Lesson video

Hello, it's Mrs. Smart.

Welcome back to our English unit, all about journalistic writing.

In today's lesson, we're going to start gathering some evidence about an event in preparation for writing our own newspaper reports.

If you're ready, let's get started.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or some lined paper, a pen or pencil to write with, and a ruler or some form of straight edge.

If you don't have any of those items with you right now, just pause the recording and go and get them.

Now, today's lesson is very, very exciting because you won't believe it, but a crime has been committed.

There has been an incident that we need to investigate as journalists so that we can write a news report about it.

This is what we're going to be doing to investigate and find out so that we can write really, really detailed newspaper reports.

We're going to start with an introduction to the event and who the main people are that have been involved.

We're then going to read some witness statements, so find out a little bit more from people that were there at the time and might've seen or heard something.

Then we're going to look at some evidence and photographs from the scene.

And lastly, we are going to watch a little film clip of the incident in action.

At the end of today's lesson, I will set you your independent task.

So as I mentioned, you can see here in this image, there is a crime scene.

Something has happened that we need to investigate so that we can write a news report.

Here are the key characters involved in this incident.

So we have got Wolf, we have Kirk, the woodsman, Granny Puckett, or sometimes referred to as Mrs. Puckett, and Little Red, sometimes referred to just as Red.

So these are the four characters or the four people that are involved in the crime that we're going to be investigating in a little bit more detail.

So we're journalists today, and we are investigating an incident so that we can write a newspaper report, but how do journalists find out information for their newspaper reports? What do we need to do? Pause the recording and write down your ideas now.

Okay, so we could go to the scene.

We could go to where that photo was taken, go to the crime scene, and see if we can find out any information or see anything.

We could read or listen to police statements and reports.

So the police have been to the scene, they've investigated first of all, so we could then find out information from them.

And lastly, we could speak to witnesses.

Witnesses are people who maybe saw or heard something and could tell us a little bit more about the incident.

We could also ask any other people involved.

So for example, the characters that we looked at on the previous slide.

And lastly, we could look at some evidence.

The police may have taken some photographs of some of the important aspects of the crime scene that we could have a look at and find out a little bit more about what has happened.

We're going to start by reading some witness statements.

So we're going to read three witness statements.

These are people who were nearby during the incident, and they have written down exactly what they saw or heard.

So this is our first witness, witness number one.

And this is Mrs. Puckett's neighbour.

He lives right next door to Mrs. Puckett.

Let's find out what he saw or heard.

"I know Mrs. Puckett well, as we've been neighbours for over 20 years.

I hope nothing has happened to her.

I spent all day working in my front garden yesterday, pruning the roses, chopping back bushes, mowing the lawn, and planting new bulbs ready for spring.

It was a long day of hard work and I was very tired by the end.

Anyway, I had a clear view of Mrs. Puckett's house all day and I did notice one visitor.

At about 3:45 pm, I saw an unfamiliar wolf approaching the house.

He was a little taller than me, around six foot, I would say, with thick grey fur and a large fluffy tail.

He was wearing a blue zip-up sweatshirt.

I also noticed he had very large paws and incredibly long ears.

I did think he was a bit strange because he was knocking on the door for quite a long time and peering in the window.

A few minutes later, he disappeared through the front door.

I thought someone finally answered the door, or maybe he let himself in.

Now, I think about it, I didn't actually see Mrs. Puckett at all, but I just presumed it was a friend of hers.

She has so many friends, so she often has visitors.

I never saw him leave, but I was in and out of my shed all day and making myself cups of tea, so I might have missed him.

I finished gardening at about 3:55 pm because I had to go and meet a friend in town for coffee." Now we've heard from our first witness.

I want you to try and write some summary notes.

So just a few bullet points, writing down the key pieces of information that you found out from witness one that might be important to help us understand this event, but also to include in our newspaper reports.

Pause the recording and have a go.

Okay.

Let's see what I included.

I wrote, "Mrs. Puckett's next door neighbour." It's important that we know who the witness was.

He was working in his front garden all day.

At 3:45 pm, he saw the wolf approach the house and enter the property.

He gave a description of the wolf.

He said he was six foot tall, he had thick grey fur, a large fluffy tail, large paws, long ears, and he was wearing a blue zip-up sweatshirt.

He didn't see the wolf leave.

Okay, let's move on to our next witness.

Witness number two is a dog walker.

Now, this witness was the person that called the police.

So this is a transcript of exactly what was said as part of the phone call to the emergency services.

999 emergency call transcript.

Operator.

The operator is the person who answers the phone call.

Operator, "999, what emergency service do you require?" Witness, "Police, please." Operator, "What's your location?" Witness, "Number one, Cherry Pot Lane, The Woods, A Land Far Away." "Can I get some details of your emergency?" "Just now, at around 10 past four, I was walking my dog down the road.

He was running along with a big stick in his mouth, very excited to get to the woods at the end of the road.

I heard some raised voices coming from inside the cottage.

I couldn't see anything inside because it was quite dark and I was too far away.

I decided to remain outside to see if I could hear any more sounds or see anything." "What happened next?" "A few minutes later, I saw a ginger bearded man flying towards one of the windows at the back of the property, waving an axe in his hands and shouting wildly.

He was about six foot tall, of large build, and was wearing trousers with braces and a small bobble hat.

There was a huge crash of breaking gas.

He must've completely smashed the window.

I then heard a lot of commotion, including some piercing shrieks, which sounded like they were coming from a young girl.

Please come quickly.

I hope no one's hurt." "Can you see anything now?" "It looks like three or four people are moving around inside the cottage.

I don't want to get any closer in case I put myself in danger.

I think an old lady lives there.

Please hurry.

I think she might be in trouble." "I'll just dispatch the team of officers to the residence immediately." "Thank you.

Goodbye." "Goodbye." Now you've heard from witness number two, I want you to write some summary notes.

So select the key information and write some bullet points.

Remember, this is the key information that you might want to include in your newspaper report.

Pause the recording and off you go.

Okay.

I wrote, 4:10 pm, she walks down Cherry Pot Lane.

Or she walked her dog down Cherry Pot Lane.

She heard raised voices from inside number one.

She saw a ginger bearded man flying into one of the windows while waving an axe and shouting.

He was six foot tall, large build, wearing trousers with braces and a small bobble hat.

She heard piercing shrieks, thought to be from a young girl, and she saw three or four people moving around inside the property.

Make sure you've got all of those bullet points because they're going to be really important to include in our newspaper reports.

Okay, time for our third and final witness.

This time, we're going to hear from a delivery man.

"I am the local delivery man, and I've been working in this area for many years.

Yesterday afternoon at around 4:00 pm, I was delivering a package for Mr. Smith, who lives a couple of doors down.

As I was locking up my bike outside Mrs. Puckett's house, I saw Red going in.

She is a young girl of about 12 years old and is probably just under five foot.

She was wearing blue trousers, a white top, and her red hood, as usual.

I did notice she was carrying a basket, which I presumed was full of goodies for her grandma.

They're both very good bakers.

Anyway, we both waved to each other, as I've met her many times.

At around 4:05 pm, I was getting back on my bike when I noticed some movement from inside Mrs. Puckett's house.

I thought I saw two figures moving around inside, but the light was going and I couldn't make them out very clearly.

I'm sure one of them was holding a stick.

I also heard two voices shouting.

One was quieter and more high pitched and the other was much deeper and quite gruff.

I just presumed Mrs. Puckett had some visitors 'round and they were playing a game.

I didn't think much more of it and cycled off, as it was the end of my shift and I wanted to get home for a nice warm bath and a cup of tea." Right, we have now heard from our third and final witness.

Can you write some summary notes? Select the key pieces of information from that witness statement and write them down in bullet points.

Off you go.

Here's what I included in my notes.

At 4:00 pm, he saw Red entering her grandma's house.

He saw two figures moving around inside, thought one holding a stick.

Heard two voices, one quieter and high pitched, the other deeper and gruff.

Now it is time to look at some of the photographic evidence.

These are photos that were taken by police when they first arrived at the scene.

So let's have a look.

We've got some muffins, some chocolate chip muffins.

Wonder where they might've come from.

Ooh, an axe.

Who was carrying an axe? Who might've used an axe? And then we've got some broken glass.

I wonder how that got there.

Next we've got some rope.

I wonder what that was used for.

Ooo, and a large footprint.

Hmm, someone must've left a footprint in the mud outside.

I wonder who that could have been.

The last part of our lesson today, we are now going to watch the film clip from "Hoodwinked." We're going to watch the film clip and I'm going to ask you to put these stills, these are the images from the film, in order to retell the events so that you're really familiar with this story.

This will help you to write your newspaper report because you need to write your chronological recap paragraph, retelling the events in the order that they happened.

Okay, let's watch the film now.

"Hoodwinked" directed by Corey Edwards, and the production company is Kanbar Entertainment.

Granny.

It's me, Red.

Is everything okay? Oh yeah, sure thing, come on in.

What? Who are you? I'm your grandma.

Your face looks really weird, Granny.

I've been sick, I.

Your mouth doesn't move when you talk.

Plastic surgery, Grandma's had a little work done.

Now come on over here.

Let's have a look at you.

So what's going on, Grandma? Oh, this and that, doing lot of quilting.

So, you got the loot? Whoa, what big hands you have.

Oh, all the better to scratch my back with.

And what big ears you have.

All the better to hear your many criticisms. Old people just have big ears, dear.

And Granny, what big eyes you have.

Are we just going to sit around here and talk about how big I'm getting? You came here for a reason, didn't you? So tell old Granny what ya got in the basket.

Granny, what bad breath you have.

All right.

You again? What do I have to do, get a restraining order? Settle down, little girl.

I'm onto you.

Hi-yah! Save it, Red Fu.

You've been dodging me all day, but now you might as well give up.

You crazy wolf.

What have you done to Granny? I've taken Granny down, and you're next.

Granny! Now what I would like you to do is put these stills in order and retell the events.

So you're going to need to pause the recording, point to the pictures in order, and try and say a sentence at least for each picture to retell what is happening in this part of the story.

Here are the answers.

So hopefully you put the stills into this order.

So first of all, Red enters the house.

She finds the wolf in her grandma's bed, trying to impersonate her grandma by wearing a mask, but she doesn't do, he doesn't do a very good job of impersonating her because she knows straight away that it's not her grandma.

And she asks lots of questions about his big paws and his long ears.

So the wolf gets very frustrated and rips off his mask.

They then both jump up and they start to fight and the Wolf grabs a stick that he looks like he's going to hurt her with, but then suddenly, Granny Puckett, or Mrs. Puckett, bursts out of the cupboard.

She's clearly been tied up with rope and gagged by the wolf.

And then suddenly, Kirk the woodsman comes flying in through the window.

He smashes the window and he's waving this very, very sharp axe and he's shouting loudly.

I'm sure you managed to order the pictures and retell the events really well.

We've come to the end of today's lesson.

I really hope you have enjoyed gathering all of your evidence in preparation for writing our own newspaper reports.

I would like you to create a flow chart to show the events of the incident with timings.

So you're going to need your notes from the three witnesses to help you.

I have started an example here to show you what I mean.

At 3:45 pm, Wolf entered Mrs. Puckett's house.

And I've drawn an arrow down to create my flowchart.

At 4:00 pm, Red entered Mrs. Puckett's house.

And I've drawn another arrow.

At 4:05 pm, Wolf tried to attack Red with a stick.

And then you might want to continue with some of the other events that we found out from our witnesses, from our evidence, and from watching our film clip of "Hoodwinked".

So here is our agenda for today.

We had an introduction to the context or the crime scene that we were investigating and who was involved.

We then heard from some witnesses, we looked at some photographic evidence.

And then finally we watch the clip of the "Hoodwinked" film, which is the retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.

And lastly, you now need to go off and complete your independent task, creating your flow chart of events.

Congratulations, you have completed your lesson for today.

Well done for all of your hard work.

If you would like to, please share your work with your parent or carer.

I will see you in your next English lesson.

Goodbye!.