'The Firework Maker's Daughter': reading and narrative writing
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Threads
Why this why now
Building on 'The Iron Man' unit, where pupils developed skills in complex sentence and speech writing, this unit focuses on applying these to create detailed, engaging narratives. By summarising key events and exploring Lila's feelings, pupils deepen their understanding of character and narrative structure. Writing the build-up and climax refines their use of complex sentences, precise vocabulary, and speech. These skills prepare pupils for the next unit, where they will expand their use of subordinating conjunctions and integrate speech into complex sentences.
Prior knowledge requirements
- A narrative can be structured as an opening, build-up, climax and resolution.
- Each part of a story has a specific purpose and intended effect on the reader.
- The intended effect on the reader is achieved through careful vocabulary choices.
- Adjectives describe nouns and adverbials modify verbs.
- There are three main types of sentences: simple, compound and complex.
- These must be punctuated accurately with a full stop, capital letter and a comma where needed.
- An adverbial complex sentence consists of a main clause and an adverbial subordinate clause.
- The Firework Maker's Daughter is a novella by Phillip Paulman set in India.
- The novel is a quest story where the main character, Lila, goes on an adventure to become a firework maker.
- Speech sentences are punctuated with inverted commas to distinguish the spoken words.
Threads
Why this why now
Building on 'The Iron Man' unit, where pupils developed skills in complex sentence and speech writing, this unit focuses on applying these to create detailed, engaging narratives. By summarising key events and exploring Lila's feelings, pupils deepen their understanding of character and narrative structure. Writing the build-up and climax refines their use of complex sentences, precise vocabulary, and speech. These skills prepare pupils for the next unit, where they will expand their use of subordinating conjunctions and integrate speech into complex sentences.
Prior knowledge requirements
- A narrative can be structured as an opening, build-up, climax and resolution.
- Each part of a story has a specific purpose and intended effect on the reader.
- The intended effect on the reader is achieved through careful vocabulary choices.
- Adjectives describe nouns and adverbials modify verbs.
- There are three main types of sentences: simple, compound and complex.
- These must be punctuated accurately with a full stop, capital letter and a comma where needed.
- An adverbial complex sentence consists of a main clause and an adverbial subordinate clause.
- The Firework Maker's Daughter is a novella by Phillip Paulman set in India.
- The novel is a quest story where the main character, Lila, goes on an adventure to become a firework maker.
- Speech sentences are punctuated with inverted commas to distinguish the spoken words.
Reading, writing & oracy
'The Firework Maker's Daughter': reading and narrative writing
In this unit, pupils develop their ability to summarise key events from the text, exploring Lila's feelings in the build-up to these. Pupils plan and write both the build-up and the climax of the story, focusing on developing their use of complex sentences, precise vocabulary and speech.
12 lessons in unit
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