The Tutankhamun newspaper is written to demonstrate newspaper genre features such as, lead line telling the 5Ws, embedded clauses , synonyms, columns and quotations. There are detailed teaching notes and differentiated support planners to scaffold the writing to get good understanding of the newspaper genre and a good piece of writing.

4-3-2-1 strategy reading comprehension sheet for use with any non-fiction text.

321 Reading Strategy Worksheet for use with any non fiction text.

There is an example of a holiday brochure tour of Egypt to demonstrate persuasive techniques, including the use of Imperative verbs and adjectives. Children then use the text and the planning worksheet to write their own holiday tour of Egypt. Pupils can use their own knowledge of places from their work on Ancient Egypt, but they don't need to, because places are mentioned in the example holiday brochure for them to use. Extension task - there is an example of an Egyptian holiday brochure, again written to demonstrate genre features and persuasive techniques. There is a scaffold frame, so pupils can produce their own realistic hotel brochures. There are also images included for pupils to add images to make their persuasive holiday work look authentic.

This is a great lesson on character. The modelled writing task makes pupils focus on Dahl's style. There are two word documents for pupils to adapt to create modelled character descriptions. See the two pdfs which show the work produced by the task.

There is a space, at the bottom of the page, to write more about what you notice and what you can infer about the character of Napoleon from the way he is portrayed .

These worksheets improve creative writing by getting pupils to reveal clues that show how a character feels, rather than through simply telling, for example ' they are angry.' There are two aimed at different ability levels. They can then be used as a resource for their own creative writing.

These pictures help pupils to see the imagery used by Dahl to describe Miss Trunchbull. The worksheet requires pupils to find the connotations, for example, in what way is Miss Trunchbull like an 'enraged rhinocerous'?

A structured comprehension task grid, for Upper KS2, showing pupils how to find evidence of the character of Miss Trunchbull and Miss Honey from Dahl's Matilda. Pupils find quotations from the text to make the character points and then fill in an explanation of how the quote proves the point. There is also an extension task with a different character text, a worksheet recapping how to find evidence of character and a bookmark reminding pupils how to write about characters. There are also images for discussing the similes.

This is a suspense story about being locked in the Egyptian Gallery of a museum over night. This is a word document, so can be used as an ICT text for pupils. The pupils are instructed to improve and finish the story, using techniques (such as, adding description of the character's feelings, describing sounds and setting). There is a self assessment worksheet ( that proves far more effective than success criteria) and also detailed teaching notes.

I find these so useful, because they make children self assess. The work because they make pupils notice the features that will improve their descriptive writing and story writing. I find these a much more effective tool than success criteria. Children don't always take ownership of targets or success criteria, but this encourages them to reflect critically on their writing and make progress. The self assessment worksheets are differentiated.

A structured comprehension on 'The Sea' by James Reeve and a word mat to prompt discussion of any poem. Suitable for upper KS2 and KS3. For differentiation, you can select which questions children complete, or for group discussion you can use the poetry word mat. The session started by discussing the poem and finding examples of poetic techniques, such as rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, assonance and sibilant sounds. We discussed the change in the three verses. For extension, pupils could either write a river metaphor (see river metaphor poem ), or alternatively find points of comparison between the river and a different things (see worksheet).

Sorting task for parts of rivers a course. 1. Pupils sort words into Upper, Middle and Lower Course of a river 2. Pupils sort words into sequence to support their writing of a paragraph about each of the stages of a river.

Fair test - melting experiment

A cloze procedure to test scientific understanding, following reading the wonderful book, A Drop in the Ocean by Jacqui Bailey.

Pupils are given the opening of Secret Garden and a grid giving clues to techniques used to show character. An example of the grid is below: Point - We find out about Mary Lennox’s character from what the narrator tells us directly about her. Evidence – I know this because it says… Explanation – This shows that… Working with the word document, pupils have to copy quotations from the text that prove the character points listed and paste them into the grid table. Next they fill in the table by explaining how their quotation proves the point. There are three sheets, differentiated for different abilities, requiring children who need more support to just fill in the section explaining how their quotation proves their point. There is a worksheet to show pupils how to work out clues to a character and an explanation of PEE (point, evidence, explain) the task can also be done on paper without a computer using the text. I asked the children to use three colours for the point, evidence, explanation.

An easy simile poem idea that can deliver some surprisingly creative ideas There's an example, ideas sheet and scaffold. I found an example of a 'If my Thoughts Took Shape' poem years ago and recently made the scaffold and ideas sheet to structure and support pupils.

Worksheet to find the point of comparison

This delivers great short story writing results for upper KS2, because this photo story includes a scaffold frame to support weaker writers to get good story writing results. It also includes a popular visual stimulus and a story start. It also includes a vocabulary building sheet to develop the vocabulary of the most able. I started the task by watching Steve Backshall's Shark Bites - very short CBBC programmes on sharks, including the Great White. Next, I read the extract from Anthony Horowitz's Skeleton Key where Alex Rider came in contact with a shark and discussed how the writer uses description of the character's feelings as well as description of the shark to build suspense. The worksheet of vocabulary can be used to model an effective noun phrase and sentence to describe the shark as a speaking and listening, or guided writing task. The story starts with a diver swimming next to a tiger shark and everything is calm. Next, he notices the shadow of a great white approaching. The pupils need to finish this story start. I suggested that the story ends with the diver getting away from the shark. The children that need more support could work with the scaffold frame for guided story writing to structure their work and show how feelings and description are required to build suspense. We also listened to 'Jaws' music from John Williams.