Smart English: Survival
Animal
survival
(part one)
Aiming for Levels 4 to 6, Lesson 14
Smart English: Survival – Animal survival (part one)
Learning objective:
To understand how to vary sentence structure for effect (WAF5)
Learning outcome:
To rewrite a paragraph, using a variety of sentence structures to engage the reader
Success criteria:
AF
Level 4 / All students can …
Level 5 / Most students can …
WAF5
Sometimes vary length, structure
or subject of sentences
Vary sentence length, structure and Alternate between simple and
subject for clarity and emphasis
complex sentences for purpose
and effect
Aiming for Levels 4 to 6, Lesson 14
Level 6 / Some students can …
Smart English: Survival – Animal survival (part one)
Activity: Look at the verbs below and think about the kind of scene they could
describe. Then choose four of them and write a paragraph that uses the
verbs you have chosen. Try to make your paragraph as exciting as
possible.
THRASHING
pulled
splashed
flickered
lunge
sink
Aiming for Levels 4 to 6, Lesson 14
crashing
Smart English: Survival – Animal survival (part one)
The writer creates a sense of tension and shock in this extract by varying
the sentence structure and length …
Aiming for Levels 4 to 6, Lesson 14
Smart English: Survival – Animal survival (part one)
Sentence types
An independent clause that expresses a complete idea. A simple
sentence contains a subject and a verb. For example:
The lights on the ship flickered.
A complex sentence contains at least one main, independent
clause and a subordinate clause. For example:
Although the waves were thrashing against me,
I managed to sink myself into the lifeboat.
Aiming for Levels 4 to 6, Lesson 14
Smart English: Survival – Animal survival (part one)
Key
Simple
Complex
The elements allowed me to go on living. The lifeboat did not sink.
Richard Parker kept out of sight. The sharks prowled but did not lunge.
The waves splashed me but did not pull me off.
I watched the ship as it disappeared with much burbling and
belching. Lights flickered and went out. I looked about for my family,
for survivors, for another lifeboat, for anything that might bring me
hope. There was nothing. Only rain, marauding waves of black ocean and
the flotsam of tragedy.
The darkness melted away from the sky. The rain stopped.
Aiming for Levels 4 to 6, Lesson 14
Smart English: Survival – Animal survival (part one)
Activity: Rewrite the paragraph below, using a variety of simple and complex
sentences for effect.
I could smell the boy and I was hungry
and I also felt seasick from the rocking
boat and I wanted to jump in the water,
but I felt if I jumped in the water there
would be no land. I remembered the
cage tipping and I fell out and then I
jumped through the air and landed in a
smaller boat and then there was rocking
and I started to feel sick. I could feel
the power of my body creeping away
from me and there was a smell of death
in the air and I wanted to eat.
Aiming for Levels 4 to 6, Lesson 14