judge only from what you can see.

And I think some of the problems that were existing when Oscar Wilde was writing are also true today.

And we want to convey that message in our story.

So there's a picture of someone who's homeless today in a city in the UK.

So what skill do you think you need to use in your writing to be successful? Shall we have a look? We need to follow a plan.

So make sure you're including all of the action needed.

We need to think, say, write and read what you've written.

You need to use precise vocabulary.

You need to use different sentence starters, so it's not like a shopping list.

You need accurate punctuation so that your reader can be directed through your writing.

And different sentence types as well.

So in a moment, I want you to write this last bit of the story.

So what have we got here? We've got that the Prince becomes dull and grey.

Then the snow comes, then the bird dies, the heart goes in the furnace and then they're sent for to go to heaven or to go to some heavenly place after they die.

It doesn't have to be heaven if you don't want it to be.

And they get to stay together.

The most important thing is that you enjoy.

It is your story and you worked so, so hard on it.

So off you go and start writing now.

Okay.

You need to make sure that you read back your writing.

Why do you need to read your writing back? To check it makes sense.

And you know about that.

To get a sense of being the reader, and that's why I always read things aloud.

I think that's very important.

To make sure we've got the purpose right.

So why we're writing and whether it's got our message across.

To check and change any punctuation errors.

To check we've used precise vocabulary.

To check and change spelling errors.

Definitely, and to enjoy it.

It's your story.

So pause and make sure you've read your work back and done all the checking that you need to do.

Then come back to me again.

Okay, is it time to publish? You have written a story, which could be a book.

You could write your story up in neat.

You could draw the illustrations, the pictures.

You could make it into your very own book.

So fold an A4 piece of paper together.

I'll show you an example.

Fold it over like that, write your title and then tuck the pages inside so that it reads like a proper book like that.

And then you could give it to someone.

What a fantastic gift.

I promise people that you know love to get stories.

It's such a wonderful thing to have.

And we have come to the end of our Happy Prince unit.

You have worked really, really hard.

We have come so far and I really hope that the story that you write conveys the message that we want to convey and it's also very touching and moving.

If you would like to share your work, get a parent or carer or an adult to share it using one of these hashtags so that I can see what you have written.

I would so love that.

And I can respond and see what I think.

Thank you so much for all your heard work and I look forward to seeing you again some time.

Take care.