Lesson video

Hi everyone my name is Miss Smith and welcome to lesson six of this unit Rabbit-Proof Fence.

In the lesson today we will review writing non-finite clauses.

So when you're ready, let's get started.

In the lesson today we will begin by improving a sentence before we review non-finite complex sentences.

And then we'll think about adding non-finite complex sentences to our planning for this scene.

And so in the lesson you'll need something to write on and something to write with, and make sure you have a quiet space and your brain is switched on and ready for our learning today.

Okay, we'll start today's lesson.

Improving the sentence.

And the sentence on screen reads, "Trees covered the ground," And that's the sentence will improve step-by-step at the beginning of today's lesson.

So the first thing I'd like you to do is think of two adjectives that would describe the trees in our image.

And two adjectives to describe the trees and in doing so you will be creating an expanded noun phrase.

So pause and do that now.

Okay, hopefully you thought of two, you might even have referred to planning that we've done in previous lessons.

My sentence with two adjectives, I did is, "Lifeless, withered trees covered the ground." So we use two adjectives.

And so I needed a comma between them.

As all sentence has been improved already with two adjectives.

So we're on, "Lifeless, withered trees covered the ground." This time we're going to think about that noun ground, and you can see it's purple in the box.

We're going to improve the noun, you might want to create a more ambitious noun phrase to replace ground.

Pause, have a think and edit your sentence now.

Okay, hopefully you've had a chance to do that.

I'll show you my edits, "Lifeless, withered trees covered the endless Outback." So replaced ground with endless Outback.

So new and improved sentences there again, "Lifeless, withered the trees covered the endless Outback." And this time we're going to zoom in only verb.

So just one job at a time.

And we've wondering whether we can be more specific with our verb covered.

Pause and have a think.

Can you edit the verb? Be more specific than covered.

Okay, hopefully you've had a big think about that one.

My final version and improved sentence.

"Lifeless, withered trees was scattered "across the endless Outback." An improvement on our first simple sentence.

So first of all, let's remind ourselves of how we build a complex sentence.

A complex sentence contains a main clause and a subordinate clause.

We have a visual to remind us with Mr. Main and Mr. Subordinate.

So main clause and a subordinate clause.

And let's look at that in a complex sentence.

So this sentence reads, "Beating down from above the lifeless trees, "the relentless sun tortured the dry ground." This sentence contains a main clause and a subordinate clause.

So here we've got our main clause, "The relentless tortured the dry ground." Make sense on its own.

The other parts of our sentence is our subordinate clause, "Beating down from above the lifeless trees." And between the main clause and the subordinate clause, we need to make sure we remember our comma.

Now, non-finite clause is just one type of subordinate clause.

And in this sentence or subordinate clause is a non-finite clause and we can spot that it's a non-finite clause because it starts with a verb that ends in, "ING".

Now non-finite clauses are a little bit tricky because we can't really tell what tense the sentence is in until we read the main clause and we'll look at the verb and we can see our -ed ending on tortured, which indicates the past tense.

"Beating down from above the lifeless trees, "the relentless sun tortured the dry ground." Can you write a complex sentence with a non-finite clause for this image? You should pause the video, have a think and write your sentence now.

We're going to watch the clip for this scene, afterwards, we will remind ourselves of the sequence of images from this scene.

So now that we've seen the clip one final time, let's remind ourselves of the sequence of those images we've been planning.

So we've got the view from above and then the wide view of the Outback, where we can see the clouds, the sky, as well as the vast expanse of ground.

And then we meet our character, Molly.

He was looking up at the spirit-bird with her aunt by her side.

So today we are going to add non-finite complex sentences to our plan, to support our writing for the opening scene.

So far for each image, we thought of some really ambitious vocabulary focusing on both the setting in the first half of the scene and those characters who were introduced hallway through.

We've done a really good job of thinking of ambitious vocabulary to describe each picture so far.

And so what we're going to do now is we're going to think of non-finite clause complex sentences.

We're going to plan and write just one for each image so that when we come to writing the outcome later in this unit, you have lots of ideas and whole sentences even to support your writing for this unit.

So can you just pause and see if you can write a non-finite clause complex sentence for the image on screen, and you might use some of the vocabulary in our setting, planning to support you with this.

Then when you've had it go, you'll be able to see my example on the screen, so pause and do that now.

Okay, hopefully you've had a good go and you remembered, that a non-finite clause begins with the "ING" verb.

Here's my example, and it's that one that we had at the very beginning of this lesson.

"Beating down from above the lifeless trees, "the relentless sun and tortured the dry ground." Subordinate clause first comma, main clause second.

The tortured verb is highlighted because that's the one that indicates that this is a sentence written in the past tense.

Let's have a look then at image two, and we're going to try write a non-finite clause complex sentence with this image two.

Can you pause and have a go at that now.

Okay, hopefully you've had a good go at writing a second non-finite clause complex sentence.

Here's mine for this image.

"Sprawling across the landscape, "boulders and bushes lay lifeless in the blistering heat." Now my subordinate clause starts with an "ING" verb.

"Sprawling across the landscape, "boulders and bushes lay lifeless in the blistering heat." Blistering is highlighted because I worked really hard to include that for my setting plan.

And it was a Mrs Wordsmith word that we looked at earlier this unit.

So your task today is to write a non-finite clause complex sentence that each image in this scene.

You can add this to previous notes if you have them that will help you with this planning.

Remember non-finite clauses start with an "ING" verb.

So the best place to put these sentences is with your previous planning ideas and those images with the sequence of the scene up on the screen map.

So pause the video and complete your tasks.

Well done for having a go at writing a non-finite clause complex sentence for each image.

For these final images, I'm going to share a non-finite clause complex sentence.

So if you need to, you could add this to your ideas as well, where you could edit, steal any vocabulary to add to your sentence that you've already lifted.

So for this image with Molly, my non-finite clause complex sentence reads, "Gazing up at the cloudless sky, "Molly stood deep in thought." Subordinate clause, "Gazing up at the cloudless sky." "Molly stood deep in thoughts." is the main clause.

Let's have a look for image four.

I wonder if you can find your non-finite clause complex sentence for this image.

Mine reads, "Soaring in the calm breeze, "the spirit-bird tracked its prey on the ground." I'm sure you've already spotted my non-finite clause, "Soaring in the calm breeze." And the main clause, "the spirit-bird tracked its prey on the ground." And finally image five, "Listening closely to her mother, "Molly followed the spirit-bird "as it drifted through the sky." If you want to add any of the ideas in those sentences to your plan, you can do that now, so that you've got them for writing when we come to do that in a future lesson.

And that's the end of today's lesson.

Congratulations.

So we did lots of editing and improving a sentence that started the lesson before we reviewed what it means to write a non-finite clause complex sentence.

Then you've worked really hard to art non-finite clause complex sentences to your planning for this writing outcome.

Well done for completing today's lesson.

You should feel really proud of all your hard work.

So really tricky content there.

And you've worked really hard and everything you've added to your plan will really support your writing, so well done you.