Y5/6: Spring Term Fiction: Plan 3A Short stories: Mystery Main text: Short! by Kevin Crossley-Holland
This lesson plan makes reference to session resources. These can be downloaded from https://www.hamilton-trust.org.uk/browse/english/y56/spring/95101Wk 1 / Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday
Whole class teaching / Show chn the book Short! by Kevin Crossley-Holland. Read the blurb &/or the description on the inside. It sounds fun! Allow the chn to comment. Does the book appeal to chn? Would they want to read it? Why is the book title written in such large letters? Show chn the list of titles (plan resource). Give chn a few minutes with a partner to decide what the genre (discuss meaning of this if necessary) of some of the stories is likely to be, e.g. The Fox and the Geese sounds like the title of an Aesop fable; Slam and the Ghosts sounds like a ghost (frightening) story. List possible genre on f/c. Read a few of the stories that chn have identified. Did they choose the right genre? Comprehension 1 / Read a selection of mystery stories from Short!, e.g. In the Back Seat (did the title give chn a clue to what was happening?), The Hook (did chn guess what the scratching noise was?), Butterflies (what did chn think had happened to the poem?), etc. What genre do chn think these stories belong to? Mystery. Discuss the features that mystery stories could have. Write any suggestions chn have on f/c. Agree on a list (compare with plan resource), which could always be added to later in the week. Spoken language 1/ Comprehension 2 / Read story Room for One More again. Write wrestled on f/c. Explain that this word contains two silent letters: w and t. This makes it difficult to spell. What is the root word? wrestle. Note that when we add the suffix –ed to create the past tense, we lose the final e of the root word. Write doubt, island, lamb, solemn, thistle and knight on f/c as other e.g.s of words with silent letters. Some letters which are no longer sounded used to be sounded hundreds of years ago, e.g. the k in knight was sounded as /k/.
Transcription 1 / Write some sentences from stories read earlier in the week on f/c, e.g.
1. By the time Rachel drove home, the city was all empty.
2. Then the driver got out of his truck kind-of-thing.
3. It was already half-dark when they heard the local news.
4. In the big store, she did Levis Jeanswear on the fifth floor; she did Adidas Sportswear and that was on the sixth floor; and then she did cosmetics and that was on the seventh floor.
5. Next morning, the girl got ready to go to school.
These sentences link the ideas in the new paragraph or sentence to the one before. Say that the beginnings are adverbials of time (‘By the time…’ or ‘Next morning…’) or of place (‘In the big store…’), and they could be of number, e.g. secondly. Write a sentence starting ‘Secondly...’ Note the comma after the fronted adverbials (adverbial at the sentence start). ‘Next morning, ...’ & ‘In the big store, …’ Grammar 1/ Composition 1 / Ask what is meant by an oral story, & discuss how many traditional stories were handed down through generations orally, before being written down & printed in books. To be able to retell an oral story you have to know it really well (though details in oral stories did often change from one story teller to the next). Explain that chn are going to read a written story called Hunted during which they will answer some questions as a group. Afterwards we will discuss how to retell the story orally.
Comprehension 3: Group Reading/ Spoken language 2
Objectives / Dimension / Resources
Spoken language / Pupils should be taught to:
a. listen and respond appropriately to their peers
d. articulate and justify opinions
k. consider different viewpoints / 1. Tuesday: Predict what will happen next
Chn work in pairs to discuss & predict what will happen next in the story Room for One More.
Plenary: Follow on after Comprehension 2. Volunteers tell their predictions to the rest of class, explaining why they thought that. Rest of class give thumbs up, down or an unsure wiggle to express whether or not it’s a likely outcome. Finally read the rest of the story to chn. Was anyone’s prediction close? / First five paragraphs of Room for One More (plan resource)
f. maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations
k. consider different viewpoints / 2. Friday: Discuss and answer questions about Hunted See Comprehension 2.
Discuss and answer questions about Hunted. Ensure that all chn join in the discussion and that all views are heard. / Copies of Hunted
Questions about Hunted (plan resources)
Comprehension / Maintain positive attitudes to reading and understanding of what they read by:
a. continuing to read and discuss an increasingly wide range of fiction
e. identifying and discussing themes
f. making comparisons within books / 1. Monday: Identifying the genre
Give a photocopy of one of the stories (choose a range of genre, but not the three you are going to read on Tuesday) from Short! To each pair of chn (ensure mixed ability so at least one chd can read all the stories). They read it together & agree on its genre, so they are ready to pass it to the next pair when you give the signal. Continue until all pairs have identified at least 5 stories.
Plenary: As a class check that all are agreed on the genre of the stories. (Collect in photocopies for next week) / Photocopies of several stories from Short!
Maintain positive attitudes to reading and understanding of what they read by:
a. continuing to read and discuss a wide range of books
Understand what they read by:
c. drawing and justifying inferences
d. predicting what might happen
Provide reasoned justifications for their views / 2. Tuesday: Prediction
Give chn a copy of the first 5 paragraphs of Room for One More (plan resource) – another mystery story. Which features of a mystery story can they identify?
Plenary: Discuss mystery story features chn found. / First five paragraphs of Room for One More (plan resource)
Maintain positive attitudes/understanding by:
a. continuing to read/discuss wide range of books
d. recommending books they have read
Understand what they read by:
e. summarising main ideas and key points
Participate in discussions about books they read themselves / 3. Friday: Group Reading
Divide chn into groups to read Hunted together and answer the questions (plan resources) as they go along (see Spoken language 2). Introduce story pegs to chn as a technique for retelling stories. This will lead into using story pegs in week 2.
Plenary: Explain that chn could use story pegs to retell the story orally. Write story pegs on f/c (or use plan resource) & ask volunteers to retell the story using them. At the end ask chn which of the stories they have enjoyed the most and why? Which would they recommend to their peers? / Copies of Hunted
Questions about Hunted (plan resources)
Transcription / Spelling
Pupils should be taught to:
b. spell some words with ‘silent’ letters / 1. Wednesday: Silent letters and spelling
Provide a list of words for each chd (see resources). Chn each choose a word from the list, then find three more words with the same silent letter. They then write a short sentence with one of their words in it: e.g. The knight rode a magnificent black stallion. Each chd should do this with at least three different words on the list, therefore writing 9 sentences.
Plenary: Choose best sentences to read out. Then give chn a list to learn for homework (plan resources). / Word list for each child: know, comb, half, island, write, thistle, column, gnome, talk, guest
Graded spelling lists (plan resources)
Grammar / Develop their understanding of the concepts set out in English Appendix 2 by:
g. learning the grammar in Appendix 2 / 1. Thursday: Adverbials
Provide a list of sentences to which chn add adverbials (words, phrases or clauses) to make the sentence more interesting & link with previous sentence or paragraph (plan resource).
Plenary: Discuss how adverbials can be moved within a sentence without changing the meaning, though it does change the emphasis sometimes. Chn who tackled the extension activity share their work. / Activity sheet for each chd (plan resource)
Less able chn can add the adverbials at any point in the sentence
Composition / Draft and write by:
d. using a wide range of devices to build cohesion within and across paragraphs / 1. Thursday: Adverbials See Grammar 1. / Activity sheet for each chd (plan resource)
Wk 2 / Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday
Whole class teaching / Write ‘Paragraphs’ on f/c. Give chn 3 min to discuss with a partner when/why a writer begins a new paragraph in a story. Together discuss & list ideas on f/c, e.g. Change of place/setting
Change of time/ flashbacks
Change of topic/theme
Change of viewpoint
When someone new speaks
Introduce a new character
Add suspense or change the mood
The paragraphs must link together well to help the reader follow the story. Remind chn about the work they did on adverbials last week to link both paragraphs & sentences. Together list some words or phrases (adverbials) on f/c that might be useful to link paragraphs (see plan resource). NB concentrate on adverbials of time, place & number. Grammar 2 / Explain that chn are going to write a short mystery story this week. Today they will plan their story. Ask volunteers to name one each of the possible features of a mystery story (discussed last week). List these on f/c or use plan resource. The story will be written in paragraphs, so it is a good idea to have some story pegs (as with Hunted oral story retelling) to base these on, e.g.
1. Introduce main character(s) and the mystery/problem/unexplained event
2. First clues/red herrings
3. Attempts to solve the mystery
4. Further clues/attempts
5. Mystery is solved!
Chn could use a mystery cube to gather their ideas (see website list). Point out that chn need not use best handwriting for draft!
Composition 2/Transcription 2 / Writers can make their stories more interesting for readers by adding descriptive words and elaborating further (adding details). Ask chn what type of words can we use to do this, e.g. adjectives (describe a noun), adverbs or adverbials (modify a verb), adjectival phrases, prepositional phrases, etc. Write The man went down the road. on f/c. How could chn improve this boring sentence? Change words (nouns & verbs), e.g. The man limped down the lane. Insert words (adjectives & adverbs), e.g. The elderly man shuffled slowly down the main road. Add words on, e.g. The man went down the road beside the river. Or do all three! Write another boring sentence on f/c, e.g. The dog was asleep. Challenge chn to work in pairs to make it more interesting. Give them 3 min to write as many alternatives as possible on w/bs. Take feedback. Stress how we can add phrases/clauses. Composition 3/Grammar 3/ Transcription 3 / Look again at the opening paragraph of Room for One More (plan resource). This story opened by introducing the character and describing the setting. What do chn notice about the punctuation? The pauses in the sentences are created by semi-colons instead of commas. The writer used them again in the sixth paragraph too (plan resource). A semi-colon is the punctuation equivalent of ‘and’ and the separation of the clauses within the sentence is stronger than using a comma would be. Show a confident child’s work. Write a sentence to continue their story. Could we add a clause using a semi-colon?
Composition 4/Grammar 4 / Enlarge a copy of one child’s writing. Together discuss how it could be improved. Which features of a mystery story have been included? Is it written in paragraphs? Are the paragraphs linked together appropriately? Point out good examples of the use of adverbials or descriptions. And so on. Discuss what you need to look for when editing your own writing – paragraphs, adverbials, vivid adjectives, powerful verbs, etc. Talk about what to check when proofreading someone else’s writing - spelling & punctuation errors. Composition 5
Objectives / Dimension / Resources
Grammar / Use and understand the grammatical terminology in English Appendix 2 / 2. Monday: Link paragraphs
Using the photocopies from Monday of Week 1 (plus others if you wish) challenge chn to find adverbials that the writer has used in the stories to link paragraphs. They should list any they find noting the title of the story.
Plenary: Share findings and add examples that chn have found to the list on f/c or plan resource. / List of adverbials showing time, place or number (plan resource)
Use and understand the grammatical terminology in Appendix 2 / 3. Wednesday: Add description & elaboration to writing
Work with different groups of chn, encouraging them to use adverbials to link paragraphs and also to add elaboration to their writing. / Photocopies of some stories from Short! used on Monday, Week 1
Indicate grammatical and other features by;
d. using semi-colons to mark boundaries between main clauses
Use and understand grammatical terminology in Appendix 2 / 4. Thursday: Semi-colons
Chn are made aware of the use of semi-colons instead of commas to mark boundaries between independent clauses. / Two paragraphs taken from Room for One More (plan resources)
Transcription / Handwriting and presentation
Write legibly, fluently, with increasing speed and personal style by:
a. choosing which shape of a letter to use and deciding whether or not to join specific letters
b. choosing the writing implement that is best suited for a task / 2. Tuesday: Write story pegs