Lesson video

Hello, it's Mrs. Smarts.

Welcome back to this English unit.

Today's learning objective is to write a narrative resolution.

Yes, you're right.

This is our last piece of "Whale Rider" writing today.

I hope you've enjoyed this unit, and let's make this piece of writing our best yet.

Off we go.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or some lines paper, a pen or pencil to write with, and your resolution plans from our previous lesson.

Remember you generated all of those brilliant ideas.

Let's try and include as many of those as possible in our writing today.

If you don't have any of those things with you right now, or there are distractions around you, just pause the recording and get yourself ready for today's lesson.

In today's lesson, we're going to start with a focus on speech punctuation.

We're then going to move on and remind ourselves of the three sections of our narrative resolution plan.

Together we're going to write our resolution.

And then lastly, we'll finish with your independent task.

I wanted to recap speak punctuation at the beginning of today's lesson, because it's been a few lessons since we covered this.

I want you to write this speech into a sentence using speech first and speech second.

So it's when Paikea is sitting on the whale, she encouragingly rubs the whale's head and she whispers, "Come on." Could you write that into a sentence using speech first, and then right into another sentence using speech second? I'll be really impressed if you can extend your sentence a little bit more by adding an additional clause.

Off you go.

Okay, I'm going to show you mine as examples and you can check your sentences now.

So my first sentence, I use speech first, speech at the beginning of my sentence.

So I should have my inverted commas, capital letter, come on, then I've used a comma, and then my close speech marks or my inverted commas.

It's really important that you have a piece of punctuation before you close your speech marks.

It could be a comma, or it could be an exclamation mark.

An exclamation mark probably wouldn't be appropriate here because she's not shouting it or saying it loudly.

She's actually whispering it.

So I've written, "Come on," Paikea whispered, and then I've extended my sentence with an extra clause to add some more information; as she lovingly rubbed the whale's skin.

Let's look at that same sentence but speech second.

She lovingly rubbed the whale's skin as she whispered, then this is really important.

I've got to have my comma before my inverted commas, before my speech marks.

So whispered, comma, speech marks, capital letter, really important at the beginning of the speech.

I know it seems a bit strange in the middle of a sentence, but you always have a capital letter at the beginning of speech.

Come on, full stop and then close my speech marks or inverted commas.

It's really important you have some punctuation before you close your speech marks as well.

In this case, it would probably be a full stop because an exclamation mark wouldn't be appropriate because she's not shouting it.

How did you get on? Take off your sentences and make any corrections that you need to do now.

We have learned so much about the story of "Whale Rider" in this film.

And I hope you have really enjoyed watching the clips of the film.

Just wants to remind you that it's based on this book called the "Whale Rider." Let's remind ourselves of the story.

We've written the buildup and the climax already.

So in the opening, that's the part where a girl was born, that was Paikea.

Her brother and her mother died.

Her father moved away and she ended up growing up with her grandparents.

In the buildup, Koro decided to find the next chief.

He starts to club to teach the first born boys to be leaders and Paikea was desperate to join in, but her grandfather wouldn't let her because she was a girl.

That in our climax, the most exciting, dramatic parts of our story, that was where the whales beached themselves.

All the villages tried to save the whales.

The whales started to die, and the villagers were feeling really upset and devastated.

To end our story, we have of course, got our resolution.

This is the part you're going to be writing today.

Paikea climbed onto the largest whale's back.

She encouraged it back into the water.

All the other whales followed and swam away to safety.

You might remember in our previous lesson, I explained this is the point where Koro finally realises that Paikea should be chief.

She's shown she's got these powers and she is the rightful chief.

We're going to watch the film clip now to remind ourselves what happens.

Once you've seen it, I'm going to ask you to put these stills in order and retell the events.

Make sure you are completely focused, you can hear it really well, you can see it really well so you're going to be able to retell the story in a few minutes.

Off we go.

Come on.

Right.

Over to you now.

Can you put these pictures in order and retell the events? Try to say one sentence per picture, or you could write one sentence per picture on your lines paper.

Pause the video now and have a go.

How did you get on? Did you retell it in the right order? Well done if you did.

I'm going to go through each picture now and just say one sentence to retell that part of the story.

I'm going to say in past tense, because I'm going to be writing my resolution in the past tense because it's already happened.

Picture number one, Paikea performed a? A hongi, well done.

Paikea performed a hongi.

Picture number two, Paikea climbed onto the whale's back.

Picture number three, Paikea sat in position.

Picture number four, Paikea encouragingly rubbed the whale's head and whispered, "Come on." Picture number five, Paikea jabbed the whales side with her heel.

And picture number six, the whale moved off into the waves.

Well done if you were able to retell those events in the correct order.

This is the plan that we completed in our last lesson.

Can you just check you've got it with you now.

Yep, I've got mine.

Have you got yours? Brilliant, that's going to really help you with your writing.

So we broke the resolution into three sections and we wrote down all of our ideas for what happened in each section.

So the first section was Paikea rubbed her hands on the whale's skin and performed a hongi.

Paikea climbed up and sat on the whale's back.

And finally Paikea encouraged the whale and they moved off into the water.

Before we start writing, as you know, it's really important to understand the purpose of the piece of writing that we're doing today.

What is the purpose of a narrative resolution? Why do we need to include a resolution in our story? Pause the recording and write your answer to that question now.

In the resolution, it's often where the main problem is solved or resolved.

Questions are answered.

Tension is released.

Loose ends are tied up, and the story concludes.

The story comes to the end.

So that's what we need to try and remember today as we're writing our resolution.

That is the purpose of our piece of writing.

Here's our success criteria for our writing.

This is a list of the features that we need to include to make sure our writing is really successful today.

Let's go through them one by one.

I have used show not tell to describe the character and their feelings.

You did this really, really well in the climax.

This is where we describe character's body language, we describe their facial expressions.

We maybe include some speech, all to show how our characters are feeling.

We're not going to say that Paikea is feeling desperate, or Paikea really wants to move the whale.

We're going to show that through her actions.

I've accurately punctuated speech.

Hopefully you managed to remind yourself of that accurate speech punctuation at the beginning of today's lesson.

And I have referred to characters in different ways.

Again, you did this really well in the climax, but we're going to think about this again now before we start writing.

The two main characters we're going to need to refer to in our resolution are Paikea and whale.

We're going to try and think of some other nouns we could use instead of repeating Paikea and whale all the way through our writing, because that could be really boring for our reader.

We can of course use pronouns like she and it, but let's try and think of some other nouns that we could use.

Write yourself a list of nouns for Paikea, and a list of nouns for whale.

Pause the recording and have a go now.

How many did you manage to think of? Very impressive.

Well done.

Let's go through what I had.

Paikea of course her name.

And remember it's a proper noun.

So Paikea must have a capital P.

Girl and chief.

We know that at the end of the resolution, Koro finally accepts that she is the rightful chief.

So we could refer to her as chief in the resolution.

Whale, beast, creature, animal.

Did you have anything else? Well done if you thought of something else as well.

We are going to write now the first part of our resolution.

This is the section that you need to be looking at on your plan.

This is the part where Paikea rubbed her hands on the whale's skin and performed a hongi.

Have a look through your notes and remind yourself what you included, because you're going to use some of those ideas in your writing now.

Okay, I hope you're ready to write.

Remember, this is a last piece of writing in this unit, so let's make sure it's amazing.

Have a look at your plan and remind yourself the first thing that Paikea does.

I'm going to check mine.

Ah, yes.

The first thing that she does is she runs her hand along the whale's skin.

So I'm going to just write, she traced the shape of the whale's, now how could I describe it's skin? I know I'm going to describe it cold, wet skin.

I need my comma in there because cold and wet are two adjectives to describe the noun skin.

That's just a simple sentence.

Maybe I could add a bit more detail with a subordinate clause.

I'm going to add a subordinate clause at the beginning.

I'm going to say as Paikea gently ran her hand along the whale's body, she traced the shape of the whale's cold, wet skin.

Now I've repeated the noun whale in there twice.

So I'm going to change this one to refer to the animal as it.

That's using a pronoun.

And when I'm saying its cold, wet skin, even though it's the skin of the whale, it belongs to the whale, I don't need an apostrophe.

I only use an apostrophe in it's when I'm shortening it from it is, okay? Let's think about my next sentence now.

What does she do next? Let's check our plans.

Ah yes.

The next thing she does is she puts both her palms on the whale and she presses her nose against his head.

So I'm going to say Paikea, no, I've already said Paikea.

I know, I could refer to her as the girl.

I know I could call her the determined girl.

The determined girl placed both palms on its head, and, so I'm using a coordinating conjunction there to write a compound sentence.

Pressed her nose firmly against the, can you remember what that strange thing was called on the front of the whale? That's it, it's the barnacle.

I'm going to say against the largest barnacle.

Okay, let's read back those two sentences and make sure I haven't made any mistakes.

As Paikea gently ran her hand along the whale's body, she traced the shape of the its cold, wet skin.

Oh, it's a good thing I checked.

I think I've got the in there that I don't need.

Always really important to read back your writing and make sure you haven't made any silly errors.

The determined girl placed both palms on its head and pressed her nose firmly against the largest barnacle.

Right.

What does she do next? Let me check my plan.

The next thing she does is she closes her eyes.

And we talked about the idea that when she closed her eyes, she was hoping or praying or wishing.

So I'm going to say when she closed her eyes, so I'm using another subordinate clause there to add more information to my main clause which is she prayed that she could save the, no I've said whale.

I've said it.

I'm going to go with creature this time.

The motionless creature.

I've got my main clause, she prayed that she could save the motionless creature.

And I've added more information in my subordinate clause, when she closed her eyes.

And those things are happening at the same time.

Now this is the point where she gazes up at the whale and she thinks I need to do something.

I need to climb onto the whale and I need to try and save it.

So I'm going to say Paikea, no, I've used Paikea already.

And I've used girl.

What was that other noun I had for referring to the character? Ah, yes.

I could use chief at this point.

Okay, let's say I'm going to write the young chief gazed up at the, no, in my plan I wrote magnificent beast to really show how amazing it was.

Now I've got insubordinate clauses at the beginning of my sentence.

I'm going to try and add a relative clause in this sentence to add more information to this simple sentence.

And this would be a really good point to do it.

The young chief, now what extra information could I add about her at this point? I know, who felt power course through her veins.

Remember we talked about that when you're feeling emotion, you can describe it as coursing through your veins.

It's travelling through your veins, a little bit like blood in all over your body.

So I've now got the young chief who felt power course through her veins, gazed up at the magnificent beast.

Now I just want one more sentence to finish off that paragraph.

This is the point where she decides she knows what she has to do.

I know, I'll just use that.

That's a nice, short, simple sentence to use at the end.

She knew what she had to do.

Okay, let's read that back and just check I haven't made any errors.

As Paikea gently ran her hand along the whale's body, she traced the shape of its cold, wet skin.

The determined girl paced both palms on its head and pressed her nose firmly against the largest barnacle.

When she closed her eyes, she prayed that she could save the motionless creature.

The young chief, who felt power course through her veins, gazed up at the magnificent beast.

She knew what she had to do.

Let's check our success criteria to see how we're getting on so far.

I have used show not tell to describe the character and their feelings.

Yes, I've had things like her pressing her palms and her nose against the whale's head.

I included the parts where she closed her eyes.

And when she gazed up at the beast, I've done well there so far.

I've accurately punctuated speech.

I haven't got to that bit yet.

So hopefully my next paragraph I can include some speech.

And I've referred to characters in different ways.

I'm doing well with that one because I remember I've got Paikea, I've used girl, I've used chief.

And then whale, I think I've used whale.

I've used beast, and I think I've used creature as well.

Now is your chance to write the first paragraph of your resolution.

This is the part where Paikea performs the hongi on the whale.

And then she gazes up at the beast and decides what she has to do.

Try and use your plan and use as many of those ideas in your writing as you can.

Off you go.

How have you got on with your first paragraph? I'm sure you're doing really well.

For our second paragraph, we're going to write the next two sections from our plan.

This is the part where Paikea climbs up and sat on the whale's back.

And then Paikea encouraged the whale, and they moved off into the water together.

You might notice I've zoomed ahead a little bit and written the first few sentences of my paragraph.

We're going to read these three together and then we'll finish it off.

With all her strength, Paikea hauled herself up and clambered onto the whale's back.

You can see I've used an adverbial phrase at the beginning of my sentence there, with all her strengths, to add extra information to my sentence.

I've also included an apostrophe to show that the back belongs to the whale.

And it's one whale, 'cause it's whale, 's.

She gradually crawled into position until she was ready.

Just then, she dug her heels in and whispered, "Come on." Now that's my speech sentence that's really important.

I've got my speech punctuation in the right place.

Let's just check.

I've got speech second.

So I've got my synonym for said.

I've used whispered, comma, speech marks, capital letter, come on, full stop, close speech marks.

Phew! I've got everything in the right place.

As the great heads started to turn, Paikea gripped on tightly.

The whale's tail brushed against the ocean floor and pushed its body off the sand and into the foamy sea.

Now I've included quite a few different types of sentence there.

I've got complex sentences with my subordinate clause at the beginning, and my subordinate clause at the end, 'cause I've got the subordinate clause, until she was ready.

And I've got the subordinate clause, as the great head started to turn.

So two complex sentences.

And I've also got a couple of compound sentences as well because I've used and as a coordinating conjunction to join two main clauses.

So doing well with my different sentence starters and structures.

Let's finish off now.

I'm just going to check my plan and see what I need to write next.

Ah, of course.

The next part is when they slip off into the sea together.

I'm going to start with a time conjunction.

All of a sudden, to tell you that's happening very unexpectedly or suddenly.

All of a sudden, the whale and Paikea, oh, let's spell her name correctly.

Paikea slipped into crashing waves and disappeared into the distance.

This is the part where I just want to tell my reader that she has now proved herself as the rightful chief.

So I'm going to end with two very short, simple sentences to sound quite dramatic.

Finally, it was clear.

Paikea was the rightful chief.

That makes it really clear to my reader that she's finally proved herself that she's got the power to be the chief and the rightful leader.

Right, let's read all of that back and just make sure I haven't made any errors.

With all her strength, Paikea hauled herself up and clambered onto the whale's back.

She gradually crawled into position until she was ready.

Just then, she dug her heels in and whispered, "Come on." As the great head started to turn, Paikea gripped on tightly.

The whale's tail brushed against the ocean floor and pushed its body off the sand and into the foamy sea.

All of a sudden, the whale and Paikea slipped into the crashing waves and disappeared into the distance.

Finally, it was clear.

Paikea was the rightful chief.

Let's check my success criteria.

I have used show not tell to describe the character and their feelings.

Yes, lots of that to describe how Paikea was feeling.

I have accurately punctuated speech.

Yes, I can take that off now.

I've got speech in my second paragraph.

I used speech second in the sentence.

I've referred to characters in different ways.

I think I included every noun that we thought of before we started writing.

Now is your chance to write the second paragraph of your resolution.

This is the part where Paikea encourages the whale back into the water, and then they disappear into the waves together.

You might want to have a closing sentence where you make it really clear to your reader that Paikea has now become the rightful chief.

Pause the video to complete your task.

Resume once you're finished.

For your task today, I would like you to use your plan to write a narrative resolution based on "Whale Rider." Remember to include the features on your success criteria.

I have used show not tell to describe the character and their feelings.

I have accurately punctuated speech.

I have referred to characters in different ways.

Try to apply everything you've learned in this unit.

Think about your sentence structures we learned in a previous lesson, and try and include some simple, compound, and complex sentences.

Congratulations, you have completed all of your writing for this "Whale Rider" English unit.

Well done for all of your hard work.

I would absolutely love to see some of your writing, and I'm sure other people would do as well.

If you'd like to, please ask your parents or carer to share your work on Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the clips of "Whale Rider" and writing parts of the story as much as I've enjoyed sharing it with you all.

Goodbye.