Year 9AS Lesson 1

1. SILENT READING

2. TRAVEL WRITING
Learning Objective: to be able to understand how the writer
draws the reader into the passage
Date: Tuesday 26th January

3. STARTER
What are the elements of
‘travel writing’?

5. ANALYSE THIS TITLE
•‘BETWEEN A ROCK AND A
HARD PLACE’
• Using this title, predict what
the story might be about using
the 5 W’s

7. ANALYSIS OF EXTRACT
•The extract takes place when Ralston is
stranded in Blue John Canyon in the Utah
desert, and he is getting desperate

8. It is Saturday afternoon now. On my scant supply I
might last until Monday, maybe Tuesday morning at
the outside. If a rescue comes along before then, it
will be an unlikely chance encounter with a fellow
canyoneer, not an organised effort of trained
personnel. In other words, rescue seems about as
probable as winning the lottery.

9. I have a problem to solve: I have to get out of here, so I put
my mind to what I can do to escape my entrapment. Eliminating
a couple of ideas that are too dumb (such as cracking open my
extra AA batteries on the boulder and hoping the acid erodes
the chockstone but doesn't eat into my arm), I organise my
other options in order of preference: I can excavate the rock
around my hand with my multi-tool; I can rig ropes and an
anchor above me to lift the boulder off my hand; or I can
amputate my arm.

10. A moment's thought makes each method seem
impossible. I don't have the heavy tools to remove
enough rock to free my hand. I don't have the
hauling power needed, even with a pulley system, to
move the boulder. And I don't have the instruments,
surgical know-how, or emotional gumption to sever
my own arm.

11. Perhaps more as a tactic to delay thinking about the last option,
I decide to work on an easier option - chipping away the rock to
free my arm. Picking an easily accessed spot on the boulder in
front of my chest and a few inches from my right wrist, I
scratch the tip of the multi-tool's longest blade across the
boulder in a four-inch line. If I can remove the stone below this
line and back toward my fingers about six inches, I will be able
to free my hand. But I compute I'll have to remove about 70
cubic inches of the boulder. It's a lot of rock, and I know the
sandstone is going to make the chipping tedious work.

12. My first attempt to saw down into the boulder barely scuffs
the rock. I try again, pressing harder this time. Still scarcely a
mark. Changing my grip on the tool, I hold it like Norman Bates
and stab at the rock in the same spot. There is no noticeable
effect. I try to identify a fracture line, a weakness in the
boulder, something I can exploit, but there is nothing.

13. TASK
• Following on from the last paragraph, write one
paragraph (at least 7 lines) moving on with the
story, predicting what might happen (use the list
from the starter to help you!)

14. PLENARY
• On a post-it note, write down an example of your
writing and tell me why there is tension.
• E.g. the repetition of ‘nothing’ – this shows that
there is dwindling hope for the climber and the
inevitable loss of life. The reader wants to keep
reading on to see whether he lives or dies.