Level 5 to 6+ Writing Paper Booster Programme

Level 5 to 6+ Writing Paper Booster Programme

A suite of lesson plans, with resources, organised around the writing marking strands: Composition and Effect (CE), Text structure and organisation (TSO), and Sentence structure and punctuation (SSP).

Important Note:

The TSO lessons need to be taught before the CE since pupils return to a piece of work planned during the TSO sequence.

Text structure and organisation

Objectives

Lesson one: planning an argument

Lesson two: connectives as signposts

Lesson three: opening an argument

Composition and Effect

Objectives

Lesson one: levels of formality

Lesson two: persuasive devices

Sentence structure and punctuation

Objectives

Lesson one: complex sentences – non-finite

Lesson two: complex sentences - adverbials

Writing: Text Structure & Organisation (TSO) – writing to argue

Mark scheme

First bullet: coherence

- how the whole text hangs together, including order and sequence, and structural features such as openings and closings

Second bullet: cohesion

- how different sections of texts are organised, including grouping of material, connecting and elaborating within paragraphs/sections

Lesson One

Objective

Understand how to plan an argument and secure this skill through practice

Resources

Numbers 1 to 10 written large on pieces of scrap paper and spaced along one classroom wall

Handout/slide Complete the planning grid…

Starter

Tell students that 1 = strongly agree and 10 = strongly disagree. Then ask groups of 6-8 to stand in front of the number that best reflects their opinion. The statement for them to consider is: Capital punishment should be reintroduced in the UK. Whilst pupils are standing, ask some to explain their reasoning. Use the ‘no hands’ rule so that all must prepare to share their thoughts in this way.

Introduction

Refer students to ‘Complete the planning grid…’ handout/slide and explain the concept of counter-argument as a chance to have the last word in each paragraph. Model this by competing the first counter-argument section on the planning grid.

Development

Students, in pairs, complete the planning grid.

Plenary

Students first attempt at an argument plan was scaffolded in that the argument was provided. Challenge them now, in just 5 mins, to write a three paragraph plan for an argument entitled: School uniform should be banned. Remind them of the central learning point – that each paragraph, ie left side of the plan, must begin with the opposition’s point so that it can be demolished through the counter-argument.

Complete the planning grid with no more than 12 words per box

For Capital Punishment / Against Capital Punishment

People who take a life should give theirs

Prisons are over-crowded
Tax payers should not have to pay to keep worthless people alive
The families of victims deserve justice

Lesson Two

Objective

Clearly signpost an argument for the reader by using a range of connectives

Understand how to write a coherent and convincing paragraph of argument

Resources

Set of connectives, one per table/group of 4/5

Sample paragraph handout – 1 each

Completed planning grid from TSO lesson 1

Model text – Don’t Talk to me Now (argument against driving and using a mobile)

Starter

Ask students to categorise the connectives they are given as cards and to prepare to explain one or two categories to the rest of the class. (eg. ‘all of these words are linked with time’)

Introduction

Explain that certain connectives are vital when writing to argue. In particular, a connective is needed to show the reader that the argument is about to attacked through the counter-argument. Read Don’t Talk to me Now to the class and then annotate the second paragraph with a slash between argument and counter-argument and circle the linking phrase: This argument is brainless. Ask students to annotate the final paragraph in precisely the same way.

Next, ask them to select other connectives that could be used instead of ‘However’ (For L6+, a range of connectives is key) Word-bank these.

Referring again to the model text, ask students about the length of the counter-argument compared with the argument and then to account for the fact that it tends to be longer. Point out that to develop a counter-argument so that it is really convincing, a different type of connective is needed. Encourage students to select from their cards ‘addition’ connectives like ‘moreover’.

Development

Students should now write one perfect paragraph of argument using the sample paragraph template. They should choose a paragraph from their plans on capital punishment.

Plenary

Students should swap paragraphs and ensure all of the features are in place. Then ask them to choose whose they will share with the class and to read it using two voices – the second for the connectives so that these stand out.

Page 1 of 23Yr 9 Writing Paper Booster L5 to L6

(Connective Cards for Categorising)

For example / Therefore / So / Consequently / As a result
In contrast / Similarly / For instance / On the other hand / First(ly)
Second(ly) / Last(ly) / Finally / To begin with / At the outset
But / Still / However / Nevertheless / Yet
On the contrary / In spite of this / In other words / Rather / Moreover
Furthermore / What is more / In addition / …also.. / Naturally
Of course / Certainly / Strangely enough / Oddly enough / Luckily
Admittedly / (Un)fortunately / Undoubtedly / Finally / In conclusion

Page 1 of 23Yr 9 Writing Paper Booster L5 to L6

How to Structure an Argument

within a Paragraph

Argument
Contrast
Connective
Counter
Argument
Addition
Connective
Counter
Argument
Extended

Don’t Talk to Me Now

How many different things can you do at once? One American president supposedly couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time, but we all have our limits. Psychologists agree that the brain is not incapable of doing two things at once, but you won’t do them as well together as you would separately.

So why do people think it’s safe to conduct a telephone conversation while driving a car? Great play has been made of the idea that ‘hands free’ phones allow drivers to safely use a mobile phone. This argument is brainless because it ignores the fact that it is not just your hands that are involved in these activities – you use your brain as well. What is needed is a ‘brain-free’ phone – though to judge from some of the inanities I have overheard, this may not be entirely unrealistic.

Another ‘point’ frequently made by phoning fanatics is that it can be no more distracting to drivers than listening to the radio or talking to a passenger. However, listening to the radio doesn’t require me to talk when I need to attend to a road hazard. And most car passengers will keep quiet when they see the driver needs to concentrate. The caller on the other end of the phone might, however, make demands of the driver at the critical moment….

Lesson Three

Objective

Develop a range of opening strategies for an argument text

Resources

Don’t talk to me now OHP/slide

Starter

Ask students to imagine that the argument they planned on school uniform is one they will eventually put to the school’s governing body by way of a formal letter to the Chair. Leaving aside the detail of the argument, ask pairs to come up with two of three strategies they could use in the opening paragraph to ensure that their argument is read by the chair, and taken seriously. Record feedback on flipchart.

Introduction

Return to Don’t to talk me now and annotate the strategies used by the writer of the argument to engage the reader. (eg reference to psychologists make the writer sound like an authority, subject deliberately withheld to intrigue, humour disarms, direct address to the reader etc).

Next, reflect on which of these strategies could be used in letter to the chair of governors. Provide students with three key ingredients to an effective opening to an argument:

1. Make it clear what you think from the start, without giving the reasons why.
2. Establish your credibility. (an expert, somebody with real experience etc)
3. Get the reader on your side. (direct address, subtle flattery, politeness etc)

Development

Individually, pupils should compose an opening to the letter to the Chair.

Plenary

Pupils should annotate each others’ work with numbers 1, 2 and 3 – the key features outlined above. If they can identify any other strategies used by their partner to engage, these should also be annotated ready for sharing with the class.

Writing: Composition and effect (CE)

Mark scheme

First bullet: adaptation to purpose, form and reader

Second bullet: viewpoint

- establishing and maintaining the position/stance of author, narrator, character and others

Third bullet: style

- rhetorical effect, choice of language and technical or literary devices

Lesson One

Resources

Sample Longer writing task slide/OHP

Sample response slide and handouts, one each

Objective

To manage levels of formality according to audience

Starter

In pairs or small groups, pupils should note all of the texts they have written this week – eg text messages, note to mum, history essay.

Introduce the notion of a formality continuum: 1 = highly informal, 6 = highly formal and ask students to position the texts they have produced this week on the continuum. Take feedback and alert students to the dangers of informality when it becomes a habit (because we do so much of this kind of writing.)

Ask them to decide on the level of formality needed in the texts below, using the six point scale:

A letter to an older relative, eg uncle

A letter to the local newspaper

A review of a PS2 game in a games magazine

A local newspaper article about a school incident

A leaflet offering advice on post 16 options

A speech at a public meeting

Introduction

Refer pupils to the sample Longer writing task and ask them, on the 1 to 6 scale, how formal this text should be, and why.

Next, model how to edit the first paragraph of the sample response to that it is consistently formal.

Development

Pupils should continue this process individually until they get to the end of the text.

Plenary

Pupils should prepare to explain two edits to the rest of the class. It should then be possible to create a ‘Features of formality’ list/poster, either as a class or as an extension task.

Sample Longer Writing Task

Music festival for all the family

You are employed by the local council to organise a music festival which takes place every year.

You receive this note from the council:

Family festival

These were the comments we received after last year’s festival:

‘I live nearby and the traffic, noise and litter were terrible.’

‘The music was good but there weren’t enough facilities like food stores.’

‘There needs to be a wider range of attractions for teenagers and children.’

Please provide an explanation of why things went wrong last year, including how you plan to overcome these problems and any other ideas you have to improve this year’s event.

Write a detailed explanation for the local council of why things went wrong last year and plans for this year.

Sample Response

Last year’s festival was awesome but there are a few things we can do to make it even better this year so that there are no moans from locals.

Firstly, there were complaints about noise, litter and traffic. The lack of parking was a problem. Although parking was planned, we didn’t expect so much traffic so there weren’t enough spaces and quite a few roads were blocked. This ended up causing problems for the emergency services when a woman was taken ill. To prevent this happening again, we’ve organised a ‘park and ride’ service and we’re recommending a new route to the festival in case we get even more visitors this year.

You’re never going to get rid of noise and litter at a festival, but we can improve things a bit. Last year, there weren’t enough litter bins, especially near the food areas, and they weren’t emptied often enough. This year, we’ll site more bins, employ people to empty them regularly and make sure the site is properly cleaned after the event. We’ll also put the stage further back so that there’s not so much noise for locals. If the roads are quieter with the park and ride, this should also lessen noise.

The lack of facilities such as food stalls is one we’re looked at closely. It has to be said, there weren’t enough caterers last year. Many people complained that food was limited to burgers, fizzy drinks etc. This year, we’ve improved things no end by organising some local cafes and restaurants to come in providing much more choice.

Finally, there are more attractions for teenagers planned this year. We’ve got face-painting, puppets, clowning to name a few. Another new facility is a crèche where tired parents can leave their kids to play safely. Teenagers will also get more out of the festival this year – we’ve got some great bands lined up, as well as workshops where people can try out unusual instruments etc.

I hope this reassures you that everything has been put in place, that the problems have been sorted and that we can look forward to a great success next year.

Lesson Two

Resources

Does Tony have any idea… article as handout, one each

Revise the persuasive toolkit handout

Objective

To identify and make effective use of a range of persuasive devices.

Starter

Small groups should brainstorm all of the persuasive devices they are able to recall. Promote active listening by asking for just one device per group at a time until all groups have ‘passed’.

Introduction

Read, a second time if the relevant reading lesson has taken place, the anti-Iraq war article. Then ask students to complete the ‘revise the persuasive toolkit’ template by quoting an example of each device in the relevant cell.

Development

Refer pupils back to the paragraph of argument they wrote to the Chair of governors about school uniform. Ask them to strengthen this by using at least two persuasive devises within the counter-argument.

Plenary

Go through the persuasive device checklist and investigate how broad the range of devices used by the class has been by asking for examples for each. Challenge them to make use of a wider range in the future – and in the SAT if appropriate to the task.

‘Does Tony have any idea what the flies are like that feed off the dead?’

On the road to Basra, ITV was filming wild dogs as they tore at the corpses of the Iraqi dead. Every few seconds a ravenous beast would rip off a decaying arm and make off with it over the desert in front of us, dead fingers trailing through the sand.

That of course was in 1991. The ‘highway of death’ they called it. Today, when I listen to the threats of George Bush against Iraq and the shrill moralistic warnings of Tony Blair, I wonder what they know of this terrible reality. Does George, who declined to serve his country in Vietnam, have any idea what these corpses smell like? Does Tony have the slightest conception of what the flies are like, the big bluebottles that feed on the dead of the Middle East, and then come to settle on our faces and notepads?

Soldiers know. I remember one British officer asking to use the BBC’s satellite phone just after the liberation of Kuwait in 1991. He was talking to his family in England and I watched him carefully. ‘I have seen some terrible things,’ he said. And then he broke down, weeping and shaking and holding the phone dangling in his hand over the transmission set. Did his family have the slightest idea what he was talking about? They would not have understood by watching television.

Thus can we face the prospect of war. Our glorious, patriotic population – albeit only about 20% in support of this particular Iraqi folly – has been protected from the realities of violent death.

I remember once a man in Iran, a piece of steel in his forehead, howling like an animal – which is, of course, what we all are – before he died; and the Palestinian boy who simply collapsed in front of me when an Israeli soldier shot him dead, coldly, murderously, for throwing a stone; and the Israeli with a chair leg sticking out of her stomach outside the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem after a Palestinian bomber had decided to execute the families inside; and the heaps of Iraqi dead at the Battle of Dezful in the Iran-Iraq war – the stench of their bodies wafted through our helicopter until the mullahs aboard were sickened; and the young man showing me the thick black trail of his daughter’s blood outside Algiers where armed ‘Islamists’ had cut her throat.

But George Bush and Tony Blair and Dick Cheney and Jack Straw and all the other little warriors who are bamboozling us into war will not have to think of these vile images. For them it’s about surgical strikes, collateral damage and all the other examples of war’s linguistic mendacity. We are going to have a just war, we are going to liberate the people or Iraq – some of whom we will obviously kill – and we are going to give them democracy and protect their oil wealth and stage war crimes trials and we are going to be ever so moral and we are going to watch our defence ‘experts’ on TV with their bloodless sandpits and their awesome knowledge of weapons which rip off heads.