Thursday, March 12, 2009
welcome 1
Please note that this site is in the early stages of construction - 07 March 2009
This blog was written for language schools worldwide which have no access to curriculum materials - the idea being that the materials be adapted as required.
The UK primary English curriculum covers 6 years of study for children with L1 English.
Within this blog, each year is linked in the sidebar on the left. (Work in progress).
Begin with the "Year 1 units" link.
Each year is divided into 3 terms - T1 narrative, T2 non-fiction, and T3 poetry.
Each term is divided into units.
Each unit is divided into phases.
Phases are teaching guides of a few days duration.
Each phase is described in detail for teachers.
Guided by the phases, teachers will need to make their own lesson plans. Suggested duration for each lesson is 1 hour. 1 hour lessons could be split during the day.
Support materials are available and are linked to their relevant web pages and the download links in the sidebar.
This curriculum is designed for native speakers of English, and will need to be adapted by the teacher for second language students. A resource library of children's books will be needed to supplement and support this information. Exact titles mentioned could easily be replaced with similar material.
All information in this blog was taken from the UK DCSF website during late 2008.
The DCSF website has since changed and access to this information seems more difficult and limited on their new site.
www.dcsf.gov.uk
This material is subject to crown copyright, but may be used for non-commercial and training purposes provided that the sources are quoted.
This blog was written for language schools worldwide which have no access to curriculum materials - the idea being that the materials be adapted as required.
The UK primary English curriculum covers 6 years of study for children with L1 English.
Within this blog, each year is linked in the sidebar on the left. (Work in progress).
Begin with the "Year 1 units" link.
Each year is divided into 3 terms - T1 narrative, T2 non-fiction, and T3 poetry.
Each term is divided into units.
Each unit is divided into phases.
Phases are teaching guides of a few days duration.
Each phase is described in detail for teachers.
Guided by the phases, teachers will need to make their own lesson plans. Suggested duration for each lesson is 1 hour. 1 hour lessons could be split during the day.
Support materials are available and are linked to their relevant web pages and the download links in the sidebar.
This curriculum is designed for native speakers of English, and will need to be adapted by the teacher for second language students. A resource library of children's books will be needed to supplement and support this information. Exact titles mentioned could easily be replaced with similar material.
All information in this blog was taken from the UK DCSF website during late 2008.
The DCSF website has since changed and access to this information seems more difficult and limited on their new site.
www.dcsf.gov.uk
This material is subject to crown copyright, but may be used for non-commercial and training purposes provided that the sources are quoted.
Y2 T2 Instructions
Y2 Instructions
Instructions
(4 weeks)
Page map
Basic outline
- Overview
- Objectives
- Building on previous learning
Detailed view
Key aspects of learning
Resources required
Basic outline
This unit is the first in a block of four non-fiction units in Year 2. Four weeks are suggested for work on instructions, but it would be advisable for the unit to be split into two units of two weeks each. The unit can be linked to many other curriculum areas. The unit has three phases, with oral or written outcomes and assessment opportunities at regular intervals.
Phase 1
The teacher demonstrates oral instructions and children practise giving and following oral instructions.
Phase 2
The teacher demonstrates how to read and follow simple written instructions and children read and follow simple written instructions. The teacher and children analyse language features of written instructions.
Phase 3
The teacher demonstrates how to write instructions and the teacher and children write a set of instructions together. Children write their own instructions and evaluate.
Overview
• Introduce the unit with a game following verbal instructions, given by the teacher and children. Gradually increase the number of instructions in the sequence. From the labels in the classroom pick out those that are instructions and discuss some of their features such as direct imperative register, short length and lack of superfluous words. Carry out an activity in a foundation subject such as planting beans (see Developing Early Writing), making a kite or cooking and then scribe the instructions for the class so another class can be told how to do it. Use diagrams to make some of the steps easier. Draw out some of the organisational features used to make it straightforward: statement of purpose, listing materials or ingredients, sequential steps, direct/imperative language.
• Read and follow simple sets of instructions such as recipes, plans, constructions that include diagrams.
• Children write simple instructions independently, for example getting to school, playing a game.
Objectives
To ensure effective planning of literacy teachers need to ensure they plan for all elements of literacy effectively across the year ensuring that assessment for learning is used to plan and amend teaching. It is essential that core skills such as phonic strategies, spelling, and handwriting are incorporated into these exemplar units to ensure effective learning.
Most children learn to:
1. Speaking
• Speak with clarity and use appropriate intonation when reading and reciting texts
2. Listening and responding
• Listen to others in class, ask relevant questions and follow instructions
3. Group discussion and interaction
• Ensure that everyone contributes, allocate tasks, and consider alternatives and reach agreement
5. Word recognition: decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling)
• Read independently and with increasing fluency longer and less familiar texts
• Spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing on word recognition and knowledge of word structure, and spelling patterns
• Know how to tackle unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable
• Read and spell less common alternative graphemes including trigraphs
• Read high and medium frequency words independently and automatically
6. Word structure and spelling
• Spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing on word recognition and knowledge of word structure, and spelling patterns including common inflections and use of double letters
• Read and spell less common alternative graphemes including trigraphs
7. Understanding and interpreting texts
• Draw together ideas and information from across a whole text, using simple signposts in the text
• Explain organisational features of texts, including alphabetical order, layout, diagrams, captions, hyperlinks and bullet points
8. Engaging with and responding to texts
• Engage with books through exploring and enacting interpretations
9. Creating and shaping texts
• Draw on knowledge and experience of texts in deciding and planning what and how to write
• Maintain consistency in non-narrative, including purpose and tense
• Select from different presentational features to suit particular writing purposes on paper and on screen
10. Text structure and organisation
• Use appropriate language to make sections hang together
11. Sentence structure and punctuation
• Use question marks, and use commas to separate items in a list
Building on previous learning
Check that children can already:
• Listen to and follow at least three consecutive instructions.
• Read and follow simple written instructions.
Detailed view
It is suggested that the two-week sequence outlined below be repeated with different content and extension work for the second two weeks of the block.
Note: Children working significantly above or below age-related expectations will need differentiated support, which may include tracking forward or back in terms of learning objectives. EAL learners should be expected to work within the overall expectations for their year group.
Phase 1: Reading; investigating questions, discussion (3 days)
Teaching content:
• Teach children a new game, for example in physical education. Gradually build up the number of instructions, recapping for children as you go. Encourage children to ask questions about sequence, details, etc. Using either written methods or a tape recorder or digital sound recorder, record the final version of the instructions for future reference, leaving out some key language features for editing later.
• Ask groups of children to develop their own simple games and teach them to others. Discuss with children what makes instructions clear, for example including what you need, the purpose of the game, a clear sequence.
• Read several sets of simple instructions relating to classroom activities or other curriculum areas, for example how to come into school in the morning, how to plant beans (see Developing early writing. Ask children to read and follow simple instructions independently or in small groups. Ask what made the instructions easy to follow or hard to follow.
• Look at sets of instructions and identify a) what they are for (look at importance of titles) b) form and structure, for example 'You will need...' sections, layout of instruction sequence, numbers, bullet points. Note similarities and differences between sets, for example use of diagrams, different subtitles, hyperlinks in electronic texts.
Learning outcomes:
• Children can follow a series of simple instructions correctly.
• Children can effectively give oral instructions in the correct sequence.
• Children can read and follow a simple sequence of instructions related to another curriculum area or classroom procedure.
• Children can identify key features of written instructions.
Phase 2: Rereading and analysis; investigating and writing sentences (3 days)
Teaching content:
• Focus on language features. Ask children to play a game based on 'Simon says...' where they give instructions orally to one another for a simple procedure, for example for coming into the classroom and sitting down, first by giving orders: Open the door; and then by describing the process: First you open the door. Children must test instructions by doing exactly and only what they are told. Compare language features of the two versions and practise writing instruction sentences in the two different styles. Encourage children to use different ways of giving instructions (imperative mood or present tense second person) consistently and apply known spelling strategies independently.
• Reintroduce a written version of the instructions you recorded for the game at the start of the sequence. Include some inconsistencies of tense and inappropriate use of adverbs or adjectives. Discuss with children why these are not needed and demonstrate the editing process. Discuss how diagrams can clarify processes and add diagrams to modelled writing. An interactive whiteboard (IWB) could be used here to support diagrams and, where appropriate, use ICT and insert hyperlinks to diagrams.
Learning outcome:
• Children can write a series of instructions, including diagrams.
Phase 3: Shared and independent writing (4 days)
Teaching content:
• Use shared writing to develop a set of instructions based on a well-known classroom procedure or on another curriculum area, for example how to make a simple folding book. (Children should be familiar with the process first.) Ask children to rehearse steps in the process orally before contributing to writing. Add diagrams to clarify the process, discussing what these should look like and model how to come to agreement.
• Review what has been learned so far about instructions and develop a short checklist of what makes effective instructions.
• Ask children to write simple instructions independently, using the checklist to help them.
• Evaluate the success of the instructions by passing them to someone else to follow, for example a parallel class. What will children need to do to make instructions even better next time? Record this for future reference.
Learning outcome:
• Children can write a simple sequence of instructions to be followed by another child or group. They use appropriate tense consistently, indicate sequence clearly, for example through numbering or use of sequencing words, and include a detailed diagram.
Key aspects of learning
Enquiry
Children will ask questions arising from work in another area of the curriculum, for example questions about planting beans.
Reasoning
Children will sequence actions logically to form a set of instructions.
Evaluation
Children will give instructions orally and in writing. They will judge the effectiveness of their own work.
Social skills
When working collaboratively children will learn about listening to and respecting other people's contributions.
Communication
Children will develop their ability to discuss as they work collaboratively in paired, group and whole-class contexts. They will communicate outcomes orally, in writing and through ICT if appropriate.
Resources
• Developing early writing. Specific pages. Year 2 unit 11: Instructions
.pdf download here
• Writing flier 6 - Instructions: here's one I made earlier.
• Speaking, listening, learning: working with children in years 1 to 6
(4 weeks)
Page map
Basic outline
- Overview
- Objectives
- Building on previous learning
Detailed view
Key aspects of learning
Resources required
Basic outline
This unit is the first in a block of four non-fiction units in Year 2. Four weeks are suggested for work on instructions, but it would be advisable for the unit to be split into two units of two weeks each. The unit can be linked to many other curriculum areas. The unit has three phases, with oral or written outcomes and assessment opportunities at regular intervals.
Phase 1
The teacher demonstrates oral instructions and children practise giving and following oral instructions.
Phase 2
The teacher demonstrates how to read and follow simple written instructions and children read and follow simple written instructions. The teacher and children analyse language features of written instructions.
Phase 3
The teacher demonstrates how to write instructions and the teacher and children write a set of instructions together. Children write their own instructions and evaluate.
Overview
• Introduce the unit with a game following verbal instructions, given by the teacher and children. Gradually increase the number of instructions in the sequence. From the labels in the classroom pick out those that are instructions and discuss some of their features such as direct imperative register, short length and lack of superfluous words. Carry out an activity in a foundation subject such as planting beans (see Developing Early Writing), making a kite or cooking and then scribe the instructions for the class so another class can be told how to do it. Use diagrams to make some of the steps easier. Draw out some of the organisational features used to make it straightforward: statement of purpose, listing materials or ingredients, sequential steps, direct/imperative language.
• Read and follow simple sets of instructions such as recipes, plans, constructions that include diagrams.
• Children write simple instructions independently, for example getting to school, playing a game.
Objectives
To ensure effective planning of literacy teachers need to ensure they plan for all elements of literacy effectively across the year ensuring that assessment for learning is used to plan and amend teaching. It is essential that core skills such as phonic strategies, spelling, and handwriting are incorporated into these exemplar units to ensure effective learning.
Most children learn to:
1. Speaking
• Speak with clarity and use appropriate intonation when reading and reciting texts
2. Listening and responding
• Listen to others in class, ask relevant questions and follow instructions
3. Group discussion and interaction
• Ensure that everyone contributes, allocate tasks, and consider alternatives and reach agreement
5. Word recognition: decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling)
• Read independently and with increasing fluency longer and less familiar texts
• Spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing on word recognition and knowledge of word structure, and spelling patterns
• Know how to tackle unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable
• Read and spell less common alternative graphemes including trigraphs
• Read high and medium frequency words independently and automatically
6. Word structure and spelling
• Spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing on word recognition and knowledge of word structure, and spelling patterns including common inflections and use of double letters
• Read and spell less common alternative graphemes including trigraphs
7. Understanding and interpreting texts
• Draw together ideas and information from across a whole text, using simple signposts in the text
• Explain organisational features of texts, including alphabetical order, layout, diagrams, captions, hyperlinks and bullet points
8. Engaging with and responding to texts
• Engage with books through exploring and enacting interpretations
9. Creating and shaping texts
• Draw on knowledge and experience of texts in deciding and planning what and how to write
• Maintain consistency in non-narrative, including purpose and tense
• Select from different presentational features to suit particular writing purposes on paper and on screen
10. Text structure and organisation
• Use appropriate language to make sections hang together
11. Sentence structure and punctuation
• Use question marks, and use commas to separate items in a list
Building on previous learning
Check that children can already:
• Listen to and follow at least three consecutive instructions.
• Read and follow simple written instructions.
Detailed view
It is suggested that the two-week sequence outlined below be repeated with different content and extension work for the second two weeks of the block.
Note: Children working significantly above or below age-related expectations will need differentiated support, which may include tracking forward or back in terms of learning objectives. EAL learners should be expected to work within the overall expectations for their year group.
Phase 1: Reading; investigating questions, discussion (3 days)
Teaching content:
• Teach children a new game, for example in physical education. Gradually build up the number of instructions, recapping for children as you go. Encourage children to ask questions about sequence, details, etc. Using either written methods or a tape recorder or digital sound recorder, record the final version of the instructions for future reference, leaving out some key language features for editing later.
• Ask groups of children to develop their own simple games and teach them to others. Discuss with children what makes instructions clear, for example including what you need, the purpose of the game, a clear sequence.
• Read several sets of simple instructions relating to classroom activities or other curriculum areas, for example how to come into school in the morning, how to plant beans (see Developing early writing. Ask children to read and follow simple instructions independently or in small groups. Ask what made the instructions easy to follow or hard to follow.
• Look at sets of instructions and identify a) what they are for (look at importance of titles) b) form and structure, for example 'You will need...' sections, layout of instruction sequence, numbers, bullet points. Note similarities and differences between sets, for example use of diagrams, different subtitles, hyperlinks in electronic texts.
Learning outcomes:
• Children can follow a series of simple instructions correctly.
• Children can effectively give oral instructions in the correct sequence.
• Children can read and follow a simple sequence of instructions related to another curriculum area or classroom procedure.
• Children can identify key features of written instructions.
Phase 2: Rereading and analysis; investigating and writing sentences (3 days)
Teaching content:
• Focus on language features. Ask children to play a game based on 'Simon says...' where they give instructions orally to one another for a simple procedure, for example for coming into the classroom and sitting down, first by giving orders: Open the door; and then by describing the process: First you open the door. Children must test instructions by doing exactly and only what they are told. Compare language features of the two versions and practise writing instruction sentences in the two different styles. Encourage children to use different ways of giving instructions (imperative mood or present tense second person) consistently and apply known spelling strategies independently.
• Reintroduce a written version of the instructions you recorded for the game at the start of the sequence. Include some inconsistencies of tense and inappropriate use of adverbs or adjectives. Discuss with children why these are not needed and demonstrate the editing process. Discuss how diagrams can clarify processes and add diagrams to modelled writing. An interactive whiteboard (IWB) could be used here to support diagrams and, where appropriate, use ICT and insert hyperlinks to diagrams.
Learning outcome:
• Children can write a series of instructions, including diagrams.
Phase 3: Shared and independent writing (4 days)
Teaching content:
• Use shared writing to develop a set of instructions based on a well-known classroom procedure or on another curriculum area, for example how to make a simple folding book. (Children should be familiar with the process first.) Ask children to rehearse steps in the process orally before contributing to writing. Add diagrams to clarify the process, discussing what these should look like and model how to come to agreement.
• Review what has been learned so far about instructions and develop a short checklist of what makes effective instructions.
• Ask children to write simple instructions independently, using the checklist to help them.
• Evaluate the success of the instructions by passing them to someone else to follow, for example a parallel class. What will children need to do to make instructions even better next time? Record this for future reference.
Learning outcome:
• Children can write a simple sequence of instructions to be followed by another child or group. They use appropriate tense consistently, indicate sequence clearly, for example through numbering or use of sequencing words, and include a detailed diagram.
Key aspects of learning
Enquiry
Children will ask questions arising from work in another area of the curriculum, for example questions about planting beans.
Reasoning
Children will sequence actions logically to form a set of instructions.
Evaluation
Children will give instructions orally and in writing. They will judge the effectiveness of their own work.
Social skills
When working collaboratively children will learn about listening to and respecting other people's contributions.
Communication
Children will develop their ability to discuss as they work collaboratively in paired, group and whole-class contexts. They will communicate outcomes orally, in writing and through ICT if appropriate.
Resources
• Developing early writing. Specific pages. Year 2 unit 11: Instructions
.pdf download here
• Writing flier 6 - Instructions: here's one I made earlier.
• Speaking, listening, learning: working with children in years 1 to 6
Y2 Extended stories/Significant authors
Extended stories/Significant authors
(3 weeks)
Page map
Basic outline
- Overview
- Objectives
- Building on previous learning
Detailed view
Key aspects of learning
Resources required
Basic outline
This is the final unit in a block of four narrative units in Year 2. It builds on children's experience and knowledge from the previous three units. Phases 1 and 2 are designed to run concurrently so that children hear an extended text read aloud while also having the opportunity to write a longer story themselves. This unit can be linked to many other curriculum subjects and themes.
Phase 1
Read an extended story by a significant author as a serial. Summarise the plot and look at links between events. Make predictions at key moments in the story. Track a particular character and notice ways that they change. Analyse pieces of dialogue, re-enact and improvise new dialogue. Evaluate the story and discuss techniques used by the author to sustain the reader's interest.
Phase 2
Children plan and write a sustained story independently. Provide story ideas and support for planning and writing by working with groups during the writing process. Discuss and agree success criteria based on learning in previous units. Provide class teaching on particular aspects of writing: composing compound sentences and using subordination; temporal connectives. Children review their own writing and decide how it should be presented to the class (on paper or on screen).
Phase 3
Groups work together to dramatise a scene from one of the stories they have written. They present it to the class who then evaluate the performance and make constructive comments.
Overview
• Reading, response, analysis: Begin reading an extended story by a significant children's author as a serial story. Continue throughout the unit and have other longer stories available for children to read independently. At key moments in the story, use improvisation and discussion to explore what could happen next. Children note their own ideas and check and confirm their predictions as you read on. Keep a record of key events and review the structure of the story. Discuss techniques used by the author to sustain the reader's interest.
• Writing: Children work independently to plan and write their own sustained story with a logical sequence of events. They include elements from reading, for example characterisation, setting, story language, and add detail and dialogue to sustain the reader's interest.
• Speaking and listening: Groups of children work on a short dramatised presentation of a key moment in one of their stories. They decide on roles and practise to produce a polished performance for the rest of the class.
Objectives
To ensure effective planning of literacy teachers need to ensure they plan for all elements of literacy effectively across the year ensuring that assessment for learning is used to plan and amend teaching. It is essential that core skills such as phonic strategies, spelling, and handwriting are incorporated into these exemplar units to ensure effective learning.
Most children learn to:
2. Listening and responding
• Respond to presentations by describing characters, repeating some highlight and commenting constructively
4. Drama
• Present part of traditional stories, their own stories or work drawn from different parts of the curriculum for members of their own class
5. Word recognition: decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling)
• Read independently and with increasing fluency longer and less familiar texts
• Spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing on word recognition and knowledge of word structure, and spelling patterns
• Know how to tackle unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable
• Read and spell less common alternative graphemes including trigraphs
• Read high and medium frequency words independently and automatically
6. Word structure and spelling
• Spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing on word recognition and knowledge of word structure, and spelling patterns including between inflections and use of double letters
• Read and spell less common alternative graphemes including trigraphs
7. Understanding and interpreting texts
• Give some reasons why things happen or characters change
8. Engaging with and responding to texts
• Engage with books through exploring and enacting interpretations
9. Creating and shaping texts
• Sustain form in narrative, including use of person and time
• Select from different presentational features to suit particular writing purposes on paper and on screen
10. Text structure and organisation
• Use appropriate language to make sections hang together
11. Sentence structure and punctuation
• Compose sentences using tense consistently (present and past)
12. Presentation
• Wordprocess short narrative and non-narrative texts
Building on previous learning
Check that children can already:
• Explain reasons for events in stories with reference to characters' actions and motives.
• Work collaboratively in a group, taking turns and reaching agreement.
• Identify story elements: characters, setting, and key events.
• Plan a story by making notes under the headings Opening, Something happens, Events to sort it out, Ending.
• Write simple and compound sentences.
• Use temporal connectives.
• Use the third person and past tense consistently in narrative writing.
Detailed view
Note: Children working significantly above or below age-related expectations will need differentiated support, which may include tracking forward or back in terms of learning objectives. EAL learners should be expected to work within the overall expectations for their year group. For further advice see the progression strands and hyperlinks to useful sources of practical support.
Note: Phases 1 and 2 are designed to run concurrently.
Phase 1: Reading; response; analysis (12 days - to run alongside phase 2)
Teaching content:
• Begin reading an extended story by a significant children's author as a serial story. Continue throughout the unit. Make brief notes summarising the plot as you read and encourage children to comment or raise questions. Keep a record of key events and review the structure of the story at intervals.
• Look at the way that one event leads to another. Select extracts from the story that demonstrate cause and effect so that children can reread together. Ask children to give explanations of why things happen in the story.
• At key moments in the story, use improvisation and discussion to explore what could happen next. Children note their own ideas and check and confirm their predictions as you read on.
• Focus on a particular character and reread extracts from the text together to gather information about that character. Build on previous work by asking children to consider what the character might be thinking and feeling. Look at ways that characters change during the course of the story.
• Select key pieces of dialogue to read together and talk about how they move the story on or reveal more about a particular character. Children could work in small groups to enact pieces of dialogue and improvise further conversations, for example What would these two characters say if they met at this point in the story? Encourage children to speak clearly and use intonation.
• At the end of the serial story, demonstrate how to write an evaluation of the book, commenting on important aspects. Discuss features of extended stories, for example more complicated plots, finding out more about characters. Discuss techniques used by the author to sustain the reader's interest, for example cliff-hangers at the end of chapters.
• Have other longer stories available for children to read independently. Support children in selecting and reading whole books on their own: for example, give a group copies of the same book, ask them each to read up to a certain point and then discuss it together.
Learning outcome:
• Children can make predictions about a text and discuss the way characters develop across a story.
Phase 2: Writing (12 days - to run alongside phase 1)
Teaching content:
• Introduce the independent writing task: children plan and write their own sustained stories. Build on work in previous units to agree the ingredients they will need to write their stories: characters, setting, events in a logical sequence leading to the ending.
• Discuss ideas for these ingredients and provide support if needed, for example cards with pictures of settings, characters and key events for children to mix and match. Children talk in pairs to develop their story ideas. Children then plan independently, making notes under headings and using arrows to link events, as demonstrated in previous units.
• Discuss expectations and agree success criteria for the finished stories: a logical sequence of events; complete sentences grouped together to tell the different parts of the story; temporal connectives to link each part; story language; consistent use of the third person and past tense; descriptions of characters and setting; some dialogue.
• Children write independently over several days. They follow their story plans, rehearse sentences orally, reread and check as they are writing. Work with guided writing groups to review writing and offer support as appropriate.
• Focus on specific teaching points with the whole class at intervals, and encourage children to use them in their own writing.
• Explore different ways to combine more than one idea in a sentence using oral and written activities. Demonstrate how to compose sentences with subordination for time and reason, for example The children rushed home as soon as school was over.
• Review the use of temporal connectives to make the sections of their story hang together.
• Once they have finished writing, children review their own work using the criteria agreed by the class and make changes or improvements.
• Individuals decide how to present their finished stories so that other class members can read them (on paper or on screen), for example adding illustrations or making them into books.
Learning outcomes:
• Children can plan a story that has a logical sequence of events.
• Children can write an extended narrative with:
• a logical sequence of events
• sentences grouped together
• temporal connectives
• consistent use of the third person and past tense.
Phase 3: Speaking and listening (3 days)
Teaching content:
• Groups of children work collaboratively on a short dramatised presentation of a key moment in one of their stories. They decide on roles and practise to produce a polished performance for the rest of the class.
• The audience respond to the presentation, talking about the highlights and making constructive suggestions about changes or improvements.
Learning outcomes:
• Children can work as a member of a group to present a scene from a known story to an audience.
• Children can respond to presentations by making constructive comments.
Key aspects of learning
Evaluation
Children will discuss success criteria for their written work, give feedback to others and judge the quality of their own writing.
Social skills
When developing collaborative writing, children will learn about listening to and respecting other people's ideas.
Self-awareness
As they work on an extended piece of writing children will learn how to organise their own work and how to maintain their concentration to complete a polished story.
Communication
Children will develop their ability to discuss as they work collaboratively in paired, group and whole-class contexts. They will communicate outcomes orally, in writing and through ICT if appropriate.
Resources
• Developing early writing
• Extended stories
• Story structure
• Speaking, listening, learning: working with children in years 1 to 6
(3 weeks)
Page map
Basic outline
- Overview
- Objectives
- Building on previous learning
Detailed view
Key aspects of learning
Resources required
Basic outline
This is the final unit in a block of four narrative units in Year 2. It builds on children's experience and knowledge from the previous three units. Phases 1 and 2 are designed to run concurrently so that children hear an extended text read aloud while also having the opportunity to write a longer story themselves. This unit can be linked to many other curriculum subjects and themes.
Phase 1
Read an extended story by a significant author as a serial. Summarise the plot and look at links between events. Make predictions at key moments in the story. Track a particular character and notice ways that they change. Analyse pieces of dialogue, re-enact and improvise new dialogue. Evaluate the story and discuss techniques used by the author to sustain the reader's interest.
Phase 2
Children plan and write a sustained story independently. Provide story ideas and support for planning and writing by working with groups during the writing process. Discuss and agree success criteria based on learning in previous units. Provide class teaching on particular aspects of writing: composing compound sentences and using subordination; temporal connectives. Children review their own writing and decide how it should be presented to the class (on paper or on screen).
Phase 3
Groups work together to dramatise a scene from one of the stories they have written. They present it to the class who then evaluate the performance and make constructive comments.
Overview
• Reading, response, analysis: Begin reading an extended story by a significant children's author as a serial story. Continue throughout the unit and have other longer stories available for children to read independently. At key moments in the story, use improvisation and discussion to explore what could happen next. Children note their own ideas and check and confirm their predictions as you read on. Keep a record of key events and review the structure of the story. Discuss techniques used by the author to sustain the reader's interest.
• Writing: Children work independently to plan and write their own sustained story with a logical sequence of events. They include elements from reading, for example characterisation, setting, story language, and add detail and dialogue to sustain the reader's interest.
• Speaking and listening: Groups of children work on a short dramatised presentation of a key moment in one of their stories. They decide on roles and practise to produce a polished performance for the rest of the class.
Objectives
To ensure effective planning of literacy teachers need to ensure they plan for all elements of literacy effectively across the year ensuring that assessment for learning is used to plan and amend teaching. It is essential that core skills such as phonic strategies, spelling, and handwriting are incorporated into these exemplar units to ensure effective learning.
Most children learn to:
2. Listening and responding
• Respond to presentations by describing characters, repeating some highlight and commenting constructively
4. Drama
• Present part of traditional stories, their own stories or work drawn from different parts of the curriculum for members of their own class
5. Word recognition: decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling)
• Read independently and with increasing fluency longer and less familiar texts
• Spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing on word recognition and knowledge of word structure, and spelling patterns
• Know how to tackle unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable
• Read and spell less common alternative graphemes including trigraphs
• Read high and medium frequency words independently and automatically
6. Word structure and spelling
• Spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing on word recognition and knowledge of word structure, and spelling patterns including between inflections and use of double letters
• Read and spell less common alternative graphemes including trigraphs
7. Understanding and interpreting texts
• Give some reasons why things happen or characters change
8. Engaging with and responding to texts
• Engage with books through exploring and enacting interpretations
9. Creating and shaping texts
• Sustain form in narrative, including use of person and time
• Select from different presentational features to suit particular writing purposes on paper and on screen
10. Text structure and organisation
• Use appropriate language to make sections hang together
11. Sentence structure and punctuation
• Compose sentences using tense consistently (present and past)
12. Presentation
• Wordprocess short narrative and non-narrative texts
Building on previous learning
Check that children can already:
• Explain reasons for events in stories with reference to characters' actions and motives.
• Work collaboratively in a group, taking turns and reaching agreement.
• Identify story elements: characters, setting, and key events.
• Plan a story by making notes under the headings Opening, Something happens, Events to sort it out, Ending.
• Write simple and compound sentences.
• Use temporal connectives.
• Use the third person and past tense consistently in narrative writing.
Detailed view
Note: Children working significantly above or below age-related expectations will need differentiated support, which may include tracking forward or back in terms of learning objectives. EAL learners should be expected to work within the overall expectations for their year group. For further advice see the progression strands and hyperlinks to useful sources of practical support.
Note: Phases 1 and 2 are designed to run concurrently.
Phase 1: Reading; response; analysis (12 days - to run alongside phase 2)
Teaching content:
• Begin reading an extended story by a significant children's author as a serial story. Continue throughout the unit. Make brief notes summarising the plot as you read and encourage children to comment or raise questions. Keep a record of key events and review the structure of the story at intervals.
• Look at the way that one event leads to another. Select extracts from the story that demonstrate cause and effect so that children can reread together. Ask children to give explanations of why things happen in the story.
• At key moments in the story, use improvisation and discussion to explore what could happen next. Children note their own ideas and check and confirm their predictions as you read on.
• Focus on a particular character and reread extracts from the text together to gather information about that character. Build on previous work by asking children to consider what the character might be thinking and feeling. Look at ways that characters change during the course of the story.
• Select key pieces of dialogue to read together and talk about how they move the story on or reveal more about a particular character. Children could work in small groups to enact pieces of dialogue and improvise further conversations, for example What would these two characters say if they met at this point in the story? Encourage children to speak clearly and use intonation.
• At the end of the serial story, demonstrate how to write an evaluation of the book, commenting on important aspects. Discuss features of extended stories, for example more complicated plots, finding out more about characters. Discuss techniques used by the author to sustain the reader's interest, for example cliff-hangers at the end of chapters.
• Have other longer stories available for children to read independently. Support children in selecting and reading whole books on their own: for example, give a group copies of the same book, ask them each to read up to a certain point and then discuss it together.
Learning outcome:
• Children can make predictions about a text and discuss the way characters develop across a story.
Phase 2: Writing (12 days - to run alongside phase 1)
Teaching content:
• Introduce the independent writing task: children plan and write their own sustained stories. Build on work in previous units to agree the ingredients they will need to write their stories: characters, setting, events in a logical sequence leading to the ending.
• Discuss ideas for these ingredients and provide support if needed, for example cards with pictures of settings, characters and key events for children to mix and match. Children talk in pairs to develop their story ideas. Children then plan independently, making notes under headings and using arrows to link events, as demonstrated in previous units.
• Discuss expectations and agree success criteria for the finished stories: a logical sequence of events; complete sentences grouped together to tell the different parts of the story; temporal connectives to link each part; story language; consistent use of the third person and past tense; descriptions of characters and setting; some dialogue.
• Children write independently over several days. They follow their story plans, rehearse sentences orally, reread and check as they are writing. Work with guided writing groups to review writing and offer support as appropriate.
• Focus on specific teaching points with the whole class at intervals, and encourage children to use them in their own writing.
• Explore different ways to combine more than one idea in a sentence using oral and written activities. Demonstrate how to compose sentences with subordination for time and reason, for example The children rushed home as soon as school was over.
• Review the use of temporal connectives to make the sections of their story hang together.
• Once they have finished writing, children review their own work using the criteria agreed by the class and make changes or improvements.
• Individuals decide how to present their finished stories so that other class members can read them (on paper or on screen), for example adding illustrations or making them into books.
Learning outcomes:
• Children can plan a story that has a logical sequence of events.
• Children can write an extended narrative with:
• a logical sequence of events
• sentences grouped together
• temporal connectives
• consistent use of the third person and past tense.
Phase 3: Speaking and listening (3 days)
Teaching content:
• Groups of children work collaboratively on a short dramatised presentation of a key moment in one of their stories. They decide on roles and practise to produce a polished performance for the rest of the class.
• The audience respond to the presentation, talking about the highlights and making constructive suggestions about changes or improvements.
Learning outcomes:
• Children can work as a member of a group to present a scene from a known story to an audience.
• Children can respond to presentations by making constructive comments.
Key aspects of learning
Evaluation
Children will discuss success criteria for their written work, give feedback to others and judge the quality of their own writing.
Social skills
When developing collaborative writing, children will learn about listening to and respecting other people's ideas.
Self-awareness
As they work on an extended piece of writing children will learn how to organise their own work and how to maintain their concentration to complete a polished story.
Communication
Children will develop their ability to discuss as they work collaboratively in paired, group and whole-class contexts. They will communicate outcomes orally, in writing and through ICT if appropriate.
Resources
• Developing early writing
• Extended stories
• Story structure
• Speaking, listening, learning: working with children in years 1 to 6
Y2 Different stories by the same author
Different stories by the same author
(3 weeks)
Page map
Basic outline
- Overview
- Objectives
- Building on previous learning
Detailed view
Key aspects of learning
Resources required
Basic outline
This is the third of a block of four narrative units in Year 2. It builds on children's knowledge and experience from units 1 and 2.
Phase 1
Read several books by the same author (in shared and independent reading). Compare similarities and differences and express personal response. Find out more about the author. Draw attention to features of the author's style.
Phase 2
Explore characterisation in an author's books by gathering evidence from the text, interpreting information and responding imaginatively through drama activities. Pose and answer questions about particular characters and look for evidence of change during the course of the story.
Phase 3
Work collaboratively in a group to investigate the style of another author. Each group member reads at least one book and evaluates in writing. Discuss and agree on features of the author's style and a favourite to recommend to the class.
Phase 4
Use drama and discussion to explore ideas for a new story about a character created by one of the chosen authors. Children plan and write their own complete stories, with: consistent use of third person and past tense; descriptions of settings and characters; some dialogue.
Overview
• Reading and response: Introduce a particular author and display a collection of their work. Demonstrate how to find out about the author, for example from blurb or websites, and make notes. Read several short stories, for example series of books that put the main character(s) into different situations. Encourage children to read more by the same author.
• Analysis: Compare specific features of the books read, including characters, events, settings. Collect information about the main character(s) and use this to make predictions about how they will behave in different settings or in response to different events. Explore the character's feelings in different situations using improvisation.
• Speaking and listening: Provide groups of children with a collection of books by a particular author. Each child reads at least one complete book and reports back to the group, explaining their response and identifying important aspects. Group collaborate to identify common features and information about the author to present to the class.
• Writing: Children select a character created by one of the authors they have read. Discuss/role-play what that character would do in a particular situation and note ideas for a story plan.
• Children write a sustained story about this character. Demonstrate how to include dialogue and detail to expand the story and sustain the reader's interest. Support children in using third person and past tense consistently.
Objectives
To ensure effective planning of literacy teachers need to ensure they plan for all elements of literacy effectively across the year ensuring that assessment for learning is used to plan and amend teaching. It is essential that core skills such as phonic strategies, spelling, and handwriting are incorporated into these exemplar units to ensure effective learning.
Most children learn to:
2. Listening and responding
• Listen to others in class, ask relevant questions and follow instructions
3. Group discussion and interaction
• Work effectively in groups by ensuring that each group member takes a turn challenging, supporting and moving on
4. Drama
• Adopt appropriate roles in small or large groups and consider alternative courses of action
5. Word recognition: decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling)
• Read independently and with increasing fluency longer and less familiar texts
• Spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing on word recognition and knowledge of word structure, and spelling patterns
• Know how to tackle unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable
• Read and spell less common alternative graphemes including trigraphs
• Read high and medium frequency words independently and automatically
6. Word structure and spelling
• Spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing on word recognition and knowledge of word structure, and spelling patterns including common inflections and use of double letters
• Read and spell less common alternative graphemes including trigraphs
8. Engaging with and responding to texts
• Engage with books through exploring and enacting interpretations
• Explain their reactions to texts, commenting on important aspects
9. Creating and shaping texts
• Sustain form in narrative, including use of person and time
10. Text structure and organisation
• Use planning to establish clear sections for writing (This link will take you to the relevant Steps in learning for this objective. Use the 'back' button on your browser to return to the objectives.)
11. Sentence structure and punctuation
• Compose sentences using tense consistently (present and past)
Building on previous learning
Check that children can already:
• Identify typical features of a traditional story.
• Demonstrate understanding of characterisation by talking about what a character looks like, how the character behaves and suggesting reasons for the character's feelings or actions.
• Write a complete story using a shared story plan, making use of features from reading to make it 'sound like a story'.
• Present a logical sequence of events and make use of connectives to show links between events.
Detailed view
Note: Children working significantly above or below age-related expectations will need differentiated support, which may include tracking forward or back in terms of learning objectives. EAL learners should be expected to work within the overall expectations for their year group. For further advice see the progression strands and hyperlinks to useful sources of practical support.
Phase 1: Reading; response (4 days)
Teaching content:
• Introduce a particular author and display a collection of the author's work. Include books that children will be able to read independently during the course of the unit.
• Read several short stories, for example a series of stories with the same character or group of characters having different adventures. Ask children to look for author information on the cover before reading each book and then talk about the similarities and differences between each story.
• Invite children to respond to each story by expressing an opinion or asking a question about an aspect of the story, for example I enjoyed the part where...; It was funny when...; I wonder why the character decided to...
• Demonstrate how to find out about the author, for example by reading the book blurb or looking for websites, and make notes to add to the display.
• Encourage children to read more by the same author and express their response by commenting on important aspects.
• Read another book by the same author without revealing the author's name. Ask for suggestions and draw attention to aspects of the author's style, for example familiar characters or settings, or similar story structure. Review and discuss what you have found out about the author's style.
Learning outcome:
• Children can talk about a text and explain their reaction to it.
Phase 2: Analysis; drama; writing (4 days)
Teaching content:
• Look more closely at specific features of the stories read: characters, events, settings. Encourage children to engage with books by exploring characters in more depth. Reread stories to collect information about the main characters. Ask children to identify the part of the story that tells them most about a character. Consider how much information is given and ask for suggestions about things that they are not told about, but can work out or imagine.
• Present an outline drawing of a character. Discuss what you know already and make notes inside the outline. Pose questions about what you would like to know, demonstrate how to write these and then display them around the drawing. Explore using the activities below and then ask children to write their own answers in sentences to add to the display, for example as thought or speech bubbles.
• Challenge children to find evidence about a character's thoughts and feelings. Help them to recognise the conventions of written dialogue and look for clues about how the character speaks. Draw attention to the verbs used for dialogue, for example shouted, joked, sighed, and the different feelings that are indicated.
• Explore the character's feelings in different situations using drama techniques such as hotseating and freeze-frame. Take the hotseat in role as a character and ask children to pose general questions. Children then work in groups where one person takes on the character's role and answers the other children's questions. Groups re-enact particular scenes and freeze the action at a crucial moment in the story. Ask individuals to explain what their character is thinking and feeling at the moment.
• Establish the idea that some characters can change during the course of a story or as a result of events. Explore this by rereading a story and focusing, for example, on a 'bad' character. Focus on the character's feelings and behaviour at the beginning and end of the story. Discuss how the character has changed, what the character has learned, how the character might behave in the future.
Learning outcome:
• Children can make inferences about characters and use the text to support their answers
Phase 3: Reading; speaking and listening; response (3 days)
Teaching content:
• Children work in groups to find out more about a particular author and report back to the class about the type of books the author writes and the book the group would recommend for others to read.
• Provide each group of children with a collection of books by a particular author. Each child reads at least one complete book at their own independent reading level and writes a short evaluation explaining their response and identifying important aspects. The group collaborate to identify common features and reach agreement about which book to recommend to the class.
• After reporting to the class the group review the task. They reflect, with adult support, on how their talk helped them to reach agreement.
Learning outcome:
• Children can work as a member of a group to discuss and reach agreement over a task.
Phase 4: Speaking and listening; writing (4 days)
Teaching content:
• Select a familiar character created by one of the authors the children have read. Develop an idea for a new story involving the character by making predictions about how the character will behave in a different setting or in response to different events. Use improvisation and role-play to explore alternative courses of action and make a note of different story ideas for children to refer to later.
• Demonstrate how to write some dialogue for a well-known character. Rehearse orally and decide on how the character would speak - Does this show the reader more about what the character is feeling or thinking? Support children as they try to write further lines of dialogue independently.
• Explore grammatical agreement and past tense to prepare children to apply in their independent story writing.
• Refer back to the ideas developed in drama and support children in making brief plans for their own story about the character you have chosen. They make notes under the headings Opening, Something happens, Events to sort it out, Ending. Talk about the need for links between each event and remind them of the lists of connectives they have used for other stories.
• Children write a sustained story about the character. Encourage them to include dialogue and to choose words carefully when describing people and places. Remind them to keep rereading and checking that they have used the third person and past tense consistently.
• Children read finished stories to a partner and make changes and improvements before publishing, for example as part of a display or web page about the author who originally created the character.
Learning outcomes:
• Children plan and write a sustained story about a familiar character.
• Children can use the past tense, third person and can include some dialogue and detail to add interest.
Key aspects of learning
Reasoning
Children will compare texts and give evidence for the opinions they form
Evaluation
As they learn about features of an author's style, children will become better equipped to make judgements about the type of books they enjoy reading.
Social skills
Children participate in a collaborative group activity. They will learn about taking turns, listening to others and reaching agreement.
Communication
Children will develop their ability to discuss as they work collaboratively in paired, group and whole-class contexts. They will communicate outcomes orally, in writing and through ICT if appropriate.
Resources
• Developing early writing
• Storytelling
• Varying Style
• Writing Flier 2 Writing narrative
• Speaking, Listening, Learning: working with children in years 1 to 6
(3 weeks)
Page map
Basic outline
- Overview
- Objectives
- Building on previous learning
Detailed view
Key aspects of learning
Resources required
Basic outline
This is the third of a block of four narrative units in Year 2. It builds on children's knowledge and experience from units 1 and 2.
Phase 1
Read several books by the same author (in shared and independent reading). Compare similarities and differences and express personal response. Find out more about the author. Draw attention to features of the author's style.
Phase 2
Explore characterisation in an author's books by gathering evidence from the text, interpreting information and responding imaginatively through drama activities. Pose and answer questions about particular characters and look for evidence of change during the course of the story.
Phase 3
Work collaboratively in a group to investigate the style of another author. Each group member reads at least one book and evaluates in writing. Discuss and agree on features of the author's style and a favourite to recommend to the class.
Phase 4
Use drama and discussion to explore ideas for a new story about a character created by one of the chosen authors. Children plan and write their own complete stories, with: consistent use of third person and past tense; descriptions of settings and characters; some dialogue.
Overview
• Reading and response: Introduce a particular author and display a collection of their work. Demonstrate how to find out about the author, for example from blurb or websites, and make notes. Read several short stories, for example series of books that put the main character(s) into different situations. Encourage children to read more by the same author.
• Analysis: Compare specific features of the books read, including characters, events, settings. Collect information about the main character(s) and use this to make predictions about how they will behave in different settings or in response to different events. Explore the character's feelings in different situations using improvisation.
• Speaking and listening: Provide groups of children with a collection of books by a particular author. Each child reads at least one complete book and reports back to the group, explaining their response and identifying important aspects. Group collaborate to identify common features and information about the author to present to the class.
• Writing: Children select a character created by one of the authors they have read. Discuss/role-play what that character would do in a particular situation and note ideas for a story plan.
• Children write a sustained story about this character. Demonstrate how to include dialogue and detail to expand the story and sustain the reader's interest. Support children in using third person and past tense consistently.
Objectives
To ensure effective planning of literacy teachers need to ensure they plan for all elements of literacy effectively across the year ensuring that assessment for learning is used to plan and amend teaching. It is essential that core skills such as phonic strategies, spelling, and handwriting are incorporated into these exemplar units to ensure effective learning.
Most children learn to:
2. Listening and responding
• Listen to others in class, ask relevant questions and follow instructions
3. Group discussion and interaction
• Work effectively in groups by ensuring that each group member takes a turn challenging, supporting and moving on
4. Drama
• Adopt appropriate roles in small or large groups and consider alternative courses of action
5. Word recognition: decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling)
• Read independently and with increasing fluency longer and less familiar texts
• Spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing on word recognition and knowledge of word structure, and spelling patterns
• Know how to tackle unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable
• Read and spell less common alternative graphemes including trigraphs
• Read high and medium frequency words independently and automatically
6. Word structure and spelling
• Spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing on word recognition and knowledge of word structure, and spelling patterns including common inflections and use of double letters
• Read and spell less common alternative graphemes including trigraphs
8. Engaging with and responding to texts
• Engage with books through exploring and enacting interpretations
• Explain their reactions to texts, commenting on important aspects
9. Creating and shaping texts
• Sustain form in narrative, including use of person and time
10. Text structure and organisation
• Use planning to establish clear sections for writing (This link will take you to the relevant Steps in learning for this objective. Use the 'back' button on your browser to return to the objectives.)
11. Sentence structure and punctuation
• Compose sentences using tense consistently (present and past)
Building on previous learning
Check that children can already:
• Identify typical features of a traditional story.
• Demonstrate understanding of characterisation by talking about what a character looks like, how the character behaves and suggesting reasons for the character's feelings or actions.
• Write a complete story using a shared story plan, making use of features from reading to make it 'sound like a story'.
• Present a logical sequence of events and make use of connectives to show links between events.
Detailed view
Note: Children working significantly above or below age-related expectations will need differentiated support, which may include tracking forward or back in terms of learning objectives. EAL learners should be expected to work within the overall expectations for their year group. For further advice see the progression strands and hyperlinks to useful sources of practical support.
Phase 1: Reading; response (4 days)
Teaching content:
• Introduce a particular author and display a collection of the author's work. Include books that children will be able to read independently during the course of the unit.
• Read several short stories, for example a series of stories with the same character or group of characters having different adventures. Ask children to look for author information on the cover before reading each book and then talk about the similarities and differences between each story.
• Invite children to respond to each story by expressing an opinion or asking a question about an aspect of the story, for example I enjoyed the part where...; It was funny when...; I wonder why the character decided to...
• Demonstrate how to find out about the author, for example by reading the book blurb or looking for websites, and make notes to add to the display.
• Encourage children to read more by the same author and express their response by commenting on important aspects.
• Read another book by the same author without revealing the author's name. Ask for suggestions and draw attention to aspects of the author's style, for example familiar characters or settings, or similar story structure. Review and discuss what you have found out about the author's style.
Learning outcome:
• Children can talk about a text and explain their reaction to it.
Phase 2: Analysis; drama; writing (4 days)
Teaching content:
• Look more closely at specific features of the stories read: characters, events, settings. Encourage children to engage with books by exploring characters in more depth. Reread stories to collect information about the main characters. Ask children to identify the part of the story that tells them most about a character. Consider how much information is given and ask for suggestions about things that they are not told about, but can work out or imagine.
• Present an outline drawing of a character. Discuss what you know already and make notes inside the outline. Pose questions about what you would like to know, demonstrate how to write these and then display them around the drawing. Explore using the activities below and then ask children to write their own answers in sentences to add to the display, for example as thought or speech bubbles.
• Challenge children to find evidence about a character's thoughts and feelings. Help them to recognise the conventions of written dialogue and look for clues about how the character speaks. Draw attention to the verbs used for dialogue, for example shouted, joked, sighed, and the different feelings that are indicated.
• Explore the character's feelings in different situations using drama techniques such as hotseating and freeze-frame. Take the hotseat in role as a character and ask children to pose general questions. Children then work in groups where one person takes on the character's role and answers the other children's questions. Groups re-enact particular scenes and freeze the action at a crucial moment in the story. Ask individuals to explain what their character is thinking and feeling at the moment.
• Establish the idea that some characters can change during the course of a story or as a result of events. Explore this by rereading a story and focusing, for example, on a 'bad' character. Focus on the character's feelings and behaviour at the beginning and end of the story. Discuss how the character has changed, what the character has learned, how the character might behave in the future.
Learning outcome:
• Children can make inferences about characters and use the text to support their answers
Phase 3: Reading; speaking and listening; response (3 days)
Teaching content:
• Children work in groups to find out more about a particular author and report back to the class about the type of books the author writes and the book the group would recommend for others to read.
• Provide each group of children with a collection of books by a particular author. Each child reads at least one complete book at their own independent reading level and writes a short evaluation explaining their response and identifying important aspects. The group collaborate to identify common features and reach agreement about which book to recommend to the class.
• After reporting to the class the group review the task. They reflect, with adult support, on how their talk helped them to reach agreement.
Learning outcome:
• Children can work as a member of a group to discuss and reach agreement over a task.
Phase 4: Speaking and listening; writing (4 days)
Teaching content:
• Select a familiar character created by one of the authors the children have read. Develop an idea for a new story involving the character by making predictions about how the character will behave in a different setting or in response to different events. Use improvisation and role-play to explore alternative courses of action and make a note of different story ideas for children to refer to later.
• Demonstrate how to write some dialogue for a well-known character. Rehearse orally and decide on how the character would speak - Does this show the reader more about what the character is feeling or thinking? Support children as they try to write further lines of dialogue independently.
• Explore grammatical agreement and past tense to prepare children to apply in their independent story writing.
• Refer back to the ideas developed in drama and support children in making brief plans for their own story about the character you have chosen. They make notes under the headings Opening, Something happens, Events to sort it out, Ending. Talk about the need for links between each event and remind them of the lists of connectives they have used for other stories.
• Children write a sustained story about the character. Encourage them to include dialogue and to choose words carefully when describing people and places. Remind them to keep rereading and checking that they have used the third person and past tense consistently.
• Children read finished stories to a partner and make changes and improvements before publishing, for example as part of a display or web page about the author who originally created the character.
Learning outcomes:
• Children plan and write a sustained story about a familiar character.
• Children can use the past tense, third person and can include some dialogue and detail to add interest.
Key aspects of learning
Reasoning
Children will compare texts and give evidence for the opinions they form
Evaluation
As they learn about features of an author's style, children will become better equipped to make judgements about the type of books they enjoy reading.
Social skills
Children participate in a collaborative group activity. They will learn about taking turns, listening to others and reaching agreement.
Communication
Children will develop their ability to discuss as they work collaboratively in paired, group and whole-class contexts. They will communicate outcomes orally, in writing and through ICT if appropriate.
Resources
• Developing early writing
• Storytelling
• Varying Style
• Writing Flier 2 Writing narrative
• Speaking, Listening, Learning: working with children in years 1 to 6
Y2 Traditional stories
Traditional stories
(4 weeks)
Page map
Basic outline
- Overview
- Objectives
- Building on previous learning
Detailed view
Key aspects of learning
Resources required
Basic outline
This is the second of four narrative units in Year 2. The unit has two alternative outcomes. Children can work towards their own written version of a traditional narrative, or create a digital text combining words, images and sounds using presentation software. The unit can be linked to many other curriculum subjects or themes.
Phase 1
Read and compare alternative versions of traditional stories. Discuss opposing characters from the narrative. Discuss and compose dialogue for different characters.
Phase 2
Discuss how characters behave if their roles in a narrative are exchanged. Plan an alternative traditional story. Write a short alternative traditional story using connectives to indicate time and tension.
Phase 3
Discuss how words, sounds and images can convey different information to a reader. Demonstrate how images and sounds can tell a reader a different version of a story. Children create their own digital story, adding dialogue and images to a written narrative.
Overview
• (Reading and response): Read several traditional stories with examples of predictable and patterned language. Children join in and recite familiar words and phrases. Identify examples of formal story language.
• Children prepare and retell familiar stories using appropriate voice for different characters and incorporating some formal story language. Encourage them to sustain the account whilst keeping the listener's interest.
• (Analysis): Compare the themes, settings and characters in several stories. Locate key descriptive words and phrases. Identify sequence of events and compare the plots of different stories. Predict incidents and endings based on experience of traditional tales. Use improvisation and role-play to explore alternatives.
• (Speaking and listening): Watch presentation (live performance/video) of traditional tale(s) from another culture. Discuss how mood and atmosphere were created. Describe characters orally and in writing.
• (Writing): Using a familiar setting from a traditional tale, demonstrate how to structure a new sequence of events and use this as a story plan. Children write own short stories in the style of a traditional tale. Include elements from reading, for example formal story language, typical dialogue. Use past tense consistently and temporal connectives to introduce the different parts of the story.
Objectives
To ensure effective planning of literacy teachers need to ensure they plan for all elements of literacy effectively across the year ensuring that assessment for learning is used to plan and amend teaching. It is essential that core skills such as phonic strategies, spelling, and handwriting are incorporated into these exemplar units to ensure effective learning.
Most children learn to:
1. Speaking
• Tell real and imagined stories using the conventions of familiar story language
2. Listening and responding
• Respond to presentations by describing characters, repeating some highlights and commenting constructively
4. Drama
• Present part of traditional stories, their own stories or work from different parts of the curriculum for members of their own class
5. Word recognition: decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling)
• Read independently and with increasing fluency longer and less familiar texts
• Spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing on word recognition and knowledge of word structure, and spelling patterns
• Know how to tackle unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable
• Read and spell less common alternative graphemes including trigraphs
• Read high and medium frequency words independently and automatically
6. Word structure and spelling
• Spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing on word recognition and knowledge of word structure, and spelling patterns including common inflections and use of double letters
• Read and spell less common alternative graphemes including trigraphs
7. Understanding and interpreting texts
• Draw together ideas and information from across a whole text, using simple signposts in the text
• Give some reasons why things happen and or characters change
9. Creating and shaping texts
• Draw on knowledge and experience of texts in deciding and planning what and how to write
• Select from different presentational features to suit particular writing purposes on paper and on screen
10. Text structure and organisation
• Use planning to establish clear sections for writing
11. Sentence structure and punctuation
• Write simple and compound sentences and begin to use subordination in relation to time and reason
12. Presentation
• Word process short narrative and non-narrative texts
Building on previous learning
Check that children can already:
• Recognise speech punctuation.
• Be familiar with the use of time connectives.
• Write in complete sentences with capital letters and full stops.
• Navigate an on-screen text with some confidence.
Detailed view
Overview
This teaching sequence is based on Little Red Riding Hood, and needs:
• a written story: The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood
• an alternative story, Little Red Riding Hood and the Vegetarian Wolf (see resources, below), classroom-generated images.
The two stories, The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood and Little Red Riding Hood and the Vegetarian Wolf, reverse the roles of the main characters in order to subvert the traditional tale and create an alternative version. Whereas in the traditional story of Little Red Riding Hood the main character is portrayed as sweet and innocent and the Wolf as mean, hungry and scheming, in these versions the roles are changed so that Little Red Riding Hood becomes devious and the Wolf is kind and polite.
Multimodal texts combine elements of:
• gesture or movement
• images (moving and still)
• sound (spoken words, sound effects and music)
• writing
When composing multimodal texts, children need to be clear about:
• what the words contribute to communicating meaning
• what the images contribute
• what the sound effects or spoken words contribute.
The text is used as a basis for discussing the roles of sound, image, gesture and written text in creating a narrative. It is adapted by using a template/storyboard, or by removing elements of an original presentation. Innovation includes creating a new story based on another traditional tale. A traditional story has been chosen because it is likely to be familiar to the children, so they concentrate on how they tell the story rather than what the story contains.
The audience for the story could be Year 1 or Foundation Stage children in school. The narratives could be stored on the school network for future access by staff and children. The outcome could be a written extended narrative based on an alternative version of a traditional story (phases 1 and 2) or a multimodal extended narrative based on a traditional story (phases 1, 2 and 3).
Phases 1 and 2 make up a 2-week teaching sequence. If you wish, you can follow all three phases as a 3-week or 4-week sequence.
Note: Children working significantly above or below age-related expectations will need differentiated support, which may include tracking forward or back in terms of learning objectives. EAL learners should be expected to work within the overall expectations for their year group.
Phase 1: Reading, capturing ideas, immersion in the text-type (7 days)
Teaching content:
• Shared reading: Compare and contrast a traditional and alternative version of a traditional tale or fairy story. There is usually a 'good' central character and a villain.
• Discuss with children the roles of the characters, and ask: What are the 'good' central characters like? What are 'villains' like? What do they do? What do they say? Is this the same in other stories we have read? Create a class chart of ideas collected. Save the chart to use later for shared writing.
• Independent group work: Working in pairs, one child describes what the central character is like, based on the shared text and the child's own experience. The other child describes what the 'villain' is like. Remind children that they need to use evidence from the text to convince their partner how good or bad their characters really are.
• Follow these discussions by using a drama technique such as hotseating. Add children's further ideas to the whole-class chart under the categories What the character says, What the character does.
• Shared writing: Bring up the plain text version of The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood on an IWB. Use the IWB tools to highlight the dialogue. Use the saved chart from earlier sessions to model creating new dialogue. During discussion, children might work with a partner to try out some different examples for themselves, then draft them onto mini-whiteboards. Selected examples can then be included in the whole-class text.
• Independent work: Children work in four groups. One group works on Little Red Riding Hood's dialogue, another on the Wolf's dialogue, the third on Granny's dialogue and the fourth on the Woodcutter's. The work can be differentiated by the amount of dialogue for each character (Little Red Riding Hood has the most, Granny and the Wolf have about the same and the Woodcutter has the least).
• Shared writing: Bring up the plain text version of The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood on the IWB. Use the IWB tools to highlight time connectives such as eventually, meanwhile, just as, then and when. Building on previous work on connectives, discuss alternative words or phrases that can be used to add more tension to the story. Model replacing some expressions.
• Independent work: In groups or pairs and using word banks of connectives, children take part of the story and replace the connectives with an emphasis on creating tension.
Learning outcomes:
• Children can express ideas about a character using evidence from the text to justify their opinion.
• Children understand that connectives can be used to link ideas and create tension in a narrative.
Phase 2: Planning, writing and re-drafting (7-8 days)
Teaching content:
• Shared reading: Return to one of the traditional stories used earlier and use the 'villain' as a model of how characteristics can be reversed. Using the saved chart of characteristics, discuss how the class can alter what the characters say and do in their reversed roles.
• Independent work: Children change the characteristics of the 'good' character either by drawing and adding speech bubbles or by working in role.
• Shared writing: Using the IWB, model story-boarding by drawing four key episodes from the story (one from the beginning, two from the middle and one from the ending). Taking the characters from shared reading, emphasise how facial expression, posture and gesture indicate what they are like, for example frowning or hands-on-hips showing anger, drooped body posture showing unhappiness. Remind the class that the characters have reversed roles from the original traditional tale.
• Independent work: In pairs, children repeat work from the shared session, independently creating their own story boards to represent their view of the story.
• Shared writing: Use the class story board to model how to develop a written story from the separate episodes depicted. Emphasise the creation of character.
• Independent work: Using their story boards, children write their own stories.
• Shared writing: Building on work on connectives, model using time connectives to create tension in the narrative. Ask children to identify in their own stories connectives that can be replaced to make the story better.
• Independent work: Children concentrate on replacing connectives to improve their stories.
• Share stories to evaluate and reflect on character depiction and creating tension in a story.
• This is the end of the teaching sequence for the writing-only outcome.
Learning outcome:
• Children can write a simple traditional story using a range of connectives to link ideas and build tension for the reader.
Phase 3: Leading to a multimodal text outcome (5-6 days)
Teaching content:
• Shared reading: Read The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood from the presentation, where the humour of the narrative is enhanced by the way in which the images and the words interact. Building on previous sessions, discuss how the characters are depicted. Model finding evidence about the characters from the words, images or sounds. Develop a 'Character comparison chart' to record their ideas. Keep this chart for shared writing.
• Shared reading: Bring up the plain text version of The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood on the IWB. Model identifying how the author shows what the characters are like, building on the work about what characters do and say. Record your findings on the comparison chart.
• Bring up the multimodal version of The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood. Discuss how the sound files, when they are compared to the written text on screen, tell the reader that Little Red Riding Hood is selfish and the Wolf is thoughtful. Repeat the process for the visual text where the images contradict the words on screen. Record the findings on the comparison chart.
• Shared writing: Bring up the presentation template for Little Red Riding Hood and the Vegetarian Wolf, which has only words on the screens. Explain that the class will be making a story like The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood where the words and pictures contradict each other. Select the third screen ('This is the Big Bad Wolf') to model how the images can be made to show a vegetarian wolf. Using the alternative story 'Little Red Riding Hood veg wolf', discuss what kinds of thing a vegetarian wolf would say and do. Add notes to the image of the wolf in preparation for adding sound and completing the whole story in the following sessions.
• Independent work: Select image 2 of the presentation 'This is Little Red Riding Hood' for children to decide what their new Little Red Riding Hood is like. In pairs or groups children discuss, draw and make notes about their alternative Little Red Riding Hood. Remind them to use the list of characteristics of a bad character to support their choices. The list could be left on the IWB during this independent session.
• Shared reading to writing: Read the whole of the presentation Little Red Riding Hood and the Vegetarian Wolf with children. Using the story 'Little Red Riding Hood veg wolf', and building on the wolf image from the shared work in the previous session, model making decisions about sounds and images that will make the Wolf look kind and friendly. For example, as he is vegetarian he might be making a shopping list of vegetables. Sketch in images.
• Independent work: In pairs or groups, children decide what sounds can be added to help present the Wolf as friendly and harmless. In feedback, discuss, select and add one of the ideas to the class plan. Children continue for the following screens, drawing and making notes about sound.
• Shared writing: Continue making the multimodal story. Children draw images, or use freeze-framing to act out the images and then take photographs. Emphasise how gesture shows what characters are like. Model adding visual images to the presentation text. Once the images are in place, discuss what the characters are saying or thinking. Model recording sound text and adding it to the presentation. Model making changes so that written, sound and image text work together to show the reader an alternative version of the traditional narrative. Review shared narrative against the original criteria for characters' role reversal. Discuss and evaluate how the sound, image and written text work together.
• Independent work: This will follow the flow of the shared sessions. In pairs or groups, children discuss and then note on their whiteboards or paper plans what each character thinks or says. They take photographs or draw images, import images, record their sound text and add it to the presentation and then complete and evaluate their own texts.
Learning outcomes:
• Children understand that words, images and sounds can convey different elements of a narrative for a reader.
• Children can write a traditional narrative using words, sounds and images to convey information about the main characters.
Key aspects of learning
Problem solving
Children will respond to a task using trial and error and consider a range of possible solutions.
Creative thinking
Children will generate imaginative ideas to make connections and see relationships between different modes of communication. Children will experiment with different modes of communication to respond to different points of view.
Evaluation
Children will discuss success criteria for their written and oral work, give feedback to others and judge the effectiveness of their own writing and speaking.
Social skills
When working collaboratively children will learn about listening to and respecting other people's ideas and taking on different roles within a group.
Communication
Children will recognise communication in different modes. They will work collaboratively to discuss, plan and create a traditional tale.
Resources
• Writing flier 1
• Writing flier 2
• Storytelling
• Alternative tale (below)
The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood.
This is the true story of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.
Once upon a time there was a little girl called Little Red Riding Hood who lived at the edge of the forest. She always wore red. Red cloaks, red dresses and red shoes. She wouldn’t wear any other colour.
Living nearby was a Big Bad Wolf. It was lonely being a big bad wolf. People were always running away from him. He only had two real friends.
Little Red Riding Hood didn’t like being told what to do. When her Mum asked her to take a basket of food to her Granny, she said: ‘Do I have to?’ But she went anyway.
As Little Red Riding Hood trudged through the forest she could smell the delicious food that Mum had put in the basket. ‘This food smells nice,’ she thought.
Eventually she couldn’t resist the temptation. When she reached the clearing Little Red Riding Hood stopped and opened the basket. ‘These are nice,’ she said as bit into the first cake. After eating several cakes she fell fast asleep.
Meanwhile the wolf was watching Little Red Riding Hood. He saw the note that Little Red Riding Hood’s Mum had written for Granny and decided to take action.
Wolves can run faster than little girls, especially when little girls are full of cake. So Big Bad Wolf picked up the basket and raced off to Granny’s house.
When Wolf arrived at Granny’s house he listened carefully to find out if she was on her own. Had Little Red Riding Hood arrived before him? He knocked on the door and called out: ‘Hello Granny! It’s me: Big Bad Wolf!’
Granny had just made a fresh pot of tea and put out the Wolf’s favourite biscuits. ‘Some tea, dearie?’ she asked. ‘Would you like a biscuit, too?’ They sat down together and he told her all about Little Red Riding Hood and the basket of food.
Just as he had finished telling the story, who should burst in but Little Red Riding Hood! Granny was angry that Little Red Riding Hood had eaten all the cakes that her Mum had made. ‘What a big appetite you must have,’ scolded Granny. Then Little Red Riding Hood didn’t like being found out and said crossly: ‘So what, you’ve got very big teeth and a big nose!’
When he heard this the Wolf was horrified. ‘Don’t be rude to Granny!’ he exclaimed.
Just then the Woodcutter called by to check Granny was well. He had overheard what Little Red Riding Hood had said.
He was shocked and said: ‘How rude you’ve been!’
The Wolf agreed. ‘Yes, she has!’
Little Red Riding Hood ran out, slamming the door behind her.
It was cold and dark outside. Little Red Riding Hood peered longingly through the window. She was sorry for how she had behaved.
Granny saw how sad Little Red Riding Hood looked and brought her back inside. They shared the cakes and the Wolf now had three friends.
And … they all lived happily ever after.
(4 weeks)
Page map
Basic outline
- Overview
- Objectives
- Building on previous learning
Detailed view
Key aspects of learning
Resources required
Basic outline
This is the second of four narrative units in Year 2. The unit has two alternative outcomes. Children can work towards their own written version of a traditional narrative, or create a digital text combining words, images and sounds using presentation software. The unit can be linked to many other curriculum subjects or themes.
Phase 1
Read and compare alternative versions of traditional stories. Discuss opposing characters from the narrative. Discuss and compose dialogue for different characters.
Phase 2
Discuss how characters behave if their roles in a narrative are exchanged. Plan an alternative traditional story. Write a short alternative traditional story using connectives to indicate time and tension.
Phase 3
Discuss how words, sounds and images can convey different information to a reader. Demonstrate how images and sounds can tell a reader a different version of a story. Children create their own digital story, adding dialogue and images to a written narrative.
Overview
• (Reading and response): Read several traditional stories with examples of predictable and patterned language. Children join in and recite familiar words and phrases. Identify examples of formal story language.
• Children prepare and retell familiar stories using appropriate voice for different characters and incorporating some formal story language. Encourage them to sustain the account whilst keeping the listener's interest.
• (Analysis): Compare the themes, settings and characters in several stories. Locate key descriptive words and phrases. Identify sequence of events and compare the plots of different stories. Predict incidents and endings based on experience of traditional tales. Use improvisation and role-play to explore alternatives.
• (Speaking and listening): Watch presentation (live performance/video) of traditional tale(s) from another culture. Discuss how mood and atmosphere were created. Describe characters orally and in writing.
• (Writing): Using a familiar setting from a traditional tale, demonstrate how to structure a new sequence of events and use this as a story plan. Children write own short stories in the style of a traditional tale. Include elements from reading, for example formal story language, typical dialogue. Use past tense consistently and temporal connectives to introduce the different parts of the story.
Objectives
To ensure effective planning of literacy teachers need to ensure they plan for all elements of literacy effectively across the year ensuring that assessment for learning is used to plan and amend teaching. It is essential that core skills such as phonic strategies, spelling, and handwriting are incorporated into these exemplar units to ensure effective learning.
Most children learn to:
1. Speaking
• Tell real and imagined stories using the conventions of familiar story language
2. Listening and responding
• Respond to presentations by describing characters, repeating some highlights and commenting constructively
4. Drama
• Present part of traditional stories, their own stories or work from different parts of the curriculum for members of their own class
5. Word recognition: decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling)
• Read independently and with increasing fluency longer and less familiar texts
• Spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing on word recognition and knowledge of word structure, and spelling patterns
• Know how to tackle unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable
• Read and spell less common alternative graphemes including trigraphs
• Read high and medium frequency words independently and automatically
6. Word structure and spelling
• Spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing on word recognition and knowledge of word structure, and spelling patterns including common inflections and use of double letters
• Read and spell less common alternative graphemes including trigraphs
7. Understanding and interpreting texts
• Draw together ideas and information from across a whole text, using simple signposts in the text
• Give some reasons why things happen and or characters change
9. Creating and shaping texts
• Draw on knowledge and experience of texts in deciding and planning what and how to write
• Select from different presentational features to suit particular writing purposes on paper and on screen
10. Text structure and organisation
• Use planning to establish clear sections for writing
11. Sentence structure and punctuation
• Write simple and compound sentences and begin to use subordination in relation to time and reason
12. Presentation
• Word process short narrative and non-narrative texts
Building on previous learning
Check that children can already:
• Recognise speech punctuation.
• Be familiar with the use of time connectives.
• Write in complete sentences with capital letters and full stops.
• Navigate an on-screen text with some confidence.
Detailed view
Overview
This teaching sequence is based on Little Red Riding Hood, and needs:
• a written story: The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood
• an alternative story, Little Red Riding Hood and the Vegetarian Wolf (see resources, below), classroom-generated images.
The two stories, The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood and Little Red Riding Hood and the Vegetarian Wolf, reverse the roles of the main characters in order to subvert the traditional tale and create an alternative version. Whereas in the traditional story of Little Red Riding Hood the main character is portrayed as sweet and innocent and the Wolf as mean, hungry and scheming, in these versions the roles are changed so that Little Red Riding Hood becomes devious and the Wolf is kind and polite.
Multimodal texts combine elements of:
• gesture or movement
• images (moving and still)
• sound (spoken words, sound effects and music)
• writing
When composing multimodal texts, children need to be clear about:
• what the words contribute to communicating meaning
• what the images contribute
• what the sound effects or spoken words contribute.
The text is used as a basis for discussing the roles of sound, image, gesture and written text in creating a narrative. It is adapted by using a template/storyboard, or by removing elements of an original presentation. Innovation includes creating a new story based on another traditional tale. A traditional story has been chosen because it is likely to be familiar to the children, so they concentrate on how they tell the story rather than what the story contains.
The audience for the story could be Year 1 or Foundation Stage children in school. The narratives could be stored on the school network for future access by staff and children. The outcome could be a written extended narrative based on an alternative version of a traditional story (phases 1 and 2) or a multimodal extended narrative based on a traditional story (phases 1, 2 and 3).
Phases 1 and 2 make up a 2-week teaching sequence. If you wish, you can follow all three phases as a 3-week or 4-week sequence.
Note: Children working significantly above or below age-related expectations will need differentiated support, which may include tracking forward or back in terms of learning objectives. EAL learners should be expected to work within the overall expectations for their year group.
Phase 1: Reading, capturing ideas, immersion in the text-type (7 days)
Teaching content:
• Shared reading: Compare and contrast a traditional and alternative version of a traditional tale or fairy story. There is usually a 'good' central character and a villain.
• Discuss with children the roles of the characters, and ask: What are the 'good' central characters like? What are 'villains' like? What do they do? What do they say? Is this the same in other stories we have read? Create a class chart of ideas collected. Save the chart to use later for shared writing.
• Independent group work: Working in pairs, one child describes what the central character is like, based on the shared text and the child's own experience. The other child describes what the 'villain' is like. Remind children that they need to use evidence from the text to convince their partner how good or bad their characters really are.
• Follow these discussions by using a drama technique such as hotseating. Add children's further ideas to the whole-class chart under the categories What the character says, What the character does.
• Shared writing: Bring up the plain text version of The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood on an IWB. Use the IWB tools to highlight the dialogue. Use the saved chart from earlier sessions to model creating new dialogue. During discussion, children might work with a partner to try out some different examples for themselves, then draft them onto mini-whiteboards. Selected examples can then be included in the whole-class text.
• Independent work: Children work in four groups. One group works on Little Red Riding Hood's dialogue, another on the Wolf's dialogue, the third on Granny's dialogue and the fourth on the Woodcutter's. The work can be differentiated by the amount of dialogue for each character (Little Red Riding Hood has the most, Granny and the Wolf have about the same and the Woodcutter has the least).
• Shared writing: Bring up the plain text version of The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood on the IWB. Use the IWB tools to highlight time connectives such as eventually, meanwhile, just as, then and when. Building on previous work on connectives, discuss alternative words or phrases that can be used to add more tension to the story. Model replacing some expressions.
• Independent work: In groups or pairs and using word banks of connectives, children take part of the story and replace the connectives with an emphasis on creating tension.
Learning outcomes:
• Children can express ideas about a character using evidence from the text to justify their opinion.
• Children understand that connectives can be used to link ideas and create tension in a narrative.
Phase 2: Planning, writing and re-drafting (7-8 days)
Teaching content:
• Shared reading: Return to one of the traditional stories used earlier and use the 'villain' as a model of how characteristics can be reversed. Using the saved chart of characteristics, discuss how the class can alter what the characters say and do in their reversed roles.
• Independent work: Children change the characteristics of the 'good' character either by drawing and adding speech bubbles or by working in role.
• Shared writing: Using the IWB, model story-boarding by drawing four key episodes from the story (one from the beginning, two from the middle and one from the ending). Taking the characters from shared reading, emphasise how facial expression, posture and gesture indicate what they are like, for example frowning or hands-on-hips showing anger, drooped body posture showing unhappiness. Remind the class that the characters have reversed roles from the original traditional tale.
• Independent work: In pairs, children repeat work from the shared session, independently creating their own story boards to represent their view of the story.
• Shared writing: Use the class story board to model how to develop a written story from the separate episodes depicted. Emphasise the creation of character.
• Independent work: Using their story boards, children write their own stories.
• Shared writing: Building on work on connectives, model using time connectives to create tension in the narrative. Ask children to identify in their own stories connectives that can be replaced to make the story better.
• Independent work: Children concentrate on replacing connectives to improve their stories.
• Share stories to evaluate and reflect on character depiction and creating tension in a story.
• This is the end of the teaching sequence for the writing-only outcome.
Learning outcome:
• Children can write a simple traditional story using a range of connectives to link ideas and build tension for the reader.
Phase 3: Leading to a multimodal text outcome (5-6 days)
Teaching content:
• Shared reading: Read The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood from the presentation, where the humour of the narrative is enhanced by the way in which the images and the words interact. Building on previous sessions, discuss how the characters are depicted. Model finding evidence about the characters from the words, images or sounds. Develop a 'Character comparison chart' to record their ideas. Keep this chart for shared writing.
• Shared reading: Bring up the plain text version of The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood on the IWB. Model identifying how the author shows what the characters are like, building on the work about what characters do and say. Record your findings on the comparison chart.
• Bring up the multimodal version of The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood. Discuss how the sound files, when they are compared to the written text on screen, tell the reader that Little Red Riding Hood is selfish and the Wolf is thoughtful. Repeat the process for the visual text where the images contradict the words on screen. Record the findings on the comparison chart.
• Shared writing: Bring up the presentation template for Little Red Riding Hood and the Vegetarian Wolf, which has only words on the screens. Explain that the class will be making a story like The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood where the words and pictures contradict each other. Select the third screen ('This is the Big Bad Wolf') to model how the images can be made to show a vegetarian wolf. Using the alternative story 'Little Red Riding Hood veg wolf', discuss what kinds of thing a vegetarian wolf would say and do. Add notes to the image of the wolf in preparation for adding sound and completing the whole story in the following sessions.
• Independent work: Select image 2 of the presentation 'This is Little Red Riding Hood' for children to decide what their new Little Red Riding Hood is like. In pairs or groups children discuss, draw and make notes about their alternative Little Red Riding Hood. Remind them to use the list of characteristics of a bad character to support their choices. The list could be left on the IWB during this independent session.
• Shared reading to writing: Read the whole of the presentation Little Red Riding Hood and the Vegetarian Wolf with children. Using the story 'Little Red Riding Hood veg wolf', and building on the wolf image from the shared work in the previous session, model making decisions about sounds and images that will make the Wolf look kind and friendly. For example, as he is vegetarian he might be making a shopping list of vegetables. Sketch in images.
• Independent work: In pairs or groups, children decide what sounds can be added to help present the Wolf as friendly and harmless. In feedback, discuss, select and add one of the ideas to the class plan. Children continue for the following screens, drawing and making notes about sound.
• Shared writing: Continue making the multimodal story. Children draw images, or use freeze-framing to act out the images and then take photographs. Emphasise how gesture shows what characters are like. Model adding visual images to the presentation text. Once the images are in place, discuss what the characters are saying or thinking. Model recording sound text and adding it to the presentation. Model making changes so that written, sound and image text work together to show the reader an alternative version of the traditional narrative. Review shared narrative against the original criteria for characters' role reversal. Discuss and evaluate how the sound, image and written text work together.
• Independent work: This will follow the flow of the shared sessions. In pairs or groups, children discuss and then note on their whiteboards or paper plans what each character thinks or says. They take photographs or draw images, import images, record their sound text and add it to the presentation and then complete and evaluate their own texts.
Learning outcomes:
• Children understand that words, images and sounds can convey different elements of a narrative for a reader.
• Children can write a traditional narrative using words, sounds and images to convey information about the main characters.
Key aspects of learning
Problem solving
Children will respond to a task using trial and error and consider a range of possible solutions.
Creative thinking
Children will generate imaginative ideas to make connections and see relationships between different modes of communication. Children will experiment with different modes of communication to respond to different points of view.
Evaluation
Children will discuss success criteria for their written and oral work, give feedback to others and judge the effectiveness of their own writing and speaking.
Social skills
When working collaboratively children will learn about listening to and respecting other people's ideas and taking on different roles within a group.
Communication
Children will recognise communication in different modes. They will work collaboratively to discuss, plan and create a traditional tale.
Resources
• Writing flier 1
• Writing flier 2
• Storytelling
• Alternative tale (below)
The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood.
This is the true story of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.
Once upon a time there was a little girl called Little Red Riding Hood who lived at the edge of the forest. She always wore red. Red cloaks, red dresses and red shoes. She wouldn’t wear any other colour.
Living nearby was a Big Bad Wolf. It was lonely being a big bad wolf. People were always running away from him. He only had two real friends.
Little Red Riding Hood didn’t like being told what to do. When her Mum asked her to take a basket of food to her Granny, she said: ‘Do I have to?’ But she went anyway.
As Little Red Riding Hood trudged through the forest she could smell the delicious food that Mum had put in the basket. ‘This food smells nice,’ she thought.
Eventually she couldn’t resist the temptation. When she reached the clearing Little Red Riding Hood stopped and opened the basket. ‘These are nice,’ she said as bit into the first cake. After eating several cakes she fell fast asleep.
Meanwhile the wolf was watching Little Red Riding Hood. He saw the note that Little Red Riding Hood’s Mum had written for Granny and decided to take action.
Wolves can run faster than little girls, especially when little girls are full of cake. So Big Bad Wolf picked up the basket and raced off to Granny’s house.
When Wolf arrived at Granny’s house he listened carefully to find out if she was on her own. Had Little Red Riding Hood arrived before him? He knocked on the door and called out: ‘Hello Granny! It’s me: Big Bad Wolf!’
Granny had just made a fresh pot of tea and put out the Wolf’s favourite biscuits. ‘Some tea, dearie?’ she asked. ‘Would you like a biscuit, too?’ They sat down together and he told her all about Little Red Riding Hood and the basket of food.
Just as he had finished telling the story, who should burst in but Little Red Riding Hood! Granny was angry that Little Red Riding Hood had eaten all the cakes that her Mum had made. ‘What a big appetite you must have,’ scolded Granny. Then Little Red Riding Hood didn’t like being found out and said crossly: ‘So what, you’ve got very big teeth and a big nose!’
When he heard this the Wolf was horrified. ‘Don’t be rude to Granny!’ he exclaimed.
Just then the Woodcutter called by to check Granny was well. He had overheard what Little Red Riding Hood had said.
He was shocked and said: ‘How rude you’ve been!’
The Wolf agreed. ‘Yes, she has!’
Little Red Riding Hood ran out, slamming the door behind her.
It was cold and dark outside. Little Red Riding Hood peered longingly through the window. She was sorry for how she had behaved.
Granny saw how sad Little Red Riding Hood looked and brought her back inside. They shared the cakes and the Wolf now had three friends.
And … they all lived happily ever after.
Y2 Stories with familiar settings
Stories with familiar settings
(4 weeks)
Sorry, exemplified detail of this unit is not currently available.
Overview
• (Reading and response): Read and tell a selection of stories with settings and themes that are familiar to the children, for example home, school, shops, holidays, getting lost, making friends, being ill. Children retell stories in pairs focusing on the sequence of events.
• Identify the characters. Use role-play to retell the story from one character's point of view and explore different courses of action.
• Children select a character and describe what they do in the story, orally and in writing.
• (Analysis): Review the stories. Discuss the way that one event leads to another and identify temporal connectives. Represent the story structure in note form.
• Begin to tell another story. Invite predictions about characters' actions and the sequence of events.
• (Writing): Demonstrate how to plan the structure of a story: opening, something happens, events to sort it out, ending. Demonstrate how to write the beginning of the story. Children write their own endings.
• Children plan and tell stories based on their own experience. They use the structure from shared writing to write their own complete stories.
(4 weeks)
Sorry, exemplified detail of this unit is not currently available.
Overview
• (Reading and response): Read and tell a selection of stories with settings and themes that are familiar to the children, for example home, school, shops, holidays, getting lost, making friends, being ill. Children retell stories in pairs focusing on the sequence of events.
• Identify the characters. Use role-play to retell the story from one character's point of view and explore different courses of action.
• Children select a character and describe what they do in the story, orally and in writing.
• (Analysis): Review the stories. Discuss the way that one event leads to another and identify temporal connectives. Represent the story structure in note form.
• Begin to tell another story. Invite predictions about characters' actions and the sequence of events.
• (Writing): Demonstrate how to plan the structure of a story: opening, something happens, events to sort it out, ending. Demonstrate how to write the beginning of the story. Children write their own endings.
• Children plan and tell stories based on their own experience. They use the structure from shared writing to write their own complete stories.
Y1 Poems on a theme
Poems on a theme
(2 weeks)
Sorry, exemplified detail of this unit is not currently available.
Overview
• Children hear, read and respond to a range of simple poems with a similar theme. They join in with 'performances' of them, with and without music, actions and other enhancements. They use some of the poems as simple models for their own writing.
• As a class and in groups, children hear, read and respond to a range of simple poems on a shared theme, for example weather, animals, toys. This theme could well be selected to fit with work across the curriculum. They discuss their own and others' responses to the poems and what they think they are about. They talk about their favourite words and parts of the poems, and notice the poems' patterns. They consider obvious similarities and differences between the poems. They join in with and 'perform' the poems in a variety of ways, including where appropriate singing, adding music, rhythms or sounds, doing actions and acting out.
• With extensive contribution from and involvement by children, the teacher models and explores writing a simple, patterned poem on the same theme, as a shared composition, for example collecting words and phrases and then making up simple couplets or verses, based around them. Building from earlier work on the senses, children consider what things are 'like', as well as indulging in fanciful inventions such as magical wishes. Opportunity is taken to focus on language choices, further developing children's vocabulary and their word reading and writing skills in the process. Sometimes simple models from the reading are used as a frame for writing. These collaboratively written simple poems, too, can be read, sung, danced and otherwise explored.
• Following on from this modelling, children in pairs or individually (possibly then working with a response partner) write their own simple patterned texts (on paper or on screen) on the given theme, developing their writing by adding further words or phrases to a specified beginning, following a given pattern or writing within an appropriate frame. Stimulus and support are provided through first-hand experience and through images, sounds, music, etc., and children are encouraged to explore ideas verbally before writing. Outcomes are then shared and discussed. They could be recorded on audio or video as a vehicle for both sharing and review.
(2 weeks)
Sorry, exemplified detail of this unit is not currently available.
Overview
• Children hear, read and respond to a range of simple poems with a similar theme. They join in with 'performances' of them, with and without music, actions and other enhancements. They use some of the poems as simple models for their own writing.
• As a class and in groups, children hear, read and respond to a range of simple poems on a shared theme, for example weather, animals, toys. This theme could well be selected to fit with work across the curriculum. They discuss their own and others' responses to the poems and what they think they are about. They talk about their favourite words and parts of the poems, and notice the poems' patterns. They consider obvious similarities and differences between the poems. They join in with and 'perform' the poems in a variety of ways, including where appropriate singing, adding music, rhythms or sounds, doing actions and acting out.
• With extensive contribution from and involvement by children, the teacher models and explores writing a simple, patterned poem on the same theme, as a shared composition, for example collecting words and phrases and then making up simple couplets or verses, based around them. Building from earlier work on the senses, children consider what things are 'like', as well as indulging in fanciful inventions such as magical wishes. Opportunity is taken to focus on language choices, further developing children's vocabulary and their word reading and writing skills in the process. Sometimes simple models from the reading are used as a frame for writing. These collaboratively written simple poems, too, can be read, sung, danced and otherwise explored.
• Following on from this modelling, children in pairs or individually (possibly then working with a response partner) write their own simple patterned texts (on paper or on screen) on the given theme, developing their writing by adding further words or phrases to a specified beginning, following a given pattern or writing within an appropriate frame. Stimulus and support are provided through first-hand experience and through images, sounds, music, etc., and children are encouraged to explore ideas verbally before writing. Outcomes are then shared and discussed. They could be recorded on audio or video as a vehicle for both sharing and review.
Y1 Pattern and rhyme
Pattern and rhyme
(2 weeks)
Sorry, exemplified detail of this unit is not currently available.
Overview
• Children hear, read and respond to rhymes and simple patterned stories. They join in with 'performances' of them, with and without music, actions and other enhancements. They use simple pattern structures to support their writing.
• As a class and in groups, children hear, read and respond to a range of rhymes and simple patterned stories. They then explore the different patterns created, both by the ways sounds, words and phrases are used and sequenced, and by the way the text is laid out on page or screen. They join in with and 'perform' the rhymes in a variety of ways, including where appropriate singing, adding music, rhythms or sounds, doing actions and acting out.
• With extensive contribution from and involvement by children, the teacher models and explores writing in several different patterned forms, as shared composition, for example, making up silly couplets or verses based on rhyme, or on repeated sounds, words or phrases. Opportunity is taken to focus on playful language choices, further developing children's vocabulary and their word reading and writing skills in the process. Sometimes simple models from the reading are used as a frame for writing. These simple creations, too, can be read, sung, danced and otherwise explored.
• Following on from this modelling, children in pairs or individually (possibly then working with a response partner) write their own simple patterned texts (on paper or on screen), developing their writing by adding a few further words or phrases from a given beginning, following a specific pattern or within an appropriate frame. Outcomes are then shared and discussed. They could be recorded on audio or video as a vehicle for both sharing and review.
(2 weeks)
Sorry, exemplified detail of this unit is not currently available.
Overview
• Children hear, read and respond to rhymes and simple patterned stories. They join in with 'performances' of them, with and without music, actions and other enhancements. They use simple pattern structures to support their writing.
• As a class and in groups, children hear, read and respond to a range of rhymes and simple patterned stories. They then explore the different patterns created, both by the ways sounds, words and phrases are used and sequenced, and by the way the text is laid out on page or screen. They join in with and 'perform' the rhymes in a variety of ways, including where appropriate singing, adding music, rhythms or sounds, doing actions and acting out.
• With extensive contribution from and involvement by children, the teacher models and explores writing in several different patterned forms, as shared composition, for example, making up silly couplets or verses based on rhyme, or on repeated sounds, words or phrases. Opportunity is taken to focus on playful language choices, further developing children's vocabulary and their word reading and writing skills in the process. Sometimes simple models from the reading are used as a frame for writing. These simple creations, too, can be read, sung, danced and otherwise explored.
• Following on from this modelling, children in pairs or individually (possibly then working with a response partner) write their own simple patterned texts (on paper or on screen), developing their writing by adding a few further words or phrases from a given beginning, following a specific pattern or within an appropriate frame. Outcomes are then shared and discussed. They could be recorded on audio or video as a vehicle for both sharing and review.
Y1 Using the senses
Using the senses
(2 weeks)
Page map
Basic outline
- Overview
- Objectives
- Building on previous learning
Detailed view
Key aspects of learning
Resources required
Basic outline
Children read and respond to poems and other texts that capture sensory experiences in words. They then explore their own senses, observe details and find words to describe their first-hand experience. Links to other areas of the curriculum can be made.
Phase 1
Read and respond to a range of poems and other texts that capture sensory experience in words. Practise reading the poems in unison, following the rhythm and keeping time. Identify and discuss words that describe what we can see, hear, feel, smell and taste. Invent actions for each sense to perform when reading or reciting the poems.
Phase 2
Play a range of games to explore the senses, for example identifying familiar objects when inside a feely bag, and begin to identify details and find simple words and phrases to describe what they can see, hear, feel, smell and taste.
Phase 3
Images of familiar objects or situations are selected and discussed. Children begin to identify simple words and phrases to describe what they can see, hear, feel, smell and taste. The teacher models adding simple words and phrases to the image and children follow this up independently in pairs or small groups.
Phase 4
Familiar everyday activities are identified and explored. Words and phrases to describe what the children see, hear, feel (touch), smell and taste are found and discussed. The teacher models fitting these descriptions into a very simple poetry frame, and children follow this up independently in pairs or small groups.
Overview
• Children read and respond to poems and other simple texts that capture sensory experience in words. They then explore their own senses, observe details and find words to describe their own first-hand experience. The subject matter of the texts and the nature of the experiences explored can be drawn from across the curriculum or relate to cross-curricular themes.
• As shared reading, the class read and respond to a range of poems and other simple texts that capture sensory experience in words. They practice and read the poems in unison, following the rhythm and keeping time. They identify and discuss the words that describe what we can see, hear, feel (touch), smell and taste. They imitate and invent actions when reading/reciting the poems to emphasise these.
• The children play a range of games to explore their own senses (e.g. identifying familiar objects when inside a 'feely bag'), and begin to identify details and find simple words and phrases to describe what they can see, hear, feel (touch), smell and taste.
• Images of familiar objects or situations are found and discussed, identifying details. Children begin to identify simple words and phrases to describe what they can see, hear, feel (touch), smell and taste. Teacher models adding simple words and phrases to the image (on paper or on screen), and children follow this up independently in pairs or small groups.
• Some of the children's familiar everyday activities (e.g. playing in the sand) are identified and explored, preferably through first-hand experience. Simple words and phrases to describe what they can see, hear, feel (touch), smell and taste are found and discussed. Teacher models fitting these descriptions into a very simple poetry frame, and children follow this up independently in pairs or small groups.
Objectives
To ensure effective planning of literacy teachers need to ensure they plan for all elements of literacy effectively across the year ensuring that assessment for learning is used to plan and amend teaching. It is essential that core skills such as phonic strategies, spelling, and handwriting are incorporated into these exemplar units to ensure effective learning.
Most children learn to:
1. Speaking
• Interpret a text by reading aloud with some variety in pace and emphasis
2. Listening and responding
• Listen with sustained concentration, building new stores of words in different contexts
3. Group discussion and interaction
• Ask and answer questions, make relevant contributions, offer suggestions and take turns
• Explain their views to others in a small group, decide how to report the group's views to the class
5. Word recognition: decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling)
• Recognise and use alternative ways of pronouncing the graphemes already taught
• Recognise and use alternative ways of spelling the graphemes already taught
• Identify the constituent parts of two-syllable and three-syllable words to support the application of phonic knowledge and skills
• Recognise automatically an increasing number of familiar high frequency words
• Apply phonic knowledge and skills as the prime approach to reading and spelling unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable
• Read more challenging texts which can be decoded using their acquired phonic knowledge and skills, along with automatic recognition of high frequency words
• Read and spell phonically decodable two-syllable and three-syllable words
6. Word structure and spelling
• Spell new words using phonics as the prime approach
• Segment sounds into their constituent phonemes in order to spell them correctly
• Recognise and use alternative ways of spelling the graphemes already taught
• Use knowledge of common inflections in spelling, such as plurals, -ly, -er
• Read and spell phonically decodable two-syllable and three-syllable words
7. Understanding and interpreting texts
• Explain the effect of patterns of language and repeated words and phrases
8. Engaging with and responding to texts
• Visualise and comment on events, characters and ideas, making imaginative links to their own experiences
9. Creating and shaping texts
• Find and use new and interesting words and phrases, including story language
• Create short simple texts on paper and on screen that combine words with images (and sounds)
12. Presentation
• Write most letters, correctly formed and orientated, using a comfortable and efficient pencil grip
• Write with spaces between words accurately
• Use the space bar and keyboard to type their name and simple texts
Building on previous learning
Check that children can already:
• Listen to poems being read and talk about likes and dislikes - including the words used.
• Join in with class rhymes and poems.
• Copy actions.
• Enjoy making up funny sentences and playing with words.
• Look carefully at experiences and choose words to describe.
• Make word collections.
Detailed view
Note: Children working significantly above or below age-related expectations will need differentiated support, which may include tracking forward or back in terms of learning objectives. EAL learners should be expected to work within the overall expectations for their year group. For further advice see the progression strands and hyperlinks to useful sources of practical support.
Phase 1: Reading and responding to texts (3 days)
Teaching content:
• Read and allow children to respond in various ways to a range of poems and other simple, patterned texts that capture sensory experience in words.
• Practise and read the texts in unison, following rhythm and keeping time.
• Provide a practical activity that allows children to explore what we mean by the five senses. Identify and discuss what the senses are.
• Identify and discuss words in the poems that describe what we can see, hear feel (touch) small and taste. Classify the words and phrases used according to the sense to which they relate. Explore through paired discussion and activity.
• Model and invent actions to be performed when reading or reciting the poems that will emphasise the sensory descriptions. Children perform a chosen poem to others in the class. Children listen to or watch others in the class and discuss the performance.
Learning outcome:
• Children can listen to poems and identify words and phrases that describe what we see, hear, feel (touch), small and taste.
Phase 2: Exploration of direct experience as preparation for writing (2 days)
Teaching content:
• Children play a range of games to explore their senses, for example identifying familiar objects inside a feely bag, blindfolded tasting, identifying mystery sounds.
• Begin to identify details of sensory observation and find simple words and phrases to describe these. Play additional games to encourage description of the senses, for example describing an object or picture to another child who can't see it, describing subtle differences between very similar objects, sounds, smells.
• With response partners children select words to describe particular sensory experience and record these in writing.
• Repeat some of the games recording children's responses on a flipchart or interactive whiteboard (IWB).
Learning outcome:
• Children can identify details of their sensory experience and start to select suitable words and phrases to describe these.
Phase 3: Exploring responses to images and beginning to write about them (2 days)
Teaching content:
• Share and discuss images of familiar objects, scenes and events. Identify what children can see and what they would be able to hear, feel, smell and taste if they were experiencing the object or scene directly. Images could be on paper or projected on an IWB.
• Model selecting suitable words and phrases to describe the object. Record the words and phrases by annotating the image.
• Demonstrate the use of a simple dictionary, word lists and other available resources to locate words or improve vocabulary.
• Repeat with contrasting images or for other senses.
• Working in pairs or small groups, on paper or on screen, children discuss and then add words to a different image or images.
• Share and discuss outcomes. Agree simple criteria to evaluate the vocabulary.
• Annotated images are put together to form a class display, book or ICT presentation.
Learning outcome:
• Children can identify details of their sensory responses to images and start to select suitable words and phrases to describe these.
Phase 4: Exploring responses to direct experience and describing them in writing (3 days)
Teaching content:
• Identify familiar everyday experiences for the children, for example playing in the sand, lining up for lunch; or special experiences, for example related to a school trip, a visiting dance artist. Recall or recreate the experience and explore it in terms of sensory response. Notice and discuss details.
• Generate and discuss effective words for describing the experience.
• Model selecting words and phrases and adding them to a patterned poem read during phase 1.
• Select a poem that is flexible enough to work with, avoiding restrictive rhythms or rhymes as they will distract from the focus.
• Demonstrate the use of a simple dictionary, word lists and other available resources to improve selections.
• Working in pairs or small groups children discuss and then describe a particular prior experience. The words or phrases from the discussion can then be added to another patterned poem structure. Children could work on paper or use a wordprocessor.
• Share and discuss the written outcomes. Agree simple criteria to evaluate the poems.
• Poems or descriptions are put together to form a class display, book or ICT presentation.
Learning outcome:
• Children can identify detailed sensory responses to direct experience and start to select and write suitable words and phrases to describe these.
Ensure that children also have a daily phonics or spelling session lasting at least 15 minutes and use every opportunity to demonstrate how to apply phonic knowledge in reading and writing.
(2 weeks)
Page map
Basic outline
- Overview
- Objectives
- Building on previous learning
Detailed view
Key aspects of learning
Resources required
Basic outline
Children read and respond to poems and other texts that capture sensory experiences in words. They then explore their own senses, observe details and find words to describe their first-hand experience. Links to other areas of the curriculum can be made.
Phase 1
Read and respond to a range of poems and other texts that capture sensory experience in words. Practise reading the poems in unison, following the rhythm and keeping time. Identify and discuss words that describe what we can see, hear, feel, smell and taste. Invent actions for each sense to perform when reading or reciting the poems.
Phase 2
Play a range of games to explore the senses, for example identifying familiar objects when inside a feely bag, and begin to identify details and find simple words and phrases to describe what they can see, hear, feel, smell and taste.
Phase 3
Images of familiar objects or situations are selected and discussed. Children begin to identify simple words and phrases to describe what they can see, hear, feel, smell and taste. The teacher models adding simple words and phrases to the image and children follow this up independently in pairs or small groups.
Phase 4
Familiar everyday activities are identified and explored. Words and phrases to describe what the children see, hear, feel (touch), smell and taste are found and discussed. The teacher models fitting these descriptions into a very simple poetry frame, and children follow this up independently in pairs or small groups.
Overview
• Children read and respond to poems and other simple texts that capture sensory experience in words. They then explore their own senses, observe details and find words to describe their own first-hand experience. The subject matter of the texts and the nature of the experiences explored can be drawn from across the curriculum or relate to cross-curricular themes.
• As shared reading, the class read and respond to a range of poems and other simple texts that capture sensory experience in words. They practice and read the poems in unison, following the rhythm and keeping time. They identify and discuss the words that describe what we can see, hear, feel (touch), smell and taste. They imitate and invent actions when reading/reciting the poems to emphasise these.
• The children play a range of games to explore their own senses (e.g. identifying familiar objects when inside a 'feely bag'), and begin to identify details and find simple words and phrases to describe what they can see, hear, feel (touch), smell and taste.
• Images of familiar objects or situations are found and discussed, identifying details. Children begin to identify simple words and phrases to describe what they can see, hear, feel (touch), smell and taste. Teacher models adding simple words and phrases to the image (on paper or on screen), and children follow this up independently in pairs or small groups.
• Some of the children's familiar everyday activities (e.g. playing in the sand) are identified and explored, preferably through first-hand experience. Simple words and phrases to describe what they can see, hear, feel (touch), smell and taste are found and discussed. Teacher models fitting these descriptions into a very simple poetry frame, and children follow this up independently in pairs or small groups.
Objectives
To ensure effective planning of literacy teachers need to ensure they plan for all elements of literacy effectively across the year ensuring that assessment for learning is used to plan and amend teaching. It is essential that core skills such as phonic strategies, spelling, and handwriting are incorporated into these exemplar units to ensure effective learning.
Most children learn to:
1. Speaking
• Interpret a text by reading aloud with some variety in pace and emphasis
2. Listening and responding
• Listen with sustained concentration, building new stores of words in different contexts
3. Group discussion and interaction
• Ask and answer questions, make relevant contributions, offer suggestions and take turns
• Explain their views to others in a small group, decide how to report the group's views to the class
5. Word recognition: decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling)
• Recognise and use alternative ways of pronouncing the graphemes already taught
• Recognise and use alternative ways of spelling the graphemes already taught
• Identify the constituent parts of two-syllable and three-syllable words to support the application of phonic knowledge and skills
• Recognise automatically an increasing number of familiar high frequency words
• Apply phonic knowledge and skills as the prime approach to reading and spelling unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable
• Read more challenging texts which can be decoded using their acquired phonic knowledge and skills, along with automatic recognition of high frequency words
• Read and spell phonically decodable two-syllable and three-syllable words
6. Word structure and spelling
• Spell new words using phonics as the prime approach
• Segment sounds into their constituent phonemes in order to spell them correctly
• Recognise and use alternative ways of spelling the graphemes already taught
• Use knowledge of common inflections in spelling, such as plurals, -ly, -er
• Read and spell phonically decodable two-syllable and three-syllable words
7. Understanding and interpreting texts
• Explain the effect of patterns of language and repeated words and phrases
8. Engaging with and responding to texts
• Visualise and comment on events, characters and ideas, making imaginative links to their own experiences
9. Creating and shaping texts
• Find and use new and interesting words and phrases, including story language
• Create short simple texts on paper and on screen that combine words with images (and sounds)
12. Presentation
• Write most letters, correctly formed and orientated, using a comfortable and efficient pencil grip
• Write with spaces between words accurately
• Use the space bar and keyboard to type their name and simple texts
Building on previous learning
Check that children can already:
• Listen to poems being read and talk about likes and dislikes - including the words used.
• Join in with class rhymes and poems.
• Copy actions.
• Enjoy making up funny sentences and playing with words.
• Look carefully at experiences and choose words to describe.
• Make word collections.
Detailed view
Note: Children working significantly above or below age-related expectations will need differentiated support, which may include tracking forward or back in terms of learning objectives. EAL learners should be expected to work within the overall expectations for their year group. For further advice see the progression strands and hyperlinks to useful sources of practical support.
Phase 1: Reading and responding to texts (3 days)
Teaching content:
• Read and allow children to respond in various ways to a range of poems and other simple, patterned texts that capture sensory experience in words.
• Practise and read the texts in unison, following rhythm and keeping time.
• Provide a practical activity that allows children to explore what we mean by the five senses. Identify and discuss what the senses are.
• Identify and discuss words in the poems that describe what we can see, hear feel (touch) small and taste. Classify the words and phrases used according to the sense to which they relate. Explore through paired discussion and activity.
• Model and invent actions to be performed when reading or reciting the poems that will emphasise the sensory descriptions. Children perform a chosen poem to others in the class. Children listen to or watch others in the class and discuss the performance.
Learning outcome:
• Children can listen to poems and identify words and phrases that describe what we see, hear, feel (touch), small and taste.
Phase 2: Exploration of direct experience as preparation for writing (2 days)
Teaching content:
• Children play a range of games to explore their senses, for example identifying familiar objects inside a feely bag, blindfolded tasting, identifying mystery sounds.
• Begin to identify details of sensory observation and find simple words and phrases to describe these. Play additional games to encourage description of the senses, for example describing an object or picture to another child who can't see it, describing subtle differences between very similar objects, sounds, smells.
• With response partners children select words to describe particular sensory experience and record these in writing.
• Repeat some of the games recording children's responses on a flipchart or interactive whiteboard (IWB).
Learning outcome:
• Children can identify details of their sensory experience and start to select suitable words and phrases to describe these.
Phase 3: Exploring responses to images and beginning to write about them (2 days)
Teaching content:
• Share and discuss images of familiar objects, scenes and events. Identify what children can see and what they would be able to hear, feel, smell and taste if they were experiencing the object or scene directly. Images could be on paper or projected on an IWB.
• Model selecting suitable words and phrases to describe the object. Record the words and phrases by annotating the image.
• Demonstrate the use of a simple dictionary, word lists and other available resources to locate words or improve vocabulary.
• Repeat with contrasting images or for other senses.
• Working in pairs or small groups, on paper or on screen, children discuss and then add words to a different image or images.
• Share and discuss outcomes. Agree simple criteria to evaluate the vocabulary.
• Annotated images are put together to form a class display, book or ICT presentation.
Learning outcome:
• Children can identify details of their sensory responses to images and start to select suitable words and phrases to describe these.
Phase 4: Exploring responses to direct experience and describing them in writing (3 days)
Teaching content:
• Identify familiar everyday experiences for the children, for example playing in the sand, lining up for lunch; or special experiences, for example related to a school trip, a visiting dance artist. Recall or recreate the experience and explore it in terms of sensory response. Notice and discuss details.
• Generate and discuss effective words for describing the experience.
• Model selecting words and phrases and adding them to a patterned poem read during phase 1.
• Select a poem that is flexible enough to work with, avoiding restrictive rhythms or rhymes as they will distract from the focus.
• Demonstrate the use of a simple dictionary, word lists and other available resources to improve selections.
• Working in pairs or small groups children discuss and then describe a particular prior experience. The words or phrases from the discussion can then be added to another patterned poem structure. Children could work on paper or use a wordprocessor.
• Share and discuss the written outcomes. Agree simple criteria to evaluate the poems.
• Poems or descriptions are put together to form a class display, book or ICT presentation.
Learning outcome:
• Children can identify detailed sensory responses to direct experience and start to select and write suitable words and phrases to describe these.
Ensure that children also have a daily phonics or spelling session lasting at least 15 minutes and use every opportunity to demonstrate how to apply phonic knowledge in reading and writing.
*Note: Although this unit is planned in the four sequential stages for clarity, in practice some teachers may prefer to intermix these, for example working in one week through all four phases while focusing on a particular sense or senses, and then repeating the whole sequence in a second week but for a different sense or senses, or with quite different subject matter.
Key aspects of learning
Enquiry
Children will play games and ask questions about what they can see, hear, feel (touch), smell and taste.
Reasoning
Children will explain the words they and others chose to describe objects and experiences.
Evaluation
Children will discuss success criteria for describing objects and experiences, give feedback to others and judge the effectiveness of their word choices.
Empathy and self-awareness
Children will hear or read about the sensory experience (and emotional reaction) of others and compare it to their own.
Communication
They will begin to develop their ability to discuss the language of poetry and to communicate their own observations and experiences through carefully chosen words. They will sometimes work collaboratively in pairs and groups. They will communicate outcomes orally, and in writing (possibly including ICT).
Resources
• Developing early writing
• Speaking, listening, learning: working with children in years 1 to 6
Key aspects of learning
Enquiry
Children will play games and ask questions about what they can see, hear, feel (touch), smell and taste.
Reasoning
Children will explain the words they and others chose to describe objects and experiences.
Evaluation
Children will discuss success criteria for describing objects and experiences, give feedback to others and judge the effectiveness of their word choices.
Empathy and self-awareness
Children will hear or read about the sensory experience (and emotional reaction) of others and compare it to their own.
Communication
They will begin to develop their ability to discuss the language of poetry and to communicate their own observations and experiences through carefully chosen words. They will sometimes work collaboratively in pairs and groups. They will communicate outcomes orally, and in writing (possibly including ICT).
Resources
• Developing early writing
• Speaking, listening, learning: working with children in years 1 to 6
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Y1 Recount (fact and fiction)
Recount (fact and fiction)
(2 weeks)
Page map
Basic outline
- Overview
- Objectives
- Building on previous learning
Detailed view
Key aspects of learning
Resources required
Basic outline
This is the last in a sequence of five non-fiction units for Year 1. It builds on children's knowledge and understanding from unit 3 and on cross-curricular work based on observations of the growth of a seed. The unit has three phases with oral and written outcomes and assessment opportunities for teachers and children at intervals throughout each phase. The outcome for the unit is children creating a stop-frame animation of the life cycle of a seed. Specific guidance for early reading and ongoing teaching of word, sentence and speaking and listening needs to be covered alongside this unit, informed by ongoing assessment for learning.
Phase 1
Read and compare simple recounts. Discuss and contrast recounts with narrative texts. Identify and discuss common features of recounts. Sequence a set of events. Justify opinions based on evidence in the text.
Phase 2
Orally compose a recount, sequencing events using time connectives, based on first-hand experience. Plan how to write this recount using a storyboard.
Phase 3
Model through shared writing, changing oral composition into written composition. Reinforce knowledge of how to write a sentence. Children create group animated recounts of the growth of a seed with written captions recounting events.
Overview
• Describe incidents from own experience in an audible voice using sequencing words and phrases such as 'then', 'after that'; listen to others' recounts and ask relevant questions.
• Read personal recounts and discuss the difference between recounts and stories, fact and fiction. With the children, explore the generic structure of recounts, for example ordered sequence of events, use of words like 'first', 'next', 'after', 'when'.
• Model writing a recount of an activity in which all the children took part, for example a visit of someone from the community or the previous afternoon's fire drill or thunderstorm, giving them opportunities to contribute ideas and form sentences.
• Children write simple personal recounts, independently, using the language of texts read as models for their own writing, maintaining consistency in tense and person.
Objectives
To ensure effective planning of literacy teachers need to ensure they plan for all elements of literacy effectively across the year ensuring that assessment for learning is used to plan and amend teaching. It is essential that core skills such as phonic strategies, spelling, and handwriting are incorporated into these exemplar units to ensure effective learning.
Most children learn to:
1. Speaking
• Tell stories and describe incidents from their own experience in an audible voice
3. Group discussion and interaction
• Explain their views to others in a small group, decide how to report the group's views to the class
5. Word recognition: decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling)
• Recognise and use alternative ways of pronouncing the graphemes already taught
• Recognise and use alternative ways of spelling the graphemes already taught
• Identify the constituent parts of two-syllable and three-syllable words to support the application of phonic knowledge and skills
• Recognise automatically an increasing number of familiar high frequency words
• Apply phonic knowledge and skills as the prime approach to reading and spelling unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable
• Read more challenging texts which can be decoded using their acquired phonic knowledge and skills, along with automatic recognition of high frequency words
• Read and spell phonically decodable two-syllable and three-syllable words
6. Word structure and spelling
• Spell new words using phonics as the prime approach
• Segment sounds into their constituent phonemes in order to spell them correctly
• Recognise and use alternative ways of spelling the graphemes already taught
• Use knowledge of common inflections in spelling, such as plurals, -ly, -er
• Read and spell phonically decodable two-syllable and three-syllable words
7. Understanding and interpreting texts
• Identify the main events and characters in stories, and find specific information in simple texts
• Recognise the main elements that shape different texts
9. Creating and shaping texts
• Convey information and ideas in simple non-narrative forms
• Create short simple texts on paper and on screen that combine words with images (and sounds)
10. Text structure and organisation
• Write chronological and non-chronological texts using simple structures
11. Sentence structure and punctuation
• Compose and write simple sentences independently to communicate meaning
12. Presentation
• Use the space bar and keyboard to type their name and simple texts
Building on previous learning
Check that children can already:
• Listen attentively to recounts and recall some details including the correct ordering of events.
• Ask relevant questions and speak about their own experiences.
• Discuss ideas confidently with a response partner.
Detailed view
Note: Children working significantly above or below age-related expectations will need differentiated support, which may include tracking forward or back in terms of learning objectives. EAL learners should be expected to work within the overall expectations for their year group.
Context
Prior to the sessions children should have undertaken a science project on growing and changing with a focus on the life cycles of plants and animals. As part of the science project, children make drawings of the changes to a plant or animal they are observing over a period of time. Photographs of a seed at various stages of growth will be needed to support children's speaking and listening activities and whole-class planning. Children's observational drawings from the science lessons form the basis for the stop-frame animations. Specific teaching of reading and speaking and listening objectives needs to be layered across each phase of the unit.
Phase 1: Listening; reading; analysis and discussion (3 days)
Teaching content:
• Explain that children are going to use science observations to create their own animated recount of events.
• During shared reading, read simple recounts of events or observations with the children. Investigate the key features of the text-type. Focus on the language features that denote the sequence of events for the reader and collect words such as first, next, then on an IWB frame.
• Annotate the shared text to show children that a good recount contains not just the main facts but also details that bring the recount alive. An IWB can be used to underline the main events in one colour and the details in another colour.
• Discuss and contrast the recounts with how narrative texts work, highlighting the main differences. Emphasise how both types of text are written in a sequence of events but recounts are about real events using specific words and have a distinctive text structure.
• Insert the photographs taken of the seed showing different stages of growth into an IWB skeleton frame of a recount. Arrange the images at random on the page so they can be sorted into sequential order as part of the shared session.
• Explain that children are going to combine what they have learned about recounts with their observations of a seed growing. On an IWB display the skeleton planner and photographs. Discuss the photographs and the various changes to the seed. The photographs could be annotated by circling the observable details of change.
• Organise children into groups. Ask children to identify the sequence in which they think the seed developed, by organising a set of laminated photographs into the correct order. Encourage children to circle evidence that backs up their opinion using a whiteboard marker.
• During the plenary, assign two children from each group the role of envoy. Each pair of envoys visits another group. The members of the group explain their sequence of photographs to the envoys who then return to their own group and revise their own group sequence if necessary.
• Record children's findings on an IWB by dragging and dropping the photographs onto the recount skeleton planner. Remind children that a good recount should contain extra details to make the reader interested in the events. With their response partners, ask children to identify an interesting, funny or unusual detail that could be added to each step of the recount. Children could refer to their science observation drawings to support this discussion. Annotate the skeleton plan with children's ideas in note form.
• Specific teaching of reading and speaking and listening objectives should be layered throughout this phase of the unit.
Learning outcomes:
• Children can sequence a set of events based on their own experience and observations.
• Children have made appropriate progress in line with national expectations of phonic development.
Phase 2: Talk for writing; capturing ideas (3 days)
Teaching content:
• Explain that you are going to model how to use talk to plan your writing.
• Display the IWB skeleton plan. Model dragging and dropping time connectives such as first, next, then from an IWB word bank onto each stage of the IWB skeleton plan. Discuss with children how the words or phrases will support both the talk and the writing by being used as sentence starters.
• Model talking through the first stage of the recount of the life cycle of the seed using the key vocabulary and added details noted on the plan.
• Children work with response partners following the model of the teacher's oral text structure building up a recount. Emphasis should be placed on the language features of the text-type. Children could use the photographs from previous sessions and/or their drawings from the science observations to support them and add their own personal details to the oral recount.
• Model drawing and writing on the IWB planning board based on the oral recounts from the previous session. Explain that the board will support children's writing and help them remember what they want to tell their audience.
• Children work on a group planning board during the independent sessions adding drawings of the different stages of a seed's growth, noting time connectives to link each section of the text.
• During the plenary, refer back to the key features of recounts identified in previous sessions to check for the main events, sequential vocabulary and details.
• Specific teaching of reading and speaking and listening objectives should be layered throughout this phase of the unit.
Learning outcomes:
• Children can orally compose and retell a sequence of events using time connectives to link the sequence.
• Children have made appropriate progress in line with national expectations in reading development.
Phase 3: Modelled, shared and collaborative writing (4 days)
Teaching content:
• The writing process will be a combination of animating the images into the software and then adding written words and incidental sounds.
• Children will need to have: - an appropriate background for the animation, such as a white sheet of paper that can have drawings added to it where required, for example a brown line to denote the earth or a blue line to show the surface of water in a pond - copies of their observational drawings cut out ready to move around as part of the animation - adhesive materials to hold the drawings in place.
• Display the animation package stop-frame animation software on an IWB with camera plugged into the laptop. Use modelled and shared teaching approaches to demonstrate how to use the stop-frame animation software and camera to take the ideas from the plan and add them into the animation package.
• Animation can be done in episodes or clips, for example with the shoot appearing out of the seed. Once animated, the clips are added onto the video clipboard in the software. Once all the clips have been animated, drag and drop them onto the video editing time line or story board in the software. The clips can be moved and sequenced on the time line or story board. Each event on the planning sheet would be the equivalent of one episode.
• Children work in small groups during the independent session to create their own visual text following the model established in the shared sessions. The process will need to be worked on over a number of sessions.
• Model how to drag and drop the animated events onto the time line or story board in the software package. Ask children to work with a response partner to decide on the order of events, referring to the IWB plan.
• Children work on their own animations following the model set in the shared sessions.
• During the plenary, children exchange groups to review another group's plan, watch the animation and check that the animation is in the correct sequence. Where appropriate, children give feedback to the group to note any changes they think need to be made.
• Use modelled, shared and supported composition approaches to demonstrate how to change the oral retellings of the recount and the notes on the plan and make them sound like the books read in the shared sessions. Ask children to work in pairs on whiteboards to write a sentence to accompany the main events and details.
• Demonstrate how children can insert their text into the software by adding captions to their animated images.
• The process would need to be broken down and worked on over a number of sessions with children working in small groups during the independent session.
• During guided writing use the Developing early writing, Ref; 0055/2001 sentence-level units to emphasise understanding of a sentence, capital letters and full stops. Use children's own work from the animations to provide a context for the work.
• Read through the animated recount created during the previous shared sessions. Where could sound effects be used to add interest for the reader? Are any sound effects needed? Add selected sound effects from the software. Emphasise how sound effects add details to the recount for the reader and that too many sound effects make the recount difficult to read.
• Children work on their text during the independent session adding sound effects where appropriate. Use peer review to evaluate how sound has been used for effect.
• During shared writing, focus attention on the language of sequencing. Use supported composition to make changes to weak sentences in the whole-class text and develop the use of time connectives, for example two weeks later or after a while.
• Children work on their text during the independent session making changes where appropriate. Use peer review and success criteria from reading recounts to evaluate how time connectives have been used.
• Specific teaching of reading and speaking and listening objectives should be layered throughout this phase of the unit.
Learning outcomes:
• Children can write a recount using time connectives to sequence events and correctly demarcate sentences.
• Children have made appropriate progress in line with national expectations in reading.
• Children can apply their phonic knowledge when writing independently in line with national expectations of phonic development.
Key aspects of learning
Reasoning
Children will sequence events using visual evidence.
Children will be explaining their opinions and returning to the text and their observations to find evidence.
Evaluation
Children will discuss success criteria for their written work and begin to judge the effectiveness of their own and others' writing.
Social skills
When developing collaborative writing, children will learn about assigning roles within a group to complete a task.
Communication
Children will develop their ability to discuss as they work collaboratively in pairs and groups. They will communicate outcomes orally, in writing and through ICT if appropriate.
Resources
• Digital camera and PC upload software
• Laptop
• Children's observational drawings of the life cycle of a seed
• Photographs of a seed at various stages in the growth process
• Developing early writing
• Writing flier 5 - Recount: it happened like this...
• Speaking, listening, learning: working with children in years 1 to 6
(2 weeks)
Page map
Basic outline
- Overview
- Objectives
- Building on previous learning
Detailed view
Key aspects of learning
Resources required
Basic outline
This is the last in a sequence of five non-fiction units for Year 1. It builds on children's knowledge and understanding from unit 3 and on cross-curricular work based on observations of the growth of a seed. The unit has three phases with oral and written outcomes and assessment opportunities for teachers and children at intervals throughout each phase. The outcome for the unit is children creating a stop-frame animation of the life cycle of a seed. Specific guidance for early reading and ongoing teaching of word, sentence and speaking and listening needs to be covered alongside this unit, informed by ongoing assessment for learning.
Phase 1
Read and compare simple recounts. Discuss and contrast recounts with narrative texts. Identify and discuss common features of recounts. Sequence a set of events. Justify opinions based on evidence in the text.
Phase 2
Orally compose a recount, sequencing events using time connectives, based on first-hand experience. Plan how to write this recount using a storyboard.
Phase 3
Model through shared writing, changing oral composition into written composition. Reinforce knowledge of how to write a sentence. Children create group animated recounts of the growth of a seed with written captions recounting events.
Overview
• Describe incidents from own experience in an audible voice using sequencing words and phrases such as 'then', 'after that'; listen to others' recounts and ask relevant questions.
• Read personal recounts and discuss the difference between recounts and stories, fact and fiction. With the children, explore the generic structure of recounts, for example ordered sequence of events, use of words like 'first', 'next', 'after', 'when'.
• Model writing a recount of an activity in which all the children took part, for example a visit of someone from the community or the previous afternoon's fire drill or thunderstorm, giving them opportunities to contribute ideas and form sentences.
• Children write simple personal recounts, independently, using the language of texts read as models for their own writing, maintaining consistency in tense and person.
Objectives
To ensure effective planning of literacy teachers need to ensure they plan for all elements of literacy effectively across the year ensuring that assessment for learning is used to plan and amend teaching. It is essential that core skills such as phonic strategies, spelling, and handwriting are incorporated into these exemplar units to ensure effective learning.
Most children learn to:
1. Speaking
• Tell stories and describe incidents from their own experience in an audible voice
3. Group discussion and interaction
• Explain their views to others in a small group, decide how to report the group's views to the class
5. Word recognition: decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling)
• Recognise and use alternative ways of pronouncing the graphemes already taught
• Recognise and use alternative ways of spelling the graphemes already taught
• Identify the constituent parts of two-syllable and three-syllable words to support the application of phonic knowledge and skills
• Recognise automatically an increasing number of familiar high frequency words
• Apply phonic knowledge and skills as the prime approach to reading and spelling unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable
• Read more challenging texts which can be decoded using their acquired phonic knowledge and skills, along with automatic recognition of high frequency words
• Read and spell phonically decodable two-syllable and three-syllable words
6. Word structure and spelling
• Spell new words using phonics as the prime approach
• Segment sounds into their constituent phonemes in order to spell them correctly
• Recognise and use alternative ways of spelling the graphemes already taught
• Use knowledge of common inflections in spelling, such as plurals, -ly, -er
• Read and spell phonically decodable two-syllable and three-syllable words
7. Understanding and interpreting texts
• Identify the main events and characters in stories, and find specific information in simple texts
• Recognise the main elements that shape different texts
9. Creating and shaping texts
• Convey information and ideas in simple non-narrative forms
• Create short simple texts on paper and on screen that combine words with images (and sounds)
10. Text structure and organisation
• Write chronological and non-chronological texts using simple structures
11. Sentence structure and punctuation
• Compose and write simple sentences independently to communicate meaning
12. Presentation
• Use the space bar and keyboard to type their name and simple texts
Building on previous learning
Check that children can already:
• Listen attentively to recounts and recall some details including the correct ordering of events.
• Ask relevant questions and speak about their own experiences.
• Discuss ideas confidently with a response partner.
Detailed view
Note: Children working significantly above or below age-related expectations will need differentiated support, which may include tracking forward or back in terms of learning objectives. EAL learners should be expected to work within the overall expectations for their year group.
Context
Prior to the sessions children should have undertaken a science project on growing and changing with a focus on the life cycles of plants and animals. As part of the science project, children make drawings of the changes to a plant or animal they are observing over a period of time. Photographs of a seed at various stages of growth will be needed to support children's speaking and listening activities and whole-class planning. Children's observational drawings from the science lessons form the basis for the stop-frame animations. Specific teaching of reading and speaking and listening objectives needs to be layered across each phase of the unit.
Phase 1: Listening; reading; analysis and discussion (3 days)
Teaching content:
• Explain that children are going to use science observations to create their own animated recount of events.
• During shared reading, read simple recounts of events or observations with the children. Investigate the key features of the text-type. Focus on the language features that denote the sequence of events for the reader and collect words such as first, next, then on an IWB frame.
• Annotate the shared text to show children that a good recount contains not just the main facts but also details that bring the recount alive. An IWB can be used to underline the main events in one colour and the details in another colour.
• Discuss and contrast the recounts with how narrative texts work, highlighting the main differences. Emphasise how both types of text are written in a sequence of events but recounts are about real events using specific words and have a distinctive text structure.
• Insert the photographs taken of the seed showing different stages of growth into an IWB skeleton frame of a recount. Arrange the images at random on the page so they can be sorted into sequential order as part of the shared session.
• Explain that children are going to combine what they have learned about recounts with their observations of a seed growing. On an IWB display the skeleton planner and photographs. Discuss the photographs and the various changes to the seed. The photographs could be annotated by circling the observable details of change.
• Organise children into groups. Ask children to identify the sequence in which they think the seed developed, by organising a set of laminated photographs into the correct order. Encourage children to circle evidence that backs up their opinion using a whiteboard marker.
• During the plenary, assign two children from each group the role of envoy. Each pair of envoys visits another group. The members of the group explain their sequence of photographs to the envoys who then return to their own group and revise their own group sequence if necessary.
• Record children's findings on an IWB by dragging and dropping the photographs onto the recount skeleton planner. Remind children that a good recount should contain extra details to make the reader interested in the events. With their response partners, ask children to identify an interesting, funny or unusual detail that could be added to each step of the recount. Children could refer to their science observation drawings to support this discussion. Annotate the skeleton plan with children's ideas in note form.
• Specific teaching of reading and speaking and listening objectives should be layered throughout this phase of the unit.
Learning outcomes:
• Children can sequence a set of events based on their own experience and observations.
• Children have made appropriate progress in line with national expectations of phonic development.
Phase 2: Talk for writing; capturing ideas (3 days)
Teaching content:
• Explain that you are going to model how to use talk to plan your writing.
• Display the IWB skeleton plan. Model dragging and dropping time connectives such as first, next, then from an IWB word bank onto each stage of the IWB skeleton plan. Discuss with children how the words or phrases will support both the talk and the writing by being used as sentence starters.
• Model talking through the first stage of the recount of the life cycle of the seed using the key vocabulary and added details noted on the plan.
• Children work with response partners following the model of the teacher's oral text structure building up a recount. Emphasis should be placed on the language features of the text-type. Children could use the photographs from previous sessions and/or their drawings from the science observations to support them and add their own personal details to the oral recount.
• Model drawing and writing on the IWB planning board based on the oral recounts from the previous session. Explain that the board will support children's writing and help them remember what they want to tell their audience.
• Children work on a group planning board during the independent sessions adding drawings of the different stages of a seed's growth, noting time connectives to link each section of the text.
• During the plenary, refer back to the key features of recounts identified in previous sessions to check for the main events, sequential vocabulary and details.
• Specific teaching of reading and speaking and listening objectives should be layered throughout this phase of the unit.
Learning outcomes:
• Children can orally compose and retell a sequence of events using time connectives to link the sequence.
• Children have made appropriate progress in line with national expectations in reading development.
Phase 3: Modelled, shared and collaborative writing (4 days)
Teaching content:
• The writing process will be a combination of animating the images into the software and then adding written words and incidental sounds.
• Children will need to have: - an appropriate background for the animation, such as a white sheet of paper that can have drawings added to it where required, for example a brown line to denote the earth or a blue line to show the surface of water in a pond - copies of their observational drawings cut out ready to move around as part of the animation - adhesive materials to hold the drawings in place.
• Display the animation package stop-frame animation software on an IWB with camera plugged into the laptop. Use modelled and shared teaching approaches to demonstrate how to use the stop-frame animation software and camera to take the ideas from the plan and add them into the animation package.
• Animation can be done in episodes or clips, for example with the shoot appearing out of the seed. Once animated, the clips are added onto the video clipboard in the software. Once all the clips have been animated, drag and drop them onto the video editing time line or story board in the software. The clips can be moved and sequenced on the time line or story board. Each event on the planning sheet would be the equivalent of one episode.
• Children work in small groups during the independent session to create their own visual text following the model established in the shared sessions. The process will need to be worked on over a number of sessions.
• Model how to drag and drop the animated events onto the time line or story board in the software package. Ask children to work with a response partner to decide on the order of events, referring to the IWB plan.
• Children work on their own animations following the model set in the shared sessions.
• During the plenary, children exchange groups to review another group's plan, watch the animation and check that the animation is in the correct sequence. Where appropriate, children give feedback to the group to note any changes they think need to be made.
• Use modelled, shared and supported composition approaches to demonstrate how to change the oral retellings of the recount and the notes on the plan and make them sound like the books read in the shared sessions. Ask children to work in pairs on whiteboards to write a sentence to accompany the main events and details.
• Demonstrate how children can insert their text into the software by adding captions to their animated images.
• The process would need to be broken down and worked on over a number of sessions with children working in small groups during the independent session.
• During guided writing use the Developing early writing, Ref; 0055/2001 sentence-level units to emphasise understanding of a sentence, capital letters and full stops. Use children's own work from the animations to provide a context for the work.
• Read through the animated recount created during the previous shared sessions. Where could sound effects be used to add interest for the reader? Are any sound effects needed? Add selected sound effects from the software. Emphasise how sound effects add details to the recount for the reader and that too many sound effects make the recount difficult to read.
• Children work on their text during the independent session adding sound effects where appropriate. Use peer review to evaluate how sound has been used for effect.
• During shared writing, focus attention on the language of sequencing. Use supported composition to make changes to weak sentences in the whole-class text and develop the use of time connectives, for example two weeks later or after a while.
• Children work on their text during the independent session making changes where appropriate. Use peer review and success criteria from reading recounts to evaluate how time connectives have been used.
• Specific teaching of reading and speaking and listening objectives should be layered throughout this phase of the unit.
Learning outcomes:
• Children can write a recount using time connectives to sequence events and correctly demarcate sentences.
• Children have made appropriate progress in line with national expectations in reading.
• Children can apply their phonic knowledge when writing independently in line with national expectations of phonic development.
Key aspects of learning
Reasoning
Children will sequence events using visual evidence.
Children will be explaining their opinions and returning to the text and their observations to find evidence.
Evaluation
Children will discuss success criteria for their written work and begin to judge the effectiveness of their own and others' writing.
Social skills
When developing collaborative writing, children will learn about assigning roles within a group to complete a task.
Communication
Children will develop their ability to discuss as they work collaboratively in pairs and groups. They will communicate outcomes orally, in writing and through ICT if appropriate.
Resources
• Digital camera and PC upload software
• Laptop
• Children's observational drawings of the life cycle of a seed
• Photographs of a seed at various stages in the growth process
• Developing early writing
• Writing flier 5 - Recount: it happened like this...
• Speaking, listening, learning: working with children in years 1 to 6
