KS3 > Skills > Story openings and endings (NLS Y7) > Using clues to predict a story

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Dominic Briggs
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1 tweakit resource guide Using clues to predict a story KS3 > Skills > Story openings and endings (NLS Y7) > Using clues to predict a story How it works Try this! Students study the opening of a very short story to infer and deduce how the story might turn out. Firstly, make sure you don t read the story to students before you start! In fact, the lesson works best if YOU haven t read the story so that you have to go through the same detective process as the students. (However, it s worth knowing that the story, The Case for the Defence by Graham Greene, is available at: There are some other great stories available there too.) Or this! The resource is a single lesson plan and its resources, but in fact, it contains rich possibilities for expansion. Firstly, the starter uses a lateral thinking puzzle to introduce the idea of an open-minded approach to evidence a crucial skill for deep appreciation of literature. Why not pause here and spend a whole lesson on lateral thinking puzzles? There is a wealth of these puzzles (and their solutions!) at the Brain Food site: Or this! You could also give groups of students small collections of objects that were supposedly found in the pocket of a jacket found on a beach. The group has to discuss what these objects suggest about the jacket s owner and how the jacket came to be there. All these activities are designed to improve students imaginative engagement with evidence. They should keep you going for a whole lesson or two! Good for last thing Friday afternoon when Y7 have just returned from PE. Or this! The lesson proper begins with a forensic analysis of the story s first sentence. Don t rush this. In fact, first present the sentence jumbled up to increase its intriguing potential. Jumbling is easily done by copying the sentence into Teachit s Syntex - Richard Durant

2 Learning objective How can we use clues in a text to predict how it continues? (TLR15 Trace the ways in which a writer structures a text to prepare a reader for the ending, and comment on the effectiveness of the ending) Resources OHP OHTs (below) and OHT pens copy of the clues analysis sheet for each pupil pair 1 copy of The Case for the Defence by Graham Greene (optional) mini-wipeboards, 1 per pair Starter (5 mins) Give the class the following puzzle: a man is lying dead in the middle of a field with a package lying next to him. How did he die? Follow-up clue: as he had approached the middle of the field he know he was going to die. (Answer: the package is an unopened parachute.) Take feedback. Draw attention to clues in the puzzle. Main/ phase one (10 mins) Establish the learning objective (above). Show the OHT of the first sentence of the story and the title. Model for the class how to use inference and deduction to extract information from the first sentence (see Teacher guide sheet). Now show the second OHT and read aloud to the class how the story opening continues. Assign different lines to different pairs (less able get lines earlier in the text) and get them to extract information from their assigned line/sentence (use clues analysis sheet). Encourage the class to stick to information rather than speculation. After two minutes, get pairs to join up and share their ideas. Take brief feedback, always getting students to explain how their ideas link to the clues. Now underline a phrase that contributes to the mood/emotion/attitude of the piece e.g. bulging, bloodshot eyes, and model how the choice of language provides clues. Main/phase two (10 mins) Tell the class that the story only has three more pages. Ask them: what might happen on the final (fourth) page of the story? How do we know? Give them time; take feedback, recording ideas on the board, constantly linking suggestions back to details in the text. Ask class: what might happen in the next paragraph to move it towards the final page? How do you know? Give them time; take feedback, recording ideas on the board. Main/phase three (10 mins) Taking account of ideas about how the story will continue and end, model for the class the writing of the opening of the next paragraph. Think aloud about choices (see Teacher modelled writing guide). Take some suggestions from students, selecting from, and commenting on, them. Application (10 mins) Get students in pairs to write a continuation of the paragraph on mini-wipeboards. Plenary (5 mins) Hear some writing and ask students to comment on how the writers have used clues from the story opening. Return to the objective and ask what sorts of clues there are in stories which might help us to predict how they continue doc Page 1 of 6

3 OHT It was the strangest murder trial I ever attended doc Page 2 of 6

4 OHT It was the strangest murder trial I ever attended. They named it the Peckham murder in the headlines, though Northwood Street, where the old woman was found battered to death, was not strictly speaking in Peckham. This was not one of those cases of circumstantial evidence in which you feel the jurymen's anxiety because mistakes have been made like domes of silence muting the court. No, this murderer was all but found with the body; no one present when the Crown counsel outlined his case believed that the man in the dock stood any chance at all. He was a heavy stout man with bulging bloodshot eyes. All his muscles seemed to be in his thighs. Yes, an ugly customer, one you wouldn't forget in a hurry and that was an important point because the Crown proposed to call four witnesses who hadn't forgotten him, who had seen him hurrying away from the little red villa in Northwood Street. The clock had just struck two in the morning. Mrs Salmon in 15 Northwood Street had been unable to sleep; she heard a door click shut and thought it was her own gate. So she went to the window and saw Adams (that was his name) on the steps of Mrs Parker's house. He had just come out and he was wearing gloves. He had a hammer in his hand and she saw him drop it into the laurel bushes by the front gate. But before he moved away, he had looked up at her window. The fatal instinct that tells a man when he is watched exposed him in the light of a street-lamp to her gaze his eyes suffused with horrifying and brutal fear, like an animal's when you raise a whip doc Page 3 of 6

5 Teacher guide sheet (Possible clues underlined and numbered) Strangest not longest or most important. Unusual description. What might have been strange about it? This is a firstperson narrative and the narrator has been to a lot of trials. I wonder who or what the narrator is? The word attended would suggest they are not a judge or a criminal other words would have been used for these people. Who attends trials? Perhaps a witness, a police officer or a reporter. Not many people would have attended a lot of trials, and certainly very few would have attended a lot of murder trials. It was the strangest murder trial I ever attended. (1) They named it the Peckham murder in the headlines, (2) though Northwood Street, where the old woman was found battered to death, was not strictly speaking in Peckham. (3) This was not one of those cases of circumstantial evidence in which you feel the jurymen's anxiety because mistakes have been made like domes of silence muting the court. (4) No, this murderer was all but found with the body; (5) no one present when the Crown counsel outlined his case believed that the man in the dock stood any chance at all. He was a heavy stout man with bulging bloodshot eyes. (6) All his muscles seemed to be in his thighs. (7) Yes, an ugly customer, one you wouldn't forget in a hurry and (8) that was an important point because the Crown proposed to call four witnesses who hadn't forgotten him, who (9) had seen him hurrying away from the little red villa in Northwood Street. (10) The clock had just struck two in the morning. (11) Mrs Salmon in 15 Northwood Street had been unable to sleep; (12) she heard a door click shut and thought it was her own gate. (13) So she went to the window and saw Adams (that was his name) on the steps of Mrs Parker's house. (14) He had just come out and he was wearing gloves. (15) He had a hammer in his hand and she saw him drop it into the laurel bushes by the front gate. (16) But before he moved away, he had looked up at her window. (17) The fatal instinct that tells a man when he is watched exposed him in the light of a streetlamp to her gaze (18) his eyes suffused with horrifying and brutal fear, like an animal's when you raise a whip. Examples of clue analysis: (1) Who is they? The newspaper presumably. It happened in Peckham? Or is Peckham a person? (2) There is some room for doubt: there is plenty of evidence linking the defendant to crime, but they weren t found actually at the crime scene mood/emotion/attitude: bulging, bloodshot eyes sounds ugly and brutal. It makes the defendant sound unpleasant, frightening and guilty too eyes are always assumed to give criminals away. We are not being encouraged to feel sympathy for this man. (9) The word hurrying suggests that he knew what had happened and wanted to get away. Little red villa suggests a genteel, respectable neighbourhood. (14) We associate gloves and crime they are worn by criminals to avoid leaving fingerprints. This makes him sound guilty. On the other hand, this might be winter, and he may have put his gloves on because he knew it was cold outside doc Page 4 of 6

6 Clues analysis one sheet per pair Text underline clues What the clues suggest It was the strangest murder trial I ever attended. They named it the Peckham murder in the headlines, though Northwood Street, where the old woman was found battered to death, was not strictly speaking in Peckham. This was not one of those cases of circumstantial evidence in which you feel the jurymen's anxiety because mistakes have been made like domes of silence muting the court. No, this murderer was all but found with the body; no one present when the Crown counsel outlined his case believed that the man in the dock stood any chance at all. He was a heavy stout man with bulging bloodshot eyes. All his muscles seemed to be in his thighs. Yes, an ugly customer, one you wouldn't forget in a hurry and that was an important point because the Crown proposed to call four witnesses who hadn't forgotten him, who had seen him hurrying away from the little red villa in Northwood Street. The clock had just struck two in the morning. Mrs Salmon in 15 Northwood Street had been unable to sleep; she heard a door click shut and thought it was her own gate. So she went to the window and saw Adams (that was his name) on the steps of Mrs Parker's house. He had just come out and he was wearing gloves. He had a hammer in his hand and she saw him drop it into the laurel bushes by the front gate. But before he moved away, he had looked up at her window. The fatal instinct that tells a man when he is watched exposed him in the light of a street-lamp to her gaze his eyes suffused with horrifying and brutal fear, like an animal's when you raise a whip doc Page 5 of 6

7 Teacher modelled writing guide Crossed out words and phrases: write these first and then change your mind and write the words in square brackets [ ] instead, explaining your change of mind. Thinking aloud: This is a very short story so the next paragraph will deal briefly with all the other witnesses. I will use the word other to link the paragraph back to the previous mention of other witnesses. This detail continues the suggestion that Adams was acting in a guilty way. If we say Adams then it makes it sound like the narrator is saying it is definitely Adams. If we just describe the man then it leaves open the possibility that this isn t Adams. The fatal instinct that tells a man when he is watched exposed him in the light of a street-lamp to her gaze his eyes suffused with horrifying and brutal fear, like an animal's when you raise a whip The other three witnesses were just as sure [as Mrs Salmon] that they had seen Adams running away from the villa where Mrs Parker had been found murdered [crime scene]. Mr Harris [ a thoroughly respectable bank manager ] had opened his front door to let in his cat, Dennis, just as Adams [a thick-set man] ran past his gate, looking back over his shoulder Thinking aloud: We ve got to save space, so I will use the simple phrase crime scene. We need some brief detail about Mr Harris so that the reader can get interested in him. The street of villas suggests prosperity and respectability. It probably suggests snobbery as well so that these witnesses might be prejudiced against someone who looks like Adams. Perhaps the ending will be about how prejudices make us jump to conclusions. Now get students to help you to continue the paragraph for a sentence or two. Think aloud about why you might accept, reject or modify their suggestions. Ask other students what they think about suggestions doc Page 6 of 6

A Sherlock Holmes story The Norwood Builder by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Chapter 1

A Sherlock Holmes story The Norwood Builder by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Chapter 1 Author: Daniel Barber Level: Intermediate Age: Young adults / Adults Time: 45 minutes (60 with optional activity) Aims: In this lesson, the students will: 1. discuss what they already know about Sherlock