Watertower Scheme of Work - Newspaper Report writing (Year 5)

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.