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Immerse yourselves in wonderful stories from the great, diverse continent of Africa. Read Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, The Pot of Wisdom and African Tales. Write Ananse stories using extended sentences.
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.
Spoken language
-- Participate in discussions and performances.
-- Gain, maintain and monitor the interest of the listener(s).
-- Use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas.
Word Reading
None for this unit
Comprehension
-- Listen to and discuss a wide range of fiction.
-- Retrieve and record information from non-fiction.
-- Identify main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph and summarise these.
-- Increase their familiarity with a wide range of books, including fairy stories, myths and legends, and retell some of these orally.
Transcription
None for this unit
Composition
-- Compose and rehearse sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures.
-- Assess the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggest improvements.
Grammar
-- Use fronted adverbials.
-- Extend the range of sentences with more than one clause by using a wider range of conjunctions, including when, if, because, although.
Texts
African Tales, A Barefoot Collection by R Griffin and G Mhlophe
Optional Texts
Africa Is Not a Country by M Melnicove and MB Knight
A Is for Africa by I Onyefulu
Anna Hibiscus by Tobia L. Atinuke
The Fastest Boy in the World by E Laird and P Bailey
Day 1 Teaching
Read the introduction to African Tales by Gcina Mhlophe and Rachel Griffin to begin thinking about Africa.
Activity
Use the non-fiction country sections of African Tales to research information about African countries. Make comparisons between countries, identifying similarities and differences.
Day 2 Teaching
Read about African Traditional Stories from the introduction to African Tales. Hear and discuss a short traditional story from Africa.
Activity
Read further stories from Africa, discussing them with a partner and summarising them in a single sentence. Discuss similarities between these stories and then enjoy listening to Nolwandle from African Tales.
Day 3 Teaching
Watch a story-teller perform an African story and discuss her performance. Discuss story-telling language and model how a story could be told.
Activity
Choose and practise telling an African story. Perform it to others and evaluate performance.
Day 4 Teaching
Read two written versions of an African story and identify the features of the better piece of writing. Model how to write a version of an African story, using fronted adverbials and extending sentences using conjunctions.
Activity
Write versions of an African story, trying to include fronted adverbials and a variety of conjunctions. Enjoy listening to an Ananse story.
Spoken Language
None for this unit
Word Reading
None for this unit
Comprehension
-- Identify how language, structure, and presentation contribute to meaning.
Transcription
None for this unit
Composition
-- Compose and rehearse sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures.
-- Assess the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggest improvements.
Grammar
-- Extend the range of sentences with more than one clause by using a wider range of conjunctions, including when, if, because, although.
-- Use conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time and cause.
-- Use fronted adverbials.
-- Use commas after fronted adverbials.
Texts
The Pot of Wisdom by A Badoe
Presentations
SPAG PowerPoint – Conjunctions: time, place, cause
Day 1 Teaching
Read the story Ananse and the Pot of Wisdom. Look at some sentences that children wrote about the story and use these and a PowerPoint to revise verbs, verb-phrases, clauses and conjunctions.
Activity
Make multi-clause sentences about Ananse using given clauses and conjunctions. Discuss the effect of some example writing that only uses single-clause sentences.
Day 2 Teaching
Read Why Pig Has a Short Snout and compare to the story from Day 1. Use PowerPoint to teach conjunctions being used to express time, place and cause. Look at how conjunctions have been used in a summary of today’s story.
Activity
Highlight conjunctions in sentences about today’s story and identify whether they are expressing time, place or cause. Write multi-clause sentences about today’s story. Discuss the effect of placement and clarify the use of punctuation when a subordinate clause starts a sentence.
Day 3 Teaching
Look in detail at an illustration from Ananse story and then make up a class story that could fit it. Using a list of conjunctions model how to start writing a version of this story.
Activity
Children write their own version of the story, including multi-clause sentences with conjunctions expressing time, place and cause. Listen to the original story and compare it with your own.
SPAG PowerPoint – Conjunctions: time, place, cause
This presentation revises the concept of a clause (verb/subject) and then teaches the use of conjunctions to add information about time, cause and place.
Spoken Language
-- Use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining, exploring ideas.
Word Reading
None for this unit
Comprehension
-- Listen to and discuss a wide range of fiction.
-- Ask questions to improve their understanding of a text.
-- Draw inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justify inferences with evidence.
-- Participate in discussion about both books that are read to them and those they can read for themselves, taking turns and listening to what others say.
-- Predict what might happen from details stated and implied.
Transcription
None for this unit
Composition
-- In narratives, create settings.
-- Compose and rehearse sentences orally, progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures.
-- Assess the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggest improvements.
Grammar
None for this unit
Texts
Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by J Steptoe
Day 1 Teaching
Read the start of Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe, discussing the characters and making predictions about the story.
Activity
Read the whole of the first section of this story and answer questions from the text. Learn about the author and how he wrote the book.
Day 2 Teaching
Use drama freezeframes to explore the characters’ reaction to a messenger’s proclamation.
Activity
Read further into the story, making choices about what a character could do, before discovering what she actually chose.
Day 3 Teaching
Read the next section of the story and talk about the text with a partner and as a whole class.
Activity
Draw and write to imagine what the main character will discover, before finding out what was awaiting her.
Day 4 Teaching
Make a story-map of the story and talk about personal responses. Look at the last paragraph and think about the changes for each character.
Activity
Write letters from the daughters to their father, describing their changed lives. Discuss the character of the King and whether or not his actions were good.
Spoken Language
None for this unit
Word Reading
None for this unit
Comprehension
None for this unit
Transcription
None for this unit
Composition
-- Compose and rehearse sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures.
-- Assess the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggest improvements
Grammar
-- Use conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time and cause.
-- Use fronted adverbials.
-- Use commas after fronted adverbials.
Texts
The Pot of Wisdom by A Badoe
Presentations
SPAG PowerPoint – Adverbials and fronted adverbials
Day 1 Teaching
Read Ananse the Forgetful Guest from The Pot of Wisdom by Adwoa Badoe. Look at sentences from this story that include adverbials, then use a Powerpoint to teach about adverbials, including punctuating fronted adverbials.
Activity
Read sentences about Ananse, identify verbs and adverbials. Try writing some new sentences using these adverbials and creating new adverbials based on them.
Day 2 Teaching
Read a shortened version of text from Ananse the Forgetful Guest where adverbials have been removed. Talk about the effect of this. Use a Powerpoint to teach about adverbials as single words, subordinate clauses and prepositional phrases.
Activity
Use another shortened version of the Ananse story and rewrite, adding adverbials.
Day 3 Teaching
Look at an illustration of an Ananse story. As a class, make up a story-plan that could fit the illustrations. Model writing the start of this story, including adverbials.
Activity
Write own versions of this story then compare it with the story from the book. Talk about the effect of adverbials.
SPAG PowerPoint – Adverbials and fronted adverbials
This presentation uses a step by step approach to explain first adverbs, then adverbials, including phrases and clauses, and finally fronted adverbials including correct punctuation.
Spoken Language
None for this unit
Word Reading
None for this unit
Comprehension
-- Listen to and discuss a wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks.
-- Discuss words and phrases that capture the reader’s interest/imagination.
Transcription
-- Increase the legibility, consistency and quality of their handwriting.
Composition
-- Plan writing by discussing writing similar to that which they are planning to write in order to understand and learn from its structure, vocabulary and grammar.
-- Compose and rehearse sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures.-- Discuss and record ideas.
-- In narratives, create settings, characters and plot.
-- Assess the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggest improvements.
-- Propose changes to grammar and vocabulary to improve consistency.
-- Proof-read for spelling and punctuation errors.
Grammar
-- Extend the range of sentences with more than one clause.
-- Use fronted adverbials.
Texts
The Pot of Wisdom by A Badoe
Presentations
SPAG PowerPoints – Revision
Day 1 Teaching
Read Ananse Becomes the Owner of Stories and talk about Ananse. Model marking up a text, showing interesting words and phrases and information about the character.
Activity
Work with a partner to read and mark up Why Ananse Lives on the Ceiling. Discuss different types of Ananse story.
Day 2 Teaching
Read or remember stories where Ananse meets another animal: Why Pig has a short snout and Ananse and the Birds. Discuss a story about Ananse meeting a chameleon.
Activity
Make story plans for a new Ananse story. Share these together and decide an audience for the finished stories.
Day 3 Teaching
Model writing a draft story from a plan and the marked-up text from Day 1. Include use of conjunctions and prepositional phrases if Unit 2 and 4 have been used.
Activity
Discuss the set phrases sometimes used to start and end African stories. Choose one of these for own writing.
Day 4 Teaching
Look at the presentation of stories in The Pot of Wisdom. Model making changes to a draft story. Revisit expectations for presentation.
Activity
Finalise stories, presenting them with an illustration and border art. Prepare stories for sharing with your audience. Read the story from The Pot of Wisdom about Ananse and the Chameleon and talk about it together.
SPAG PowerPoints – Revision
This presentation revises clause, phrases and words used as adverbials and shows how these can be used to give information about time, cause, place and manner.
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