Descriptive Narrative (3 weeks) unit based on Leon & the Place Between by Angela McAllister

This is a 3 week unit of planning that produces a fantastic descriptive narrative writing piece based on the beautiful picture book Leon and the Place Between. This is the story of a boy who gets whisked away during a magical trick at the circus to where magic exists. This unit always inspires some excellent creative writing as it so engaging. This text is best suited to lower KS2 but can easily be adapted to upper KS2.

I have listed the learning objectives for all of the lessons below. Also I have included all of the worksheets, PowerPoints, links and resources you will need to teach this unit straight away.

Stage 1- Stimulate & Generate learning outcomes
• To be able to write in a form appropriate to the task
• To engage with a text through its setting
• To use expanded noun phrases to convey complicated information concisely
• To be able to select vocabulary to create an impact on the reader
• To identify different word classes in a text (e.g. verb, adjective, noun, adverb conjunction, pronoun & preposition

Stage 2 - Capture, Sift & Sort learning outcomes
• To modify sentences using a variety of word classes and adverbials
• To write poetic sentences, using authorial techniques
• To cohesively join sentences to build stanzas within poems
• To make plausible inferences about a character’s emotions throughout a text

Stage 3 - Create, Refine & Evaluate learning outcomes
• To generate and select ideas relevant to the text
• To sequence key events across a story
• To write a descriptive narrative based on the style of an author I have read
• To revise, edit evaluate and improve my writing
• To revise, edit evaluate and improve my writing
• To publish work for a given audience and purpose

Stimulate and generate = This usually starts with a hook to interest the class where the class realise who they are going to write for so they have a clear purpose and audience. Activities can include reading excellent model texts, drama or researching more about the author or the content of the book.

Capture, sift and sort = This is the part of the unit where pupils look at key features, practise skills they will need in order to complete the final piece or new learning for objectives they have not learnt yet.

Create, refine, evaluate = This is where you bring all you have learnt together and plan the final piece before you write it and then edit it to improve the piece. This can include self, peer or teacher led reviewing.