This resource contains two weeks of lessons (9) and planning using the critically acclaimed picture book ‘The Watertower’. 6 lessons involved in the planning are aimed at supporting key elements and features of SPaG that shall be used in the end goal of writing a newspaper report describing the Watertower and its impact on the community of Preston. Within these lessons, children are presented with the opportunity to explore their own interpretation of the book, look into the difference between factual information and rumour and create their own short descriptive story as to what happens to Bubba but is only implied (which can be a short story from a 1st or 3rd person perspective). The final lessons are a step by step planning guide to creating a newspaper report focusing on creating a balanced viewpoint on whether or not the watertower should be pulled down, followed by an editing lesson and final write-up lesson. Checklists and success criteria are provided alongside the presentations and all resources that are needed for each lesson. It is suitable for later on in Year 5 or Year 6 class. I highly recommend obtaining a copy of the book (whilst images are present in the presentations needed for the lessons) so that the children can study the images more closely. Would also be a very useful book for some creative writing and inference and retrieval reading lessons. Lesson 5 requires the use of newspaper reports from local sources or national papers. Suitable articles would include those that have discussion topics, present information about factual events or persuasive articles to show the contrast in report writing.

This resource is a Guided Reading unit of work based on The Nowhere Emporium by Ross Mackenzie. It is suitable for Year 5 classes. Within the pack are two highly detailed resources that are 30 lessons worth: The Nowhere Emporium teacher pack - a series of key questions for each lesson based on a chronological breakdown of the novel. Each question is based on a criteria to test different aspects of children’s reading abilities. Answers are given for the key questions in the notes and space is left for notes taken on children’s feedback. Questions can be added or altered based on class needs. The Nowhere Emporium Activity Booklet - 10 separate comprehension activities designed for independent reading and completion. These occur every third lesson and contain a key as to what type of question is being asked of the children. This is taught through a three lesson framework per week but can be taught continuously. Lesson 1 of three is a shared reading lesson where teachers and children read the given chapter together with the teacher stopping for questioning and prompting. Lesson 2 of the three is a discussion lesson where children re-read the previous days lesson and then apply their growing comprehension skills to retrieve, infer, summarise and predict. Teacher and class feedback then allows formation of answers to the given questions. Lesson 3 is an independent activity lesson where children read the next section of the novel and complete the activity page based on their reading.

A two week poetry unit focusing on the theme of villainous characters. The lessons entail an analysis on ‘The Spider and the Fly’, and ‘The Raven’. The children will spend time learning about the narrative of both poems, analysing them for poetic devices and then practicing and performing the poems. The language used in both poems is challenging and provides a good opportunity for children to delve into older language and use their contextual knowledge to try and pick apart the word. The lessons shall then progress to the children using the narrative focus of The Spider and the Fly’ to create their own poem on a predator and prey at a level that we do not often see, incorporating the poetic devices that they have been analysing.

This is a complete unit of work focusing on the use of the short video - Alma. This is aimed at an upper Year 5 class or early Year 6 class. It contains 6 lessons focusing on a descriptive writing element to the story, whereby the children develop a story focusing on setting; relative and subordinate clauses; cohesive devices; colons and semi-colons and then a descriptive recount and edit. The additional three lessons focus on discussion and persuasive writing. However the third and final lesson can be split into two depending on the time allowed for the lesson and the ability of the children. All planning is included as well as the resources and supporting resources necessary to conduct the lessons and activities.

A 21-lesson unit for Guided Reading aimed at a Year 6 class. This unit follows a three lesson pattern a week - leaving opportunities to develop on skills such as retrieval, inference, cohesion and summary in other lessons. The first lesson acts as a whole class read whereby you have the opportunity to hear and discuss the chapter with teachers leading questioning from the chapter. The second lesson focuses on the previous lesson’s chapter. However, in this lesson the focus is on aiding children’s understanding of the chapter, developing discussion further and providing opportunity to model different styles of comprehension questions. The lesson starts with a timed read, a short retrieval challenge based on one page and then group/partner questions that are then shared and modelled. The final lesson (lesson 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 and 21) are independent lessons where the children apply what they have practiced on the previous lesson. This time they read the next chapter and then answer comprehension questions based on what they have read. The questions are a mixture of retrieval, inference, summary, author choice, word context. Writing opportunities are frequent throughout this book, some have been noted at the end of the lesson on the Teacher Guide. This book gripped my class and led to some detailed writing. I have used this with my current Year 6 class, they have loved the book and it has led to some interesting writing pieces and outcomes, with some great discussion. Highly recommend the book as an English writing piece, alongside the Guided Reading. Included: Independent Comprehension Workbook containing a range of question types. Teacher Guide for Whole Unit PPTs for Whole Class discussion (Lessons 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17 and 20) Activity Sheet for Whole Class Discussion (Lessons 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17 and 20) Assessment Crib sheet for Independent Lesson Writing opportunity template and further challenges at end of independent lesson.

A Guided Reading resource for a Year 5/6 class based over 27 lessons on the book 'Skellig’ by David Almond. This resource contains the planning for each lesson and the pages that should be read in each as well as questions and prompts for the teacher. It also contains the comprehension pack for the children to complete every third lesson. The lessons are split into three parts. Lesson 1 is a shared/classroom discussion lesson that focuses on all children and teachers reading a set amount of pages. As children read they should be challenged through the selection of vocabulary in the pages and asked inference and retrieval questions throughout whilst reading this gripping tale. Lesson 2 focuses on applying the skills of a written comprehension. Children shall re-read the same pages from the previous lesson, however this time they shall be given a selection of questions that range in purpose; from inference, retrieval, prediction, knowledge of language and more. The questions and wording shall be discussed as a class and then as groups children shall work through these problems and then their answers shall be modeled and shared as a class and supported through teacher involvement. Lesson 3 acts as an independent lesson that pulls together the different skills the children have been working on. They shall read the next specified section of the book and then complete a comprehension sheet on the read pages. The children will be expected to put into practice the type of answers they have been working on as a class and use the code at the top of the comprehension page to help them identify the manner in which they should answer the question.

A lesson focusing on the different purposes of colons and semi-colons, suitable for a year 5 and 6 class. The lesson uses the short video, Alma, as a means to capture the children’s attention. A SPaG starter is used as a warm up before the children are taught the many different purposes of the punctuation and then apply it to their own sentence. This is a very hands on lesson with a lot of back and forth between the teacher and the children. An extension activity is also offered if time allows. This is one of the lessons as part of my descriptive unit of work on Alma, which can be found here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/alma-unit-of-work-12200651

Part of the War Horse - Historical Story Writing Unit of work (3 weeks). https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/historical-stories-war-horse-war-game-and-one-boy-s-war-12205177 This lesson is a cross curricular lesson that incorporates historical inquiry to tie in with a later English lesson. Children have been reading War Horse in class and are now going to use what they have been exposed to in the story to study the importance of historical accuracy when writing about a specified time period. The lesson looks into the term anachronism in order to then allow children to research factual information, the daily life of those in World War 1 and their hobbies and roles in society with the aim of identifying features that they can include in their own writing for contextually accurate pieces. Attached is the presentation for the lesson, the lesson plan and some research for children to use if they do not have access to books on the time period of internet access.

Year 6 - Lesson presentation, activity sheet and lesson plan focusing on the experiences of those who remained in cities whilst others were evacuated. Culminating in a descriptive, emotive piece of writing in the first person as air raid sirens are sounding and the movements between the home and the air shelters. Activity sheet contains helpful prompt questions and success criteria for piece of writing.

This is the full 15 lesson, unit of work for historical writing. One of the free lessons from this unit is found here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/war-horse-anachronims-and-historical-research-lesson-12202278 The unit contains a focus on the study and use of historical stories through World War One as a cross curricular approach to teaching English with History and Drama. We use War Horse as inspiration for work to developing characters, identifying different sentence types whilst becoming familiar with vocabulary from the time period through research based lessons. The aim of these lessons is to compare the book with other adaptations of War Horse before attempting to write their own screenplay of a scene, adapted for their purpose with appropriate dialogue for their chosen scene. War Game and One Boy’s War are included to add further insight from a soldier’s perspective with a focus on creating an understanding of the realism of war and for children to appreciate the horrors, squalid conditions and misleading nature of the war that they joined (some rather enthusiastically). Children shall use research skills to discover the true nature of the trenches that soldiers fought in and create a letter home as a soldier to a friend who may be considering enlisting. In this letter they shall have to decide whether they would encourage or discourage their friend from enlisting. Finally, the audience and purpose for their writing shall change from informal to formal, where they write a historically accurate piece for an exhibition. All necessary resources are included as well as additional tasks based around War Horse for children to complete as homework if they have access to the book at home.

Two-week unit of work focusing on the narrative poem ‘The Highwayman’. The lessons focus on inference and retrieval skills before immersing the children in the different character’s and analysing the story plot in detail. The purpose of the unit of work is to get children to familiarise themselves with poetic devices before using them to continue the narrative poem after the death of Bess.

Presentation and activity sheet exploring the use of formal and informal vocabulary. Allows children to investigate reasons for either type and attempt to use their own. Included: presentation; differentiated activity sheet. Could be taught as part of an English unit or a stand alone lesson. Follow on lesson sees the application of formal and informal vocabulary alongside another presentation.

We had noticed in our class that some children found the task and skill of editing their work difficult, not because they were not trying but because they didn’t know where to start. We added in editing windows to try and help focus the children’s attention and give them a narrower section of text to start with. The editing widows are adapted for particular purposes and can be used to help children focus their editing in a range of writing tasks. Proven to aid children in particular who struggle to identify areas to improve their work and to concentrate higher abilities on a criteria they may not have included to improve their work. Included are editing windows focusing on: Range of punctuation Subordinate and relative clauses Adverbial phrases. Examples of the criteria are offered on each window alongside a purpose or definition of the feature to aid children in using them. Cut out the central panel and children can place the window over a paragraph or section of their work at a time. We laminated our windows for longevity purposes. Hope they prove just as useful to your class as they have mine!

A fifteen-lesson unit based on an Outsiders theme. This was a three-week unit that looked into what it was like to be an outsider from three different literary examples: “The Island” by Armin Greder; “Friend or Foe” by Michael Morpurgo and “Eric” by Shaun Tan. Each book was used to demonstrate different ways someone can be an outsider and (given the current context of the UK and historically) was thought-provoking and provided interesting discussion and debate as to how the characters should be treated. The children were incredibly captured by the vivid imagery in “The Island” as a means to hook them into the topic. Included are the individual lessons that build towards each writing unit at the end of the week. A letter; a newspaper report and finally a narrative. The tasks are differentiated through the children’s selection of audience, perspective and purpose, with some writing opportunities presented as a bronze, silver and gold style of challenge - you may assign a child a writing challenge or allow them to select the challenge they feel capable of doing. This style of differentiation is particularly evident in the final narrative piece whereby children should apply the themes that they have experienced into their own writing to either retell the story from another’s perspective; create their own outsider-themed story from a stranger’s viewpoint (person/item/animal) or by telling an untold scene from the story. This is the independent section of the unit, where children should consider what structures and language that they see in narratives to shape their own. The powerpoints for each lesson are included, as well as the resources that were used to develop grammar, structure and writing. The lessons, provide ample opportunity for rich language and writing for a range of purposes and audiences.

This unit brings the magic to the classroom through a topic that many are immediately captivated by. It also gives children another chance to practice some of the essential skills they will need to achieve a range of writing standards in Year 6; whilst revising, learning and applying a range of SPaG. The unit contains 44 English lessons based on the Harry Potter novels and covering a variety of genres. Each genre has 5-6 lessons so can be taught as a weekly unit. Each lesson has an accompanying presentation and worksheets and resources are provided and can be adapted based on the needs of the class. Also included are one off comprehension lessons that vary in difficulty and use formal and informal extracts to support teaching and learning. Spellings are provided but these may be altered/discarded to suit any spelling programmes that your school may follow. Activities are differentiated and opportunities for Greater Depth writers are presented through learning outcomes, success criteria and through their own choice of writing. Opportunities for those who struggle with writing are also provided through guided means and lessons that build towards their given writing topic, i.e. writing a howler as Harry to the Dursley Family. Genres included: Emotive letters from a character to another through a Howler. Descriptive and predictive writing as a director bringing a scene to life for their set creators and actors to follow. Writing a series of instructions as a Hogwarts Teacher for new pupils. Writing an information text on a magical item. Creating a narrative text of the trials to reach the Philosopher’s Stone in the eyes of another character. Writing a report on the events that took place during the OWLs under Dolores Umbridge. Creating a persuasive letter to support/argue against the trial of Buckbeak. Reporting, through a newspaper report, on one of the Trials of the Triwizard Tournament. SPaG included: Basic word class identification - nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and determiners Expanded noun phrases Subordinate and relative clauses Modal verbs Active and passive voice Subject, object or verb Apostrophes Command, instruction, exclamation, question Simple, complex, compound, complex compound sentences Parenthesis Conjunctions, adverbials, prepositions Tense forms Register Bullet points Inverted commas Colons, semi-colons and commas

This resource is a Guided Reading unit of work based on Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. It is suitable for Year 6 classes and contains a variety of questions in a SATS style format. Within the pack are two highly detailed resources that are 24 lessons worth: The Harry Potter teacher pack - a series of key questions for each lesson based on a chronological breakdown of the novel. Each question is based on a criteria to test different aspects of children’s reading abilities from inference, deduction and retrieval. Answers are given for the key questions in the notes and space is left for notes taken on children’s feedback. Questions can be added or altered based on class needs. The Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone Activity Booklet - 8 separate comprehension activities in a SATS style layout, designed for independent reading and completion. These occur every third lesson and contain a key as to what type of question is being asked of the children so that they can practice a range of reading skills. This unit is taught through a three lesson framework per week but can be taught continuously. Lesson 1 of three is a shared reading lesson where teachers and children read the given chapter together with the teacher stopping for questioning and prompting. Lesson 2 of the three is a discussion lesson where children re-read the previous days lesson independently given a set time and then apply their growing comprehension skills to retrieve, infer, summarise and predict as a group. Teacher and class feedback then allows formation of answers to the given questions. Lesson 3 is an independent activity lesson where children read the next section of the novel and complete the activity page based on their reading and growing understanding of reading comprehension.

A 2 week unit of work based on the novel, The Nowhere Emporium for a year 6 class. Each lesson has differentiated tasks or outcomes based on ability. Within this unit, the children will read extracts from the novel, develop clear settings making use of thought out expanded noun phrases and develop their understanding of characters motives and personality. The outcome to this unit is to produce a suspense narrative of Daniel discovering a new Wonder and a biography of Lucien Silver in the third person based on what they learn from the novel but also allowing children the ability to ‘fill in the blanks’ by creating suitable quotations about him from other characters or identifying quotations from the novel. Extracts needed from the novel are included but having a copy of it to hand is recommended for those children to use to skim through. In each powerpoint, room has been left for a word of the day. Hope this proves helpful!

15 lessons (5 weeks) of Guided Reading material utilising the novel ‘A Monster Calls’ by Patrick Ness. The pack includes 5 sets of skill based comprehension questions that test students on their retrieval, inference and deduction skills over the course of the unit. Secondly the pack contains a guided, lesson by lesson, teacher question and record sheet with question prompts, answers and areas to note progress in the children. The lessons are split into three per week: The first is based on reading a section of the novel with guided teacher questions to prompt discussion along the way. The second lesson is a focused practice whereby children are given questions similar to those they would receive in their comprehension work. The children can work as a group to decipher what the questions mean and how to solve them. In my experience, this can be teacher-led initially until the children get the hang of it. Finally, the third lesson is an independent lesson for the children. They are given 6/7 comprehension questions from the next section of reading that they would not have seen previously and utilise the skills that they have been practicing previously in the week.

A Guided Reading resource for a Year 6 class based over 21 lessons on the book ‘The Explorer’ by Katherine Rundell. This resource contains the planning for each lesson and the pages that should be read in each as well as questions and prompts for the teacher. It also contains the comprehension pack for the children to complete every third lesson. The lessons are split into three parts. Lesson 1 is a shared/classroom discussion lesson that focuses on all children and teachers reading a set amount of pages. As children read they should be challenged through the selection of vocabulary in the pages and asked inference and retrieval questions throughout whilst reading this gripping tale. Lesson 2 focuses on applying the skills of a written comprehension. Children shall re-read the same pages from the previous lesson, however this time they shall be given a selection of questions that range in purpose; from inference, retrieval, prediction, knowledge of language and more. The questions and wording shall be discussed as a class and then as groups children shall work through these problems and then their answers shall be modeled and shared as a class and supported through teacher involvement. Lesson 3 acts as an independent lesson that pulls together the different skills the children have been working on. They shall read the next specified section of the book and then complete a comprehension sheet on the read pages. The children will be expected to put into practice the type of answers they have been working on as a class and use the code at the top of the comprehension page to help them identify the manner in which they should answer the question.