A Christmas Carol: Narrative text

Year 4 English – Unit 1: Lessons 1–15

Australian Education Research (AERO), www.edresearch.edu.au

Singing Christmas Carols
Credit: Kaleddis/pixabay.com

Developed in partnership between AERO and Ochre Education, these lesson resources support the use of effective, evidence-based practices and address the learning expected in the Australian Curriculum. An exemplar unit plan provides guidance on the structure, sequence and decision-making made during the planning process.

This sequence of 15 lessons supports students to unpack the features of a narrative using Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’. They will then work through the process of planning and composing a narrative text.

Lesson 1 A Christmas Carol: Charles Dickens and the Victorian era

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A discussion of the author and era of 'A Christmas Carol'.

Lesson 2 A Christmas Carol: Ebenezer Scrooge – character analysis

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Students analyse Ebenezer Scrooge using text and pictures.

Lesson 3 A Christmas Carol: Engage with the story

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Students will engage with the story of 'A Christmas Carol' and practise some techniques for understanding tricky vocabulary.

Lesson 4 A Christmas Carol: Inferring from words and images

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Students practise their inference skills using the text and pictures.

Lesson 5 A Christmas Carol: Analyse the theme

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Students will will analyse the theme of transformation.

Lesson 6 A Christmas Carol: Summarising the plot

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Students will use summary techniques to summarise a plot.

Lesson 7 A Christmas Carol: Generating vocabulary to describe a setting

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Students will begin to generate vocabulary to describe the setting of the story. They will learn how to choose nouns to describe and how to add verbs and adverbs for further detail.

Lesson 8 A Christmas Carol: Generating vocabulary to describe a character

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Students will learn how to describe a character in detail, and how to add verbs and adverbs to describe what characters are doing in a particular moment.

Lesson 9 A Christmas Carol: Write the introduction of a narrative

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Students will write the opening to 'A Christmas Carol'. They will use success criteria and a plan to help keep on track when writing.

Lesson 10 A Christmas Carol: Generate vocabulary to write a complication

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The lesson moves to a different part of the story - the complication. Students will learn how to make language choices to create suspense and keep a reader desperate to read on.

Lesson 11 A Christmas Carol: Develop an understanding of how to use verbs and adverbs

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Students will build on their knowledge of verbs and learn different ways they can be used to build description.

Lesson 12 A Christmas Carol: Using fronted adverbials

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Students will learn about fronted adverbials and how they can be used to give writing variety and even more detailed descriptions.

Lesson 13 A Christmas Carol: Practising writing speech

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Students will learn how to write speech and the grammatical rules that apply.

Lesson 14 A Christmas Carol: Plan a complication

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Students will plan the complication. It will involve deciding how to start sentences in different ways and choosing what vocabulary to use.

Lesson 15 A Christmas Carol: Write the complication

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Students will write the complication. Using a plan, they will build suspense and excitement in their writing and include speech and fronted adverbials.