Literacy Unit Summary Plan
Name:
Class:
Year Group: Five and Six, Three and
Four
Non-fiction Unit 2
Recounts
Term:
Week Beginning:
Outcomes
Year 5 and Year 6, Year 3 and Year 4 Objectives
Write a recount text using notes made from
interviews; use appropriate language and
grammar (marking and feedback against agreed
success criteria).
In order that children make effective progress in core skills across the year, it is important that these Strands are planned for in every unit:
Strand 5 – Word Recognition: decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) at KS1
Strand 6 – Word Structure and Spelling at KS2
Strand 11 – Sentence Structure and Punctuation at both key stages
These are in addition to the Objectives listed below
Overview
This unit is the second in a block of three nonfiction units in Year 5. It can be purposely linked to
other areas of the curriculum. For further examples
of links to other areas of the curriculum, see the
resources section. The unit has four phases, with
oral or written outcomes and assessment
opportunities at regular intervals.
Prior Learning
Check that children can already:
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Recall the language features and organisation of
recount texts and reports.
Use a range of questions to elicit relevant
information.
Understand the difference between direct and
reported speech.
1. Speaking
 Y5 – Use and explore different question types and different ways words are used, including in formal and informal contexts
 Y6 – Use the techniques of dialogic talk to explore ideas, topics or issues
 Y4 - Use and reflect on some ground rules for sustaining talk and interactions
 Y3 - Sustain conversation, explain or give reasons for their views or choices
2. Listening and responding
 Y5 – Identify different question types and evaluate their impact on the audience
 Y5 – Identify some different aspects of talk that vary between formal and informal occasions
 Y6 – Listen for language variation in formal and informal contexts
 Y4 - Identify how talk varies with age, familiarity, gender and purpose
 Y3 - Identify key sections of an informative broadcast, noting how the language used signals changes or transitions in focus
3. Group discussion and interaction
 Y5 – Plan and manage a group task over time using different levels of planning
 Y5 – Understand different ways to take the lead and support others in groups
 Y5 – Understand the process of decision making
 Y6 – Understand and use a variety of ways to criticise constructively and respond to criticism
 Y4 - Take different roles in groups and use the language appropriate to them, including the roles of leader, reporter, scribe and mentor
 Y4 - Use time, resources and group members efficiently by distributing tasks, checking progress and making back-up plans
 Y3 - Use talk to organise roles and action
 Y3 - Actively include and respond to all members of the group
4. Drama
 Y5 – Reflect on how working in role helps to explore complex issues
 Y6 – Improvise using a range of drama strategies and conventions to explore themes such as hopes, fears and desires
 Y4 - Create roles showing how behaviour can be interpreted from different viewpoints
 Y3 - Use some drama strategies to explore stories or issues
7. Understanding and interpreting texts
 Y5 – Make notes on and use evidence from across a text to explain events or ideas
 Y6 – Understand how writers use different structures to create coherence and impact
 Y4 - Identify and summarise evidence from a text to support a hypothesis
 Y4 - Deduce characters’ reasons for behaviour from their actions and explain how ideas are developed in non-fiction texts
 Y3 - Identify and make notes of the main points of section(s) of text
 Y3 - Infer characters’ feelings in fiction and consequences in logical explanations
 Y5 – Compare different types of narrative and information texts and identify how they are structured
 Y4 - Use knowledge of different organisational features of texts to find information effectively
 Y3 - Identify how different texts are organised, including reference texts, magazines and leaflets, on paper and on screen
8. Engaging with and responding to texts
 Y5 – Reflect on reading habits and preferences and plan personal reading goals
 Y6 – Read extensively and discuss personal reading with others, including in reading groups
 Y6 – Sustain engagement with longer texts, using different techniques to make the text come alive
 Y4 - Read extensively favourite authors or genres and experiment with other types of text
 Y3 - Share and compare reasons for reading preferences, extending the range of books read
Continued overleaf
9. Creating and shaping texts
 Y5 – Reflect independently and critically on their own writing and edit and improve it
 Y6 – Set their own challenges to extend achievement and experience in writing
 Y4 - Develop and refine ideas in writing using planning and problem-solving strategies
 Y3 - Make decisions about form and purpose, identify success criteria and use them to evaluate their writing
 Y5 – Adapt non-narrative forms and styles to write fiction or factual texts, including poems
 Y5 – Create multi-layered texts, including use of hyperlinks and linked web pages
 Y6 – Integrate words, images and sounds imaginatively for different purposes
 Y4 - Summarise and shape material and ideas from different sources to write convincing and informative non-narrative
texts
 Y4 - Choose and combine words, images and other features for particular effects
 Y3 - Write non-narrative texts using structures of different text-types
 Y3 - Use layout, format graphics and illustrations for different purposes
10. Text structure and organisation
 Y5 – Experiment with the order of sections and paragraphs to achieve different effects
 Y6 – Use varied structures to shape and organise text coherently
 Y4 - Organise text into paragraphs to distinguish between different information, events or processes
 Y3 - Group related material into paragraphs
 Y5 – Change the order of material within a paragraph, moving the topic sentence
 Y6 – Use paragraphs to achieve pace and emphasis
 Y4 - Use adverbs and conjunctions to establish cohesion within paragraphs
 Y3 - Signal sequence, place and time to give coherence
12. Presentation
 Y5 – Adapt handwriting for specific purposes, for example printing, use of italic
 Y6 – Use different styles of handwriting for different purposes with a range of media, developing a consistent and personal
legible style
 Y4 - Write consistently with neat, legible and joined handwriting
 Y3 -- Write with consistency in the size and proportion of letters and spacing within and between words, using the correct
formation of handwriting joins
 Y5 – Use a range of ICT programs to present texts, making informed choices about which electronic tools to use for
different purposes
 Y6 – Select from a wide range of ICT programs to present text effectively and communicate information and ideas
 Y4 - Use word processing packages to present written work and continue to increase speed and accuracy in typing
 Y3 - Develop accuracy and speed when using keyboard skills to type, edit and re-draft
Phase 1 – approx 2 days
Phase 1 Learning outcomes
Children revisit the key features of
recount texts. They watch a TV
interview, then through a hot seating
activity they devise questions and
evaluate how effective these have been
at extracting relevant information.
Demonstrate an understanding of the
most effective questioning techniques to
elicit high quality information (teacher
observation, quality and relevance of
questions produced, feedback from
children and teacher).
Phase 2 – approx 4 days
Phase 2 Learning outcomes
Children analyse recounts drawn from a
range of media and identify common
features and differences. They
summarise and present their findings
and revise the use of reported speech.
Identify the features of the most
successful recount text; understand the
differences between the punctuation of
reported and direct speech; write in
paragraphs appropriately and use
connectives well to improve flow of
writing (feedback from other children,
teacher observation).
Phase 3 and 4 – approx 7 days
Phase 3 and 4 Learning outcomes
Resources
Children form news teams and research
a topic to report. They produce a plan,
carry out interviews, collate and analyse
the information they have gathered and
then write an article or report.
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Write a recount text using notes
made from interviews; use
appropriate language and grammar
(marking and feedback against
agreed success criteria).
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Video clip of an interview that illustrates good questioning to elicit information
Range of recounts from different media, such as newspapers, magazines, e-newspapers
Grammar for writing, Ref: 0107/2000
History case study from Learning how to learn: Key aspects of learning across the primary curriculum, Ref: 0526-2004 G,
pp. 8-12, from Learning and teaching in the primary years
The National Curriculum in Action website includes examples of recount writing in different curriculum areas at Year 5
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Writing flier 5 - Recount: it happened like this... (Ref: 0532/2001)
PDF 189KB
Speaking, listening, learning: working with children in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2: drama - making it work in the
classroom, Ref: 0624-2003
PDF 467KB