1. Gothic Stories – Beginnings & Endings. L.O. – To make the ending of a story relate to its beginning.

2. A teenage boy walks into his local park at around 7 o’clock at night. He is carrying his skateboard and is heading towards the skate area which is situated in the middle of the park. He hears a noise and then someone shouts. He turns around and... 1)A freeze frame to sum up the main action. 2)A freeze frame showing the end of the the story.

3. Why were there different or similar interpretations of the story?

4. What clues or previous knowledge made you choose the ending you did?

5. How does the writer try to grab our attention in the opening of this story? (He may use a number of ways to do this.) You got any pets? Dog, cat, goldfish maybe? Well, Tommy had lots of pets – jars and tanks of them. Tommy bred stick insects, though I guess it wouldn’t be quite right to call them ‘pets’. The writer tries to grab our attention in the opening of this story in several different ways. Firstly.................Secondly............

6. What do you think will happen in the rest of the story? You got any pets? Dog, cat, goldfish maybe? Well, Tommy had lots of pets – jars and tanks of them. Tommy bred stick insects, though I guess it wouldn’t be quite right to call them ‘pets’. His pet was really the gheko lizard that lived in the big glass tank on his chest of drawers. Every now and then he’d get that out and, you know, pet it, stroke it, chat to it, that kind of thing. The stick insects, well they had other uses. Some of them, he sold – and made a fair amount of cash, too. It was amazing how many kids were willing to pay for the brown stick-like things. At school, there was a craze for them. Tommy thought they were kind of boring himself. They didn’t do anything, did they? They just hung about on the wire mesh frame he’d put up against their container wall, imitating twigs. Big deal. He much preferred praying mantises. His dad had a whole collection of those, but he wouldn’t let Tommy near them. I think that the rest of the story will be about...........The reason I think this is because at the start of the story it says.......

7. Complete the grid about the story ‘Night of the Stick Insects’.

8. Complete the questions (2, 3a & 3b at the top of the sheet.) Use full sentences to answer the questions: 2) The mood of the opening is different to the mood of the ending in that.... 3a) I think the stick insects and gecko became huge because... 3b) The clues in the opening prepare us for the ending because...

9. ‘Home’ How it will end..? The noise behind the fireplace at the start – what was it? What has happened to Emily? Do Emily & her family still live in the same house? What has happened to her parents?

10. Homework Write the last 50-100 words of the story ‘Home’. (The ending). Due in Tues 19 th Jan.