Literacy
Term 2
Year 5
Narrative Poetry
Class 5K
Week 1 & 2
Reading curricular targets:
Writing curricular targets:
Must – I can identify verbs, adjectives and adverbs and discuss the effect.
Must – I can use powerful verbs and adjectives.
Should – I can understand the difference between literal and figurative language
Should – I can use adverbs to make my writing more interesting.
and discuss its effects.
Could – I can use similes and metaphors.
Could – I can comment critically on the overall impact of poetry or prose with
reference to the use of language and development of themes.
Objectives:
Text / other:
Alfred Noyes, ‘The Highwayman’
 Make notes on and use evidence from across a text to explain events or ideas
 Explore how writers use language for comic and dramatic effects
Outcomes:
Criteria / Success steps:
Resources:
Collection of powerful verbs, adjectives, adverbs,
1. Know what a verb, adjective, adverb, simile or
1. IWB file from new framework planning (doc 1)
2. Copies of poem (doc 2a)
similes and metaphors
metaphor is
2. Copies of boxes (from doc 2)
Choral performance of poem
2. Identify powerful verbs, adjectives, adverbs,
similes and metaphors
3. IWB file explaining metaphors & similes (doc 3a)
3. Use powerful verbs, adjectives, adverbs, similes
3. Website (see day 3)
3. Copies of figurative language worksheet (doc 3)
and metaphors in writing
3. Copies of figurative language reminder (doc 3b)
4. Discuss the effect of powerful verbs, adjectives,
4. Copies of character sort worksheet (doc 4)
adverbs, similes and metaphors
Different illustrated versions of poem for re-reading
(doc 5)
5. Copies of storyboard template (doc 6)
6. Copies of text with adjectives missing (doc 7)
6. Words to describe red / colour of night sky (doc 7a)
Supporting display resources:
Posters defining noun, verb, adjective & adverb
Pictures of main characters
Posters defining simile & metaphor
Collection of wow words from shared reading
Curricular targets
MK 2006
Literacy
Term 2
Day
1
Year 5
Narrative Poetry
Phase
Whole-class work sentence/word level
Independent work
Plenary
Phase 1:
Reading,
investigating
the text and
capturing
ideas (3
days)

In pairs, ask children to use the
story sack, the visual image of
the character and their
exploration of the setting to
consider the text they are about
to read. Write predictions in
literacy books to return to in a
later lesson.
Share these ideas
and ask pairs to
explain how they
arrived at their
suggestions.
Use boxes (from document 2) to
match up with stanzas of poem.
Ask children to consider what
they might see, hear and smell,
and how they might feel in this
place, and compare and contrast
with the children's first ideas
when exploring the setting
through drama.
Collect children's
ideas on the IWB and
link them to the
words they used to
describe the mood
and atmosphere.


2
Class 5K

Whole-class work reading/writing
text level
Invite children to explore a setting: describe the woods, with the wind blowing
through the trees, the moon shining down, creating long shadows on the
ground, and the cobblestoned inn yard. Ask children to explore the scene with
all their senses while you describe it to them; they will need to consider their
movements, what they might see, what they might touch and how they would
feel in this place. Collect their ideas on the IWB.
Introduce the main character by projecting an image of the Highwayman onto
the IWB. Ask children who this might be and what they notice about him.
Introduce some of the language used to describe the Highwayman and ask
children to speculate about what the phrases and words might refer to.
Encourage children to explain their answers and refer to the clues they used
to help them. Consider how the image of the Highwayman helped.
Use the IWB file to introduce the objects from the story sack. What clues do they
give about the text? What do the children know?
Read the opening stanzas of the poem. Highlight the use of language to
describe the setting and begin to investigate what this might mean. Explore
the mood and atmosphere by asking children to choose the most appropriate
words and place them in the centre of the zones of relevance board. Highlight
and annotate words in the poem that support these opinions.
What is a
highwayman?
MK 2006
Literacy
Term 2
Day
Phase
3
4
5
6
Phase 2:
Capturing
ideas;
analysis and
investigation
of aspects of
the text (3-4
days)
Year 5
Narrative Poetry
Class 5K
Whole-class work sentence/word level
Whole-class work reading/writing
Independent work
text level
Begin a list of the poetry
 During shared reading, investigate how the poet enhances mood; take
techniques used, collect
examples of language and poetry techniques directly from the text and place
examples and identify how these
them onto the IWB. Use tools such as annotate, highlight, redo and undo, drag
affect the reader (doc 3). Put
and drop to identify and understand the use of figurative and descriptive
sheet with reminder of figurative
language. Ask: How does Alfred Noyes use colour in this poem?
language techniques (doc 3b) in
 Use IWB file (doc 3a) to explore metaphors & similes
folder.
 Use website http://www.teachersfirst.com/lessons/highwayman/index.html to
Ask the children to work with a
explore similes & metaphors in poem
partner to write some figurative
 Display the first page of the poem. Read the first three lines and explain to the
phrases to describe one of the
children that the poet has used metaphors to describe the scene at the start of the
characters from the poem. You
poem. Look at each image in turn and discuss why the poet has chosen to
can help the children write their
compare each of the elements:
images by getting them to try and
a) Wind: as though it was a river rushing through the trees.
compare the characters to an
b) Moon: trying to create the idea that the sky is a sea and the moon is half hidden
animal i.e. The highwayman was
behind clouds.
a silent snake slithering towards
c) Road: trying to convey the shape of the road as though it were on a piece of
the darkened inn.
clothing.
Support: Provide the children
 Provide the children with their own mini-whiteboard and ask them to create their
with a picture of the Highwayman
own example of metaphors to describe the wind, moon and road. Get the children
to annotate.
to share some of their metaphors with the rest of the class.
Organise children into four groups. Allocate each group a character from the poem: the Highwayman, Bess, Tim the ostler
or King George's men. Set up a group investigation of these characters using the written and visual text. Use key questions
to guide children, and the rainbowing technique for children to share their deductions and understanding of the main
characters.
Support: Use character sort worksheet (doc 4) to describe Bess / Ostler
Begin storyboard (doc 6) –
 Ask children to plot the main events of the poem and invite them to think about
complete captions & finish
the structure of the narrative. Use the IWB to plot and explore the narrative
pictures for homework.
shape. Use children's previous understanding of story structure to explore the
opening, setting, build-up, problems and resolutions within the poem.


Use website http://www.rinkworks.com/crazylibs/crazylibs.cgi to create
nonsense version.
Write the word claret in the centre of the board. Tell the children that this
describes the dark red wine colour of the Highwayman’s coat. Ask the children
to turn to the person next to them and to find a word to describe a lighter red
(e.g. rose) and a word to describe a darker red (e.g. burgundy). Collect in the
children’s words and sort them into a scale on the board from light to dark red.
Plenary
Share examples of
metaphors
Use worksheet (doc 7) to create
own version of poem.
Extension: list adjectives to
describe colour of sky at night &
order according to intensity.
MK 2006
Literacy
Term 2
Day
7
8
Year 5
Narrative Poetry
Class 5K
Phase
Whole-class work sentence/word level
Independent work
Plenary
Phase 3:
Choral
performance
of an
abridged
version of
the narrative
poem,
evaluated
and
amended in
the light of
peer
comments
(3-4 days)

Give children time to
rehearse and polish their
freeze-frames, recording
them digitally for later use.
Develop success
criteria for their visual
performances and
model giving critical
and supportive
feedback.
Share these
performances
with the
audience by
projecting the
groups' dramatic
images onto the
IWB while
children perform
their poem
orally.


Whole-class work reading/writing
text level
Organise children into small groups. Explain that they will work together to
present their interpretation of the poem as a performance.
Using their understanding of the structure of the poem, invite the groups to
freeze-frame the main events. Draw attention to and demonstrate the impact
of gesture, facial expression and props. Take digital images of children while
they work and display these on the IWB for further discussion and evaluation.
Through modelling, explore the different ways of using voice to convey
emotion: change of pace and volume; emphasis on tone of voice. Ask groups
to explore the narrative poem and select stanzas that they think might
accompany their freeze-frames. Discuss how they wish to make their
audience feel and refer to previous work on the poem. Remind them that they
will perform these extracts orally while their freeze-frames are projected onto
the IWB. They will need to select appropriate extracts and work as a group to
decide how they will present an abridged version of The Highwayman.
Allow the groups time to
explore the poem and select
stanzas for performance. It
may be appropriate to place
children's dramatic images
into presentation software to
support children's decisionmaking process. Allow
children to practise, record
and listen to their oral
performances in order to
evaluate and improve them.
Guided reading:
Discuss use of figurative language / authorial intent
Collect lists of effective adjectives/verbs (according to differentiated curricular target)
Discuss questions in Focus English pupil book
MK 2006