SHORT TERM LITERACY PLANNING
WILLERBY CARR LANE JUNIOR SCHOOL
Text Type Science Fiction
Texts War of the Worlds and Alien Landing
Yr 6
Date Spring Week 3
Day
Shared Reading/Writing
Word/ Sentence Level
Independent Activities
Guided Writing
Plenary
Assessment
Mon
Objective T9. Increase
familiarity with significant
writers of the past.
Hide pictures of films and get
children to guess. What is the
link between them? How are
they similar? (all based on
imaginative ideas about the
future, space or aliens).
War of the Worlds was one of
the first science fiction novels,
published in 1898. Read text.
What are the features of
science fiction? (deals with
future or with a different
present day, rather than with
the past; based on imaginary
scientific ideas; often about
space, robots or aliens etc).
! save this for weds lesson !
Resources – notebook and
Letts/Essential texts
Tues
Objective T9. Increase
familiarity with significant
writers of the past.
1,3,5,7 - How many science
fiction books/films or t.v.
programmes can you think of?
Objective W5. Investigate
words with common prefixes,
suffixes and root words.
Ask children to split the
words into roots, suffixes and
prefixes and to think of
related words to help
establish meaning.
e.g. for upper
 con-cussion: banging
together (percussion)
 in-articulate: not
being able to speak
clearly (articulation)
 un-governable: not
able to be controlled
(government)
 append-age: something
added on (appendix)
 tumult-ous: noisy and
violent (tumult)
 fung-oid: mouldy or
mushroom like (fungus)
Resources - upper easiteach
unit 7, slide 2
Lower – notebook file
Objective S5 Use reading to
investigate conditionals… e.g.
in deduction, speculation and
use these forms to construct
sentences which express e.g.
possibilities; explore use of
conditionals in past and
Objective W5. Investigate
words with common prefixes,
suffixes and root words.
Children investigate further
words with common prefixes,
suffixes and roots.
Objective W5.
Investigate words with
common prefixes,
suffixes and root words.
On whiteboards tell
children a root word to
try and spell. As a group
look at each other’s
whiteboards and decide
which might be right and
give a reason why.
Discuss spelling
strategies. Record
correct spelling in book.
Then add a prefix or
suffix and ask children
to record how they think
it would be spelt.
What have
you learned
about
prefixes,
suffixes and
roots? How
does knowing
about word
roots and
origins help
you when
trying to
spell a word?
Can children
identify the
root word?
And use
knowledge of
other words
and spelling
patterns to
help spell the
words?
Share some
of the story
openings and
discuss which
make you
want to read
on most and
Can children
create a story
opening using
a conditional
sentence
which draws
the reader in
Group Least able
Resources –
Lower RS1
Upper RS2,3 or 4! (more
sophisticated vocabulary)
Objective S5 Use reading to
investigate conditionals… e.g.
in deduction, speculation and
use these forms to construct
sentences which express e.g.
possibilities; explore use of
conditionals in past and future.
Objective S5
As a group think of a
conditional sentence. Ask
each child to modify it
slightly so it sounds
better. Listen to each
future.
Wed
Reread the War of the Worlds.
Remind children about previous
work on labelling paragraphs to
find out the structure of the
story. Investigate how
paragraphs are linked together
by giving a title to each
paragraph, e.g. Young man
scrambles out of hole; Cylinder
is unscrewed. Discuss the
reasons why the author chose to
start a new paragraph each time
and begin to categorise them:
Which paragraphs are mainly
descriptive? Which are mainly
recount? Which show a sudden
change of feeling?
Objective T7 Identify features
of different types of literary
text
Read Alien Landing. How is it
similar/different to War of the
Worlds? Look back at features
of science fiction from Mondays
lesson. Relate to Alien Landing –
annotating the text:
 Strange spacecraft lands
 It kills or captures
humans
 People are terrified
 An alien creature slowly
becomes visible
 Scientific vocabulary is
used: ‘spherical’, ‘duct’,
‘robotic’, ‘retracted’,
‘rotated’
 The narrator is like an
eye-witness describing a
real event.
Look back at sentence
structure in text. Are there
any complex sentences? Can
anybody identify a
conjunction?
Can you remember what a
conditional sentence is? What
conditional sentences could we
come up with for War of the
Worlds?
Play the ‘If game’
Ask children to create
sentences starting with ‘if
only…’ to be used at the start
science fiction stories. Relate
to War of the Worlds story.
child’s new sentence and
agree which is the most
effective and why.
why.
Group Middle
Extension –try and use
scientific vocabulary from the
text.
e.g. if I met an alien for the
first time, I might…
Objective T10 Use different
genres as models to write eg.
Additional episodes,
alternative ending
Objective T10 Use different
genres as models to write eg.
Additional episodes, alternative
ending
Teacher scribing – Use the
children’s ideas to draft a
continuation of alien landing
for another paragraph, using
the same science fiction
style. What does the
creature in the spacecraft
look like? What does it do?
How does the child narrator
react to seeing the creature?
What does he/she do?
In pairs, ask children to
continue Alien Landing. They
could write about what happens
when more adults, possibly
armed, come back to the
spacecraft. What do they
propose to do? How does the
child narrator react to their
plan?
Resources – slide 8 has
example continuation for ideas
Resources – Literacy books
Extension – more able to
include scientific vocabulary in
their description
Objective T10 Use
different genres as
models to write eg.
Additional episodes,
alternative ending
Shared writing of the
next part of the story
on flip chart. Children to
improve sentences.
Group Most able
Pairs to read
out next
chapters of
alien landing.
Ask children
to comment
on why they
are
successful
and what the
children have
done well.
and makes
them want to
read on?
Resources – slide 6 and 7
Thurs
Objective T7 Identify features
of different types of literary
text
Objective T10 Use different
genres as models to write eg.
Additional episodes,
alternative ending
Objective T10 Use different
genres as models to write eg.
Additional episodes, alternative
ending
How could we improve our
writing?
Children to finish ending to
their stories (in pairs).
Model writing the end of the
story- trying to link back to
previous parts of the story. Can
the end be linked to the
beginning? E.g the alien goes
back through the smashed
trees, into the black sphere.
Demonstrate editing skills on
story ending. Look at changing
verbs, adding adjectives,
varying sentences, adding
connectives, adverbs,
punctuation, spelling etc.
Extension – try to link the
ending of the story back to
the beginning.
Resources- Yesterday’s story
Resources
Resources Literacy books
As a class listen to some stories
and edit together – giving
positive feedback but also ways
to improve the story.
Spellings
Spellings
Resources Literacy books
Resources
Resources
Discuss with you partner how
you think alien landing should
end.
Objective T10 Use
different genres as
models to write eg.
Additional episodes,
alternative ending
Look back at work from
yesterday and read each
other’s stories. Suggest
three ways to improve
it. Add alterations.
Continue story with each
pair – emphasising good
features of story
discussed earlier in the
lesson.
Group More able
Fri
Homework Activities:
Draw an alien and describe it’s feature using similes e.g. legs as wobbly as spaghetti
S&L Objectives: Term 2
Cross-curricular links:
In pairs,
children to
edit their
stories –
looking back
at slide of
ways to
improve a
story.
Do children
have editing
skills?