Travel and Exploration

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infoWhy this? It is important for students to engage with gripping, real and imagined journeys that broaden their understanding of the wider world. A balance of diary, scientific observation and modern travel narrative enables students to compare how true experiences and crafted stories present place, culture and discovery. Students can open up rich discussion around curiosity, risk, cultural encounter and the ethics of exploration.

scheduleWhy now? This unit allows students to build on the nonfiction skills developed in the speeches unit and to apply them to more extended descriptive and narrative prose. It prepares students for later work on structure and viewpoint in both fiction and non‑fiction, as well as for their own descriptive and narrative writing. Students gain insight into a range of narrative voices and perspectives, while continuing to secure spelling, grammar and punctuation in longer, crafted responses.

Fissures are long cracks or openings, sultry means very hot and humid, and diligently means carefully and with sustained effort.
Subterranean means existing beneath the Earth's surface, antediluvian means extremely ancient or outdated, and a spectacle is an impressive or unusual sight.
A depôt is a place where supplies are stored, appalling means extremely bad or shocking, and forestalling means preventing or delaying something by acting first.
A cairn is a pile of stones used as a marker, wearisome means tiring or tedious, and monotony is a lack of variety that makes something boring.
Priority is something considered more important than other things, chagrin is embarrassment or disappointment caused by failure, and predecessors are people who came before others in a role or position.
Imperial means relating to an empire, a rampart is a defensive wall or bank, and adjacent means next to or adjoining something.
A cubit is an ancient unit of length based on the distance from the elbow to the fingertips, sentinels are guards, and congregational means relating to people gathered together.
Savants are people with extensive knowledge or expertise, and a minaret is a tower associated with a mosque.
Serene means calm and peaceful, amble means to walk slowly and casually, and rationalizations are explanations used to justify decisions or behaviour.
Sloth means laziness, rashly means acting without sufficient thought, and guileless means innocent or without deceit.
Peril means serious danger, hapless means unfortunate or unlucky, and an onslaught is a fierce or overwhelming attack.
Inevitable means certain to happen, unimpeded means not obstructed or delayed, and unperturbed means calm and unaffected by difficulty.
A sextant is an instrument used in navigation to measure angles, a fathom is a unit of depth equal to six feet, and speculating means forming ideas without complete evidence.
Travel writing is a form of non-fiction that records journeys and experiences and can aim to inform, describe, entertain or reflect.
Charles Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle combines scientific observation, precise measurement and humour when describing the Galápagos Islands and their wildlife.
R. F. Scott's Scott's Last Expedition uses diary entries to record the disappointment of reaching the South Pole after Roald Amundsen's expedition.
A diary records events and feelings from the writer's perspective, usually close to the time they occurred and without knowledge of what will happen later.
Ibn Battuta was a fourteenth-century Moroccan traveller whose account, The Rehla, describes places and cultures encountered during his extensive journeys.
Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods combines factual information with exaggeration, self-deprecation and comic lists to entertain readers.
Thor Heyerdahl's The Kon-Tiki Expedition recounts a 1947 Pacific Ocean journey undertaken on a balsa-wood raft to test a theory about historical travel.
Precise adjectives provide specific descriptive information, while commas separate items in a list.
A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence that may be used deliberately in diaries to reflect immediate thoughts or emotions.
Parenthesis adds extra information using brackets, commas or dashes.
A relative clause adds information about a noun and often begins with who, which or that.
A fronted adverbial is a word or phrase placed at the beginning of a sentence to indicate when, where or how something happens, and is often followed by a comma.

rocket_launchYou must be able to

Define and accurately use the unit's Tier 2 vocabulary in original sentences.
Identify differences between travel journals, diaries, expedition accounts and entertaining travel narratives.
Explain how a writer's purpose influences the tone and content of travel writing.
Identify how Darwin combines detailed scientific observation with engaging description.
Explain how Scott's diary communicates disappointment through immediate personal reflection.
Analyse how Ibn Battuta uses comparison and measurement to describe unfamiliar places.
Explain how Bryson uses exaggeration, self-deprecation and comic lists to entertain readers.
Identify how Heyerdahl uses unusual details and questions to engage the reader.
Select precise adjectives and use commas accurately in descriptive lists.
Use dashes and sentence fragments appropriately when writing diary entries.
Construct relative clauses to add information about people, places and objects.
Use brackets and dashes to add parenthetical information.
Use fronted adverbials of place to organise descriptions and establish setting.

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