GCSE English Language - Writing Story Openings (AQA: Paper one, Question 5)

This resource is for a lesson focusing on the writing question (Q5) of paper 1 and looks at how to write the opening of a story.

Starter: Create a character (this ties into the creative writing activity later)
Objectives: To understand what to expect for the writing question and practice writing the opening of a story. Students will also set a personal target for the lesson.
Video: YouTube clip of Mr. Bruff discussing how to write the opening of a story.
Criteria: Understanding the mark scheme (it is simplified with questions to test understanding).
Language: Introducing the acronym ARRESTED and practice using language features to describe an image (descriptive writing).
Example: Paragraph summary of how the opening of a story might be structured. This is to give students an example of how to build a story and focus on the quality of their writing and not introducing lots of events.
Creative Writing Task: Write a story where their character is sitting in a coffee shop and they are approached by someone. They can use the character they created earlier and the language features they wrote for the ARRESTED exercise.
Plenary: Reflection on whether the students reached their targets during the lesson.