year 4 week 14 writing (short stories with a moral) monday … · 2020. 7. 3. · there was once a...
TRANSCRIPT
Year 4 Week 14 Writing (Short stories with a moral)
Monday – Analyse a fable
Listen to the fable ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’ on BBC radio
or read the story below:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/english-ks1--
ks2-aesops-fables-the-boy-who-cried-wolf/zdsft39
Let’s look more closely at this story.
The Boy who cried Wolf
There was once a boy who looked after sheep. The farmer told the boy to
watch the sheep carefully because there were wolves around. The boy
became bored. One day, he played a trick on the villagers. The boy cried out
that there was a wolf attacking his sheep, even though there wasn’t. The
villagers came up the hill to save the sheep. When they got there, there was
no wolf. The boy laughed at them. “You must not tell lies!” said the villagers.
Soon the boy was bored again. He shouted, “Wolf! Wolf!” The villagers
rushed up the hill to save the sheep. When they got there, there was no wolf
again. The boy laughed at them again. “You must not tell lies!” shouted the
villagers. They went back down to the village.
Later that day, a wolf did come into the field. The boy shouted and shouted,
“Wolf! Wolf!” This time no one came to help, and the wolf ate all of the
sheep. The moral of the story is, ‘If you tell lies, people won’t believe you
when you do tell the truth.’
Read below - Story Structure (The Boy Who Cried Wolf)
Bare Bones of story More details
Opening A boy looks after sheep.
He is told to watch them carefully.
The boy is bored whilst watching the sheep.
He is very imaginative.
Event/Build-up The boy shouts for help.
The boy shouts, “Wolf, wolf!”.
The villagers come to help.
The boy laughs at them.
They tell him off.
Problem The boy shouts for help again.
The boy shouts, “Wolf, wolf!” again.
The villagers come a second time.
They tell him off again.
They think he doesn’t tell the truth.
Resolution The boy shouts for help a third time.
The boy shouts, “Wolf, wolf!” again.
The villagers don’t believe him and nobody comes.
Ending The wolf eats all the sheep.
The boy is telling the truth this time.
If you tell lies, people won’t believe you when you tell the truth.
Story Road
Opening - The boy is bored whilst
watching the sheep. He is very
imaginative.
Event/Build-up - The boy shouts,
“Wolf, wolf!” The villagers come to
help. The boy laughs at them. They
tell him off.
Problem - The boy shouts, “Wolf, wolf!” again. The villagers come a second time. They tell him off again. They think he doesn’t tell the truth.
Resolution - The boy shouts, “Wolf, wolf!” again. The villagers don’t believe him and nobody comes.
Ending - The boy is telling the truth this time but the wolf eats all the sheep. So, if you tell lies, people won’t believe you when you tell the truth.
Task: From the list below, choose a moral you would like to
have in your story, or make one of your own up. Write it
down.
Remember – A moral is a lesson about right or wrong to be
learned from the story.
Slow and steady wins the race.
If you lie you may not be believed when you tell the truth.
No one is too small to help someone bigger.
Practise makes perfect.
Don’t put off something until the next day.
A friend in need is a friend indeed.
Treat others as you would like to be treated.
Don’t always follow the crowd.
If you see someone in need, help them out.
Nobody likes a show off.
Be kind to others and they will show you kindness back.
Appearances can be deceiving.
People who try to trick others can be tricked themselves.
Even the strongest need help from the weak.
The key is that a moral is a lifelong lesson or an
overarching rule to live by. It is not a specific lesson that
only applies in certain situations. ‘Always brush your teeth
before you go to bed’ is not a moral – it is too specific.
Tuesday – Plan a fable
Let’s remind ourselves of the features of a fable.
It is a short fictional story.
Main characters are often animals (but can be people or
objects) with human qualities (e.g. clever, wise, funny,
kind, selfish).
Teaches a moral or lesson about life.
Usually one to three characters.
One character sometimes has a bad trait that leads to
his or her downfall .
Dialogue is used to help tell the story or state the moral.
Can be funny and entertain the reader.
Sometimes uses characters that are unlike each other or
natural enemies (e.g. Huge lion and tiny mouse, the sun
and the wind, the fox and the crane, the cat and the
mouse).
We will follow these steps to create a fable:
Step 1: Determine the Moral of the Story
This will be the focus of your story and come at the end of the
resolution.
Step 2: Pick Your Characters and Setting
Choose two animals or objects to serve as your main
characters. You can also pick non-animal characters, like the
wind, the sun, the sea, or even an object like a pot. Your
characters do not need names. They will be called what they
are: the fox, the wolf, the sun, and so on. It can take place in a
forest, city or even a school for animals. Or perhaps it takes
place at the bottom of the ocean, or on Mars. The choice of
setting is yours.
Step 3: Pick Your Characters’ Traits
Whatever characters you choose, they will each need a defining
trait that will play a big part in the story. Many animals are
traditionally associated with human qualities. For example, a
wise owl; a crafty fox; an industrious bee; a tricky spider; or a
strong ox.
Step 4: Shape the Conflict
What kinds of conflicts could the characters get into? Choose
one simple conflict that will demonstrate their personality
traits. For example, in The Tortoise and the Hare, a footrace is
the perfect setting in which to contrast one character who is
slow but determined and focused, with another character who
is a fast runner but is boastful and easily distracted from his
goal.
Look at how I’ve taken the story of ‘The Boy Who Cried
Wolf’ and used the plot as the basis for a story with new
characters, setting and conflict. If I was stuck for ideas, I
could use this type of model to help.
Fable Planning Sheet – EXAMPLE 1
Moral: If you lie to people, then no one will believe you when you tell the truth.
Plot: Goose and Dog
Opening (Introduce the main characters and
setting) Goose lives on a farm – thinks only of herself , often gets bored - likes to trick Dog
Main Characters and their traits A. Goose – lies and makes up stories, selfish, unkind B. Dog - looks after animals, brave, trusting
Event/Build-up (Build up and develop the
plot or the problem) Goose tells Dog that Cow is stuck in the pond - Dog rushes to help – but it’s not true - Goose laughs Problem (What is the problem?) Goose tells Dog that Sheep has got stuck on a fence - Dog rushes to help - not true again- Goose laughs –keeps telling lies Resolution (How is the problem being solved
or sorted out?) Goose spots a fox going into the hen house - tells Dog but Dog won't believe Goose
Setting: farmyard Ending/consequences (The problem is
solved. Leads to the moral of the story) Goose rushes back to hen house to find Fox has eaten the hens and then Fox eats her too.
How is this story similar to ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’?
Answer: Just like in the ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’, the Goose – rather than the
boy – keeps calling for help – to the dog - instead of the villagers. Eventually
the dog doesn’t believe her any more – just like the villagers don’t believe the
boy – and all the hens get eaten in the end – rather than the sheep.
Idea – I’ve taken the same story as above and changed the
moral of the story and the characters’ traits. Look below at
how the story has changed now.
Fable Planning Sheet – EXAMPLE 2
Moral: Treat others as you would like to be treated.
Plot: Goose and Dog
Opening Goose lives on a farm – thinks only of herself , often gets bored - likes to make fun of Dog
Main Characters and their traits A. Goose – Makes fun of people, selfish, lazy, supposed to look after hens B. Dog - Helpful, brave, trusting
Event/Build-up - Goose tells Dog there’s a special bone in the mud near the pond. Dog tries to find it but gets covered in mud instead. Goose laughs at Dog. Problem - Goose tells Dog that there’s another dog that wants to be his friend, but he must somehow get over the fence to the other farmyard. He does this but breaks the fence. Goose laughs again. Resolution – Goose notices hens have gotten out of the barn. Tells Dog to find them but he doesn’t believe her. Tells Goose to find them herself. The hens get angry that Goose is ordering them back to barn. Pluck out all her feathers. Goose looks very silly with all her feathers gone.
Setting: farmyard Ending/consequences Goose is laughed at by everyone when she gets all the hens back. She realises that she should treat others as she would like to be treated.
Task: Make a plan for your fable. Use the Fable Planning Sheet or
draw your own plan on paper. Extension: Draw/write a story road
to go with your plan as well.
Extension - Story Road
Opening
Event/Build-up
Problem
Resolution
Ending
Wednesday – Write the opening, event and problem of a
fable.
Let’s look at how to begin.
Some good starting phrases I could use are:
One ________________ day…
There was once…
A man…
A woman…
A boy…
A girl…
A ________________...
Under the blue sunny sky…
Under the blue glistening sea…
On a warm, sandy beach…
In the cold darkness of space…
I will use the following features to guide my writing:
Main characters are animals with human qualities
One to three main characters Teaches a moral or lesson about life
One character has a bad trait that leads to his or her downfall
Dialogue is used to help tell the story Can be funny and entertain the reader
I will use example 2 of my plan. I’ll give it a title and then
start with my opening…
The Dog and the Goose
There was once long ago a goose who was very selfish and
loved to make fun of Dog. She lived on a farm and was in
charge of looking after all the hens. She was often bored so
she would think up ways to get Dog to do silly things. Then
she would laugh at him.
Now that I’ve introduced the characters and setting, I’ll
move on to my first event…
To trick Dog, Goose first told him that there was a special,
incredibly tasty bone near the pond. Upon hearing news of
this, Dog raced to the pond and starting digging ferociously
for the bone! But before long, he realised that there was
nothing buried in the ground and gave up. He went into the
barn and Goose took one look at him, and roared with
laughter. “Oh Dog, you look so ridiculous! You’re completely
covered in mud! I love it!!” With that, Dog sadly scampered
away to sulk outside.
Then on to the problem…
The next day, Goose told Dog that there was another dog
from the next farm who wanted to play with him, but that he
would have to somehow get over the fence to get there. Dog
was very lonely as there were no other dogs on the farm. So
upon hearing this, he immediately raced to the neighbour’s
Animal characters
with human traits
Dialogue is used to
help tell the story Time connectives
help to begin each
part of the story
fence and tried to get through a small opening. But it was so
small that he had to try and make it bigger. He scratched and
pushed and pulled, but couldn’t make the hole bigger. He
tried again, but this time the entire section of fence came
crumbling to the ground! “Oh no!” he thought, “I’m in big
trouble now!” Goose raced to the scene and saw the broken
fence, letting out a tremendous laugh of approval that lasted
for over an hour! “Oh sorry Dog, I must have been mistaken!”
she blurted, “I guess there wasn’t really another dog to play
with!” Dog was heartbroken and sadly trotted off,
whimpering to Goose as he went. “It’s not funny!” he
sobbed.
Look at how I used my plan for the general framework of
the story. Then used dialogue to add interest and humour.
Let’s look back at our features checklist to see if we’ve used
any of them.
Main characters are animals with human qualities
One to three main characters
Teaches a moral or lesson about life One character has a bad trait that leads to his or her downfall
Dialogue is used to help tell the story
Can be funny and entertain the reader
We don’t know the ending so we don’t need to tick off
everything yet.
Task: Using your fable plan, write the opening, event and
problem for your story on paper or a computer.
Remember to use capital letters to begin sentences and punctuation such as
full stops. Also inverted commas around any dialogue. Try to include lots of
great describing words.
Thursday – Write the resolution and ending of your fable.
Today we’ll bring the story together and end with the
moral.
The resolution…
Later that day Goose noticed that the hens had gotten out of
the barn. She told Dog to go and bring them all back. But by
this time Dog didn’t believe a word she said to him and
replied, “No, not this time Goose. How could I ever trust you
now?” So Goose had to go and try to round up all the hens.
But the hens were enjoying their new found freedom and
were quite annoyed with the bossy Goose telling them what
to do. So rather than march back to the barn, the hens
surrounded Goose and plucked all her feathers out! “Help,
help!!” she shouted. But it was no use. Before long, all her
feathers were completely gone and she looked like a saggy-
skinned pink turkey without feathers, rather than a goose!
Now to the ending…
Eventually, Goose rounded up all the hens and took them
back to the barn. When all the other creatures in the barn
saw her they let out a huge roar of laughter! Goose went to
the pond and saw her reflection, and realised how silly she
looked. After being laughed at so much, she felt bad about
how she had acted towards Dog earlier. She then began to
understand that we should treat others as we would like to
be treated.
The end.
Let’s look back again at our features checklist. I can now
check all of them off.
Main characters are animals with human qualities
One to three main characters Teaches a moral or lesson about life
One character has a bad trait that leads to his or her downfall
Dialogue is used to help tell the story Can be funny and entertain the reader
Task: Complete the resolution and ending for your fable.
If you have finished your story, re-read and edit to check spelling and
punctuation, or make other improvements.
Friday – Edit your story
Re-read your story. Check that you have used capital letters
and full stops. Check that you have used inverted commas in
the right places for dialogue, and that the story makes sense.
Also that you have included lots of fantastic verbs, adverbs
and adjectives. Look at the features checklist to see that you
have included most or all of the features. When you have
finished, ask someone else to read your brilliant story!
Extension: Do a piece of writing in any style about something
you’ve learned this year.
The main characters are animals with human qualities.
There are usually one to three characters. It teaches a moral or lesson about life. One character has a bad trait that leads to his or her downfall.
Dialogue is used to help tell the story.
It can be funny and entertain the reader. If you have finished editing yesterday, either write a good
copy of your story, change some parts of the story to make it
different, or you may do a piece of writing in any style about
something you’ve learned this year.
End of Year 4 Week 14 Writing