1. Recap features of a non-fiction text – heading, sub-heding, photographs, labels, boxes, bullet points

2. Learning Intention: To be able to explain the meaning of simple words in a text.
Big question: Would you risk losing your life?

3. A passion for climbing www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbKSwVJW_BE
Big Picture Question: Would you risk losing your life? Joe Simpson has risked his life many times because he is passionate about climbing.
Ask if there are any dangerous sports they would like to try. Would they deliberately put themselves in danger to win something?
Going to watch c clip about Joe Simpson and some of the dangers he faced during his climbing career.
How did they feel when watching it? Is he an action man/hero? Why?
He has now stopped climbing and writes books about the dangers he has faced. He tries hard to help his readers picture the scene and imagine what its like to be in those situations.

4. What do you think Joe would write?
I love danger!
Climbing is a bit boring.
So much white snow can take your breath away.
Snow is mostly white.
It’s so beautiful.
He has to think a lot about how he can help the reader get a clear picture of what he is writing about.
Explain that Joe has decided to write a story about his climbing exploits for primary children.
Discuss some of the features that is important for this age group:
Attention grabbing, clear and easy to understand, words must help create images in children’s minds.
Decide which sentences Joe would choose to write and why e.g. ‘It makes climbing sound exciting’, ‘it’s a bit dull’,’It describes the snow well.’
Find all the describing words and then try to come up with own.
Discuss what an avalanche is and how the text helps you work out what it is.
Watch clip again. Discuss difficulties of climbing at this height: freezing temperatures, lack of oxygen
Complete worksheet 3.1 – explain Joe and his friend Simon Yates were on way down from a high peak in Andes mountains in SA. They were the first people ever to do this climb. The text describes what happened on the way down. Discuss ideas for a good title.
Go over worksheet
Hand out 3.2 then go over
Whoosh! An avalanche can be very frightening when a mountain of snow rushes towards you.

5. Beautiful mountainous huge stunning
sharp
jagged
icy sharp
Beautiful mountainous huge stunning
Amazing freezing high pointy jagged
Describe what you see. How does it make you feel? Describe the scene using the wordbank to help. Write a paragraph about the scene.
Complete additional main points worksheet.
Big answer plenary – Would you risk your life? Would you prefer to be a climber or writer? Is it worth risking your life for the thrill of climbing?
Homework task – Interview family and friends about how they might feel about it.

6. Lesson B
We are learning to locate information in texts