Lesson Plan
1 of 3
To know how to identify and comment
on writers’ purposes and use of
language
Secure
competent
reader
Cycle D
Duration: 1 hour
Resources needed
Lesson aims
 Student Book pages 114–117:
‘Can you choose a relevant
quotation?’
 to be able to support comments about a
text with mainly relevant quotations
from or references to the text
 CD-ROM Cycle D (Secure
 to understand how to paraphrase or
competent reader) resource sheet
1.1: questions and prompts, one
per pupil
Assessment
Focuses
AF2
retell, to support comment
Target areas
 Target area : Using textual reference to
support inference
Starter (15 minutes)
Ask the students what they remember about the word ‘relevant’. What does it mean? Give them one
minute to think before feeding back to the class. Explain to the students that, as they develop as readers,
they need to be able to select relevant quotations to back up their points: their evidence must fit the point
that they are trying to make.
Turn to page 114 of the Student Book. Use the first exercise at the top of the page to model the selection
of the relevant quotations to support the point: think aloud the process, using the flow chart in the Student
Book to guide you. Ask the class to help you to decide: which of the quotations is the most relevant in
supporting the point being made? Pairs of students should continue to select the most relevant quotation to
support the points detailed in the Student Book, using points 1–5 of the flow chart to guide them. After
each statement, the pair should try to decide which of the relevant quotations is the most relevant.
Introduction (15 minutes)
Turn to page 115 of the Student Book: the pen portraits of two Superheroes. In pairs, students read the
texts aloud, swapping after each sentence. Explain to the students that you are going to make this next
section of the lesson more challenging: in the last activity the statements about the text were given to the
students. This time, the students will have to make the statements themselves and find relevant evidence
to support their comments.
Model aloud the process of making a response to the first question about the portraits, discarding nonrelevant information and identifying some relevant quotations, before selecting the most relevant
quotation to support your comment. In pairs, students should take it in turns to answer a question and,
speaking their thoughts aloud as they have been shown, scan the texts for relevant evidence, before
selecting the most relevant quotation. Their partner should listen to them and watch what they do, using
the flow chart from the first session of the lesson to offer guidance if their partner becomes lost or gets
‘stuck’. They should swap roles after each question.
Development (20 minutes)
Recap: so, as the students know, one of the ways they can back up their ideas or comments about a text is
by using relevant quotations. But as they also know, sometimes quotations are not appropriate because a
big section of the text is relevant and the quotation would be too long. In these cases they can use
paraphrase; they can retell a part of the text to back up a point.
Turn to page 116 of the Student Book. Read the article as a class and use the example question and
paraphrase to model the process of answering the question and backing up your answer without making a
direct quotation. Make it clear that you have chosen to paraphrase because there is too big a chunk of
Lesson Plan
1 of 3
To know how to identify and comment
on writers’ purposes and use of
language
Secure
competent
reader
Cycle D
Duration: 1 hour
relevant information to put in a direct quotation. Give each student a copy of the questions (resource sheet
1.1). Allow them two minutes to read the questions, underlining the most important words. They need to
consider what their answers might be and which part of the text they might go to for their answers. Pair the
students up to talk about their answers to the questions and to point out where in the text they would look
for their evidence. Next, allow students to leave their seats to ask one another the questions. In answer to a
question, they must make a response and back it up by paraphrasing details in the text, using the prompts
on the question sheets to help them.
Plenary (10 minutes)
End the lesson by returning to the second paragraph of the article and the ‘Ask yourself’ questions on page
117 of the Student Book. Give the students one minute to remind themselves: When should we use a
quotation? When should we use a paraphrase? Share responses and clarify. Individually, students should
read the ‘Ask yourself’ questions, identify the key word in each, look at the second paragraph and try to
decide whether the response to the question should be backed up by paraphrase or quotation. After three
minutes, pair the students up and allow them to share their decisions. Can they justify them? Do they
agree? Clarify any disagreement as a class.