Lesson video

Hi there, my name is Mr. Bryne Smith.

And today we're going to be doing some English together.

In today's lesson, we're going to write the opening of a non-chronological report.

This is our first writing lesson and it's going to be really fun, so let's make a start.

Here's the agenda for today's lesson.

First, we're going to have an introduction and we're going to look at the features of a non-chronological report.

After that I'm going to do a modelled write of an opening before finally, we'll have a go at our task for today.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper, a pencil, and you also need your notes on the opening paragraph.

Now, if for whatever reason you don't have these, don't worry because there's lots in today's lesson that you can use.

However, if you do have your notes, they'll come in very, very handy today.

If you need to go and get any of these things, pause the video now.

Okay, introduction.

So the first thing to consider, the first thing to think about is what a non-chronological report is.

Now a non-chronological report is a type of non-fiction text.

That means it's based on facts and truths about the real world that we live in.

It provides factual information about a subject person or event.

We're looking at the anglerfish, which is a deep sea creature.

You could argue then that the subject we're looking at is the anglerfish.

It is not written in time order.

And if you look at the word chronological, we can see this.

We can see reference to time.

The word Chron comes from the Greek word for time.

Let's think about the features of non-chronological report.

So first we'll consider the purpose, audience, language and layout.

Purpose is the reason the text is written.

Audience is the type of people that read a text, people for whom it's intended.

Language refers to the vocabulary that's chosen and layout describes how a text is organised and structured.

Now I would like you to have a careful think.

What's the purpose, audience, language and layout of our report going to be? Pause the video now and have a go.

Okay, so the purpose of our report, well, we're aiming to inform and provide information about a particular subject.

In our case, the anglerfish, the audience is anybody interested in the subject.

So anybody who wants to find out about this fish, this will be useful for.

The language needs to be formal and subject specific, and the layout needs to include an opening, main paragraphs and a closing paragraph.

This is the opening of a non-chronological report.

These are the main paragraphs.

In our non-chronological report, our main paragraphs will consist of an appearance paragraph, a diet paragraph, and a habitat paragraph.

At the end of the report you have a closing.

Today we're focusing on the opening.

That's what we're thinking about.

And that's what we're creating.

In today's piece of writing, we're trying to include simple, compound and complex sentences.

Now it's really important that writing flows, varying sentence type helps writing flow.

There are other techniques that also do this, for example, formal conjunctions.

The aim is to vary your sentence type as much as you can without forcing it.

You don't want to be trying so hard to include a certain type of sentence that you're writing looses its creativity or imagination.

You want to include a variety of sentence type that it needs to feel natural, it can't feel forced.

The question is, what is the purpose of the opening paragraph? Why are we writing it? What are we trying to achieve? I'd like you to have a little think first.

Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, what is the purpose of the opening paragraph? Well, it introduces the subject of the report.

We need to let the reader know what this report is going to be about.

We need to give them a taste of what's to come, it provides general information.

We don't talk about anything in lots of specific detail.

That's what the main paragraphs are for.

We don't really have time or space to do that in the opening.

So we devote entire paragraphs to it later on in the report.

We really try to hook the reader in which means we're trying to capture their attention, we want them to keep reading.

If they read the opening paragraph and they're not interested, they are not going to carry on.

So it's really important that the opening paragraph contains some tools and techniques to hook the reader in and here you can see a hook hooking a fish.

So I'm going to quickly discuss our success criteria for today.

Success criteria is a list of things we need to achieve in order to make sure our writing is successful.

By successful, I mean achieving what we set out to achieve.

Here's our learning objective to write the opening of non-chronological report.

Our first criteria is, I have included an opening and a linking sentence.

Next, I have included brackets to add extra information.

Next, I have included a formal conjunction and subject-specific vocabulary.

Finally, I have included a question to the reader.

These are things we are going to try and include in order to make sure that our writing today is successful.

Another technique, which is really important is say, write, read.

This is the process of saying a sentence before you write it down, then writing it, then reading it back to yourself to check in.

By vocalising what you're about to write down first you can make sure that it makes sense and you can tailor it and edit it and improve it.

By reading it back to yourself you can make sure that it flows and you can make sure that it makes sense.

Okay, now it's time for you to help me write an example opening.

We're going to do this one together, and then you will have an opportunity as your main task to write an opening paragraph of your own.

So I'll need lots of help for this opening paragraph, which we're doing together.

And then you'll have a chance to do an entire opening paragraph of your own.

Now, I know that I need to include an opening sentence.

This is a sentence that includes a nice general facts about the anglerfish just to get the reader engaged and to give them an idea of what the report's going to be about.

I think a really good way of doing this is by referring to roughly where on Earth, the anglerfish is from.

Now, I know it's from the ocean, it's from the depths of the ocean.

So I'm going to start with, the anglerfish is a creature that lives in the depths of some of the Earth's ocean.

The anglerfish is a creature that lives in the depths of some of the Earth's oceans.

I'm going to read it back to myself.

The anglerfish is a creature that lives in the depths of some of the Earth's oceans.

And I think I can improve this because I've said the anglerfish is a creature.

Now that's a really nice synonym for the anglerfish.

It is a creature, but I think I can improve on that by adding some adjectives.

So I'd like your help.

I'd like you to pause the video and have a think of two adjectives that you think would be appropriate to add to this noun, creature.

Remember when writing a non-fiction, we have to think very carefully about our adjective choice.

We need to make sure that the adjectives we choose are scientific and precise and we need to make sure they elevate our writing to the appropriate formal standard.

So pause the video now and have a think.

Okay, great.

Now the two that I came up with are unique.

I think the anglerfish is definitely a unique creature.

I think that's fair to say.

There aren't any other creatures like it.

And then it's carnivorous, it means they eat meat.

I think that's a really lovely addition to the sentence because we're getting even more information about the fish without actually wasting too much time on it.

We've told the reader, that this is a creature that eats meat.

We've done it using just one word, which is a very precise and effective, okay.

As an added bonus, I'm going to add in the Latin name for the anglerfish, I wonder if you can remember what it is, what was the video, I'd have to think, okay.

The Latin name for the anglerfish is lophiiformes with a double II which is very peculiar but it's a Latin name so I wouldn't expect it to look like our, I think.

Excellent, the anglerfish, lophiiformes is a unique kind of risk creature that lives in the depths of some of the Earth's oceans.

I have spotted a really good opportunity here for brackets, now brackets to provide actual information that is in our success criteria, lives in the depths of some of the Earth's oceans.

Well, the question is which potions? We can put this into brackets.

Now I know I've already put the scientific Latin name in brackets, but I think we can put this in brackets too.

I don't think it will disrupt the flow of the writing.

Let's try it out.

And then we can always check just to make sure.

So which of the two oceans that the anglerfish live in? I'm listening, okay, the two oceans are Atlantic and Antarctic, close brackets.

The anglerfish, lophiiformes it's a unique carnivorous creature that lives in the depths of some of the Earth's oceans, Atlantic and Antarctic.

I am happy with that.

That's a really lovely opening sentence, it's general.

I'm not giving away too much yet, which I don't want to.

I think I'm just getting the right amount of information to start hooking the reader in, which is very important.

In my next sentence, I'm going to reference some of the amazing adaptations that our creature has.

So I'm going to say that our creature, the anglerfish has a variety of fascinating adaptations.

Now, what do these adaptations do? Well, I suppose they're what allow it to survive in what is quite harsh habitat.

So the anglerfish has a variety of fascinating adaptations that allow it to survive in its harsh habitat, that allow it to survive in its heart habitat.

Yeah, I like that, I'm going to go with that.

The anglerfish has a variety of adaptations, I think variety is wrong.

Adaptations that allow it to survive in its harsh habitat.

Being very careful with that its, very common to include an apostrophe there where there shouldn't be one, its harsh habitat, okay.

The anglerfish has a variety of adaptations that allowance survive in its harsh habitat.

Okay, I like where this is going, but I've just noticed something anglerfish I've now said anglerfish in not only my title, but in my first sentence and my second sentence.

Now, I feel as though we're going to be referring to the anglerfish a lot in this report.

So let's get into the habit of using synonyms for anglerfish so that we don't have to keep saying anglerfish, anglerfish, anglerfish, anglerfish, so I need your help.

Pause the video and have a think.

We need a synonym for anglerfish.

Okay, the one I came up with is bizarre species.

This bizarre species.

This bizarre species has a variety of adaptations that allow it to survive in its harsh habitat.

Yep, I'm happy with that.

When coming up with synonyms for anglerfish, you have to make sure they're appropriate.

It's very easy to start drifting towards synonyms, that are too informal, I think bizarre species is on the borderline of formality.

I think it's about right, but you need to be cautious.

I couldn't say something like this weird creature, cause I think that's a bit too informal, but I think bizarre species yep, I think that's fine.

Now it has all of these adaptations, but it's under threat.

Do you remember how we learned that it's under threat? So it does have one of these adaptations, but it's under threat.

Now this next sentence, I think I can introduce using a formal conjunction.

I think that will really help my writing flow and it will also set a nice formal tone to the language I'm using.

Which of my three types of formal conjunction would introduce the sentence best? This bizarre species has a variety of adaptations that allow it to survive in its harsh habitat.

But I'd like to say, but it's under threat from human activity, which of my formal conjunctions will work best? I've got formal and formal buts and causal, shout out for me.

Okay, it's formal but the one I'm going to go for is, however.

However it's under threat from human activity.

How might I phrase this? I think I'm going to go for, well, I've got an idea.

We need to pose a question to the reader.

That's in our success criteria.

So how about if I phrase it as a question as though we're asking the reader, if they know about this, that's a good idea.

So however, did you know that the anglerfish is under threat due to human activity? However did you know that the anglerfish is under threat due to human activity? Is under threat due to human activity? Okay, did you know that the anglerfish is under threat due to human activity? I think I'm going to say under significant threat, that means it's quite serious, which I think is so I think that's important to make clear.

Okay, fantastic.

This is going really well.

We're already checking various things off our success criteria, including formal conjunction and a question to our reader.

Did you know that the anglerfish is under significant threat due to human activity? Hang on a second, that's a question.

Something doesn't look right, help me out.

What's missing, what doesn't look right? Okay, question mark, can't forget.

For our next sentence, I think we need to make it clear to the reader what's coming up in the report.

So if they were to read on, what are they going to discover? If they were to read on what would they discover? Okay, I think it's fair to say that they're going to discover about each of our main paragraphs.

We have the appearance, diet and habitat.

So perhaps we could list those things.

Read on, to find out more about the anglerfishes, appearance, diet, and habitat.

Read on to find out more about the anglerfishes, appearance, diet and habitat.

You know what though? I'm not satisfied using anglerfish again, while I'm writing this, I'd like your help coming up with another different synonym for anglerfish.

That's your task.

Okay, read on to find out more about, leaving it blank, I know you're still thinking appearance, diet and habitat.

Okay, hope you've been having a think, I've come up with one, the one I've come up with is aquatic predator, something is aquatic.

It lives in the sea, it lives in water.

And as we know from our vocabulary lesson, a predator is an animal that hunts prey for food.

Read on, to find out more about this aquatic predator's, s apostrophe appearance, diet, and habitat, and I've spelled appearance wrong, quite badly.

There you go, appearance, diet and habitat.

Pretty satisfied with that last sentence.

But I think we can take it to the next level, appearance, diet and habitat.

How about if we apply an adjective to each of these, it has to be formal.

It has to be precise and it has to be appropriate.

So your task is to pause the video and come up with three adjectives, one for appearance, one for diet, one for habitat.

Pause the video now and have a go.

Okay, I've had a think too.

And I've come up with strange appearance, I think that's fair to say, varied diet because it eats a variety of different things and incredible habitat, I think it's fair to say.

I think it's fair to say that its habitat is incredible.

Okay, fantastic, I think we're done.

I'm just going to read this back from beginning to end to ensure flow.

We're making sure that it flows nicely.

It doesn't want to sound clunky.

It needs to be flowing and cohesive.

The anglerfish, lophiiformes is a unique, carnivorous creature that lives in the depths of some of the Earth's oceans, Atlantic and Antarctic.

This bizarre species has a variety of adaptations that allow it to survive in its harsh habitat.

However, did you know that the anglerfish is under significant threat due to human activity? Read on to find out more about this aquatic predator's strange appearance, varied diet and incredible habitat.

Okay, fantastic.

Let's just check that we've included everything we need to from our success criteria, so here is our success criteria.

First let's look for an opening and a linking sentence.

So our opening sentence should come at the beginning.

The anglerfish, lophiiformes is a unique, carnivorous creature that lives in the depths of some Earth's oceans, Atlantic and Antarctic.

Absolutely fantastic, really lovely opening sentence.

Our linking sentence should come at the end.

It should link to next paragraph.

Read on to find out more about this aquatic predator's, strange appearance, varied diet and incredible habitat.

Yes, absolutely, linking onto the rest of the report.

So you can give that a tick.

Brackets and extra information.

I can see two instances in which I've used brackets for the Latin name anglerfish, lophiiformes, and then for the oceans in which it lives, Atlantic and Antarctic, so tick.

Formal conjunctions, subject-specific vocabulary.

Well, I can spot one form of conjunction.

It's however, it's a formal but conjunction in terms of subject specific vocabulary, we've got terms like carnivorous, we've got terms like species and habitat.

We've got terms like adaptations.

So I think we've used a range of subject-specific vocabulary, so tick.

Lastly, do we have a question to the reader? Well, yes, there it is.

However, did you know that the anglerfish is under significant threat due to human activity? Definitely a question to the reader.

So tick and we have achieved all four of our criteria.

Time for your task.

Now your task is to write the opening of a non-chronological report about the anglerfish.

Just like I have, you are going to make sure that you include an opening and a linking, brackets, former conjunction, subject-specific vocabulary, and a question to the reader, just like I have, of course you've heard and used a whole variety of really good ideas today.

And of course you should use those if you'd like to.

The work we've done today has been collective, so we've done it together.

I mean, all of these ideas are yours as well as mine.

So please, please, please do put them to good use.

Okay, pause the video and have a go.

Okay, so that's the opening of our report done.

We have our introduction, we've looked at features of a non-chronological report.

You've helped me with my modelled write of an opening and finally, you've done one of your own in our tasks, so well done.

That's the end of the lesson.

Well done for all of your hard work.