Functional Fiction
Developing narrative language skills in the
Middle Years
MELISSA PHILLIPS AND
A N N A L I S A VA S S A L L O
SEPTEMBER 2013
Workshop Aims
 Practical demonstration of how explicit teaching of
functional grammar can be used to develop students’
language choices in the narrative genre
 Demonstrate how strategies can be implemented to
provide equitable access to the Australian Curriculum
 Illustrate scaffolding of students’ understanding of
sentence structure
Unit Background
 This year is the first year our school is implementing the




Australian Curriculum across the board from Year 8 to 10
2012 – creating units of work which meet the
requirements of the Australian Curriculum
We identified a need amongst our Year 8 students for a
more comprehensive unit on narrative with a more
explicit focus on language
EAL strategies support all students’ needs – Professional
Development involvement
2013 – currently implementing Australian Curriculum
units
Aims of Unit
 Build student understanding of processes, clauses and
simple, compound and complex sentences
 Reinforce prior understanding of narrative structure
 Building nominal groups to develop descriptive language
 Develop students’ ability to identify and apply the
learning in their own writing
Learning Items
1. Introduce narrative structure
 Begin with the big picture
 Explicit teaching of narrative structure: the orientation,
complication, episodes, climax and reorientation
Learning Items
2. What is a sentence?
 Build on Vygotsky’s theory of prior knowledge
 Students already maintain a basic understanding of
processes, participants and circumstances due to a
previous unit on recount
Learning Items
3. Clauses – examine simple, compound and complex
sentences, and coordinating conjunctions
Refer to
Teacher
Resources
 Students have the opportunity to engage in classroom
activities (independent and small group) and homework
tasks
 Analyse and examine how effective authors control and use a variety of clause structures
including clauses embedded within the structure of a noun group/phrase or clause. (ACELA1545)
Sentence Strip Activity
Refer to
Teacher
Resources
Sentence Strip Activity
Learning Items
4. Introduce the model text – ‘Flood’ by Jackie French
 Examine students’ prior knowledge – before
Refer to
Teacher
Resources
reading activity
 Examine the whole text – authentic reading of a
children’s book
 Student understanding of content and language choices –
independent after reading activity
 Discussion of author’s use of simple, compound and
complex sentences
 Interpret and analyse language choices, including sentence patterns, dialogue, imagery and other
language features in short stories, literary essays and plays. (ACELT1767)
Learning Items
5. Nominal Groups – a group of words surrounding a noun which
provides more information
Refer to
Teacher
Resources
 Introduce using PowerPoint, flashcards and charts
 Students identified noun groups in the picture book and then
selected nouns from their own narrative drafts and built
nominal groups around the nouns – expectation that these
would be in their polished narratives for assessment
 Class discussion of natural disasters using flashcards with
focus on descriptive language
Creating Nominal Groups
Creating Nominal Groups
Creating Nominal Groups
Learning Items
6. Second model text – a narrative for an older audience
 Small group activity where each group is given a couple of
paragraphs containing errors in relation to the language and
narrative features that were covered in the unit
 Each group had time to correct the errors they identified on
the smart board and explain their reasoning
 As a class, we read through the complete correct
Refer to
Teacher
Resources
text – explicit mention of fluidity and language choice,
drawing comparisons to their own work
 Brief explicit teaching of direct speech
Assessment
Refer to
Teacher
Resources
 Students produce a 600-800 word narrative including the




theme of a natural disaster
Target a teenage audience
Planning and drafting process occurred throughout the
unit
Final week, peer-editing and self-editing workshops
Submission of word processed final copy
 Create literary texts that draw upon text structures and language features of other texts for particular
purposes and effects. (ACELT1632)
 Apply increasing knowledge of vocabulary, text structures and language features to understand the
content of texts. (ACELY1733)
Student Samples
• We heard the loudly crashing waves that caused the house to
shake. It made us scream. A flash of blue flickered through my eyes.
• It is 3013 and the streets of Adelaide, Australia have never been
filled with so much shock and terror. This once peaceful city has
become a panic zone for all. As my sister and I move through the
mass of people we see praying, weeping and folks begging for a
miracle from their gods, we all know that there’s no point, it’s the
end. My sister Shia has tears pouring down her face; her red eyes
and dry mouth mumble the words of sadness. Mum and Dad
should have been here for her but they’re not. It’s up to me to
protect Shia.
***
It’s just perfect, with its orchards of glistening fresh fruit, a sparkling
creek of clean drinking water and a house that is strong. Humanity will
be reborn here.
Student Samples
• Smoke, sparks, then fire. A bushfire. People panic. Homes
and businesses were in the path of the almighty warrior.
Nothing would be safe.
• All of a sudden the temperature rises. Hot days turn into hot
weeks. The fire flares up again. It’s worse than ever. The
debris fuels the powerful fire, pushing it on. It seems to pull
energy from every little thing it burns.
• Exhausted people from the tiny town can finally return and
start cleaning up the debris but they’re not alone. Again
strangers come from far and wide to help. Homes can finally
be rebuilt, but still the sorrow goes on. Forty seven lives lost.
Heroes and everyday citizens are the victims of the monster.
Reflection
 The unit did address the needs of the students and the
requirements of the Australian Curriculum
 Whilst students understand and identify most of the
language concepts covered, some still struggle to apply it
correctly in their own writing, e.g. – qualifiers in nominal
groups
 Filming and taking photos is useful for personal reflection
and teaching practice
Thank you
 Questions …
 Teacher resource pack accessible online:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5BDxKAEWQdb
bUw4dDNhdlZHa0E&usp=sharing