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Term 2 Week 4Learning Goals

Use adjectives and adverbs to provide description in stories  Use conjunctions to write complex sentences  Use adverbs of degree Write instructional texts using imperative verbs  Skim to find the main idea of a text  Scan to find particular information in a text Estimate word count  Proof read and re-draft

Task 1- Spelling words word Meaning in

English Meaning in your language

A picture to help you remember this word (optional)

1 topic (n)

2 Seasons (n)

3 Humid (adj)

4 Hottest (adj)

5 Pleasant (adj)

Nice. e.g. Did you have a nice day?

6 Freezing (adj) freeze (v)

7 Chilly (adj)Chill (v)

8 Weather conditions(n) 

The type of weather on a particular day. E.g. hot and sunny

9 Weather forecast (n)

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Interstate (adj)

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Prediction (n) predict (v)

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Fact and opinion Facts are true statements that can be proven e.g. the population of Australia is 22 million. Opinion is a person’s view on a particular subject e.g. Australia needs to increase its population. People’s views differ greatly. Read these examples of facts and opinions about animals to understand the difference.

Facts Opinions A Dogs have four legs. Dogs are better than cats.B Cheese and yoghurt are

made from milk. I don’t like milk.

C Birds are born from eggs. People should not eat birds.D Guinea pigs need to eat

constantly to keep their teeth from growing too much.

Guinea pigs are not good pets for children.

e Goats like to climb and eat grass.

Goats eyes are weird.

Task 2 - Fact and Opinion Sort these statements into facts (f) and opinions (o) by putting an ‘f’ or ‘o’ at the end of the sentence or write the answer in your book.

1. Australia should expand its migration program. _____2. Exclamation marks are used in informal language, not formal

language. _____3. Climate is spelled c-l-i-m-a-t-e. _____4. I hate winter. _____5. These birds are found in Australia: magpies, kookaburras, parrots

and lorikeets. _____6. Kangaroos carry their babies inside their pouches. _____7. Goats cheese is tastier than cheese made from cow’s milk. _____8. In Australia there are six states and two territories. _____9. If you mix blue and yellow paint, you will get the colour green. ___10. My favourite colour is yellow. _____

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You probably

won’t agree with every opinion.

Finding the main idea in a text. Writers of information texts often put the main idea at the beginning of a text. They also sum it up right at the end. You’ll also notice that in each paragraph they break the main idea down into smaller ideas. Each smaller idea comes at the beginning of a new paragraph. Organising their writing this way, helps make it logical and easier to follow. The main idea is also called the focus of the paragraph.

Below you will see an information text. The title is centred at the top and gives us the main idea. Scan the text to see what you think it will be about. Write your prediction about the text here: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Climate in Australia

Travelling ‘down under’ to Australia means you need to understand the type of weather you will experience. Australia is in the southern hemisphere, so the seasons are the opposite of our European seasons. Australia has the same months - January to December, but there’s a big difference in the weather. In Australia, December and January are the hottest months but this is the coldest time here in Europe.

Northern Australia, like Asia doesn’t have a traditional summer, autumn, winter and spring like the rest of Australia. Here the climate is tropical and the seasons are broken up into two distinct season - the 'Wet' and the 'Dry'. The wet season is from November to April. It has higher humidity, monsoonal rains and tropical storms. Temperatures range from 25C overnight to 33C during the day and humidity can reach more than 80%.

The dry season is between May and October and it has warm, sunny days and cool nights. The average temperature ranges from about 21C overnight, up to 33C during the day. It can get down to 16C on really cool nights in June and July. Humidity levels are much lower in the dry season: around 60–65%.

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Young, indigenous Australian girls model indigenous fashion in the ‘top end’.

So, pack your shorts, t-shirts and sundresses. As you can see, you will need them if you are going to keep cool under the Australian sun on your travels.

Task 3 – Finding the main idea in a text

Circle the correct letter or write it in your book.

1. What is the focus in paragraph 1? A, B, C, D

a. It takes a long time to travel from Australia to Europe.

b. In Europe the months have different names from those in

Australia

c. The climate in Australia is opposite to Europe’s climate.

d. Hot weather and cold weather are hard to bear if they occur one

day after the other.

2. What is the focus in paragraph 2? A, B, C, D

a. Describing the weather in Asia.

b. Describing ‘the wet’ in northern Australia.

c. Comparing weather in Europe and Asia.

d. Praising weather in northern Australia.

3. What is the focus in paragraph 3? A, B, C

a. Recommending what to wear on a trip to Australia.

b. Describing how to keep cool in Asia.

c. Describing the dry season in northern Australia.

4. What is the purpose of this text? A, B, C, D

a. To persuade travellers to visit Melbourne.

b. To inform travellers about the weather in northern Australia.

c. To give parents a list of what to bring if their children visit

Australia.

d. To teach weather forecasters how to predict the weather.

5. Who is the audience for this text? (which people is it written for?

How do you know?)

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____________________________________________________

6. The writer tells us that in Northern Australia, there are only two

seasons, instead of the usual four. Is this a fact or is it the writer’s

opinion?

Estimating the word count. There are times when you may need to estimate the word count of a piece of text – your own or someone else’s. No one wants to waste time counting each word, so here’s how to estimate the word count. Let’s take the previous text ‘Climate in Australia’ as an example.

Task 4 Estimating the word count Count the words in the first line of ‘Climate in Australia’ and write

the answer here. ____ Count the number of lines in the text. Leave out any really short

lines. Write the answer here. _________ Multiply the number of words per line by the number of lines and

write here ______x______=_________ Write the total here. __________ Check the end of this document to see the working out, the

estimate and the actual answer.

Task 5: Test – Did you want my film at? https://lcis.org.au/courses/wfh_pages/ariels-class-our-work-for-this-week-23-3-20-27-3-20/

1a. What was the first item I held up on the video? _________1b. Explain the connection between this item and the work this week.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2a. What was the second item I held up? _________________2b. Explain the connection between this item and the work this week. 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3a. What was the third item I held up? ___________________3b. Explain the connection between this item and the work this

week. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Task 6: And now for a different kind of text. Scan the text, reading the title and the first line of each paragraph. Write your prediction about this text here: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jobs I’ve done by Ariel Verona

I’ve done many different jobs in my career from a performing waiter at a theatre restaurant to measuring up men for hire suits! But obviously, my favourite is teaching all of you English!

Let me give you a quick ‘tour’ of my work life to this point. When I left school, I worked for my parents in their fashion business and that’s where the measuring of men for hire suits for weddings came in. I also sold ladies’ clothes. After eleven years I was tired of serving customers, so I finally got to go to uni, which I loved. I studied Literature and Theatre.

Skip forward, over six years of study and I find myself in Melbourne, highly qualified, but unemployed. Wanting to perform I worked for a while at a couple of theatre restaurants, wearing costumes, serving dinners, drying cutlery, singing and acting. Sometimes there was free food, but the pay was terrible!

I’ve also worked in a program for people recovering from mental health issues such as schizophrenia and bi-polar. I’ve supported people with physical disabilities too, such as assisting a young quadriplegic woman at school and in her home.

One of the best places I worked was a beautiful historic school for secondary girls. It was far from my home, but I still loved it. Apart from the lovely people – staff and students, I loved the 150 year old building I worked in. It had a grand central staircase with a thick, carved banister, that reached up three stories. The nuns that used to work there are all gone, but their pictures on the staircase reminded me of them. Some days I would walk past and say to them in my mind, “I’m looking after the girls for you now”.

I’ve learned a lot about myself over the years of work. I know satisfaction comes from a job well done and from challenging myself to do things I never imagined I could. The best part of work is always the people I work with and for each day.

Yes, that’s you!_________________________________________________________Task 7: Analyse the text

1. Who is the audience for this text?

__________________________________________________

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2. Put the events in the correct order

a. Ariel worked with people with disabilities.

b. Ariel got to go to uni.

c. Ariel worked at a school with a very old building.

d. Ariel cleaned the cutlery at a theatre restaurant.

e. Ariel worked in her parents’ fashion store.

1.________ 2. ________ 3. ________ 4. ________ 5. ________

3. What is the purpose of my text (reason for writing it).

____________________________________________________1. This text is mostly in past tense. Find a selection of past tense verbs

and list them here. (Please remember to use commas appropriately).

____________________________________________________

2. Find one fact and one opinion in the text. Write them here:

e.g. Fact: Ariel once sold ladies clothes.

_________________________________________________

e.g. Opinion: Ariel’s favourite job is the one she has now.

______________________________________________

3. Write your opinion about whether changing jobs is good or bad.

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

4. There are many adjectives in the text. List some here:

____________________________________________________

5. Advanced challenge: I can only see two adverbs ending in -ly in my

text. I challenge you to find one of them and write it here or in your

book. ___________________

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Here is a plan for my story. I want you to plan your writing this week. You don’t need to use my way. You may have your own way to plan.

Email – Instructions

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Brainstorm 1st List points 2nd

1.Many jobs – best one is this one

2. Fashion

3. theatre restaurant

4. disability

5. school

1.Many jobs – best one is this one

2. Fashion

3. theatre restaurant

4. disability

5. school

Task 8: Part of an email

1. Write the subject of the email here:__________________________

2. Write the ‘greeting’ here: _________________________________

3. Is this greeting formal or informal? _________________________

4. Scan the body of the email. What is it about?

_____________________________________________________

5. Who is the writer? ______________________________________

6. What ‘closing’ does the writer use in this email?______________

7. Write the sender’s name here: ____________________________

8. Circle the imperative verbs in each step of the instructions and then

list them here or write them in your book.

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________(Hint: if you are not sure what imperative verbs are, look at page 12 of last week’s

task sheets).

Task 9: Adverbs of degree

Watch this very short online video to start learning about adverbs of degree: https://english4today.com/adverbs-of-degree-video/. Write a sentence using each word from the box. You have two examples of each word to help you.

1. Enough You are not driving fast enough!

I’ve had enough of your behaviour.

__________________________________________2. Too much You put in too much salt.

You sleep too much.

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Enough almost hardly

Just too much very a lot

__________________________________________3. Almost He ate almost all his dinner.

The jug is almost full.

__________________________________________

4. Hardly She hardly ever visits me. You’ve eaten hardly anything.

__________________________________________

5. Just The match has just started. Add just enough water to mix the

flour.__________________________________________

6. Very The casserole dish is very full. Careful! The pie is very hot!

__________________________________________

7. A lot I like a lot of sauce on mine, please. I don’t eat a lot of salt.

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It’s all about writing this week.

Task 10: Planning and writing a text of your choice

Review the three texts in this week’s learning pack. Choose from a story, an email or an information article to

write your own.

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Story – descriptive with events

Email - Informative with instructions

Information article – descriptive and informative

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Circle your choice of text to write: Story Email Information article

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Planning your text cont’

Here is a plan for my story. I want you to plan your writing this week. You don’t need to use my way. You may have your own way to plan.

Planning

Task 11: Once you have done your plan, write your text in a Word document or in your book. Send it to me if you can. I’d love to read it!

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Brainstorm 1st List points 2nd

1.Many jobs – best one is this one

2. Fashion

3. theatre restaurant

4. disability

5. school

1.Many jobs – best one is this one

2. Fashion

3. theatre restaurant

4. disability

5. school

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Task 12: Proof reading Checklist

This will help you know how to improve

your 2nd draft.

Item to check

I’ve used capital at the beginning of sentences and for names. I’ve used full stops, commas, exclamation marks and question marks where I need to. I’ve checked the spelling. I’ve used conjunctions like so, because, and, but & or Or these more advanced conjunctions: otherwise, anyway, instead, besidesI’ve used some adjectives and adverbs in descriptive texts.I know who my audience is for my text.I know what my purpose was when I was writing.I’ve read it to someone to get their feedback for improvement

Please send me (or bring when we get back) both your 1st and

2nd draft.

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Answer to task 4: There are 11 words per line There are 19 lines, but I rounded it up to 20 to make it easy to multiply 11 x 20 = 220 words That’s my estimate - 220 words. I used the computer to check and there are 227 words, so not a bad estimate, huh?