Literacy Term 6 Year 4 Non Fiction, Information Texts Date WALT Introduction Main activity Plenary Resources Mon Revise alphabetical order and using a dictionary Introduce the new topic of Information Texts. Ask the children what we mean by text. Mind map on the board a few examples of different types of text we may come across. If not offered as an example, mention a dictionary what is it used for? How is it organised? On whiteboards, ask the children to write out the alphabet in the correct order. Move around to check if there are any difficulties with this task. Show the power point Alphabetical order. Children can answer the questions on whiteboards. Show them the Alphabetical order sheet. Explain that when we use a dictionary, we often have to be able to look at the second, third or even the fifth letter to find out where the word will be listed, just as it showed on the power point. Exclamation marks - work independently Question marks, Speech marks, Commas - work with a partner Full stops - use alphabet prompt Write out a list of words for a partner to sort. Try to make it as Have a quick go of the Dictionary game. Working in pairs, the children have to be the fastest pair to look up a word. First hands up can read out the definition. Write them on the board for each round; Cooperation Synonym Independence Add the words to the Working Wall to refer back to another day and see who can remember the definitions. Whiteboards and pens Alphabetical order power point Alphabetical order sheet EM, QM and SM sheets with all 3 sections Full stops only 2 sections
tricky as possible. Use a dictionary to help you organise the game. Tuesday Use a Thesaurus to improve our writing Recap the learning from the previous lesson. Cover the definitions and see who can remember them. Explain that today we are going to be using a Thesaurus. Can anyone explain what we use it for? Clarify understanding so that they know we can look up alternative words (synonyms) to improve our writing. Read out the Jack & Sophie conversation and ask the children if they notice anything about it. Explain that when a word is repeated, in this case said, the piece of writing is very boring for the reader. Show the children the activity sheet Using a Thesaurus about Aunt Skeeter. Explain that they need to look up the words in brackets and choose an alternative to improve the story. E marks independent WS1 Q Marks, S Marks in pairs WS1 Commas - in pairs WS2 Full Stops - work in a group with an adult, taking turns to choose an alternative to fill in on the A3, WS3 sheet. Share back a few stories with changed words. Children to self assess how they found using a thesaurus using thumbs. Definitions from previous lesson He said, she said sheet A3 Using a Thesaurus activity sheets Thesaurus for one between two Give out thesaurus one between two. Challenge the children to look up the word said and look at the alternatives. Share them. Illustrate how we can improve the conversation Can you find any other words to improve the story even more?
Thurs between Jack and Sophie by changing some of the said s and rereading it. Organise information into paragraphs Tell the children that we will be looking at how information is organised into paragraphs. Does anyone know what paragraphs are? Show the Little Miss Muffet power point which shows how information can be divided up into different sections (paragraphs) As a class have a look at the Paragraphs sheet. Try to sort the sentences into three different categories by underlining each one in a different colour. Go through the list and invite children to choose which paragraph the sentence should go in and come up and underline in the appropriate colour. Explain that we could now re write these sentences, putting the sections together in paragraphs so that it made sense rather than the information being all jumbled up. Share some ideas. Let the audience know when you have started a new paragraph by pausing. 2 stars and a wish feedback did they separate their paragraphs out so that each new bit of information was in a new paragraph? Little Miss Muffet power point Paragraphs sheet A3 for class activity Family Paragraphs prompt sheets Introduce the Family paragraphs task. Explain that it is very important to keep the sections of information separated into different paragraphs so that the reader does not get confused by which family member you are writing about. In the same way as Miss Muffet was
divided into different sections and the paragraphs task was in different sections. Write your paragraphs up in your literacy books. Differentiated by outcome Full stops to work on table with adult support Mon Think of some sub headings you could use for each paragraph of information Use past and present tenses of verbs Elicit form the children their understanding on past, present and future tense. Can they identify the tense in; I am singing I ate my breakfast I am going to Spain this summer Show the children the match past and present activity sheet. Ask them to draw two columns in their book and write underneath whether the word is past or present tense, matching them up, e.g Present Past lighting lit playing played Can the children remember what our new literacy topic is? Information Texts. Recap looking at alphabetical order and dictionary work, improving our writing using thesaurus. Recap the importance of Past, present, future power point Match past & present verbs sheet
Show the children the past, present, future power point. E marks work independently Q marks & S marks work in pairs C and FS work with adult support Can you add some examples of your own at the bottom of your columns. Use a dictionary to help. using paragraphs to organise and sequence information, starting a new paragraph for each new piece of information and yesterday s lesson on present tense. These are all important skills we need for our topic. Put together a Features of Information Texts checklist; Heading Paragraphs Subheadings Opening statement Present tense Tues Mixture of long and short sentences
Make notes on Elephants Recap the Features of Information Texts from yesterday. Explain that we are going to learn how to collect information and make effective notes Elicit what children know about Elephants at this stage. Show the children the video on Elephants http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/c lips/the-features-of-elephants-andtheir-functions/12678.html Watch it once through together, not writing anything down. (Lasts just less than 5 mins). Send children to their literacy groups. Explain that we will watch the video through again and this time they should try to write down some key points and facts in their books If attention allows, play it through one more time to pick up any more information that they may have missed. Can you add any subheadings to help to organise the information? Share some key points that the children have recorded. Look at possible subheadings/ grouping for the information gathered. Video clip on Elephants http://www.bbc.co.uk/le arningzone/clips/thefeatures-of-elephantsand-theirfunctions/12678.html Thurs Once it has finished, ask some children to tell a partner about some key points that they have taken from it. Share some of these and write them as notes on the board together to demonstrate what you are asking them to do.
To begin to research a chosen topic on the internet Recap the steps to success for the unit on information texts. Remind the children what we learnt last lesson about making notes. Explain that we will be choosing our own topics to research in pairs, each pair will then put together a power point that we can show to other people to give them information about their chosen topics. As we have limited computers, we will be working in pairs to produce a power point. Once partners have been given, children will be given time to decide what they will produce their power point on. Demonstrate to the children how to use Internet Explorer to bring up the Google homepage. Explain that Google is a search engine which helps us find what we are looking for. Take an example which one group has decided on and demonstrate how to find information and make notes on some key points. Point out that when we are using the internet to find out information we will come across some sites that are better than others. We have to decide which sites we can use. Explain to the children that they can start their research straight away. They can use their books to write down their notes. Share some of the information that the children have found from their research. Features of Information Texts Mon Aim for mixed ability pairs. Look at a different site and see if they can find any more information.
Tues Research a chosen topic on the internet Recap previous lesson and remind children of key points to successful collection and organisation of information. Continuing from last lesson, adults will move around the classroom giving pointers, suggestions, guiding children to relevant information. Share some research and begin to look at how to organize notes into continuous prose. Set children off on continuing their research as soon as possible Organise notes into connected prose Tell the children that this is an important lesson where we will be spending some time organising our notes so that they will be usable next week when we are putting together our power points. Recap what we need to use at the beginning and end when we are writing sentences. Emphasise the importance of capital letters and full stops as you can lose marks for not using them, even if your sentence is beautifully written. The main activity is to look over our notes (from internet research) and write them out as connected sentences using capital letters and full stops, thinking carefully how they should be organised and sequenced with paragraphs and subheadings. The connected sentences can be written out in literacy books under the date and WALT. Re read your sentences, checking for punctuation, spelling and CAPITAL LETTERS! Choose 3 or 4 children to read out their connected pieces of prose. Do the others agree that the connected prose relates well to the notes prepared earlier? 2* and a wish as feedback.
Thurs Look back over the list of prompts that we put together on sugar paper. How could we organise these using subheadings and paragraphs. Spend some time using different coloured pens to group together ideas and deciding on subheadings as a class, to model how they will do this with their own notes. Mon Plan our ideas and organisation for the power point Recap the Features of Information Texts, focusing on; Heading Subheadings Opening Sentence Use talk partners to think of some ideas for headings that we could use for our power points. Share some and write on the board. Now think about some powerful opening sentences we could start the power point with. It needs to be something that will grip the reader Spend this lesson working with your partner and deciding on your heading and opening sentence, so that you will be able to get on tomorrow. Children can finish their subheadings from the previous lesson aswell. Read through all your notes and sentences and check that they are written in the present tense. Ask some volunteers to share their ideas, starting with the heading and opening sentence. Clarify any misconceptions at this stage so that everyone has something to start with. Features on Information Texts sheet
Tues Create the first slide on your power point and keep them interested. Share some ideas. Explain that the aim of today s lesson is to finish the first slide of the power point. It should have a heading, opening sentence and picture. Demonstrate how to open power point. Use a volunteer s idea for a heading as an example and show how the text can be moved, font, size, colour changed and animation added to give the maximum impact. The same can be done for the opening sentence, showing how the font needs to allow all the text to show. Children to work with their partners, taking turns for each section, to produce their first slide. If children are ready, they can move onto other slides of information. Demonstrate how to save their work properly, thinking of a suitable name for the file and putting in their documents. Pairs should write in their jotters the filename and log in details so that they can find their work easily in the next lesson. Finally demonstrate how to insert a picture from clipart. Add information about your chosen topic to Remind children that we only have this lesson and one other to work on our power points. Continue with power points. Save a couple of power points to share back IWB.
your power point The focus today should be on putting information content onto the power point. Emphasise that we are looking for children who can use their research to produce a sample of an information text. Demonstrate how to change the background on all the slides, either as a plain colour (colour schemes) or a scene (design templates). Thurs Finish my power point giving information Remind children that this is the last timetabled lesson to finish their power points. Finish off power point Save some finished power points and share on IWB. Features on Information Texts checklist
about my chosen topic Look together at the Features of Information Texts checklist. The focus of this lesson is to make sure that the power point contains; Check that your power point has maximum impact. What improvements can be made? Class to give 2 stars and a wish as feedback. Information for the reader Heading Opening sentence Subheadings Paragraphs Present tense