Lesson video

Hi everybody and welcome to lesson eight of our unit on writing a about pandas in a non-chronological report.

I am really looking forward to this lesson because we are going to get started with our writing and I'm really looking forward to seeing what you produce.

I hope you enjoy the lesson and let's get started.

So our Lesson objective today is to write an opening of a non-chronological report.

So on the agenda is key vocabulary, then we're going to do a writing warm up just to get some practise of writing in.

Then we're going to look at a modelled write, which means we're going to look at an example of an opening and go through it carefully.

And then you're going to have an independent writing task where you will go off and write your own opening.

In this lesson, you're going to need an exercise book or some paper, pencil or pen, and most importantly, the notes from your planning lesson.

Where we started generating sentences and vocabulary that we thought we could use in our opening.

If you haven't got this with you now, now's a chance to go and get it.

And then come and find a nice calm and quiet space if you can for you to concentrate.

Because we're going to start with some key vocabulary, we'll play my turn your turn where I'll say the word first, then you say it back to the screen.

It's just a great way of really embedding that vocabulary so when you see it later on the lesson, you feel a lot more confident about it.

Key vocab from this lesson, mammals.

A mammal is an animal that breathes air, has a backbone, it's also known as a vertebra, and grows hair at some point during its life.

So types of animals or species basically.

Extinction.

Extinction means the dying out or disappearance of a species from Earth.

Famously dinosaurs became extinct millions of years ago and they no longer exist on Earth.

Endangered.

An endangered species is one that is in danger of disappearing forever.

Carnivore.

A carnivore is an animal that gets its food from killing or eating other animals.

Writing warm up now.

Now, so you'll need a pen or pencil and some paper.

So for the writing warm up, I'd like you to write a sentence about this picture of the panda using a relative clause.

Just to remind, a relative clause is a piece of, is a clause within a sentence that adds extra information.

It can be taken out and then put back in again, and the sentence will still make sense, but you've just given that extra information.

So for example, the panda's fur, which is uniquely black and white, allows them to camouflage in both the shadows and the snow.

You can see that there is a comma before the which, which is the relative pronoun in the relative clause.

And at the end of the relative clause after white, which kind of signifies that that is the clause which can get, come out and come back into a sentence.

You can also use the relative pronoun who or that.

Have a go now by pausing the video and writing your own relative clause sentence about this.

Hopefully you paused the video and had a chance to write your own sentence using a relative clause.

Now, because there isn't a teacher, I'm going to ask you to mark your own work, and just looking out to see if you've got the correct punctuation you need in a relative clause.

So for example, if I was going to be marking my own sentence, which I've written below, I would check for capital letters for at the beginning of the sentence and proper nouns, check for full stop at the end and check for accurate commas at the beginning and the end of the relative clause.

And I'd have a look to see if it really just makes sense.

I'd read it back to check it does make sense.

Pandas, which live in the mountains of Central Asia, are usually found in bamboo forests.

Have I got the correct capital letters? Yes, at the beginning and yes, for this, the proper noun Central Asia.

Have I got a comma before the relative clause? And the, before the relative pronoun, which? Yes, I have.

And have I got a comma at the end of the relative clause? Yeah, I do after the word Asia.

And they, I know they have to go there because that is the extra bit of information that can be taken out and the sentence would still make sense.

Pandas are usually found in bamboo forests.

That's a sentence that would make sense without the relative clause.

In terms of checking back to make sense.

You've just got to remember when you're writing a relative clause that it is relevant to the rest of the sentence.

It wouldn't make sense to say "Pandas, which have an enlarged wrist bone, are usually found in bamboo forests." Because the fact that they have an enlarged wrist bone, isn't really to do with the, isn't to do with the fact that they are found, where they are found.

The relative clause has to be connected to the rest of the sentence.

So it makes sense that they're in the same, in the same sentence.

So have a little think about that and check over your punctuation.

And you can pause the video if you need to do that.

So, now it's time to do a modelled write.

A modelled write is when a teacher writes an example of what they want the children, to show the children of what they want their writing to look like.

It kind of sets the expectations and models the kind of sentences we'd like to see in your writing.

So I've written an example of an introduction to the pandas non-chronological report, we're going to look at it and then we'll go through it really closely.

So if you want to take any ideas down and note down, jot down any things that you think, well, I really like to include that, now's the time.

Remember, in an opening, we include general information.

We're not going so much into the specific detail yet, because that really needs to be saved for the rest of the report so we have something left to talk about later on.

The point of the, the purpose of the opening is to introduce the reader to the subject.

So in this case pandas.

Almost assuming they might not even heard of the Panda and encouraging them to keep reading by hooking them in by, with some some interesting, but general facts.

So what should an opening look like? I'm going to read this to you now.

So you just need to listen and read as I read and then we'll look at a look at it in a bit more detail.

Pandas.

The giant panda, which is also known as the panda bear or simply a panda, is a black and white bear.

When in the wild, they are found high up in the mountains of Central China, typically in a bamboo forest.

The giant panda's scientific name is Ailuropoda melanoleuca, black and white cat-foot, due to its distinctive black and white colouring.

Despite banning the hunting of pandas many years ago, they're still extremely rare, therefore it is vital that we try to protect this endangered species.

This report will provide information about the pandas appearance, diet and habitat.

Okay, let's look at this modelled write a little bit more closely.

So I started with my title, Pandas, which was underlined.

And if you wanted to make it maybe in bold or italic writing, just to make it really stand out, that's fine.

Then notice I've got an indent my first line of the paragraph because it's signifying that it's a new paragraph.

The giant panda, comma, which is also known as the panda bear or simply a panda, comma, is a black and white bear.

Why have I got two commas? because they are either side for relative clause, that relative clause is giving you the extra information.

If I took it out, the sentence would still make sense.

The giant panda is a black and white blear, is a black and white bear.

It still makes sense but it's a lot more informative and interesting to have that relative clause.

When in the wild, they are found high up in the mountains of Central China.

Central China needs to have those capital letters because it's a proper noun.

Typically in a bamboo forest, you'll notice a little port punctuation mark before typically in a bamboo forest.

Anyone know what that is? You're right, it's a dash.

A dash does the job of conjunction it links clauses together, a bit like a colon, and it's a really good, ambitious type of punctuation to use.

It links them together so you don't need to have the conjunction.

The giant panda's scientific name is Ailuropoda melanoleuca.

You can notice I've put in, in bold green, the apostrophe S in panda's because that is an apostrophe for possession, signifying that you need to have an apostrophe because the name belongs to the Panda.

Black and white cat foot, it's in brackets or parentheses, it's sometimes known as, again, another form of extra information.

And in quotation marks or indirect or direct or inverted commas, because it is a quote.

Due to its extent to distinctive black and white colouring.

due to its, what kind of conjunction is that? Can anyone remember? That's right, it's a formal conjunction and more specifically, a causal.

Despite banning the hunting of pandas many years ago, they are still extremely where, rare.

Why is despite in bold? That's right, because it's another formal conjunction.

This time a formal version of the but conjunction.

You'll notice the comma in the middle of the sentence and that comes at the end of the subordinate clause, despite banning the hunting of pandas many years ago, comma.

It's a subordinate clause because it can't make sense by itself, it needs the main clause.

With it it can make a full complete sentence.

Therefore, coma, it is vital that we try to protect this endangered species.

Therefore, in bold.

Again, another formal conjunction, giving a reason a causal conjunction, this is the reason for this.

This report will provide information about the panda's appearance, diet and habitat.

I'll be really impressed if you can remember the name of this type of sentence that will come at the end of the opening and which tells the reader what the rest of the report is going to be about.

Can you remember? That's right, it's called a signposting sentence and it tells the reader what to expect.

It's a really good way to end your opening paragraph and link nicely on to the next paragraph.

So we've now looked close, closely together at a modelled write, which means it is time for you to do your first bit of independent writing for your non-chronological report.

What should you include? These are the kind of things that really are pretty essential in a non-chronological report and especially the opening paragraph.

The title, probably be underlined or in bold.

A signposting sentence that comes at the end of the paragraph which tells you what the rest of the port's, report's going to be about.

Correct punctuation.

So capital letters at the beginning of sentences, full stops, capital letters for proper nouns, commas, these are those things that you'll go back and check in a later date in an editing lesson.

And subject specific vocabulary.

Remember, we spoke about that, which is vocabulary, key vocabulary, which is specific to this text.

If you want to recap some of the subject specific vocabulary, you can always go back to the beginning of the lesson where we looked at the key vocab.

What could you include? A rhetorical question, a question to the reader, a colon, to introduce the list or separate clauses, a relative clause, and formal conjunctions.

These are all things that would look really, make your writing look really ambitious and appropriate for a non-chronological report.

In a moment, I'm going to ask you to pause the video and you are going to write your opening of your non-chronological report.

Remember to keep your opening general and try to avoid the really specific facts just for the moment.

If you need a little bit of help having a start of your first sentence, you're not staring at a blank page and not knowing where to start.

You could use some of the examples and you could use something from, use the two sentences below to help you.

Perhaps it could start, your non-chronological report could start, famous for it's black and white fur, the giant panda, and so on.

Or, found in the bamboo forest in China's highest mountains, the giant panda dot, dot, dot.

Now is your time to pause the video and get started on writing your opening paragraph.

Welcome back, I hope you enjoyed writing your opening to your non-chronological reports.

Because you're not going to have a teacher with you to mark the work himself, we thought we, I thought we'd go through a success criteria.

So you can assess yourself and see how successful you think you've been in writing the opening paragraph.

So if you'd included these kind of things, this, you can go through your opening paragraph now and tick them off, if you think, "yeah, I've included that." Subject specific vocabulary, have you included the words in the vocab that is specific to pandas? And they're in the text? Correct and ambitious punctuation, not just.

Of course, you need to have the correct full stops, capital letters, commas, but have you been ambitious? Have you tried to use a colon? And maybe a question mark in a rhetorical question? If you've got both of those things, you can give yourself a tick.

Relative clause.

Did you include that subordinate clause which gives extra information using the pronoun which or who or that? And then a formal conjunction, a, either an and, a but or a causal conjunction? All great examples of formal language that you find in a non-chronological report.

Now's your chance to go back through your work, tick off anything on the success criteria.

Very well done if you've managed to include some of those.

So we've had a great lesson.

We've looked through key vocabulary, done a writing warm up, we've looked at the modelled write.

And then you've had to go at writing your own opening paragraph.

Congratulations, you've completed your lesson.

If you'd like to, share your work with your parent or carer, I'm sure they'd love to see it.

And if you're really proud of it, you could ask your parent or carer to show your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging Oak National or #LearnwithOak.

Well done everybody and see you soon.