Creating non-fiction blocks of work to help secure Yr3/4 expectations

ResourcesExplanation of ModelStrategiesTeacher Planning and Assessment ActivitiesPupil OutcomesPhoto’sPupil VoiceNext Steps for teacher/school

PurposeTo raise standards across Years Three and Four in non-fiction. Particularly with emphasis on increased achievement and progress in paragraphing, summarising and inference.

Created blocks of work to secure Year Three and Four Expectations and meet individual school needs. In English and across the curriculum.

Included Guided and whole class reading.

What is Literature Works?Literature Works is a school improvement strategy which aims to :

•broaden and deepen children`s learning within English and English across the curriculum in order to improve outcomes for all pupils

•widen and extend teachers knowledge of texts and authors to support a vibrant reading culture and to ensure that texts studied by pupils is sufficiently challenging to meet the demands of a broad and balanced curriculum

•provide high quality CPD for teachers and school leaders.

•facilitate enquiry based learning and networking opportunities for teacher`s

•facilitate relationships with Newcastle Library service and access knowledge and resources

•provide a website as a platform for sharing resources, ideas and knowledge

How might our work resolve the needs of the class/group ?

Talked about what we wanted from the group and current ways of planning, school needs etc. Sharing of ideas and resources. Discussed possible focus.

Discussed guided reading around NF and use of reading journals, predict, clarify, question, summarise etc. reciprocal reading strategies etc. Literature Works strategies and how these play a part in planning NF units of work as well as narrative. Grids and making connections between/with texts. Shared books. Discussed strategies we want to trial and implement as a group in our classes and ways of using different texts.

Talked about some of our needs as a teacher (not just of our pupils and class) e.g. ordering and cohesion in planning, what comes next? Showing how pupils are making their progress in English re: NF. Looked at obj overview grids – exceeding Year 3 and 4, what that looks like. Approaching planning NF. Discussed our current topics and shared some texts/ideas.

Agreed focus - Plan a unit of work for NF (however best fits in to our curric/school – e.g. topic based CM or genre JL etc, from shared narrative KD etc). Look at NF objectives and bring examples of planning and ch’n outcomes where they have exceeded expectations through activities, teaching and learning, reading etc. We are all planning units of work to develop paragraphing; summarising and inference. Agreed to bring samples of activities created to develop these areas and plans to the next meeting.

Ongoing review, sharing plans and activities, evidence of outcomes that have exceeded expectations.

Approach

• Links to one area of the curriculum other than English and Identify/sequence texts

• ‘before’, ‘during’, and ‘after’

• Talk for reading strategies.

Talk for Reading• Activate prior knowledge

• Predict

• Clarify

• Questions

• Summarise

• Likes and dislike

EgyptiansRiver Tyne/Quayside

NF Journals

Visits, visitors, performances, curriculum enhancement and wider curriculum. Music etc. River Cruise.

Independently reading at home/researching. Interest, enthusiasm, reading for pleasure. Talking to families after class work.

Library

‘Before’

‘During’ ‘After’

Look at Geography Work

Reading – depth and breadthof Non-fiction. All genres. Challenging texts.

School 1Kate Dalkin Waverley: Butterfly Lion (LKS2 Whole Class Text Autumn 2014)

The Blue AdonisBoarding School World War I

Instructions, glossary, research, recount – journalistic, persuasion, discussion. Semolina – recipes, tasting, instructions. Summarising, inferences, paragraphing.

White Lions

Physical Description White lions are the same as any other lion, but with white f ur. They are of the f eline

species, so they run around on f our legs, have short pointed ears and cute little f aces. They

look like really big cats.

Habitat White lions were, at one time, occurring in the

wild, but today they are only f ound in zoos, animal shows, or animal studying f acilities. They are kept

in an environment similar to the one they would have in the wild, which is like an Af rican savanna.

Hunting/ Feeding Characteristics As wild animals, white lions would learn to hunt

their own meat, which would consist of any animal they could catch in the wild, but the existing white

lions are f ed daily by veterinarians.

Special Adaptations The white lions alive today are not in need of any unique physical changes to survive in their environment. They live in the sheltered and well-taken care of environments of zoos and

animal f acilities.

I nteresting Facts There were f our white lion cubs born in 1998.

They were extremely unique because they were born to two tawny coloured parents, who had no

know white lion gene history. I t is rare f or a white lion to occur naturally, since it has been though f or that gene to be a recessive one, so usually only one of the off spring turn out to be

white.

School 1Claire Miller Waverley:•The Butterfly Lion (Michael Morpurgo)•The Cat Mummy (Jacqueline Wilson)

Across Other Topics: Look at Curriculum Plans All non-fiction genres•Egyptians and NF Journals (History Unit Spring 2015)•River Tyne and History of the Quayside (Geography and History Units Summer 2015)•‘Wolves in the Walls’ narrative by Neil Gaiman – led to ‘Wolves’ NF Unit see planning and NC report outcomes•‘The Seal Hunter’ poem – led to ‘Seals’ NF topic, persuasive writing, summarising, research, retrieval. •Forest Schools and variety of fiction and poetry led to NF work linked with deforestationTeaching a NF writing genre in different ways e.g. Neil Gaiman ‘Instructions’ and developing crucial NF skills e.g. summarising across all topics. •Su2 Journey to Jo’bourg narrative. Nelson Mandela etc.

http://www.ifaw.org/united-states/our-work/saving-seals

http://www.harpseals.org/index.php

http://www.saveoursealsfund.org/

http://www.seashepherd.org/seals/history-saving-seals.html

http://www.hsi.org/issues/protect_seals/

The Seal Hunter by Tony Mitton

Circus stimulus from text

School 2 and 3Katherine Thorpe Throckley – weekly planning, Egyptians (Waverley Egyptians)Jenny Lambert Thomas Walling – Instructions

Literature Works approach and strategies to Non-Fiction. Egyptians.

AssessmentPupil Voice – quotes (tin lids and added to displays) River Tyne and Quayside topic and cruise. Using updated curriculum objectives and outcomes. Children created and delivered presentationsView Outcomes of pupil work

Year Five Pupils requesting to read it and narrative unit planned. Children’s art projects and they created ‘wolves’ coming out of the walls around school. Children talking to each other about their texts in class and those texts being shared and used in different ways and for different outcomes. Children recognising authors and making links with their NF work and fiction/poetry. Teacher (RR) created his own book, ‘Piranhas in the Pipes’.

OutcomesClass •Reading for pleasure, NF. •Summarising, paragraphing, inference impact. •Children making links when they are reading narrative, poetry and between genres. •Increased attainment and motivation to write in range of NF genre. •More creative planning, focussed on needs and linked across curriculum.

School and next steps •Continue within phase next year. NF journals throughout. •Talk for reading strategies to continue. •SPaG links within units of planning. •Assessing without levels and making judgements in Non-fiction objectives across Years Three and Four.