You Will Need
Texts
Poems from the resources document
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Poetry
English Year 2 Autumn Poems on a Theme
Poems about families
Evocative and humorous poems about families are used to stimulate reading, discussion and writing poetry. Learn use of apostrophes and comparative/superlative adjectives.
We recommend that you start with the core unit, the heart of this English block of study. This introduces key textual material and sets the tone for any further units you wish to teach. These can be selected on the basis of the needs of your class – look at the green icons to identify the unit’s particular focus: SPAG, Composition or Comprehension. Whichever units you choose, we suggest teaching them in order, as there is a built-in progression indicated by the numbering.
‘UNIT PLAN’ gives you a text version of all parts of the unit to use in your school planning documentation. ‘DOWNLOAD ALL FILES’ gives you that unit plan plus all of the associated documents.
Unit 1 Core: Read, discuss and respond creatively to poems about families
(suggested as 4 days)
Objectives
Composition
-- Write poetry.
-- Plan or say out loud what they are going to write about.
-- Encapsulate what they want to say, sentence by sentence.
-- Read aloud what they have written with appropriate intonation to make meaning clear.
Transcription
-- Form lower-case letters of the correct size relative to one another.
-- Write capital letters… of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another…
-- Start using some of the diagonal and horizontal strokes needed to join letters and understand which letters, when adjacent to one another, are best left un-joined.
-- Use spacing between words that reflects size of the letters.
Spoken language
-- Maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations, staying on topic and initiating and responding to comments.
-- Give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings.
-- Use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas.
-- Participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debates.
Word reading
-- Continue to apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words until automatic decoding has become embedded and reading is fluent.
Comprehension
-- Develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read, vocabulary and understanding by listening to, discussing and expressing views about a wide range of contemporary and classic poetry, stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently.
Grammar
-- Learn how to use subordination (because).
Teaching and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Show children photographs of your family and lead a discussion about family life and relatives. Read children Granny Granny Please Comb My Hair by Grace Nicholls, prompting children to retell the poem’s ‘story’ and to comment on the family members involved.
Activity
Children work in mixed ability pairs. They select four members of their own family to talk to partners about. They write these family members’ names on paper and record in note form the various kind and loving things they do.
Day 2 Teaching
Read children My Dad is Amazing by Ian Souter. Lead a discussion as to suitable adjectives that could be used to describe much-loved relatives. Teach children how to form capital letters correctly. Model composing a short poem based loosely on My Dad is Amazing.
Activity
Children work in ability-related pairs. They write their own versions of My Dad is Amazing about their fathers or other family members. Some write longer poems while others create simple list poems of adjectives that could be used to describe their chosen relative.
Day 3 Teaching
Read children Predictable by Andrea Shavick and Bedtime by Eleanor Farjeon. Lead discussions of the events and characters in each poem and compare the two. Model using phonics and other word-reading skills to decode texts.
Activity
Working in reading-ability related small groups, children shared-read a series of poems about families. They comment on the events and characters featured in the poems. They compare the different poems. Some children will read more poems than others while others will continue to read only with adult support.
Day 4 Teaching
Read children What Will I Be When I Grow Up? by James Carter. Review the other poems about families read during the Unit. Model selecting a favourite poem and writing a brief review. Remind children of the purpose of best handwriting and word spacing when producing finished work.
Activity
Children work independently or in writing ability-related pairs. They consider all the poems read in this Unit, select a favourite, and write a brief review of their chosen poem. Some contrast their poem with others read in class.
Unit 2 SPaG: Learning to Use Apostrophes and Commas
(suggested as 4 days)
Objectives
Transcription
-- Learning to spell more words with contracted forms.
-- Learn to use apostrophes for possessive (singular).
-- Form lower-case letters of the correct size relative to one another.
-- Use spacing between words that reflects the size of the letters.
Grammar
-- Develop understanding of the concepts set out in English Appendix 2 by learning how to use both familiar and new punctuation correctly, including full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks, question marks, commas for lists and apostrophes for contracted forms and the possessive (singular).
Composition
-- Plan or say out loud what they are going to write about.
-- Write down ideas and/or key words, including new vocabulary.
-- Write poetry.
-- Encapsulate what they want to say, sentence by sentence.
-- Make simple additions, revisions and corrections to their own writing by proof-reading to check for errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation [for example, ends of sentences punctuated correctly].
-- Read aloud what they have written with appropriate intonation to make the meaning clear.
You Will Need
Texts
Poems from the resources document
Teaching and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Reach children the poem Going Through the Old Photos by Michael Rosen. Introduce children to the concept of the apostrophe of omission and explore the role of the apostrophe in contractions.
Activity
Children work in ability-related pairs. They read a short text and highlight the contractions within it. The copy out each contraction and break it down into its constituent words. Some children also write sentences of their own containing a range of contractions while others are supported to spot contractions by playing a game of pairs.
Day 2 Teaching
Read children In Grandma’s Kitchen by Matt Simpson. Revisit apostrophes of omission studied yesterday and then introduce children to the role of the possessive apostrophe. Consolidate children’s knowledge and understanding by locating and explaining possessive apostrophes in the poem My Grandpa’s Shed by Hamilton Trust.
Activity
Working in ability-related pairs, children complete a series of exercises relating to possessive apostrophes. Some children work as a group with adult support to gain greater confidence in using apostrophes to denote possession.
Day 3 Teaching
Read children My Mum’s Put Me on the Transfer List by David Harmer and briefly revisit apostrophes of both possession and omission. Model drafting a new version of David Harmer’s poem based on a prepared list of your own good and not quite so good qualities.
Activity
Children work independently or in ability-related pairs. They use lists of their good and not quite so good qualities compiled at home by parents and other family members to draft new versions of My Mum’s Put Me on the Transfer List. They check to see they are using apostrophes correctly where necessary.
Day 4 Teaching
Reread My Mum’s Put Me on the Transfer List and teach the use of commas to separate items in a list. Model transcribing an edited draft of a poem into a ’best copy’ version using excellent handwriting and even word spacing. Teach children the value of re-reading their own work to spot errors and to identify ways to improve their writing still further.
Activity
Children work independently. They create best copy versions of their draft poems, taking account of teacher comments and adding commas where necessary to separate items in a list. They rehearse reading their poems out loud before doing so in front of the class.
Unit 3 SPaG: Suffixes –er and –est on Comparative and Superlative Adjectives
(suggested as 3 days)
Objectives
Spoken language
-- Give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings.
Grammar
-- Learn how to use the grammar for Year 2 in English Appendix 2 by using the suffixes –er, –est in adjectives.
-- Use and understand the grammatical terminology in English Appendix 2 in discussing their writing (adjectives).
Composition
-- Encapsulate what they want to say, sentence by sentence.
Transcription
-- Apply Spelling Rules and Guidance as listed in Appendix 1.
-- Add suffixes to spell longer words.
You Will Need
Texts
Poems from the resources document
Teaching and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Read children Samantha is Sobbing by Gareth Owen, The Older the Violin the Sweeter the Tune by John Agard and Granny Granny Please Comb my Hair by Grace Nicholls. Ask class to select adjectives that could be used to describe grandmothers and teach the formation of the comparative form of regular adjectives by adding the -er suffix.
Activity
Children work in mixed-ability pairs. They talk with one another about their grandmothers or other kind relatives. They compose lines that use the comparative forms of adjectives to describe relatives and record some of these on paper.
Day 2 Teaching
Read children Granny by Spike Milligan and use the poem as an opportunity to explore creating the superlative form of regular adjectives by adding the suffix -est.
Activity
Children work in ability-related pairs. They give the comparative and superlative forms of a number of common, regular adjectives. They also use these adjectives in their comparative and superlative forms to describe the family members depicted in a series of ‘happy families’ images.
Day 3 Teaching
Read children Our Grandma Kissed a Pumpkin by Darren Sardelli. Introduce adjectives where the comparative and superlative forms are irregular.
Activity
Working in ability-related pairs, children review the poems they have read in this Unit. They compose sentences comparing and commenting on the poems that use the comparative and superlative forms of appropriate adjectives, mostly regular but also some irregular.
Unit 4 Composition: Planning and writing a letter poem based on one read
(suggested as 4 days)
Objectives
Spoken language
-- Articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions.
-- Maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations, staying on topic and initiating and responding to comments.
-- Use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas.
-- Give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings.
Word reading
-- Continue to apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words until automatic decoding has become embedded and reading is fluent.
Comprehension
-- Participate in discussion about books, poems and other works that are read to them and those that they can read for themselves, taking turns and listening to what others say.
-- Explain and discuss their understanding of books, poems and other material, both those that they listen to and those that they read for themselves.
Composition
-- Consider what they are going to write before beginning by planning or saying out loud what they are going to write about and by writing down ideas and/or key words, including new vocabulary.
-- Write poetry.
-- Encapsulate what they want to say, sentence by sentence.
-- Re-read to check that their writing makes sense and that verbs to indicate time are used correctly and consistently, including verbs in the continuous form.
-- Evaluate their writing with the teacher and other pupils.
-- Proof-read to check for errors in spelling [and]...grammar.
-- Read aloud what they have written with appropriate intonation to make the meaning clear.
Transcription
-- Form lower-case letters of the correct size relative to one another.
-- Write capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower case letters.
-- Use spacing between words that reflects the size of the letters.
You Will Need
Texts
Poems from the resources document
Teaching and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Read children Family Flusters by Ruth Merttens and Anne Holm Peterson. Teach children to revisit passages within a text in order to confirm answers to questions they are asked about their reading. Help children to continue to develop word-reading skills.
Activity
Working in small, ability-related reading groups, children re-read Family Flusters and answer a series of comprehension questions about the story. Some read only with adult help; others answer more complex questions.
Day 2 Teaching
Read children Dear Mum by Brian Patton. Lead a discussion about the events and characters depicted in the poem. Model planning a new version of the poem by helping children to list further ‘accidents’ that could occur at home and other excuses that could be offered to explain these accidents.
Activity
Children work in ability-related pairs. They discuss ideas for their new version of Dear Mum and record the best of these as notes on paper. Some plan for longer poems than others. Later, children role-play a child making excuses for a series of ‘accidents’ in their home.
Day 3 Teaching
Re-read Dear Mum and draw attention to the poem’s structure and formal properties. Model converting notes made yesterday into lines of poetry that mimic those in Dear Mum. Emphasise the need to regularly re-read work to check for sense and repetition.
Activity
Children work independently or with the support of ability-related partners. They use the ideas they captured yesterday to write out first drafts of their Dear Mum poems. Some will write longer poems, but all chn will attempt to capture the poetic voice and form of the original poem.
Day 4 Teaching
Read children the poem Dear Charlie by Hamilton Trust. Stress the importance of responding to teacher suggestions when converting a draft poem into a final ‘best copy’ version. Teach children any relevant letter forms and again underline the value of re-reading work to check for errors or omissions.
Activity
Children work independently. They produce final, ‘best copy’ versions of their draft Dear Mum poems. If finished, they also compose brief ‘reply poems’ in the spirit of Dear Charlie. Later, they share their poems with the rest of the class.