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.

This is a game that can be played between children in Year 6 and high achievers in Year 5 (however the question cards are editable so can be made applicable for other year groups). Children make their way around the school, earning merits which they use to buy rooms of the school - rooms are editable so you can make it appropriate to your school! We printed the board game off in A3 on card. To earn merits, they gain rent from other players who land on their owned rooms OR answer Maths questions. Children start with 30 merits and compete until players are bankrupt. The game is so well-known in its gameboard version but can be such a helpful revision tool for children to practice what they have learned in lessons. The focus is on Maths revision and comes with 16 question cards based on a range of topics covered in Year 6: Multiplication Division Shapes Ratio BODMAS Decimals Answers to the questions are on the flip side of the cards.