Outsiders - Year 6 Writing Unit (Newspaper, Letter and Narrative)

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.