Antonyms and Synonyms for Writing

Covering the Y6 NC requirement relating to synonyms and antonyms, this constitutes a week’s unit of work leading to a writing outcome. A separate lesson plan is supplied for each day, with suggested timings for each section.

Towards the beginning of the first lesson, individuals fill in the first two sections of a Know/Wonder/Learnt chart which they give in and complete at the end of the week. The lesson presentation includes pupil activities, such as finding antonyms and preparing synonym charts. Pupils will need to use dictionaries and thesauri for this. The final slide consists of a formal exercise for completion in exercise books. This provides an assessment opportunity. A class list of common words to be avoided in writing is begun and added to each day.

On Day 2 there is more work on antonyms, but as the week progresses, the focus is more on synonyms. The main activity for this lesson is a drama activity which pupils should find fun.

Day 3 begins with a pelmanism game on antonyms , and is followed by some teacher-directed work on antonyms and synonyms. The main activity is an antonym crossword, which can be used as assessment. There are three versions of the crossword, to allow for differing levels of ability. In the plenary, the concept of showing rather than telling is introduced, along with the beginning of what will become the subject of an extended writing task.

The fourth lesson begins with a synonym contest in which pupils win points for coming up with answers nobody else thinks of. Then there is a writing warm-up followed by the start of writing: initially paired work, but leading to an independent task. In the plenary, pupils share their work with each other in a simple speaking and listening activity.

The final day, there is an extended writing session to be used for formal assessment. During the plenary, pupils feed back briefly on the week’s work, and then complete the final column of the KWL chart.