Writing a narrative scene with direct speech in 'Whale Rider' | English

Starter quiz

Which sentence is written in the past tense?
- The young girl sings a melodic tune and she holds her head high with pride.
- The young girl sang a melodic tune and she held her head high with pride. ✓
- The young girl is singing a melodic tune and holding her head high with pride.
- The young girl will sing a melodic tune and she will hold her head high.
True or false? You can copy out the notes from your plan exactly as they are.
- True
- False ✓
Which of the following is a simple sentence?
- Paikea's face turned red and she looked down at the ground.
- Paikea's face turned red as she looked down at the ground.
- Paikea's face turned red. ✓
- As she looked down at the ground, Paikea's face turned red.
Order the four key moments of the build-up chronologically.
- 1
  
  ⇔
  
  Paikea leads the boys to the Marae by singing.
- 2
  
  ⇔
  
  She sits in the front row with the men.
- 3
  
  ⇔
  
  Koro tells her to move to the back because she is a girl.
- 4
  
  ⇔
  
  Paikea obeys her grandfather.
What is the name of the punctuation mark used in direct speech to indicate when the words being spoken start and finish?
- exclamation mark
- comma
- inverted commas ✓
- question mark
- full stop
What is an adverbial complex sentence?
- a sentence formed of two main clauses
- a sentence formed of one main clause and an adverbial subordinate clause ✓
- a sentence formed of two main clauses joined by a co-ordinating conjunction

Which of the following is an example of a compound sentence?
- The infuriated girl sat on the bench as her face turned red.
- The infuriated girl sat on the bench and her face turned red. ✓
- As the infuriated girl sat on the bench, her face turned red.
- Angrily, the infuriated girl sat on the bench.
Which speech first sentence is correctly punctuated?
- Go to the back!'' Koro exclaimed.
- ''Go to the back!'' Koro exclaimed. ✓
- ''Go to the back'' Koro exclaimed.
- ''go to the back!'' Koro exclaimed.
Which speech second sentence is correctly punctuated?
- Paikea angrily asked, ''what did I say?''
- Paikea angrily asked. ''What did I say?''
- Paikea angrily asked, ''What did I say?'' ✓
- Paikea angrily asked, What did I say?
True or false? A rhetorical question is meant to be answered by the reader.
- True
- False ✓
Which of the following is an example of 'show-not-tell' language?
- Paikea's face was burning red. ✓
- Paikea was angry.
- Paikea felt hurt and infuriated.
- Paikea obeyed her grandfather.
Which sentence is correctly punctuated?
- Reluctantly Paikea obeyed her grandfather and she left the Marae.
- Reluctantly, Paikea, obeyed her grandfather and she left the Marae.
- Reluctantly, Paikea obeyed her grandfather and she left the Marae. ✓
- Reluctantly Paikea obeyed, her grandfather, and she left the Marae.

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The purpose of direct speech in a narrative is to develop characters and advance the plot.
Using a range of sentence types (simple, compound and complex) improves text flow.
Fronted adverbials of time, place or manner add extra detail to a main clause.
This narrative version of 'Whale Rider' is written in the past tense.
Oral rehearsal before writing helps to structure grammatically correct sentences and check for sense.

Pupils may confuse speech punctuation rules when writing speech first and speech second in a narrative.

At the end of speech first, a full stop must not be used. At the end of speech second, a full stop can be used.

Direct speech - the term used for a character speaking out loud in a text
Fronted adverbial - a sentence starter followed by a comma
'show-not-tell' - shows a character’s feelings by describing their actions, body language and facial expressions
Ambitious vocabulary - high-level language in writing that meets the text purpose