Literacy Unit Summary Plan
Name:
Class:
Year Group: Six, Three, Four
and Five
Outcomes
Write or create an effective non-fiction text, making appropriate language,
style and presentational choices to meet a particular purpose and audience,
when working in a multimodal and interactive (ICT) context (marking and
feedback against agreed success criteria).
Overview
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Read examples of official language such as consumer information and legal
documents, and identify characteristic features of layout such as use of
footnotes, instructions, parentheses, headings, appendices and asterisks.
Understand the way standard English varies in different contexts, for example
why legal language is necessarily highly formalised, why questionnaires must
be specific.
Learn about features of formal language through collecting and analysing
examples, discussing when and why they are used; noting the conventions of
the language, for example use of impersonal voice, imperative words, formal
vocabulary; collecting typical words and expressions, for example 'those
wishing to...', 'hereby', 'forms may be obtained...'.
Revise work on complex sentences by identifying main clauses, ways of
connecting clauses, constructing complex sentences, appropriate use of
punctuation. Secure control of impersonal writing, particularly the sustained use
of the present tense and the passive voice. Secure use of complex sentences,
understanding how clauses can be manipulated to achieve different effects.
Secure use of skills of skimming and scanning; efficient reading so that
research is fast and effective. Appraise a text quickly and effectively, to retrieve
information from it.
In writing information texts, select the appropriate style and form to suit a
specific purpose and audience, drawing on knowledge of different non-fiction
text types.
Establish, balance and maintain viewpoints.
Revise own non-fiction writing to reduce superfluous words and phrases.
Prior Learning
Check that children can already:
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Recall the language and organisational features of the main non-fiction texttypes (recount, report, instructions, explanation, persuasion, discussion) and
employ these in their writing, when appropriate.
Understand that non-fiction can sometimes employ a hybrid of text-types and
forms, depending on its audience and purpose.
Understand something of how to integrate words, images and sounds together
into a multimodal text (and how to achieve this in practice in an ICT context).
Non-Fiction Unit 4: Formal / Impersonal Writing
Term:
Week Beginning:
Objectives
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.
1. Speaking
Y6: Use the techniques of dialogic talk to explore ideas, topics or issues
2. Listening and responding
Y6: Identify the ways spoken language varies according to differences in the context and purpose of its use
Y4: Identify how talk varies with age, familiarity, gender and purpose.
Y5: Identify some aspects of talk that vary between formal and informal occasions.
Y6: Listen for language variation in formal and informal contexts.
3. Group discussion and interaction
Y6: Understand and use a variety of ways to criticise constructively and respond to criticism
Y3: Actively include and respond to all members of the group.
Y4: Identify the main points of each speaker, compare their arguments and how they are presented.
7. Understanding and interpreting texts
Y6: Understand how writers use different structures to create coherence and impact
Y3: Identify how different texts are organised, including reference texts, magazines and leaflets, on paper and on screen.
Y4: Use knowledge of different organisational features of texts to find information effectively.
Y5: Compare different types of narrative and information texts and identify how they are structured.
8. Engaging with and responding to texts
Y6: Compare how writers from different times and places present experiences and use language
Y3: Identify features that writers use to provoke readers' reactions.
Y4: Explore why and how writers write, including through face-to-face and online contact with authors.
Y6: Compare how a common theme is presented in poetry, prose and other media.
9. Creating and shaping texts
Y6: Set their own challenges to extend achievement and experience in writing
Y3: Make decisions about form and purpose, identify success criteria and use them to evaluate their writing.
Y4: Develop and refine ideas in writing using planning and problem-solving strategies.
Y5: Reflect independently and critically on their own writing and edit and improve it.
Y6: Select words and language drawing on their knowledge of literary features and formal and informal writing
Y3: Select and use a range of technical and descriptive vocabulary.
Y4: Show imagination through the language used to create emphasis, humour, atmosphere or suspense.
Y5: Vary the pace and develop the viewpoint through the use of direct and reported speech, portrayal of action and selection of
detail.
Y6: Integrate words, images and sounds imaginatively for different purposes
Y3: Use layout, format graphics and illustrations for different purposes.
Y4: Choose and combine words, images and other features for particular effects.
Y5: Create multi-layered texts, including use of hyperlinks and linked web pages.
10. Text structure and organisation
Y6: Use varied structures to shape and organise texts coherently
Y3: Group related material into paragraphs.
Y4: Organise text into paragraphs to distinguish between different information, events or processes.
Y5: Experiment with the order of sections and paragraphs to achieve different effects.
Continued overleaf
Phase 1 – approx 3 days
Phase 1 Learning outcomes
Children explore how a guided tour of a particular
location can be presented through a variety of
formats, including live, as a guide book or pamphlet,
as a video, as an audio tour, or as a virtual tour, for
example on a website. They compare the language,
organisational and presentational features of each,
evaluating their effectiveness in the light of purpose
and audience.
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Phase 2 – approx 3 days
Phase 2 Learning outcomes
Children select a particular location (either as a whole
class or on a group basis) and use a range of
discussion, dialogue, oral presentation and role
approaches to explore the potential of touring this
location and what might become the elements of a
guide.
Children can use of a wide range of discussion
and role-taking techniques to explore non-fiction
subject matter.
Phase 3 – approx 3 days
Phase 3 Learning outcomes
Resources
Children research, prepare and plan for the creation
of a virtual tour (or other form of guided experience)
for the location they have chosen.
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Children can understand how non-fiction
information can be presented in a number of
formats combining modes, media and text-types
with reference to specific purposes and
audiences.
Children can evaluate the effectiveness of the
language, organisation and presentational
features of specific non-fiction texts.
Children can research and assemble information
from a variety of paper-based, electronic and live
sources.
Children can plan a presentation of non-fiction
information that combines writing with different
modes of communication into an interactive ICT
text.
Phase 4 – approx 6 days
Phase 4 Learning outcomes
Children draft, refine and finally present their tour,
evaluating its impact on an audience and evaluating
their work against previously agreed success criteria.
Children can evaluate their own work and that of
others against agreed criteria.
11. Sentence structure and punctuation
Y6: Express subtle distinctions of meaning, including hypothesis, speculation and supposition,
by constructing sentences in varied ways
Y3: Show relationships of time, reason and cause through subordination and connectives.
Y4: Clarify meaning and point of view by using varied sentence structure (phrases, clauses and
adverbials).
Y5: Adapt sentence construction to different text-types, purposes and readers.
Y6: Use punctuation to clarify meaning in complex sentences
Y3: Clarify meaning through the use of exclamation marks and speech marks.
Y4: Use commas to mark clauses, and use the apostrophe for possession.
Y5: Punctuate sentences accurately, including using speech marks and apostrophes.
12. Presentation
Y6: Select from a wide range of ICT programs to present text effectively and communicate
information and ideas
Y3: Develop accuracy and speed when using keyboard skills to type, edit and re-draft.
Y4: Use word processing packages to present written work and continue to increase speed
and accuracy in typing.
Y5: Use a range of ICT programs to present texts, making informed choices about which
electronic tools to use for different purposes.
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ICT suite
Grammar for writing, Ref: 0107/2000, Years 5 and 6
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/literacy/63317/
Teaching writing: support material for text level objectives writing fliers, Ref: 0532/2001
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/literacy/63353/
Understanding reading comprehension leaflets, Ref: 1310-2005 to 1312-2005
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/literacy/1162245/