Year Six English Homework-part 2

I was the English Coordinator at a small private school for several years, teaching both Year Five and Year Six English. I found that after Christmas (and most 11+ exams), my Year Six pupils were becoming bored and disinterested in the typical English homework they had been doing for years. I wanted to find something that they would enjoy and that was also a review (since at that point I had taught my students for four terms).

I came across a brilliant ‘project’ type homework where tasks were interlinked across a half-term. I can’t find the link now, but the first two I used were a ‘Mystery’ unit (the students choose an item that goes missing, describe the item, do a writing piece for the investigation, etc) and creating a class trip (students decide what the class trip will be, create advert, create information leaflet, etc). THEY LOVED IT! Each week they came back, eager to read their homework to each other and were genuinely enthusiastic about it. I was shocked!

I left these homework units in Word so that you can edit it to the needs of your class. Please let me know if there is any problem with the format, as I noticed the files are in very old Word, so I hope it works! I included a document with checklists of the genres so that if you want to change out a week that has a persuasive writing piece, but diary recounts would be better suited for that week/your students, you can just cut and paste! Additionally, I added reading comprehension tasks every other week, but if want to change that to spelling, grammar, additional writing, etc: just change it!

DIRECTIONS:

1. Copy the two pages double-sided. Students can illustrate the front cover (or you can add a picture before giving out).
2. Edit front cover for success criteria and when homework will be set and returned.
3. Give due dates and have children write these in.
4. Give appropriate paper needed for assignments (unless completed into exercise book)

INCLUDES:
-genre checklists
-‘Amazon Jungle’ homework tasks
-‘Restaurant’ homework tasks
-‘Survivor’ homework tasks
-‘Titanic’ homework tasks (or any historical event)
-‘New Fish’ homework tasks (or any new species)