5.-Writing-Letters - Q1 2

DATEDATEDATE
LO: To understand the conventions of letter writing for Q1
Do Now:
Write the opening lines to a letter to ME!
(Your English teacher)
To feign
(verb) to fake or pretend
I can’t be
bothered with
“Is she in love?” I
school today so
asked.
I’m going to feign “No, she’s totally
illness! feigning,” said Mr Yim.
Have you ever written a letter?
Tell your partner who you wrote the letter to and why.
Pre-reading: watch the interviews
• Watch the interview scene from the HG film
Question 1
Imagine that you are Katniss Everdeen, the writer of Passage A. The
evening of the interviews you write a letter to your mother.
In your journal entry you should:
• Explain your reaction to Peeta’s confession
• Give your thoughts on your worries about your portrayal
• Describe your plans for getting the audience and sponsors to like
you
Base your journal entry on what you have read in Passage A, but do not
copy from it. Be careful to use your own words. Address each of the
three bullets.
Begin your letter: ‘Dear mum, I feel so lost right now…’
The bullet points: development
How do I develop this bullet point?
When I first heard Peeta claim he loved me, my first reaction was
anger. Pure, blood-boiling, anger. I don’t think that would surprise
you to hear! I tried to avoid him (I even went into a different car in
the elevator!) but fate brought us crashing together like a motorway
pile up. Before I even knew what I was doing, I had shoved him into
an ugly vase and cut his hands. I didn’t even hesitate when I saw the
blood, being so used to it with hunting, all I could think of were his
lies. He loves me! He loves me! He’s lucky I didn’t use that vase to
slice off his tongue and turn him into an Avox….
The bullet points: development
Red = development Green = Explicit facts from text
When I first heard Peeta claim he loved me, my first reaction was
anger. Pure, blood-boiling, anger. I don’t think that would surprise
you to hear! I tried to avoid him (I even went into a different car in
the elevator!) but fate brought us crashing together like a motorway
pile up. Before I even knew what I was doing, I had shoved him into
an ugly vase and cut his hands. I didn’t even hesitate when I saw the
blood, being so used to it with hunting, all I could think of were his
lies. He loves me! He loves me! He’s lucky I didn’t use that vase to
slice off his tongue and turn him into an Avox….
Methods of development
Adjectives
• Use details from the text and use extra adjectives to describe them
that the text didn’t use
• These adjectives should be a similar tone to the text
• Examples:
Pure, blood-boiling anger… An ugly vase
Backstory development
• Add some past memories or life details, especially if you’re writing
a diary or a letter.
• If you got angry, “You know how I always lose my temper, mum?”
• If you took part in a race, “You know I always dreamed of being a
runner? How hard I always worked to achieve that goal?”
• Examples:
Being so used to it (blood) with hunting
Pure, blood-boiling, anger. I don’t think that would surprise you
to hear!
Embellish events in the text
• Add extra details to the exam text.
• Be careful that these extra details don’t change the tone or overall
feeling of the original text.
• Example:
Before I even knew what I was doing
Add present thoughts or revelations about past events
• If you’re asked to write a letter or diary, you’ll have to write about
past events from a present day perspective.
• Add in extra details that you now think about the event.
• You could even have discovered something new since the first
event happens, which may have changed your perspective on the
whole event.
• Example:
He’s lucky I didn’t use that vase to slice off his tongue and turn
him into an Avox….
Add description or language devices
• Choose a language device or extra description to add more detail
to an event that happened in the original text
• Be careful that your language device keeps the tone of the original
text
• Example:
fate brought us crashing together like a motorway pile up.
The bullet points
• Give your thoughts on your worries about your portrayal
• Describe your plans for getting the audience and sponsors to like
you
How could we develop these bullet points?

With a partner, use a whiteboard to give examples of bullet point
development.
Remember: language devices, adjectives, backstory, embellish events,
present thoughts about past events
Audience matters
• Write a letter to your friend complaining about school.
• Write a letter to your headteacher complaining about school.
• Write a letter to your mum complaining about school.
• Write a letter to your grandfather complaining about school.
Write the opening paragraph for your prompt. Think about your
choice of language. Be prepared to share!
Audience matters
• Get together with the people who had the same prompt as you.
• Take it in turns to read out loud your writing.
• Discuss: What was similar about your writing.
• Focus on: punctuation, vocabulary choice, openings, tone, sentence
structure, levels of politeness.
Group discussion
• How does Katniss feel in this moment? How would this show in her
choice of language?
• What is her relationship with her mother? Would this affect her
language choice and tone?
• Come up with some examples of words/phrases/sentences you think
she might use.
Why wouldn’t this be appropriate?
Hey mum!
How ya doing? Man, it’s pretty tough out here haha. Remember that
weirdo kid who threw me that bread? You know, Peeta Mellark – the
one with the face like a pig. Yeah, well he said he was in LOVE with me.
I just thought, “Like, no, sweetie. I’m too good for you. Have you seen
how hot I am and your ugly face?”
Anyways, now I’m totally freaking out thinking that the public will think
that I’m actually into him too. They must think I have incredibly low
standards. Maybe I should just try to seduce that hot guy from District
1? That might help…
Why wouldn’t this be appropriate?
• Too informal and spoken – should sound like a written text
• Too upbeat – she’s about to die!
• Makes it seem like she’s really close to her mum – no evidence for it
in the text
• Additional information (such as District 1 boy and finding Peeta ugly)
that there’s no evidence for in the text
Writing letters
• Begin ‘Dear [name]’
• End with an appropriate sign off: Love Sarah xxx or Yours sincerely, Ms
O’Rourke depending on context
• Show audience in every paragraph. This can also give you an
opportunity for development: Mum, you know I’ve always been afraid
of… or Ms Garcia, I know your company would never promote the
destruction of our environment…
• Recognise that your character has a relationship with the person
you’re writing to. Therefore you need to create two believable
characters, not just one.
Complete your planning sheet

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DATEDATEDATE

LO: To understand the conventions of letter writing for Q1

How could we develop these bullet points?

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