Literacy Unit Summary Plan
Name:
Class:
Year Group/s: One
Non-Fiction Unit 4
Information texts
Term:
Week Beginning:
Outcome
Objectives
Apply the above in writing a page for an information book about a well-known subject
(marking and feedback against agreed success criteria).
Note: In repeating the unit, it will be appropriate to extend expectations for children.
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.
Overview
These are in addition to the Objectives listed below.





Play games looking up interesting words in dictionaries and encyclopaedias by
alphabetical order. Discuss how to find books that might give more detail on a topic by
examining covers, title, blurb and illustrations.
Give the children further experience in using the alphabetical system by continuing to
use dictionaries, glossaries and encyclopaedias and starting to use directories and
indexes in books. With the children, make a class dictionary or glossary of special
interest words.
Discuss the differences between books containing stories and those containing factual
information. Introduce the terms 'fiction' and 'non-fiction'. Introduce the class topic (e.g.
video, visit out of school, visitor to school, practical activity) and write up as children
contribute the information they found out. Record the information as a list, chart or
spidergram, as appropriate. Discuss what information on the topic the experience did
not provide and model posing questions to collect further information from books.
Children search for appropriate books based on cover, title, etc., and explain to the
class the reasons for their choices. Model how to use the contents page and index to
locate the appropriate part of the book to find answers and give children the
opportunity in guided reading to use indexes and contents pages. Demonstrate how to
scan a page to read subheadings, pictures and diagrams that might provide relevant
information and then close reading to extract the information. Repeat this process
using an ICT platform and demonstrate how to locate information on screen. Give
children opportunities to carry out these processes in guided and independent reading.
In shared writing, model how to write a non-chronological report supported by
appropriate pictures and diagrams for a page in an information book. Children
contribute to the report by trying out some sentences on their individual whiteboards.
In pairs, children assemble information on a different subject, for example food or pets,
and produce a simple non-chronological report by writing sentences to describe
aspects of the subject and supporting them with pictures.
Prior Learning
Check that children can already:
 Understand that some books contain stories while others give information.
 Read and write simple captions.
 Join in with saying the alphabet.
2. Listening and responding
 Listen with sustained concentration, building new stores of words in different contexts
 Listen to tapes or video and express views about how a story or information has been presented
3. Group discussion and interaction
 Ask and answer questions, make relevant contributions, offer suggestions and take turns
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
 Make predictions showing an understanding of ideas, events and characters
 Recognise the main events that shape different texts
8. Engaging with and responding to texts
 Select books for personal reading and give reasons for choices
9. Creating and shaping texts
 Independently choose what to write about, plan and follow it through
 Convey information and ideas in simple non-narrative forms
 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)
10. Text structure and organisation
 Write chronological and non-chronological texts using simple structures
 Group written sentences together in chunks of meaning or subject
11. Sentence structure and punctuation
 Use capital letters and full stops when punctuating simple sentences
 Compose and write simple sentences independently to communicate meaning
12. Presentation
 Write most letters, correctly formed and orientated using a comfortable and efficient pencil grip
 Write with spaces between words accurately
Phase 1 – approx 5 days
Phase 1 Learning outcomes
Resources
Using another curriculum area as a starting
point, for example history, model how to pose
questions and encourage children to ask their
own questions. In shared reading, use
information books (or ICT sources) to find
answers, exploring how to use index and
alphabetical order. Use dictionaries and
glossaries to find definitions of words from
reading. Discuss differences between fact and
fiction. Give children practical opportunities to
develop knowledge and understanding of the
curriculum area under focus, for example by
comparing old and new toys and discussing.
Use digital cameras to record and illustrate
differences.




Phase 2 – approx 4 days
Phase 2 Learning outcomes
Analyse how information texts work,
particularly non-chronological reports, focusing
on layout and language features. Use talk for
writing, with digital pictures to remind children
of content, and practise composing sentences
orally in the style of the text.

Phase 3 – approx 6 days
Phase 3 Learning outcomes
Demonstrate how to write in the style of a nonchronological report. Support children in using
the style as they write about a theme, for
example wheeled toys. Children write their
own page for an information book, using digital
photographs to support the writing and
illustrate text.

Children can ask simple questions.
Children can identify a contents page and
an index in an information text. They can
use these to find the right page to answer
simple questions, for example Where
would I find out about kittens?







Children can say what the key
structural features of a simple
information text are.
Children can say whether a sentence
is in an appropriate style for an
information text.
Children can write sentences for an
information text in an appropriate style.
This work could be repeated later, using
different content and extending demand.
Ensure that children have appropriate
specific phonic input during this time.
Digital cameras and PC upload software
Speaking, listening, learning: working with children in Key Stages 1 and 2 (Ref: 0627-2003)
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/literacy/818497/pns_speaklisten062403acts.pdf (PDF
757 Kb)
Developing early writing (Ref: 0055/2001) Year 1 unit 7: Wheels pp. 66-69
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/literacy/63337/ plus accompanying video (Ref:
0056/2001)
Learning to learn: key aspects of learning across the primary curriculum (Ref: 0526-2004) from Learning and
teaching in the primary years
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/learning_and_teaching/1041163/
Writing flier 7 - Non-chronological report: telling it like it is...or was (Ref: 0532/2001)
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/literacy/63353/nls_teachwriting053201rep7.pdf (PDF
194 Kb)
Non-fiction case studies (web-based only) - Y1/Y2 literacy and geography writing instructions and nonchronological reports
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/casestudies/literacy/403685/403765/
- Y2 science non-chronological report writing
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/casestudies/literacy/403685/617053/