Teacher notes for this lesson. Two sides of A4, not for pupils.Mild sheetMedium sheetSpicy sheetAnswers
Teacher notes · not for pupils Writer's craft sequence

The Spoon Shook

Show, don't tell

Lesson 12 of 12
Year 6 45 min

Objective

Show a character's feelings and a setting's mood through actions, speech and the senses instead of naming them, and choose clues that fit the feeling.

Board title: Show, don't tell  ·  Say it: “By the end of today you'll be able to show a feeling with clues instead of naming it.”

Curriculum

  • Y5/6: composition — in narratives, describing settings, characters and atmosphere
  • Y5/6: composition — selecting appropriate grammar and vocabulary, understanding how such choices can change and enhance meaning
  • Y5/6: reading — drawing inferences such as inferring characters' feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions (built on)
  • Terminology: show, don't tell · inference · clue

Success criteria

  • spot telling and showing
  • show a feeling with actions
  • use the senses to show a mood
  • choose clues that fit

Key vocabulary

show · tell · clue · infer · senses · mood

Run of the lesson

4 min
Starter on the board: Polpetta was nervous. against Polpetta's spoon rattled. Which one lets you feel it? One minute of paired talk.
8 min
Model Example 1 and 2. For each line ask: how does the character feel? Which clue told you?
6 min
The trap: Bruno was scared. He grinned. A grin shows happy, so it does not fit.
6 min
Flavour Match on the whiteboard, Spicy band, Level 17 then Level 18. Read each line aloud before choosing.
18 min
Worksheet, independent. In Task 2, pupils find the telling lines and rewrite them to show.
3 min
Plenary: Polpetta's story that only tells, then the class quiz for SHOWF on the board.
On screenSPAGhetti → Flavour Match → Spicy. Play Level 17 (which one shows it?) then Level 18 (what's the feeling?); both are open from the start. ~10 items in 6 minutes with discussion.
SPAGhetti · Writer's craft sequence · Lesson 12 of 12  ·  Teacher notes 1 of 2
Teacher notes · not for pupils The Spoon Shook · side 2

On the day

If the tech failsSkip the game. Call out a feeling (bored, proud, nervous); pairs act it with no words while the class names the clues they saw, then write those clues as a sentence. The lesson works with no screen at all.
If they're on devicesLesson code SHOWF (on the worksheet footer) opens Flavour Match on Spicy, with the two show, don't tell levels open. For writing, set Cook Up a Story and ask for one moment shown, not told.

Misconceptions to watch for

Never use a feeling word. Telling is fine for quick moments that keep the story moving. Show the moments that matter.

Any action shows a feeling. The clue has to point to the feeling. She walked to school shows nothing; She dragged her feet to school does.

More detail is always better. Two or three sharp clues beat a paragraph. Pick the ones that fit the feeling best.

Showing is only about faces. Speech, the setting, the weather and the senses all show: "Fine," she muttered or Rain drummed on the roof.

The three sheets

Same four tasks on every sheet, in the same order, with the same look. Only the demand changes. Print the one each child needs; nobody does two.

Mild

Same four tasks as every other sheet, same order, same look, the demand is lower, not the dignity. Shorter passage in Task 2, and in Task 3 a word bank or words to tick, with printed sentence starters. Give it to anyone who needs a way in, and expect them to move up.

Medium

The core sheet. Give this to most of the class. No word bank; in Task 3 pupils choose from a few close options, then use one in a sentence of their own.

Spicy

Same four tasks, more demand, a longer passage with a subtler error, and Task 3 asks for two things at once. Not extra work; harder work. Nobody should be doing Spicy and the Medium sheet.

Adaptive teaching

  • Support: Give a clue bank sorted by feeling (happy: grinned, hummed; scared: froze, trembled; cross: frowned, stamped) to build sentences from.
  • Stretch: Write a short scene where a character feels two things at once (proud but nervous), shown and never named.
  • SEN: Gentle mode on. Reading feelings from clues is hard for some pupils, especially autistic pupils. Teach the clues explicitly: put the Feeling Cards (the SALT drawer) beside each clue, and act the clue out together.
  • EAL: Act the clue words (froze, beamed, slumped) and pair each with its feeling word in home language and English.

Play it

Lesson code SHOWF at playspaghetti.com. The code is printed on the bottom of every pupil sheet with a QR, and Class Quiz in your dashboard opens the plenary quiz for this lesson pre-picked.

SPAGhetti · Writer's craft sequence · Lesson 12 of 12  ·  Teacher notes, not for pupils 2 of 2  ·  Ludora