Primary Chinese | Narrative Four Steps (for tutors) | Cause, events, outcome, reflection

2026-11-04

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Primary Chinese

A pupil opens with half a page of weather, spends three sentences on the event, and closes with “this taught me a lesson”. The problem is not vocabulary but allocation. Four steps are the ruler: one sentence for the cause, most of the space for the event, one for the outcome, one for the reflection.

Objectives — Pupils can: (1) name the 4 steps and how much space each takes; (2) write a complete four-step paragraph with a signal phrase for each step; (3) explain why the events take the most space (that is where the change happens); (4) draft 2 paragraphs in 18 minutes (40% of the lesson).

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
Complete sentences	What must every event sentence contain?	A person and an action
Time phrases	What does “just as” introduce?	The exact moment
Reflection words	Does “I realised” lead to a feeling or a lesson?	A lesson, in one sentence

02 Lesson flow (45 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-6 min	Hook: an unbalanced essay	Read a paragraph with four lines of weather and three of event	Point to the longest part
6-10 min	Act 1: one-sentence cause	Model “One day, …” with time, person, event	Write their own cause sentence
10-14 min	Act 2: slow-motion events	Turn ten seconds into three sentences: action, speech, thought	Expand one action into three sentences
14-18 min	Act 3: outcome and reflection	One sentence each; the reflection must answer the cause	Write both sentences
18-36 min	Timed drafting (18 min)	2 paragraphs x 9 minutes, different topics	Draft a four-step paragraph alone
36-41 min	Peer count	Swap and count sentences per step	Name the step that is too long or thin
41-45 min	Exit check	Three oral questions	Add a reflection sentence on the spot

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: Space in the wrong place

Read a pupil paragraph: four lines of weather, three sentences of event, one line of “I learned a lesson”. Ask the class which lines tell them what happened. The middle three.
Then ask why the opening got four lines. Usually “to make it longer”. That gives the rule: space follows importance, and weather that does not touch the event gets one clause at most.

Pupils restate: whatever matters most gets the most words.

Scene 2: The four steps

Write the four steps on the board with sentence counts: cause one, events three to five, outcome one, reflection one. Model with “I broke a classmate’s craft”: cause “One day at recess I chased a friend and hit his desk”; events “his paper boat slid to the floor, the hull crumpled, I reached for it and he stepped on it”; outcome “he did not scold me, he only said forget it”; reflection “I learned that chasing indoors costs more than a game”.
Ask which step is longest. The events, because that is where the change happens.

Pupils restate: events take the most sentences; everything else gets one.

Scene 3: The reflection must answer the cause

Change the reflection to “I felt very happy” and ask what they learned. Most say nothing. Change it to “I learned that chasing indoors does not only knock over desks” and they can state the lesson.
The reflection answers the question the cause raised: the cause was a knocked desk, so the reflection says what will change next time. Two sentences locked together make the paragraph whole.

Pupils restate: the reflection answers the cause, not a random mood.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Write the cause	Prompt “an unforgettable experience”: one cause sentence	Time, person, event in one sentence	One day after school I found an injured cat on the court
Expand the events	Turn “I rescued the cat” into three sentences	Action, speech, thought	Ten seconds across three sentences
Write the outcome	Say how it ended	One sentence, no new event	A volunteer finally took the cat away
Write the reflection	One lesson tied to the cause	Pattern: “I learned that …”	I learned that an injured animal needs help at once

Sanity check (teach this): Check the arithmetic: 4 steps x 3 minutes of modelling = 12 minutes; 18 minutes of drafting (2 paragraphs x 9); that is 40% of the lesson; 6 + 12 + 18 + 5 + 4 = 45 minutes; the four steps come to five to eight sentences, roughly 120 to 150 words, the length of one Primary 5 to 6 paragraph.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Four-step paragraph	Prompt “helping someone”: draft all four steps	All four present; events over half the sentences
Expansion	Turn “I helped him up” into three sentences	Action, speech, thought
Reflection	Write one reflection for that paragraph	Tied to the cause, not “I was happy”

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Four lines of weather	“It was a fine day” spread over four lines	“How does the weather touch the event? If not, cut it.”
One-sentence events	“Then I helped him.”	“What did you see first? What did he say? What did you think?”
Outcome starts a new event	“After that we went for ice cream”	“The outcome closes the event; do not open a new one.”
Off-topic reflection	“I felt very happy”	“Happy from what? Tie it back to the desk you hit.”

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Primary 5 Chinese paper — Writing: one event in four steps
Primary 6 Chinese paper — Writing: expand the events and add a reflection
Primary Chinese chapter index — All chapters

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
Name the four steps.	Cause, events, outcome, reflection	Re-teach if one is missing
Which step takes the most sentences?	Events, three to five	Correct “reflection”
What must the reflection answer?	The cause	Model it if they say “any feeling”

09 Tutor FAQ

Can pupils write two events?

One event written deeply scores better at this level; two events go in two paragraphs, four steps each.

Should the events include dialogue?

One line is enough to show attitude; more turns the paragraph into a script.

How do we reach the word count?

Add detail to the events, never to the opening or closing; weather and mood adjectives only dilute the piece.

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A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.