Year 6 Recount- Harry Potter's Diary

This unit of work was designed by two teachers, one a writing moderator and literacy lead, still practising in year 6. Collaborative learning is a key aspect to building the foundations of our work so there are opportunities for mixed ability seating whether you set or not.

This unit of work is to designed to push writers towards the expected standard and beyond whilst using Harry Potter and the Philosophers’ Stone. The unit is of a recount focus which should give the child an opportunity to delve into the emotions of Harry Potter prior to him receiving his acceptance letter to Hogwarts.

Children are given the opportunity to use a range of elements from the Teacher Assessment Framework. In this piece there is the opportunity to showcase almost all the elements: switch genres if greater depth, a range of cohesive devices, opportunities for higher-level punctuation, use informal and formal language, an appropriate diary format and a range of clause structures.

The unit provides a model which can be annotated and amended to suit all abilities. As well as the model, we have created a diary booklet which you can write on to add a bit of wow to your writing. If you are pushing your children to switch genres withing their writing - if they are pushing to exceed the expectations- then there is paper to write the letter on.

There is a moderators checklist for teachers to use to compare to the framework and a self assessment checklist for children to use and evidence elements of the success criteria which they have used in their writing.

Overall this unit gives the user ample opportunities to refine skills, assess writing (self, peer or teacher), draft, edit and up level writing.