The horror of

SATs

The Reading Paper• 15 minutes to read the texts in the reading booklet

• 1 hour to answer the questions on these texts

• There will be three texts in the reading booklet all linked in some way (the texts could be fiction, non-fiction or poetry)

• You can score up to 32 marks on this paper

• Each question is worth a different number of marks. Spend more time on the questions worth more marks

• If you miss out questions you will score 0 for that question

• You will need to sometimes write about the effects of language

• You must make sure that you read the question carefully

What do you expect in a horror film?

What do you expect in a horror story?

Sats Readingthe longer question

Many students lose valuable marks on their Sats Reading Paper by missing out important parts of the longer questions. The longer questions are those that are worth 4 marks or more and require students to write quite a long response.

However, there are some techniques which can help…

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

Interview with the vampire

Graphic sourced from the poster of the film – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110148/posters

Jane Eyreby Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre extract

Picture sourced from the BBC – http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/janeeyre/

The Ravenextract

Edgar Allan Poethe raven extract

The graphic has been sourced from http://poeparlor.com/raven.html

The longer question

• Remember to use the P E E structure

• Remember to turn each bullet point in the question into a paragraph

• Remember to try to use at least one quote per paragraph and discuss the effects of language used

• Remember to refer back to the question that you are answering at least once per paragraph

Sats WritingWriting paper• 1hr 15 minutes long• The paper is in two sections: Section A = the longer writing task worth 30

marks: Section B = the shorter writing task worth 20 marks• 15 minutes to plan your answer to Section A in the space provided on the

paper• You need to write in the correct style (analyse, review, comment, argue,

persuade advise, explore, imagine, entertain, describe, inform, explain)• You need to write in the correct form (letter, article…)• You must use paragraphs• Try to begin each paragraph with a connective followed by a comma• Try to begin each paragraph with a topic sentence• Try to use connectives within a paragraph (either at the start of a sentence

or within a sentence)• You must focus on your spelling• You must focus on your punctuation• You must try to use a variety of sentence structures (simple, complex and

compound)

The writing triplets

•Writing to inform, explain, describe

•Writing to argue, persuade, advise

•Writing to analyse, review, comment

Writing to inform, explain, describe

Writing to inform:You must write using FACTSYour writing must be formal and clearYou must use paragraphs and connectivesYou must use the correct punctuationTry and extend your vocabulary by using a

thesaurusFocus on your spellingYou must PLAN your work

Halloween

Research Halloween:

What is it?

Why do we have it?

How long has it been around?

What do we do to celebrate it?

Writing to inform

Write an information article about Halloween

1. Brainstorm everything that you will say about it

2. Each arm on your brainstorm will become a paragraph in your article

3. Begin each paragraph with a different connective

Sample Writing to inform

Firstly, Halloween is a festival celebrated on the 31st October every year. To celebrate the festival people carve scary faces into pumpkins and then place candles inside the hollowed out vegetable. Similarly, people often eat Pumpkin Soup at this time. In addition to the pumpkins people also decorate their houses with pretend cobwebs, plastic bats and spiders, scary monsters and spooky lights. As well as decorating their houses people also dress up in costumes, they sometimes dress up as witches and vampires…

Writing to explain

Research vampires:

What are they?

What do they look like?

What do they do?

Where do they live?

How do you kill them?

Dracula

Writing to inform, explain, describe

Writing to explainYou must write using FACTSYour writing must be formal and clearYou must use paragraphs and connectivesYou must use the correct punctuationTry and extend your vocabulary by using a

thesaurusFocus on your spellingYou must PLAN your work

SampleWriting to explain

• Primarily, vampires are creatures of the night. They have fangs and draw blood from the necks of their victims. Consequently, once a victim of a Vampire’s bite then that person, will, in turn become a vampire themselves…

Writing to describe

When writing to describe you must:• Use descriptive language such as adjectives and

similes• Use complex sentences which are long and have

lots of detail in them• Use the correct punctuation and spelling• Use paragraphs with connectives• Extend your vocabulary to make your work more

interesting• Build a real picture of what it is that you are

describing so that the reader can imagine it too

Writing to describe

Describe the following (in only 5-10 paragraphs):

A haunted house in the woods on a dark, stormy night

Sample Writing to describe

The night was so dark, the black penetrated everything. Even the moon was almost completely concealed by dense cloud, it was as if the world had been struck blind. The wood at the far edge of the village was wild, the trees were being tossed from side to side like bones. The wind howled mercilessly and the rain beat down. At regular intervals the dark world was lit up, momentarily, by lightning as it forked like the devil across the sky. Thunder crashed ominously like a large beating heart. In the very heart of the woods, the house stood. It had been deserted for years now and was rotting rapidly. It was a local legend, a place where kids went to hang out on dares; a place where screams were silenced quickly…

Writing to argue, persuade, advise

Writing to adviseWhen writing to advise you should:

• Use paragraphs and connectives• Concentrate on your spelling and

punctuation• Extend your vocabulary by using a thesaurus• Be sympathetic and sensible• Offer sensible solutions • Make sure that you can be understood, that

your writing is clear

Writing to advise

The task:

A teenager has written to a magazine advice column, they are worried because they have just moved into a new house and it is haunted. What would you advise them to do

Plan your work, turn each arm on your brainstorm into a paragraph

Sample writing to advise

Firstly, you should tell an adult. However, if your parents do not believe you then you should go to a teacher or to the local priest. In addition, to this it would be good if you could obtain some evidence which will prove that your ‘ghostly visitor’ does exist…

Writing to argue

The main thing about writing to argue is that, although most of your writing will be about the side that you agree with, you must acknowledge the other point of view…

Task: Horror films should be bannedWrite a formal letter to the BBFC

agreeing or disagreeing with this.

Writing to argueHorror films should be banned

Reasons why they should be banned

Reasons why they should not be banned

Sample writing to argueHorror films should be banned

Once you have decided the side that you are on, you must turn each point in your list into a paragraph. Your writing will be structured this way:

What?

1 Introduce what you are writing about

2 Point 1: the side you are on

3 Point 2: the side you are on

4 Point 3: the side you are on

5 Paragraph which acknowledges the other point of view

6 Conclusion

Sample writing to argueHorror films should be banned

What must you remember to do to make your writing a Level 5 and above?

Writing to argueHorror films should be banned The layout of a formal letter:

Your addressThe date in full

Their addressDear Sir/Madam, (or Dear Mr Smith,)Your paragraphsYours faithfully (if the letter is to Sir/Madam)Yours sincerely (if the letter is to Mr Smith)

Writing to persuade

When writing to persuade, you only write about the side that you agree with.

Task: write a formal speech persuading a group of teenagers not to go into the Haunted Woods on Halloween night (the woods are frightening, many people have gone into the woods and have never returned…)

Writing to persuadeBrainstorm all of the things that you will say to the teenagers

in order to convince them not to go:

Hints:Use strong, shocking, emotional languageUse shocking statisticsRepeat key pointsSpeak directly to themRefer to any eye witness accounts

Each arm on the brainstorm will become a paragraph in your speech. You must include an introduction and a powerful conclusion

Remember: connectives, spellings, punctuation, sophisticated vocabulary…

Writing to analyse, review, comment

Writing to review:

Write a review of a horror film:

The Others

Graphic sourced from the film poster – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230600/posters

Writing to review

What goes into a film review?

Writing to review

Remember to turn each element into a paragraph

Remember your connectives, your spelling, your punctuation, your vocabulary

Remember to either be positive or negative

Writing to analyse

When writing to analyse you must write about all sides of something, the more sides that you can offer the more you are analysing:

Analyse the following statement:

Ghosts do not exist

Writing to analyseGhosts do not exist

Turn each thing that you have come up with into a paragraph. Don’t forget to add on your introduction and your conclusion

Writing to comment

When writing to comment you are not writing about all sides of a possible topic but you are only writing about all the sides that you tend to feel are important

Comment on the film Premonition and whether you think that premonitions

can actually exist.

Writing to comment

Brainstorm everything that you want to say about the film and about premonitions in general

Turn each arm on your brainstorm into a paragraph adding on an introduction and a conclusion

Never forget!!!!!!

When writing what should you always remember to do?

Never forget!!!!!!

You should always:• Plan your work• Use paragraphs with a range of connectives• Use connectives to join sentences• Spell correctly• Use correct punctuation• Write in the style that you are being asked to• Write in the form (ie: letter) that you are being

asked to• Use a range of interesting vocabulary• Have an introduction and a conclusion• Use formal language

Writing to explore, imagine, entertain

All of the same rules apply but you obviously have to write with a lot of description.

Tasks:

Write a short horror story of 10 paragraphs

Imagine that you have to spend the night in a Haunted House write about it

Writing a short horror story

Plan:

What is going to happen in your story?Who is/are the character/s in your

story?Where is your story set?

Level 6 and beyond

Additional support

• Connectives

• Overview of SATs

• Level 6 and beyond

• National curriculum levels