A Great Storm

A great storm in Scotland This text is taken from the beginning of the novel The Water Horse by Dick King-Smith, first published in 1990. Read the text to see how the story starts. Read the whole book to find out what happens the morning after the great storm, when Kirstie and her brother Angus find something very strange on the beach. In the small hours of March the 26th, 1930, a great storm struck the west coast of Scotland. The huge seas that it had whipped up smashed against the foot of the cliffs, and the tigerish tempest ran up the face of them and grabbed a small white house on the cliff top in its jaws. The house quivered and shook in the teeth of the wind, and Kirstie, waking in sudden fright, was sure that the roof must go. The noise of the storm was fearful. Angus will be terrified, thought Kirstie, and she jumped out of bed and ran to her little brother's room next door. Her mother arrived at the same moment carrying an oil lamp, and by its light they could see that Angus was sleeping peacefully, sleeping like the baby he had been only a few years before. Outside, the thunder banged and the lightning flashed, the wind roared and the rain poured. Angus snored. "Back to bed, Kirstie," said her mother. "I'll stay here awhile in case he wakes." "What about Grumble?" said Kirstie. "Is he all right?" Grumble was Mother's father, who lived with them. When Kirstie was very small, she had heard Mother say angrily to him one day, "All you ever do is grumble, grumble," and so she had thought that it was his name. It suited him. He came stumping along the corridor now, a big old man with a thick droopy moustache. "Can't sleep a wink!" growled Grumble to his daughter and granddaughter, as though it was their fault. "Terrible weather! The Lord help sailors on a night like this!"

Overview

This 60-minute lesson explores an extract from The Water Horse by Dick King-Smith, focusing on developing Year 7 students’ reading comprehension, inference, and vocabulary skills. It aligns with the National Curriculum for England’s Key Stage 3 objectives, particularly in English reading and comprehension.

National Curriculum Links

Reading: Word Reading and Comprehension

Understand increasingly challenging texts through a range of independent reading strategies (English Programme of Study, KS3).
Develop positive attitudes to reading, and an understanding of what they read (NC KS3 Reading).
Retrieve, record and present information from fiction and non-fiction.
Identify and interpret themes, ideas and information.
Explain how meaning is enhanced through choice of language.
Make inferences from the text and justify these with evidence.

Vocabulary, Grammar, and Punctuation

Understand the meaning of new words by using context.
Develop vocabulary actively, including through dictionaries and thesauruses.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

Retrieve information explicitly stated in the storm extract.
Make inferences about characters’ feelings and setting, supported by textual evidence.
Explain the effect of vocabulary and language features used to describe the storm.
Summarise key events in the extract using their own words.
Expand vocabulary by identifying and researching five new words from the text.

Resources

Copies of the extract from The Water Horse (printed for each student)
Whiteboard / Interactive Whiteboard (IWB)
Post-it notes / highlighters
Dictionaries/thesauruses (paper or digital)
Student exercise books or worksheets

Lesson Structure

Starter (10 minutes)

Engagement: Weather Discussion
- Begin by asking students to recall recent stormy or extreme weather experiences.
- Introduce the context: a storm on the west coast of Scotland in 1930.
- Write the phrase “a great storm” on the board. Brainstorm adjectives and descriptive phrases associated with storms (e.g. furious, wild, howling, relentless).
Prediction Task
- Ask students: What do you think might happen after a great storm in a story?
- Brief pair-share followed by a few students sharing ideas aloud.

Main Activity (40 minutes)

Part 1: Reading and Retrieval (15 minutes)

Students read the extract silently.
Model ‘think aloud’ on the IWB by highlighting descriptive phrases (‘the tigerish tempest’, ‘the house quivered and shook’) and explaining their vivid imagery.
Task: On post-it notes, students write down three facts from the text (e.g. the time of the storm, how Kirstie reacts, who ‘Grumble’ is).
Share answers and collate them to check retrieval accuracy.

Part 2: Inference and Language (15 minutes)

Guided questions to develop inference skills:
- How do you think Kirstie feels when the storm hits? Which words help you understand this?
- Why do you think Angus is described as sleeping peacefully despite the storm?
- What does the name ‘Grumble’ suggest about Mother’s father? How does the text build this character?
Discuss vocabulary: Highlight words like “fearful”, “quivered”, “grumbled”, and “tempest”.
Students select five unfamiliar words, look up meanings, and write their own sentences using them.

Part 3: Summarising (10 minutes)

Explain how to summarise using key points rather than copying text.
In pairs, students create a brief summary (3-4 sentences) of the storm scene.
Share some summaries with the class, focusing on clarity and conciseness.

Plenary (10 minutes)

Whole-class reflection: How does the author create a mood of suspense and danger?
Students write a short paragraph answering this question, using evidence from the text.
Encourage use of new vocabulary learned.
Collect paragraphs to assess understanding and inference skills.

Assessment & Feedback

Formative assessment through student verbal answers and written post-it notes.
Summaries and plenary paragraphs will be marked for:
- Accurate retrieval of information
- Use of inference supported by evidence
- Effective vocabulary use
Provide verbal feedback during activities and written comments in books.

Differentiation

For lower ability learners: Provide glossary of key terms, allow verbal rather than written responses.
For higher ability learners: Challenge to identify and analyse the similes and metaphors in the text.
Provide sentence starters for summarising and inference tasks if required.

Extension/Homework

Read the next section of The Water Horse as homework.
Write a diary entry from Kirstie’s perspective describing waking up during the storm.

This plan engages students with rich language and imaginative context while meeting the National Curriculum’s focus on developing comprehension, vocabulary, and inference skills in Year 7.

Teaching Instructions