TEXTS TYPES ENGLISH

1.1. WRITING DESCRIPTIVE SENTENCESJan shared the book "Fat Frogs on a Skinny Log" by Sara Riches (Scholastic, 2000) with a group of children from a grade 1/2. (7-8 year olds)After each page was read the students discussed the illustrations. When answering the question the students were asked to consider the characters' appearances and actions. They were encouraged to find words to explain their answer rather than use hand gestures.A child was asked to use the whiteboard to draw the frog from the story. Students were then asked to think of the words they had previously used to describe the frog. Jan recorded these words around the picture of the frog on the whiteboard. Words included: skinny, slimy, thin, little, green, cheeky, happy, slippery, yellow.The students were asked to write a description about a frog using as many of the words from the whiteboard as they could. The purpose of this activity was to later include such a descriptive passage in a story about a frog.After a short writing time the students came together to share their drafts. Discussion included questions about the descriptive words they used in their writing, e g. 'How big was your frog? Which word tells us this?', 'You could join your sentences together, how could you do this?'. After the discussion the students returned to work on their drafts.

Some examples have been included.

Jodie was a frog. Jodie was a green frog. He had warts on his back and was a very small frog. He was always smiley and relaxing on a lily pad. He was 10 cm long.

Green is cheeky. Green sits and he is lazy. Green is funny. Green is little. Green is very silly. Green is very, very happy. Green is

slimy. Green is a tree frog.

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1.2. INFORMATIVE TEXTS/DESCRIPTIONSPLAN

HEADINGS KEY WORDS ClassificationWhat is it?Opening statement

DescriptionWhat attributes does it have?(size, shape, features) Place/TimeWhere is it? Habitat?When is it?

Dynamics/BehaviourWhat does it do?

Summarising comment

Textorganisation

Begins with ageneralstatement.

Has a series ofsequencedparagraphs: Appearance

Habitat

Behaviour

Food

FROGSFrogs belong to a group of animals called amphibians. Amphibians have two stages in life; water and land.

Frogs have four legs and no tail. Some frogs have spots and stripes. Their colour helps to camouflage them. Frogs have wet skin and bulgy eyes.Frogs live in damp places. The tree frog lives in trees. Other frogs live in ponds or creeks.Frogs lay eggs in the water. Frogs come out at night. They make croaking noises. Frogs jump high. Some frogs climb trees.Frogs eat insects and spiders. Some frogs eat other frogs.

LanguagefeaturesUses atitle thatintroducesthe topic

Uses presenttense e.g.belong, have,appears

Uses technicalvocabularye.g. amphibians,camouflage

http://www.education.tas.gov.au/english/default.htm

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2. E- MAILS

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Dear Sara,This is the first time I've ever written a letter. My teacher told me we can make friends by writing letters. I live in New Brunswick an you live in Saskatchevan. What is it like? I live near St John River. We have a Burmese cat. I put his picture in my letter. His name is Elliot and he likes to play. Do you have pets too? I want to get your letter very quickly.Your friend, Julia

3. NARRATIVE Purpose: Narratives entertain, engage, amuse, interest and intrigue readers by telling real or imagined experiences. They might also explain, inform or instruct.

Textorganisation

Introduction(orientation)- characters(who? what?)- setting(where?)- time (when?)

Series ofevents whichlead to aproblem(complication).The problemrelates to thecharacters orevents

Solution(resolution)The resolutionexplains howthe problem issolved. (Why?)

Is Thomas in trouble?Thomas was bored. His mother was planting tomatoesin the back garden, and Daisy, the dog, was snoringloudly underneath the kitchen table. He had no one toplay with and nothing to do. Suddenly he felt veryhungry. He opened the pantry and looked inside. Hespotted a box of chocolates on the top shelf. ‘Problemnumber one,’ he thought, “is how to get at it?”After dragging the stool across the kitchen floor,climbing up, reaching high with arms outstretched, hestill couldn’t grab it. He ran to get the broom. Heclimbed up on to the stool, held the broom high andbalanced carefully as he poked it towards the top shelf.He watched in horror as the broom knocked otherthings off leaving the chocolates sitting alone on theshelf. Glancing down, he saw the tomato sauce slidingout of its bottle and spraying on to the floor. The lidflew off a canister of raisins and a packet of biscuitssplit open. When they hit the floor it looked like theflies were feasting on a forgotten barbecue. As hepicked up the containers, he wondered how he wasgoing to clean up the mess.At that moment Daisy sprang into action. Shecrunched up the biscuits, slurped up the sauce andswallowed the raisins. In just a few seconds the floorwas spotless.Thomas turned to see his mother watching her handsat the kitchen sink. ‘Would you like hamburgers forlunch?’ she asked.‘I think I’ve lost my appetite.’ said Thomas slowly.

LanguagefeaturesUses pasttense e.g.opened,spotted,thought

Usesconjunctionse.g. after, asUsesdescriptivelanguage e.g.watched inhorror,chocolatessitting alone

Writes in thethird persone.g. He, sheCan bewritten inthe firstpersone.g. I, we)

Usesdialogue e.g.think I’ve lostmy appetite

Traditional narratives include tales, fables, myths and legends while modern narratives includes fantasy, realistic fiction, adventure, mystery and horror stories. Narratives are used in picture books, simple short stories and longer stories with complicated plots. Some narrative features might also be found in spoken stories, cartoons, comics and feature films.

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4. INFORMATIVE TEXTS: EXPLANATIONS or REPORTS

4.1. EXPLANATION

Purpose: An explanation tells how and why something works or happens in the world.

Textorganisation

Begins with ageneralstatement tointroduce thephenomenon

Has a series ofsequencedparagraphs

Often includeslabelleddiagrams andflow charts

Has aconcludingparagraph

What causes a rainbow?A rainbow is a coloured arc of light that is often seenin the sky when the sun is shining after a shower ofrain.A rainbow contains all of the colours of the spectrum.The top of the arch is always red, followed by orange,with yellow, green, indigo, blue and violet in thatorder.

Light, which appears to be white, is really made upfrom all the colours of the spectrum. When sunlightreaches a drop of water, it is refracted, or bent, sothat the beam of light is separated out into its colours.At the same time when a beam of light enters araindrop, part of it is reflected from the inside surfaceand bounces back in the same direction. When thishappens inside many raindrops it makes a rainbowwhich can be seen by people who are standing withtheir backs to the sun.Because rainbows have always fascinated peoplemany stories have been told about them, butunfortunately, there is no pot of gold at the end of arainbow.

LanguagefeaturesUses atitle thatintroducesthe topic

Uses presenttense e.g.is, contains,appears

Uses technicalvocabularye.g. refracted,reflected

Uses actionverbs e.g.enters, reflectedbounces

It is important to explain the reasons why things happen as well as what things happen in some of these text types. Explanation might link with science and technology topics to consider mechanical, technological or natural happenings such as why a kettle boils, how a television works or why volcanoes erupt.

http://www.education.tas.gov.au/english/default.htm

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4.2. REPORT Purpose: Reports present factual information in a concise and logical sequence.Reports avoid personal comments and opinions from the author.

TextorganisationA generalstatement orclassificationexplains thesubject of thereport

Each paragraphhas differentinformation

Each paragraphhas a topicsentence andsupportingdetails

Visual texts e.g.maps, diagramsand charts areoften includedIncludes aconcludingstatement orsummary

The Tasmanian devil

The Tasmanian devil is a marsupial. (A marsupial is ananimal that feeds and carries its young in a pouch.) It livesonly in Tasmania and was called a devil by the earlyEuropean settlers because of its fierce appearance and loudscreeching.

The devil is the same size as a small dog. It has a largehead, a stocky body and a short, thick tail. While the fur ismostly black, there are often white markings on the backand chest.Because the devil is a nocturnal animal, (it is active atnight) it spends the days in the dense bush and hunts forfood after dark.While it can catch prey the size of a small wallaby the deviloften feeds on the bodies of dead sheep and cows fromfarms. Its very powerful jaws and teeth enable it to eatbones and fur as well as the meat. Farmers are pleased thatdevils stop the spread of disease by removing the rottingbodies of dead animals. Groups of devils eat together fromthe same carcass (body of a dead animal) and they are suchnoisy eaters that they can be heard for several kilometres.

Devils breed in March and the young are born in April.While more are born, only two or three babies survive to live in their mother’s pouch for four months. They move with their mother into a hole or a hollow log until they are ready to live on their own in the bush at the end of December.

Devils live until they are seven or eight years old.Recently adult devils have been affected by cancer. Thisbegins with lumps around the mouth and spreads to the face and neck. Scientists are studying the cancers so they can find out the cause and save the devil population in Tasmania.

Bibliography:http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/BHAN-5372WP?openhttp://en.wikipedia.og/wiki/Tasmanian_Devil

LanguagefeaturesUses presenttense e.g.is, has

Usesspecialisedvocabulary e.g.marsupial,nocturnal

Writes in thethird persone.g. it, they

Uses preciseandeconomicallanguagegivesaccurateinformationin shortsentences) e.g.Devils breedin March,devils havebeen affectedby cancer

Might includea glossary.Includes abibliography

Information reports ask students to question, define, describe, analyse andevaluate information.

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