1. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
Learning intention:
To identify and use personification in our
writing.
Success criteria:
1. I must describe what
personification is.
2. I should be able to identify
examples of personification in
texts.
3. I might be able to create my
own examples of
personification.

2. Turn-and-talk!
Recap from the last lesson. What did
we learn about ‘personification’?
How did you incorporate
‘personification’ into your draft?
LI: To identify and use personification in our writing.
Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild

3. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
LI: To identify and use personification in our writing.
Remember, your task was to write as if you are the
animal in the style of Margaret Wild. That means
you must use some of the techniques we have learnt
about.
Turn-and-talk!
Think of your endangered or extinct animal.
If somebody came into your home and destroyed
it, how would you feel? What powerful words
could you use to describe your feelings?

4. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
LI: To identify and use personification in our writing.
The Dream of the Golden Toad
by Jayden Spudvilas-Powell
Trapped, ruined, suffocated.
Pools of waste and toxic sludge.
The poison is part of me.
Blackened bits of bone and ash.
The mouth the marsh wails.
Death is all around me.
My family, my home.
Gone.
Stop and listen!
Here is an example from Mr Spud of how you might write in as if you
are an extinct animal. He used four literary devices and strategies
in The Dream of the Golden Toad. Can you spot them all?

5. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
LI: To identify and use personification in our writing.
The Dream of the Golden Toad
by Jayden Spudvilas-Powell
Trapped, ruined, suffocated.
Pools of waste and toxic sludge.
The poison is part of me.
Blackened bits of bone and ash.
The mouth of the marsh wails.
Death is all around me.
My family, my home, myself.
Gone.
Stop and listen!
Since Margaret Wild tries to say a lot in as few word as possible, Mr Spud tried
to do the same by writing a short piece with many literary devices within about
the Golden Toad. The Golden Toad became extinct due to human pollution.
Did you spot all of the literary devices that Mr Spud used in this 38-word
story?
powerful words
alliteration
personification
repetition

6. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
LI: To identify and use personification in our writing.
Here is an example of how Mr
Spud published his piece
using digital technology.
Turn-and-talk!
What publishing
strategies can you see
in this piece of
writing?

7. Your task today!
Continue drafting your story,
then get going with publishing
your writing.
Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
LI: To identify and use personification in our writing.
Come and see us when you are ready to publish, but
check to see if you have these things before you see
us…
- Have I revised my writing using ARMS?
- Have I edited my writing using CUPS?
- Do I have an interesting title?
- Have I used personification somewhere?
- Have I tried to write in the voice of
my animal?

8. Let’s reflect!
Gallery walk. Walk around the room and
read one other person’s writing. Discuss
any interesting things you noticed
after.
If you are not finished, that is okay! Place any
unfinished published pieces into your Writing
Folder. You might have time to come back to it later
on.
Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
LI: To identify and use personification in our writing.

9. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
Learning intention:
To create an interesting lead to a story.
Success criteria:
1. I must explain what a lead is.
2. I should be able to create a
where, where, what lead.
3. I might be able to explain why
interesting leads are important.

10. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
LI: To create an interesting lead to a story.
Turn-and-talk!
What is a ‘lead’? Why
are interesting leads
important to a good
story?

11. Leads are the words that we use to start a story. They
are important in drawing the reader in to a story.
Overused leads like ‘one day’ and ‘once upon a time’ are
not terribly exciting.
Margaret Wild has a great strategy to use when creating
an interesting lead to a story…
WHERE, WHERE, WHAT
Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
LI: To create an interesting lead to a story.
“On a tiny island, in the middle
of nowhere, there was a tree.”

12. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
LI: To create an interesting lead to a story.
Stop and listen!
We are going to think of our own examples using the WHERE,
WHERE, WHAT lead. Here are some more examples below:
Inside a hot volcano, near a ring of islands, lived a fearsome dragon.
In a tiny cottage, at the end of a laneway, lived a grumpy
old man.
In a pond, among some grass, there was a
mysterious key.

13. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
Your task today!
Experiment with WHERE, WHERE, WHAT leads in
your Writer’s Notebooks.
If there is time, see if you can go back to
a previous piece of writing and edit in a
WHERE, WHERE, WHAT lead.
LI: To create an interesting lead to a story.

14. Let’s reflect!
Share your WHERE, WHERE, WHAT leads with a
partner.
Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
Then… Stop and listen!
Add the language device ‘interesting leads’ to the anchor
chart on Margaret Wild. 
LI: To create an interesting lead to a story.

15. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
Learning intention:
To use talking marks correctly in
dialogue.
Success criteria:
1. I must know what speech marks
look like.
2. I should be able to use speech
marks in my writing to show
where my characters are talking.
3. I might be able to use synonyms
for the word ‘said.’

16. Turn-and-talk!
What did we learn from the
previous lesson about
interesting leads? Why do we
use interesting leads?
LI: To use talking marks correctly in
dialogue.
Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild

17. Dialogue is a fancy word
that means talk between
characters.
Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
dialogue
Talking marks are used to show where dialogue is taking plac
“ ” ‘ ’or
LI: To use talking marks correctly in
dialogue.

18. Dialogue is an important part of Margaret
Wild’s texts. In Tanglewood, dialogue was
used to build the relationship between
Seagull and Tanglewood. In other cases,
dialogue was used to show the character’s
inner thoughts.
Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
dialogue
Building a
relationship
between characters
Character’s inner
thoughts
LI: To use talking marks correctly in
dialogue.

19. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
dialogue
Margaret Wild uses the verb ‘said’ to show dialogue. She
also uses some vivid verbs instead of ‘said’ in some
parts of Tanglewood.
Turn-and-talk!
What other words could you use instead of ‘said’?
LI: To use talking marks correctly in
dialogue.

20. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
Your task today!
Create your own sentences
involving dialogue between
two characters and write them
in your Writer’s Notebook.
Make sure you use TALKING
MARKS!
Try to use interesting
synonyms for ‘said.’ Here are
some examples:
“What did you learn today?” Ms
Matthews enquired with
curiosity.
After a moment’s passing,
Sabawoon revealed, “We learned
how to use talking marks to show
dialogue. I even made my own
examples!”
Success looks
like…
admitted cackled whispered
roared mumbled shouted
LI: To use talking marks correctly in
dialogue.

21. Let’s reflect!
Share your examples of dialogue with a partner. Did
you use talking marks? Which interesting synonyms
did you use instead of ‘said’?
Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
Then… Stop and listen!
Let’s write down ‘dialogue’ as a language device that
Margaret Wild uses on our class anchor chart. 
LI: To use talking marks correctly in
dialogue.

22. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
Learning intention:
To use repetition to add emphasis to a story.
Success criteria:
1. I must recall what repetition
means.
2. I should be able to think of
examples of repetition.
3. I might be able to use
repetition to draw attention to
important points in my story.

23. Turn-and-talk!
What do we recall about
dialogue? Why is dialogue
important to use in a story?
Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
LI: To use repetition to add emphasis to a
story.

24. Today we are going to revise a literary
device we learned last week, called…
Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
LI: To use repetition to add emphasis to a
story.
repetition

25. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
repetitionRepetition has been used in all three
texts by Margaret Wild that we have
looked at so far.
LI: To use repetition to add emphasis to a
story.
“With Magpie clinging to his back, he races through the scrub, past
the stringy barks, past the clumps of yellow box trees, and into
blueness.”
“Run with me through trees of striply bark, run with me over creeks
of flickering fish, run with me where the snow falls slow.”
“Sometimes Tanglewood saw birds streaming past, and it called, ‘I am
here! Come and nest in my branches.’ Sometimes Tanglewood saw
dolphins leaping, and it called, ‘I am here! Come and talk to me.”

26. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
LI: To use repetition to add emphasis to a
story.
Stop and listen!
Let’s make a shared writing example of
repetition to show how it can be used to draw
attention to something (e.g., Tanglewood’s
loneliness).
Turn-and-talk!
What effect does ‘repetition’ have on you, as the
reader?

27. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
Your task today!
You are going to plan and begin
drafting a narrative today. The
topic of choice is up to you but
you must plan to use
in your story somewhere!
You will have the next Writing
session to work on this too.
Good luck!
LI: To use repetition to add emphasis to a
story.
There are lots of ways
to plan. Popplet is one
way you could plan your
writing.
repetiti
on

28. Igniting Writing: Margaret
Wild
Let’s reflect!
Draw a coloured circle on the page
your wrote on today to show how
much you understood about
repetition. Did you plan to use
repetition in your Writing Plan?
LI: To use repetition to add emphasis to a
story.