Improving a letter: deliberate verbs and precise adjectives
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can improve a letter which recounts an imagined experience from the British home front during World War One by paying close attention to my choice of verbs and adjectives.
Key learning points
- Writers spend as long choosing deliberate verbs and precise adjectives as they do on other methods.
- Verbs tell us how an action is done, and so can give an insight into character, atmosphere and tone.
- Adjectives describe nouns and also impact tone.
Keywords
Vera Brittain - a British writer (1893-1970) best known for her memoir ‘Testament of Youth’ about her experiences on the home front of World War One
Flare - a light used to attract attention
Wilfred Owen - a British soldier and poet (1893-1918) best remembered for his poetry about World War One
Tone - the attitude and emotion of your voice - written or verbal
PTSD - an acronym for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a mental health condition
Common misconception
It is important to focus on the creation of complex methods like metaphor or anaphora. Verbs don't matter.
Every sentence should contain a verb. As such, choosing them requires careful thought, and can dramatically impact the tone and pace of your writing.
Teacher tip
Consider if you have excellent pupil work which could serve as the models in this lesson in place of Brittain and Owen.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering
Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering
Depiction or discussion of mental health issues
Supervision
Adult supervision required
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Wilfred Owen's 'Mental Cases' describes soldiers with PTSD. He says in their minds they are "Wading sloughs [swamps] of flesh". Which is the verb in this phrase?
Q2.A pupil wrote a sentence inspired by poetry and short stories about WW1: "The weather is bitterly cold." Match each word of the sentence to its word class.
noun
verb
adverb
adjective
Q3.A pupil wrote a sentence inspired by poetry and short stories about WW1: "I survey the empty town and desolate shops." Match each word of the sentence to its word class.
subject
verb
adjective
noun
adjective
plural noun
Q4.Which option below is accurate about Vera Brittain's 'Testament of Youth'?
Q5.What is accurate about both Wilfred Owen and Vera Brittain, two writers from the unit 'Literary perspectives from the First World War'?
Q6.One of Wilfred Owen's most famous poems, 'Dulce et Decorum Est', describes a gas attack. Owen uses the first stanza to describe the soldiers in the trenches, writing "we through sludge."
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.A pupil wrote a sentence inspired by poetry and short stories about WW1: "I stumble fitfully, cold and alone." Match each word of the sentence to its word class.
subject
verb
adverb
adjective
adjective
Q2.A pupil wrote a sentence inspired by poetry and short stories about WW1: "Nightly, I feel desolate." Match each word of the sentence to its word class.
adverb
subject
verb
adjective
Q3.One of Wilfred Owen's most famous poems describes the weather in the trenches. Owen begins the poem, "Our brains ".
Q4.One of Wilfred Owen's most famous poems describes a gas attack. Owen uses the first stanza to describe the soldiers in the trenches: " , coughing like hags".
Q5.One of Wilfred Owen's most famous poems describes the weather in the trenches. Owen describes "the merciless iced east winds that us."
Q6.In one of his most famous poems, Wilfred Owen wrote about the "clawing" flares in the trenches. What did he later change this phrase to?
To help you plan your 9 English lesson on: Improving a letter: deliberate verbs and precise adjectives, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 9 English lesson on: Improving a letter: deliberate verbs and precise adjectives, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 English lessons from the Literary perspectives from the First World War unit, dive into the full secondary English curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.