English Year 6 Autumn Stories that Raise Issues

Texts
Eric by Shaun Tan

Presentations
Grammar PowerPoint: Pronouns and Determiners

Day 1 Teaching
Discuss emotions around feeling like an outsider. Introduce Eric by Shaun Tan and share first two pages. Discuss the meaning of ‘alien’: unfamiliar/strange.
Activity
In small groups, children describe a time when they felt like an outsider.

Day 2 Teaching
Share Eric, discussing the character’s experiences as an outsider and how the family felt about the ‘cultural differences’ between them.
Activity
Children use illustrations to discuss objects which may have confused or intrigued Eric. They empathise with Eric, making inferences and predictions about his feelings and questions, recording their ideas in short paragraphs.

Day 3 Teaching
Revise and extend children’s knowledge of cohesion using PowerPoint: Pronouns and Determiners (see resources).
Activity
Children identify, explore using and replacing pronouns and determiners and write cohesively about an imagined daytrip with Eric. Differentiated activities are led by a Pronouns and Determiners prompt sheet (see resources).

Pronouns and Determiners PowerPoint
This PowerPoint recaps cohesion before revising the identification and function of pronouns and determiners and their role in cohesive writing.

Texts
Eric by Shaun Tan

Presentations
Grammar PowerPoint: Conjunctions

Day 1 Teaching
Reread end of Eric, discussing Eric’s sudden departure. Speculate about his reasons for leaving and how it made the family feel. Plan the structure of a letter which Eric could have written to give the family some closure.

Activity
Individually, children write a letter in the role of Eric, thanking the family, providing reasons for leaving and giving details of what he will do next. Children use pronouns and determiners to ensure cohesion in their writing.

Day 2 Teaching
Revise conjunctions using the PowerPoint: Conjunctions (see resources). Children read their letters from Day 1 and assess for cohesion, identifying areas which could be improved, including with conjunctions.
Activity
Children annotate and improve their letters, thinking about spelling, punctuation and cohesion (including conjunctions). They redraft these into cohesive pieces of writing.

Conjunctions PowerPoint
This PowerPoint revises conjunctions, how they create cohesion and how they are punctuated.

Texts
The Island by Armin Greder

Websites
Life in a refugee camp: Neeroz's story (UNICEF)

Day 1 Teaching
Discuss the meaning of the term, ‘refugee’ and what children understand about this complex issue. Watch a UNICEF made video about the life of one child refugee.
Activity
Role play a visiting refugee, encouraging children to ask sensitive questions to find out more about why people become refugees and what the experience is like. Children imagine being a refugee and how that might feel.

Day 2 Teaching
Share The Island by Armin Greder, discussing the illustrations and issues it raises.
Activity
In pairs, children discuss and answer questions about The Island (see resources) which encourage them to make inferences and to justify answers when there is no one definitive answer.

Day 3 Teaching
Reread the section of The Island which focuses on how the islanders reacted to the Stranger living in the goat pen. Make links between the fictional headline and real ones in recent newspapers (see resources).
Activity
Children write a newspaper report which presents the islanders’ point of view with the headline ’Foreigner Spreads Fear in Town’. They use techniques such as using quotes and backing up statements with evidence from the book.

Texts
The Island by Armin Greder

Presentations
Grammar PowerPoint: Adverbs & Adverbials (Cohesion)

Day 1 Teaching
Revise adverbs using PowerPoint: Adverbs & Adverbials (slides 2-5), focusing in particular on their cohesive function. Check that children can identify adverbs by their function, rather than just relying on the -ly suffix as several adverbs do not end this way (fast, hard, then etc.)
Activity
Using the resource, Adverbs Sheet (see resources), children identify, select and then use adverbs in their own writing. Challenge the more able to consider the impact of adverb placement and the implications for punctuation.

Day 2 Teaching
Revise adverbials using PowerPoint: Adverbs & Adverbials (slides 6-9). Distribute Adverbials sheet (see resources), checking children’s understanding as they complete the challenge. Return to The Island, reminding children of the jobs discussed for the stranger. What were they? Imagine if he was given a chance. What might happen?
Activity
Children choose a job and imagine that the stranger was given a chance. What might happen? Children write an account of one or more attempts, in the role of the stranger. They should use adverbs and adverbials to link their ideas,

Day 3 Teaching
Re-read The Island, asking children to think about the plot events, particularly shifts in setting or time. Discuss paragraphing and how cohesion can be created by using adverbials, using PowerPoint: Adverbs and Adverbials (slides 10-13). Children will write or improve a precis of The Island, using cohesive adverbials.
Activity
Easier: Children read and then re-write/edit the passage (see resources) using adverbs and adverbials, focusing especially on creating flow between paragraphs.
Harder: Write a precis of the book using adverbials without the plan resource, but the list of adverbs on slide 3 will be useful here as an aide-memoire.

Adverbs and Adverbials (Cohesion) PowerPoint
Revise adverbs and how they can be used for cohesion. Revise adverbials and how they provide cohesion within/between paragraphs in the context of fiction.

Texts
Eric by Shaun Tan

Optional Texts
The Island by Armin Greder

Day 1 Teaching
Remind children of the outsider stories they have read. Discuss ideas with a partner for a new outsider story prompted by ‘Our stories: Things to ponder’ (see resources).
Activity
Using planning sheets (see resources), children plan a new story, thinking carefully about setting, character and how the main character is an outsider. For less able, plan as an adult supported group, and then photocopy for individual use for the rest of the unit.

Day 2 Teaching
Share/display a modelled plan. Identify the parts which will be useful for writing the opening. Model writing the opening, including adverbs and adverbials for cohesion. Discuss and display further adverbials which children may find useful today to link paragraphs.
Activity
Children start writing their stories, using their plans produced on Day 1. Use mini plenaries to focus on effective creation of cohesion, using adverbs and adverbials to show when and where the events took place, especially where they are used to link between paragraphs.

Day 3 Teaching
Discuss the content and function of the build-up to the story: the outsider appears, and the locals react. Discuss the opportunities to use determiners and pronouns for cohesion and clarity. Revise dialogue punctuation if needed.
Activity
Children write the build up to their stories. Encourage children to use pronouns and determiners to provide cohesion. Remind children to continue to use adverbs and adverbials, especially to give links between paragraphs.

Day 4 Teaching
Children review plans and discuss what they will write today: the crisis and the resolution. Remind children of conjunctions and how they can be used to make links to do with cause, time, place and contrast. Model writing the opening of the crisis section of the shared story.
Activity
Children write the crisis and ending to their stories: this could be happily or unhappily! Use mini plenaries to focus on effective creation of cohesion, using conjunctions. Remind children to continue to use the cohesive devices you have been practising.

Day 5 Teaching
Ask children to read their stories to a partner. Can their partner spot cohesive adverbials, conjunctions, determiners or pronouns? Ask children to make quick notes on any areas to improve. Remind children that they can check spellings with a dictionary.
Activity
Children improve their writing, using the notes they made with their writing partner. Then children focus on punctuation and spelling. They can lastly make a final check for the impact of their stories. Are there any vocabulary choices which could be improved?