Literacy Unit Plan
Class:
*Do not read the last page until Friday*
Texts: Beetle Boy (Lawrence David) Year 2 and 3 objectives
Objectives: 3.Group discussion Use the language of possibility to investigate and reflect on feelings, behaviour or relationships.
4.Drama Use some drama strategies to explore stories or issues.
7.Understand and interpret texts Year 2 - Give some reasons why things happen or characters change.
Deduce characters' reasons for behaviour from their actions.
8.Engaging with and responding to texts - Empathise with characters and debate moral dilemmas portrayed in texts.
9.Creating and shaping texts Use beginning, middle and end to write narratives in which events are sequenced logically and conflicts resolved.
Year 4 - Show imagination through the language used to create emphasis, humour, atmosphere or suspense.
10.Text structure and organisation - Signal sequence, place and time to give coherence. Year 3 - Group related material into paragraphs.
Sentence focus: 11.Sentence structure and punctuation
- Show relationships of time, reason and cause through subordination and connectives.
- Compose sentences using adjectives, verbs and nouns for precision, clarity and impact.
Word focus (phonics/spelling):
Whole class work
Guided work
Independent work
Plenary
1
Show the children the cover of ‘Beetle Boy’. Ask ch to turn to their chatty
Description group: Provide Children to describe
Play ‘Who am I?’ Pass
partner and discuss what they think the book could be about. What clues
the children with the
Beetle Boy.
the class toy – when
have they used? Read the blurb about Gregory’s transformation and discuss
sentence ‘Gregory had
LA: Label a picture of
the music stops, the
how this compares to their predictions. Read the first page of the text and tell
become a beetle.’
Gregory as Beetle Boy,
chosen child must
the children that their job is to remember as much as they can about Gregory’s Challenge them to edit
using descriptive
describe an animal for
physical appearance. Ask the children: “If you could turn into any animal,
and improve using the 6
phrases.
the other children to
what would it be?’ Tell the children that if you were an animal, you would be a super sentence methods:
MA and HA: Rewrite
guess.
… Model rewriting page 1, putting yourself in the story as your chosen animal.
Adding words, adding at
page 1, putting
the end, adding at the
themselves into the
beginning, changing
story as an animal of
words, alliterating, adding their choice.
a simile.
2
Begin the session by showing the sentence ‘Gregory looked into the mirror on
Sentence start group:
Children to complete
Give each group a
his door.’ And ask the children if they can think how they could edit and
Shared writing using box
newspaper article
pre-prepared
improve this sentence (encourage yesterday’s guided group to lead
of sentence starters,
about the
newspaper article,
suggestions). Read up to the part of the book where Gregory meets Michael
stimulated by discussion in transformation of
cut up into its
on the bus. Ask the children to imagine that they are Michael telephoning the
main session.
Gregory.
constituent sentences.
editor of the school newspaper to tell him about Gregory. Explain that
Challenge the
Michael’s ambition is to be a journalist. Tell the children that they should
children to put the
persuade the editor to let them write an article about the amazing
sentences into the
transformation that has happened to his friend. Pairs to role play this
most logical
conversation. Choose one group to demonstrate their phone conversation.
sequence.
Next invite the children to think about the key points to include in their article –
think: Who? What? When? Where? Why? Shared writing: Opening sentence
“Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw on the school bus this
morning…”
3
Start the session by recalling the conversation between Gregory and his family
at the kitchen table (shared reading). How do you think Gregory was feeling,
and why? Continue reading the story to the part where Gregory comes home
and goes to his room. Tell the children to discuss how Gregory is feeling now
with their chatty partner. Shared writing first line: “Dear diary, I can’t
understand why everyone is ignoring me. I woke up this morning…”
Connectives group
Give the children the
sentence start ‘Gregory
felt sad…” and spin the
connective. Invite each
child to complete the
sentence using that
connective.
Children to write a diary
entry in role as Gregory,
explaining how he feels
and why.
4
Explain to the children that Gregory is very upset because no one cares that he
is a beetle. Tell the children that using all of the information in the book, we are
going to decide whether he is or isn’t a beetle. Read each page. After
reading each page, ask the children whether they heard any hints to suggest
that Gregory is or is not a beetle. They must justify their choices. Continue until
the page of the football match.
Punctuation group
Name the different types
of punctuation with the
children and remind each
other what they are for.
Give the children page 23
(with punctuation
removed). Work together
to punctuate the
paragraph.
Give the children
extracts from the text to
add to their evidence
grid.
5
Read the letter from Gregory to the ‘specialists’, explaining that he is very
worried – he does not know if he is or is not really a beetle. Remind the children
of the evidence that they collected yesterday. Demonstrate completing a
letter to Gregory yourself. Before sending the children to write independently,
ask them to share with their chatty partner 3 things that happened in the story
to suggest that Gregory is a beetle, and 3 that suggest he is not.
Support shared writing
group as they tackle the
independent task.
Children to write a letter
of reply to Gregory, in
role as a specialist.
Guided reading activities:
1. Finish it! (choose a connective)
2. Boring sentences (improving sentences)
3. Sentence doctor (correcting mistakes)
4. Sentence starts (choose a sentence start and think of a sentence)
Read the children
your own diary entry
(simple sentences)
and ask them what is
wrong (make sure
that you emphasise
the stiltedness of the
writing). Edit and
improve using
connectives as the
primary strategy to
join sentences.
Divide the class in
two. Ask one half to
write on their
whiteboards a
sentence to persuade
Gregory that he is a
beetle, and the other
half to write a
sentence to persuade
him that he is not a
beetle.
Share the final page
with the children and
discuss whether the
ending is as they
expected. Remind
the children of the
story you began on
Monday. Ask them to
help you write your
final page, using the
structure of the last
page of ‘Beetle Boy’
“Just imagine if all insects were as big
as you.” Michael replied.
Caitlin pointed at her brother.
“He thinks he’s a beetle,” she told her
best friend.
Gregory held a picture of himself up to
his teacher. Miss Dobson wrinkled her
face.
“Urgh, a beetle!” she grimaced.
“Do you think it looks like me?” he
asked. Miss Dobson laughed.
“I never knew you to be a silly boy!”
she laughed.
Gregory arrived home. Mum was
chopping carrots for a salad while she
talked on the phone. She waved hello
to Gregory.
During the last class of the day, Miss
Dobson took all of the children to the
library. The two friends took the school
bus home.
Diary entry
Dear diary,
I woke up this morning and found that I had tuned into a
beetle. I have a purple brown body. I have dark eyes. I have
two antennae. I have hairy legs. This has never happened to
me before. I feel sad. I feel excited too. I went into the
bathroom. First I cleaned my teeth. I washed my face. I got
dressed. I put on a shirt and trousers. I cut extra holes in my
shirt. I had too many arms for my old shirt. I couldn’t believe
what had happened. I told my mum. She didn’t believe me. I
told my sister. She didn’t believe me. I told my dad. He didn’t
believe me. Nobody believed me!
Dear Doctor,
I think I am going mad. When I woke up this morning,
instead of my normal handsome self, I saw a great
purple-brown beetle in the mirror. I tried to tell my family
but they did not believe me, and when I got to school,
my teacher didn’t seem to notice what had happened
to me. The only people who could see the beetle body
were me and my friend Michael. What has happened to
me? Am I really a beetle? Will I ever be a happy boy
again?
Yours worriedly,
Gregory Sampson, a.k.a. Beetle Boy.
Dear Gregory,
I can tell you are extremely worried about your situation.
As a very experienced doctor, I am sure that you are /
are not a beetle.
Some of my doctor friends think that you are / are not a
beetle. This is because
However, the other doctors and I believe that you
are/are not a beetle. This is because
I would advise you to
Yours sincerely,
I can find evidence for and against Gregory really being a
beetle.
Gregory is a beetle
Gregory is not a beetle