A Recount Aims to Recall Past Events (To Give a True Record of What Happened). It Has 3 Parts

Recount

A Recount aims to recall past events (to give a true record of what happened). It has 3 parts:

1. Setting – to tell the reader the basic information of the events e.g. date, time, place
2. Events in time order – to retell what happened in the order / sequence of the time in which the events happened
3. Evaluation – to tell the reader what you think or how you feel about the events

The following is an example of a typical recount text: Our School Sports Days.

The text tells you what happened(verb: past tense) on our school sports days.

1. Date: ______
2. Place: ______
3. Time:______
4. First and last events:

The following table shows all the track and field events. Circle the ones that took place in your school’s sports days.

Choose 2 track events and 2 field events to write about. Remember there is also the student-teacher friendly race. Write about the number of heats, who participated, when it took place, who won etc. Start with a preposition phrase, for example:

For the 60m sprint, we had 10 heats. Five heats were for girls and five heats were for boys. They took place in the morning on the first day. (Name of student) of (class) won the champion(OR A classmate in my class won the first runner-up).

1st track event chosen:______

______

2nd track event chosen: ______

______

1st field event chosen: ______

______

2nd field event chosen: ______

______

Now, write about your School Sports Day. Use what you have learnt (e.g. preposition phrases, verbs (past tense), a SVO sentence).

Our School Sports Day

1. First, write the noun for the event / people you want to write about (i.e. the Subject);
2. Then, write the verb for what happened / what they did;
3. Then write the Object and the other parts.

1. First, write the prepositional phrase for the track/field event you want to write about in the first column;
2. Then, write the noun for the Subject (think of what you want to say about the event);
3. Then, write the verb for what happened;
4. Then, write the Object and the other parts.

Word bank:

Sports day prizes: gold medal, silver medal, bronze medal, trophies

Winners: champion, first runner-up, second runner-up, the best athlete of the year

Adjectives to tell how you feel: exhausted, bored

[Do not include too many words. It’s more useful to encourage students to ask you for a word they do not know or to use a Chinese-English dictionary so that they are learning to use words that they want to use. When given a list of words that do not actually say what they want to say, they don't actually learn very much.]

General sports day vocabulary for reference: annual sports days, the programme, athletes, pitch, races / events, heats, three-legged race, blind fold race, sack race, tug of war, triathlon, pentathlon, (pledge to) the spirit of sportsmanship, team spirit, in the spirit of the Olympics, the guest of honour presides over the function, march past / parade, pistol shot, stop watch, the cheering team, baton, losers, referees, scores

1

Information report

Part 1: (Purpose and structure of an information report)

The information report below tells you about what koalas are and what they are like. There are 2 parts in the information report:

1. General classification / definition– it classifies koalas within the animal kingdom.
2. Specific description / details– it describes things special to koalas.

Read the information report below. Colour the general classification in green, and the specific description in orange.

Koalas

Koalas belong to the Marsupial family. This is a group of mammals which raise their babies in a pouch. Marsupials are found mainly in Australia.

Koalas are furry creatures about the size of a small dog. They have large round ears, small eyes and a big, flat, leathery nose in an oval shape. They have sharp claws for hanging on to branches of trees.

Koalas spend most of their time in gum trees in the Australian bush. They live high in the branches out of harm’s way. They are able to sleep wedged in the fork of two branches. Koalas are herbivores, their main diet consisting of the leaves of certain types of eucalypts.

Koalas raise their young in a pouch covering the mother’s tummy. The baby is suckled in the pouch and remains there for several weeks until able to feed itself. You will often find nearly fully grown koalas still using the mother’s pouch.

Read the specific description part again. Write in the boxes what each paragraph tells you about koalas (Use nouns). Which aspects of koalas have you learnt by reading the specific description?

Part 2: (Language use in an information report)

1. The following tree diagram helps to classify koalas. Find 3 nouns from Paragraph 1 to put into the 3 white boxes in the tree diagram to classify koalas within the animal kingdom.

Bracket the words in Paragraph 1 that tell you in which box to put the 3 nouns (i.e. how to classify koalas from a bigger class to a smaller class).

1. Circle the nouns in Paragraphs 1 and 2 that name the parts of a koala’s body. Draw a cross on the adjectives in Paragraph 2 that describe these nouns and other body parts of a koala.

1. In Paragraph 3, circle the nouns that name the place where a koala lives and stays. Put in a rectangle the verbs that describe what a koala does in these places. Read the words following these verbs. What do they tell you about how koalas live? [N.B.: We use adverbial phrases and prepositional phrases to tell how.]

1. Circle the nouns in the last sentence of Paragraph 3 that name the dietary habit of koalas.

1. Put in a rectangle the verbs that describe what mother koalas do to raise baby koalas and what baby koalas do to grow. Underline the prepositional phrases following these verbs to tell you more about how they do these things.

Part 3: (Writing an information report)

Kangaroos also belong to the Marsupial family. Use what you have learnt about an information report on koalas to write an information report about kangaroos.

Before you write, use the writing frame below to find out more about kangaroos. Use the following websites:

Kangaroos

General classification

-In addition to the Marsupial family, which other family do kangaroos also belong to?

-Name some species of kangaroos

Specific description

Body features

-Hind legs:

-Front legs:

-Tail:

-Fur:

-Ears:

-Height and weight:

Habits:

-What is the special thing they can do? How do they do this?

-What else do they do?

-What is their life span?

Habitat

-Where do they live? In which part of Australia?

-In what kind of places do they live (trees, grassland, …)?

-How do they live?

-How do they protect themselves against enemies?

Diet

-What is the word to describe their eating habit?

-What do they eat?

-What is special about the way they eat?

-What are their teeth like?

Raising the young

-What are baby kangaroos called?

-What are they like?

-What is the first thing they do after being born?

-Where do they live?

-How are they fed?

-When are they ready to live on their own?

Threats (and other interesting facts)

-What are their predators?

Task variations:

-Ask for more / less sub-topics

-Give paragraph starters e.g., Kangaroos are mammals.

-Specify sentence patterns e.g., Their hind legs are …

Festivals of Light [Longman Elect S1, p.84]

There are many festivals around the world that involve light. Here are just a few of them.

Every November, people in Thailand celebrate Loi Krathong (Loi means to float and a Krathong is a small boat made of banana leaves). The festival starts at night when people gather under the full moon and carry their krathongs to nearby rivers and canals. The small boats, each containing a candle, joss sticks, flowers and a few coins, are then placed on the water. As the boats drift away, people usually make a wish.

In India, Diwali is an important festival for Hindus and people of other Indian religions. It takes place in October or November and lasts five days. People decorate their homes with bright lights and decorations are also put up in the streets. There are fireworks displays too, particularly in large cities.

There is also a light festival that Jewish people celebrate. It is called Hanukkah. Jews celebrate Hanukkah for eight days, lighting one candle on the first night, two on the second night, and so on. The festival commemorates a famous battle in which a group of Jews bravely fought and defeated the Syrians to save the Temple of Jerusalem.

Another interesting light festival takes place at Christmas in the Philippines. Star lanterns called parols are hung outside people’s homes and along the streets. The lanterns symbolize the star that guided the Three Wise Men to where Jesus was born.

At Christmas in Mexico, there is also a festival during which Mexican families go from house to house with candles pretending, like Mary and Joseph, to look for a room at the inn.

Information about other festivals

Lantern festivals around the world:

Narratives / Stories

Part 1: (Structure of a story)

There are 4 parts in the story below:

1. Setting– it tells you the background / basic information about the story e.g. who, when, where.
2. Problem – it tells you that something unusual / not normal had happened; it leads on to the rest of the plot / story.
3. Complication / Events – it tells you the events that happened because of the Problem.
4. Resolution / Ending – it tells you what happened in the end; it ends the story.

Read the story to find out these 4 parts. Colour each part as follows:

1. Setting (red)
2. Problem (blue)
3. Events (orange)
4. Ending (green)

Bestest and the Prince

Once upon a time a witch put a beautiful princess in a tall tower. Her name was Bestest. She was best in everything. One day, Bestest saw a prince and shook her long hair out of the window. The prince climbed up her hair.

‘I’m here to save you,’ said the prince.

‘Oh! Your teeth are black,’ said Bestest. ‘How often do you brush your teeth?’

‘Once a week,’ the prince said.

‘You should brush your teeth twice a day. Come back when your teeth are clean,’ said Bestest.

The next week the prince climbed up Bestest’s hair again. He smiled a handsome white smile at Bestest. ‘That’s better,’ she said, ‘but your hair is very dirty. How often do you wash it?’

‘Three times a month,’ said the prince.

‘Ugh!’ said Bestest. ‘You should wash your hair three times a week. Come back when your hair is clean.’

The next week the prince climbed up Bestest’s hair again. He ran his fingers through his shiny hair. ‘That’s better,’ said Bestest, ‘but your fingernails are too long. How often do you cut them?’

The prince never came back.

[adapted from Primary Longman Elect 4B, 2009, pp.46-47]

Part 2: (Purpose of a story)

Do you find the story interesting / funny? Which part is most interesting / funny to you? Write what you think in the box below. [Draw a box on the part you like most.]

What do you think the story wants to tell you?

Part 3: (Language use in a story)

1. Underline the words / phrases that tell you the time. The first one is ‘Once upon a time’ (line 1). How much time was there / covered in the story?

1. Bracket the prepositional phrases(a prepositional phrase is a unit of words starting with a preposition). The first one is ‘in a tall tower’ (line 1). Tell your neighbour what each prepositional phrase tell you (e.g. time, place). Use the pictures in the story to show your neighbour what each prepositional phrase means. [You can do the same with the when-clause.]

1. Put in a triangleall the verbs. What tensesare they? Where is the past tense used and where is the present tense used? Why?

1. Circle the saying verbsthat tell you what the princess and the prince said. Change them into a different verb that tells you how the princess and the prince said what they said. [You can give students a number of verbs to choose from or as examples. You can do the same with adjectives(ask students to change and/or add more adjectives to make the story more interesting); action verbs.] Read aloud your new story to your neighbour.

1. Name the characters/ people in the story. Put in a rectangle all the words that refer to them. [Hint: We use nouns and pronouns to refer to characters / people.] Write down the chain of words to talk about the same character / person below, paragraph by paragraph. The first one is done for you.

Paragraph 1: princess – Her – Bestest – She – Bestest – her – her