Year 4 · Writing stories and reports
Practice: planning and writing a three-paragraph story
Organise paragraphs around a theme, and in narratives create settings, characters and plot
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Organise paragraphs around a theme, and in narratives create settings, characters and plot
Key learning points
- • One job per paragraph
- • Plan in six words
- • Opening the setting without listing
- • Check the shape at the end
This lesson at a glance
- 20 minutes
- 18 parts to scroll through
- 4 quick checks
- No marked quiz yet
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 18
Watch first
Practice: planning and writing a three-paragraph story
Follow the steps that turn an idea into a finished story.
In a nutshell
Organise paragraphs around a theme, and in narratives create settings, characters and plot
What you already know
Part 2 of 18
Before we start
What you already know
You can organise paragraphs around a theme and build a setting.
Key words
Part 3 of 18
Key words
Words you'll need today
- paragraph
- A group of sentences about one thing.
- setting
- Where and when the story happens.
- resolution
- How the problem is sorted out at the end.
Learning cycle
Part 4 of 18
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Part 1 — Planning the shape
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 5 of 18
Learn
One job per paragraph
Paragraph one: setting and character — where we are and who we follow. Paragraph two: the problem — something goes wrong. Paragraph three: the resolution — how it ends. Write those three jobs down before you write a single sentence.
Explore the idea
Part 6 of 18
Learn
Plan in six words
Your plan can be tiny: 'Cold beach, lost dog, whistle works.' Six words is enough to keep you on track, and it takes thirty seconds. Long plans eat the time you need for writing.
Quick check
Part 7 of 18
Quick check
What is paragraph two usually for?
Reset break
Part 8 of 18
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 2 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Quick check
Part 9 of 18
Quick check
Which is the better setting sentence?
Learning cycle
Part 10 of 18
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Part 2 — Writing and improving
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 11 of 18
Learn
Opening the setting without listing
Instead of 'It was cold and windy and grey', show it: 'The wind pushed sand across Nell's boots.' One specific detail does more than three general ones — and it gets your character moving straight away.
Explore the idea
Part 12 of 18
Learn
Check the shape at the end
Read it back and ask: can I point to my problem, and to my ending? If the problem only turns up in the last two lines, the middle paragraph needs more trouble in it. Then proof-read for capital letters, full stops and speech punctuation.
Quick check
Part 13 of 18
Quick check
How long should a plan be?
Quick check
Part 14 of 18
Quick check
Which ending spoils a story?
Common mix-ups
Part 15 of 18
Common mix-ups
Things people often get wrong
- Writing one huge paragraph with no breaks.
- Spending so long on the setting that the problem never arrives.
- Ending with 'then I woke up', which cancels the whole story.
Challenge round
Part 16 of 18
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Mastery quiz
Part 17 of 18
No quiz for this one
This lesson has no marked quiz attached yet.
Lesson round-up
Part 18 of 18
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
Not sat
Games
Not played
Points this lesson
0
Best run
0 in a row
Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
The last bus
The bus shelter smelled of wet coats. Mira pressed her timetable flat against the glass, as though staring at the numbers might make the 9:42 appear. Rain tapped the roof in small, impatient fingers. Somewhere behind her, a shop shutter came down with a sound like a full stop.
She had been brave all day. She had been brave in the corridor, brave at lunch, brave when the register reached her name and nobody looked up. Being brave, she decided, was mostly a matter of keeping your face still.
Headlights swung around the corner and lit the puddles gold. Mira picked up her bag. Tomorrow she would say something. Tonight she would simply go home.
Original extract written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- Find two words or phrases that show how Mira is feeling, and explain what each one suggests.
- How does the writer use the weather and the sounds to build the mood? Use a short quotation.
- Write the next paragraph in the same style, keeping the writer's short sentences at the moments that matter.
Reading response
ReadingRead the extract again, then write about how the writer makes you feel that way. Use a short quotation and explain your choice of words.
2 paragraphs (PEE)
Extended writing
WritingWrite your piece in full, then redraft the opening so it hooks the reader.
250–350 words
Reading log
ReadingNote the book, the pages you read and one thing you noticed about the writing.
20 minutes' reading
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 18 · Watch & discover