This lesson will focus on how prepositional phrases provide more details about Mr Twit’s appearance and character to build on the information examined in the noun groups in the previous lesson.
Learning intention
We will read Roald Dahl’s description of Mr Twit with a focus on prepositional phrases and how these contribute to building a picture of Mr Twit to help us understand what kind of character he is.
Success Criteria
I can identify, describe and explain the ways in which the author uses prepositional phrases to build understanding of a character.
Links to the Victorian Curriculum – English
Writing, Language: Expressing and developing ideas
Level 4:
Understand that the meaning of sentences can be enriched through the use of noun groups/phrases and verb groups/phrases and prepositional phrases (
VCELA292)
Level 5:
Understand how noun groups/phrases and adjective groups/phrases can be expanded in a variety of ways to provide a fuller description of the person, place, thing or idea (
VCELA324)
Links to the Victorian Curriculum – English as an Additional Language (EAL)
Pathway B
Reading and viewing
Level BL:
- Participate in activities around class texts
(VCEALC190)
Level B1:
- Participate in simple group activities on shared texts, with some support
(VCEALC270)
Level B2:
- Contribute to group activities on shared texts
(VCEALC351)
Level B3:
- Contribute actively to group activities on shared texts
(VCEALC430)
For the Teacher
About prepositional phrases
Prepositional phrases can provide more information about both the verb group and the noun group. Prepositional phrases about the verb group provide information about the circumstances of what’s going on, for example place (‘where?’), time, (‘when’, ‘how long?’), manner (‘how?’, ‘in what way?’), cause (‘why?’). Prepositional phrases typically begin with a preposition which are often single words but can be a number of words (for example, at, in, on or in front of). The structure of a prepositional phrase is preposition + noun group (for example ‘on Sundays’). (Learn more about prepositional phrases in narratives)
Lesson Sequence
- Return to the description of Mr Twit to examine the ways in which prepositional phrases also contribute to building the description of him. These phrases give more details about the character by telling us about his face, how and where his hair grows, how old he is and how often he washes his hairy face.
- Recall how Roald Dahl used noun groups to help us understand more about Mr Twit. Recall how noun groups can be made up of words before and/ or after the noun.
- Focus on the first paragraph of the description of Mr Twit:
- Mr Twit was one of these very hairy-faced men. The whole of his face except for his forehead, his eyes and his nose, was covered with thick hair. The stuff even sprouted in revolting tufts out of his nostrils and ear-holes.
- Say to the students: This paragraph tells us quite a bit about Mr Twit. Let’s look at each of the sentences to see what information it tells us.
- Ask: ‘What does the first sentence tell you about Mr Twit?’ The first sentence tells us what kind of man he is or the group he belongs to. (Here you might highlight the use of the determiner ‘these’ which refers back to the first chapter which introduces ‘hairy-faced men’.) Which words tell you that? What do we call this group of words? Underline the noun group.
- Mr Twit was one of these very hairy-faced men.
- What does the second sentence tell you about Mr Twit? The second sentence tells us about his face and how it is covered with thick hair.
- Ask the students if they can remember the noun group which begins the second sentence and underline it (‘The whole of his face’). Which word tells us more about his face? Underline the prepositional phrase except for his forehead, his eyes and his nose.
- Which words tell you in what way his face was covered? Highlight the prepositional phrase ‘with thick hair’.
- The whole of his face except for his forehead, his eyes and his nose, was covered with thick hair.
- What does the third sentence tell you about Mr Twit? The third sentence tells us about Mr Twit’s thick hair and how and where the thick hair sprouted.
- Which words begin the sentence? What do we call this group of words? Underline the noun group. (Here explain that ‘the stuff’ refers to the thick hair on Mr Twit’s face in the previous sentence).
- Which words tell you about how his thick hair sprouted? Which words tell you about where his thick hair sprouted? Highlight the prepositional phrases ‘in revolting tufts’ and ‘out of his nostrils and ear-holes.
- The stuff even sprouted in revolting tufts out of his nostrils and ear-holes.
- Explain that these groups of words that tell us about more about Mr Twit's face and where and how his hair grows are called prepositional phrases.
- Mr Twit was one of these very hairy-faced men. The whole of his face except for his forehead, his eyes and his nose, was covered with thick hair. The stuff even sprouted in revolting tufts out of his nostrils and ear-holes.
- You could also highlight the adjectives within the noun groups and prepositional phrases (hairy-faced, thick, revolting) and discuss what these choices tell you about Mr Twit.
- Discuss how much of the short paragraph is devoted to giving details about Mr Twit’s appearance in simple sentences. (Learn more about simple sentences)
- Other prepositional phrases in the description of Mr Twit tell us about the length of time that Mr Twit had been a twit, and how often he washes his hairy face. Draw their attention to the following parts of the text:
- Mr Twit was a twit. He was born a twit.
- And now at the age of sixty, he was a bigger twit than ever
- And how often did Mr Twit wash this bristly nailbrushy face of his?
- The answer is never, not even on Sundays. He hadn’t washed it for years.
- Ask students to locate the words which tell them:
- Mr Twit’s age now
- how often he washes his face
- Students might highlight all of the adverbials which provide these details, but draw attention to those that are prepositional phrases:
- Mr Twit was a twit.
- He was born a twit.
- And now at the age of sixty, he was a bigger twit than ever.
- And how often did Mr Twit wash this bristly nailbrushy face of his?
- The answer is never, not even on Sundays.
- He hadn’t washed it for years.
- Provide students with their own copy of Mr Twit. Ask students to annotate their copy of the text, highlighting choices which have been explicitly taught. It is not necessary for them to highlight all examples, but to be able to identify and describe how the selected choices work individually and in combination to build character description
- Students can compare and discuss their annotations in small groups.