Year 9 Travel Writing: Starters and other resources
1. Non-fiction texts. For annotation and glossing: Mountains and Lakes by Bruce Chatwin
2. Simple, compound and complex sentences: a definition
3. Recount to Entertain: Graham Norton in Africa.
4. An Ibiza web-page for analysis. And another, shorter one, for the mature holiday-maker.
5. Another Ibiza web-page, geared at the 'young reader' (and containing grammatical errors!)
6. Web pages for analysis and comment (lesson 2 of scheme of work): Galicia,
regions of France, the Scottish isle of Jura, Reykjavik, Walberswick.
7. Adjectives: positive or negative? An on-line quiz and a lesson plan.
9. Active and passive voices in the verb. And an on-line test!
10. The semi-colon. Comma or semicolon? An American test online. And an American powerpoint presentation.
11. Connectives. An on-line quiz.
1. Non-fiction texts. For annotation and glossing: Mountains and Lakes by Bruce Chatwin
Opposite the meseta of Lago, Buenos Aires tilted upwards to the West. Its walls rose off a jade-green river, a sheer rampart, two thousand feet, layer on layer of volcanic strata, striped like a pennon of cavalry in bands of pink and green. And where the meseta broke off, there were four mountains, four peaks piled one on the other on a straight line: a purple lump, an orange column, a cluster of pink spires, and the cone of a dead volcano, ash-grey and streaked with snow.
The river ran down to a lake, Lake Ghio, with water a bright milky turquoise. The shores were blindingly white and the cliffs were also white, or striped horizontally white and terracotta. Along the north shore were clear-water lagoons of sapphire blue separated from the opaline water by a a band of grass. Thousands of black-necked swans studded the surface of the lake. The shallows were pink with flamingos.
2. Simple, compound and complex sentences: a definition
Simple sentences make one clear point, with one clear verb and (usually) one clear subject and (often) an object. This combination is called a clause.
Oscar loves his pet goldfish.
Peter went to Copenhagen.
I got off the bus.
The rain continued throughout the afternoon.
Sometimes 'simple sentences' don't sound very simple:
The ice on the river melts quickly under the warm March sun.
Compound sentences make two (or more) clear points, with two (or more) main verbs joined by a connecting word (which is sometimes called a conjunction). In other words, a sentence balancing two or more clauses. The connecting words you will find in a 'compound sentence' are "and", "but" and "or".
The effect is very like spoken English, the way we keep adding on ideas.
[Each idea in a compound sentence has equal weighting, so we refer to it as co-ordination,]
John has his football and Kim has her swimming.
I bought a new shirt and met Sandra.
I wanted to go out but it started to rain.
Either you have your bag with you or you have forgotten it!
Complex sentences are more complex! Now, we have two (or more) clauses, and the way they're composed suggests that one is more important than the other. Or, to put that another way, one is less important, or subordinate to the other.
In the following sentences identify the main clause and the subordinate (or dependent) clause.
Kerry went out although she was tired.
Before he went to bed, David set up the video.
John had already met Jane, who lived in London.
The huge house stood beneath a tall, wooded cliff, which protected it from the winter winds.
This will help:
SIMPLE My friend has invited me to a party. I do not want to go.
COMPOUND My friend has invited me to a party but I do not want to go.
COMPLEX Although my friend has invited me to a party, I do not want to go.
A complex sentence is different from a simple sentence or a compound sentence because it makes clear which ideas are most important.
Really complicated sentences mix compound and complex. You can add two simple sentences to add a compound one; if you add a simple sentence to a complex sentence you get a "complex-compound" sentence.
Now, can we rise to the real challenge?
3. Recount to Entertain: Graham Norton in Africa.
Welcome to Birmingham, England, a dynamic business city, offering a world-class cultural scene, a diverse and lively mix of shopping, attractions, night-life, major international events and exhibitions, and access to some of the country's most beautiful countryside.