English and Media Faculty

Year 9 English: What’s your story? Reading the short story

Week 3: Openings

Lessons 9&10

LO: Can I evaluate how writers engage readers and keep them reading? (Key words: Openings, Narrative hooks, Sentence structure)

Starter / Settling / Recap

 Print Slide 3 as a handout for students. In pairs they should demarcate the sentences in this short extract. Instructions on handout / slide.
 Slide 4: Reveal corrected extract. Extension: How are sentences structured here? How do they support meaning and reflect the boy’s experience? How does
this sentence structure influence how we read and respond to this piece of text?
Introduction Development
 Introduce students to / remind them of DROPS, an acronym some  Slides 7-9 contain the openings of the short stories in this week’s
students find useful for reminding them of what to include in their writing collection. They get progressively more challenging (as do the stories
(Slide 5). Explain that this week you are focusing on openings and themselves), particularly in terms of language students may be not be
sentences (particularly sentence openings!) familiar with. Print one or more (according to ability) to give to groups of
 Ask students why the openings of stories are important. Slide 6: Ask students. They should ask the same questions of the text as they did for
students to consider how these opening sentences ‘hook’ readers into a opening sentences, as well as:
story. Questioning: - Is a mood or atmosphere is created? If so, how?
- What kind of characters and worlds do they introduce us to or entice us - Are we given any clues about what will happen in this story?
with?  Slides 10-11: Introduce Jamil Ahmad and his story. The YouTube interview
- What questions do they make us ask? What do we want to find out? is quite long; select a short section relevant to The Sins of the Mother if you
What’s interesting, exciting or intriguing about them? wish students to view it.
- Extension: What kind of genre do students think these texts belong  Class / group reading of The Sins of the Mother. If students are working in
to? groups, model how you would gain a better understanding of the story or
clear up any misconceptions using a dictionary and / or Google.
Plenary
 Revisit learning objective (this may be done before reading the story), and have students think about how Ahmad engages readers at the beginning of the
story, and then throughout (the kind of questions asked previously may be revisited). What new information is revealed at various points in the story? What
keeps our attention? What grips us? Which parts create tension?
English and Media Faculty

Lessons 11&12

LO: Can I use different sentence openings in my creative writing? (Key words: Fluency, Cohesion, Preposition, Adjective, Adverb, Connective, Noun phrase,
Simile, Participle)

Starter / Settling / Recap

 Slide 13: Paired cloze activity - Which sentence openers go where in this passage? Print slide as a handout if appropriate.
 Slide 14: Reveal correct answers. Questioning: How do some of these openings provide a link to the previous sentence, creating cohesion and fluency in the
writing?
Introduction Development
 Slide 15: Give students / pairs / groups one of the sentences from The  Slide 22 contains instructions for the written task students will begin during
Sins of the Mother. Show or give out Slide 16 which gives definitions and class time; completing or re-drafting should be set for homework. Some
some functions or examples of different kinds of sentence openings. Slide students might at this stage have their own idea for a short story – perhaps
17 gives some others. one inspired by Ahmad’s story, for example about a culture different to
 Ask students what kind of opening their sentence have. What effect / theirs. Students should still plot / plan the ‘beginning, middle and end’
impact do these openings provide? elements of their own short story.
 Slides 18-21 give students information about creative writing at GCSE,
 Extension: Do these sentences obey the following Kurt Vonnegut tip for including AOs and success criteria (coursework mark schemes). Have
story writing: “Every sentence must do one of two things –reveal students look at them, perhaps in groups, and summarise them in their
character or advance the action.” Why? Why not? If the sentences don’t, own words, i.e. ‘What makes an A*/A/B student in creative writing at
does it matter? GCSE?’ This will have to be differentiated and made worthwhile – students
might look at one or more set of criteria according to what level they are
working at, and some classes / students may need these simplified. Could
also be used when looking at each other’s work (see plenary).

Plenary
 Peer assessment of opening paragraphs. In pairs or groups, students should look at each other’s work, highlighting any of the elements of creative writing they
have studied (Imagery, figurative language, Interesting/powerful verbs and adjectives, narrative hooks, varied sentence openings and structures).