Sue Palmer

The

recount

book

advanced

Recount text

• retells events

(chronological)

• in time order.

Recount genres

These texts are

often recounts…

Recount writing

• to interest and inform the reader.

• to retell events in chronological order

• title that draws the reader in

• opening paragraph – who, what, when, where, (and why should I bother reading this?)

• clear chronological order of events, supported by paragraphing

• topic sentence to start each paragraph

• a satisfying conclusion.

needs

Recount writing

• think about the audience for the genre

• how much background detail is needed

Use what you know about your audience to decide

• appropriate level of formality.

• how much do you

know about them (age, interests, prior knowledge)?

Where should your text sit along these continua?

informal

personal

formal

impersonal

Planning and organising recounts

events in

When you have made your time-line skeleton notes,

chop them into paragraphs.

Recount language features

• past tense

• specific people, places, events (usually proper nouns)

• time connectives and other devices to show the passage of time

• consistent use of first or third person

A few weeks later,__________

When ______,____

Early in 1666, ____

Finally,__________

Several weeks passed.

(except references to places/circumstances that are ongoing)

(personal recounts)

(impersonal recounts)

• use of direct quotations and/or reported speech, where appropriate.

Lively recount writing

Think about your readers

• what would catch their attention?
• what interest them?
• talk to them!

Vary your sentences

Choose the best words

Use quotations or

reported speech

First person recounts

Third person recounts

(it happened to me)

(it happened to someone else)

e.g. letter, diary, write-up of trip

e.g. newspaper report, non-fiction book

These may

• tell about your feelings

• give your opinion as well as the facts

• be personal and informal in style.

These usually need

• facts and supporting evidence, e.g. quotes, statistics

• full names, dates and other background detail

• a more impersonal writing style.

note-taking frameworks

* flow chart

* comic strip

* calendar grid

* clock face

* You could write events on

post-its and stick in order...

...or on cards on a washing

line.

Alternative ‘skeleton’

Examples of

‘skeletons’

in use

Taken from ‘How to teach Writing Across the Curriculum’ by Sue Palmer, with many thanks to David Fulton Publishers

A trip to the Eden Project

Last Friday, our class travelled in the school bus to visit the Eden project in Cornwall. It was a long ride to get there so we had to be at school an hour early, at eight o’clock. We brought our breakfast to eat on the bus.

When we arrived at the Eden Project, we could tell it was a big attraction by the size of the car parks, which were carefully laid out and named after fruits – we were in Plum Car Park. As we walked down, we could see the Eden Projects buildings – two enormous plastic domes, built in a dip in the ground.

Mrs Jeffries told us they were called ‘biomes’ and the dip used to be a claypit, where men had dug out the clay to use for making pots. We spent our morning going round the biomes, looking at the plants. One is kept very warm inside and filled with tropical plants like rubber trees, bamboo,

spices, coconuts and pineapples. There are also displays of buildings and gardens from tropical countries. The other biome is not so warm and among the plants there are oranges, lemons, grapes and olives.

We had our lunch in the exhibition centre, where we watched a video about ‘The making of Eden’. The Eden Project was built to show how humans and plants depend upon each other and it cost millions of pounds to build. Next we had a talk about the plants. A lady explained how you get cocoa beans and cocoa milk from a pod and use them to make chocolate.

We were allowed to look in the shop and spend two pounds. I bought some stickers and a postcard of a man building the biomes. Finally, it was time for the long ride home. We were back by half past three, just in time for the bell.

Personal

Skeleton

Personal

breakfast

on journey

see

biomes

intro

Text

A taste of Paradise

Impersonal

“All this way to see plants grow in a greenhouse!” After hours watching rain stream by the bus windows on the long road to Cornwall last Friday, Year 5 was feeling less than enthusiastic about visiting the Eden Project. Yet as the children made their way across the vast car parks, catching their first glimpse of two huge plastic ‘biomes’ in a gigantic crater, they began to change their minds.

The Eden Project is the largest greenhouse in the world, big enough to hold the Tower of London and housing more than 135,000 plants. In the humid tropical biome, Year 5 found themselves wandering through a stifling heat beside a tropical waterfall. They saw plants they knew – bananas, pineapples, mangoes, cocoa, rice – not picked and packed on supermarket shelves, but alive and growing. They saw plants they didn’t know and hadn’t dreamed of. They began to realise how much human beings depend on nature for all their basic needs – food, drink, shelter, clothing – and luxuries

– sweets, cosmetics, sports gear...

In the warm temperate biome, the heat was gentler and the air filled with the scent of lemons. Here they saw the plants of California and the Mediterranean: olives, vines, tobacco, cotton, cork and mouth-watering fruit and vegetables. Outside, on the slopes leading up to the exhibition hall, were the familiar plants of the cool temperate zone, and the familiar weather – still raining!

After lunch, there was a film about the building of Eden and a talk from the education department…and then the long drive home. But now as the rain beat down and the windows steamed up, Year 5 could close their eyes and remember Paradise. The scents of jasmine, ginger and pineapple; the sultry tropical heat; the rainbow colours of wild, exotic flowers. Some plants; some greenhouse!

Skeleton

Impersonal

long bus

journey

tropical

biome

warm temperate

and outside

afternoon

activities

journey

home

Text

The End