A Walker has worked as an LEA Literacy Consultant, an Expert Leading Literacy Teacher, a primary school teacher, an author and was responsible for teaching and learning at one of the UK’s leading Independent Prep schools. She is an author of educational materials used in schools for Cambridge University Press, Pearson, Rising Stars and Cambridge Hitachi and is an experienced KS2 & KS3 English teacher.
A Walker has worked as an LEA Literacy Consultant, an Expert Leading Literacy Teacher, a primary school teacher, an author and was responsible for teaching and learning at one of the UK’s leading Independent Prep schools. She is an author of educational materials used in schools for Cambridge University Press, Pearson, Rising Stars and Cambridge Hitachi and is an experienced KS2 & KS3 English teacher.
Poetry guided reading mats - comprehension questions on any poem aimed at 3 ability levels. Can be used for group and individual speaking and listening, guided reading or class discussion.
Poetry and Narrative Guided Reading Mats - questions for highly able readers on any poem, or story. There are two poetry questions mat - one aimed at younger and one at older children and a narrative mat. The questions can be selected to suit the ability level of the children. They could be used for book talk speaking and listening or comprehension tasks. It could be used for whole class, group or individual pupil work.
A poetry mat - with question prompts for highly able readers to be able to discuss any poem in guided reading.This mat provides question prompts to use with any poem. It helps to develop deeper understanding with highly able readers. It develops the pupils ability to support answers with evidence from the text. It could be used with individuals, or small groups.
Character - positive character traits vocab building list. I cut up the words and pupils sorted the list into words they knew, thought they might know and definitely didn't know. Words could also be used to sort, for example, words with linked meanings and made into Mind Maps. Suited to some pupils in Upper Key Stage 2, but also some pupils in Key Stage 3 and 4.
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.
Great writing tasks - (story, newspaper, persuasive task) on Ancient Egypt.
Differentiated writing tasks with, for example, model texts, planners and teaching notes. A fun Egyptian holiday brochure, a Tutankhamun newspaper and story about 'Night in an Egyptian Museum'.
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.
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.
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.
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'?
