This 6 week literacy unit uses the Year 5/6 2014 National Curriculum objectives for reading and writing, building on Malorie Blackman’s Pig-Heart Boy. It could also be used in KS3 as the themes are explored in greater depth. The 6th week is some sentence level work to accompany the biology unit from the IPC (or any biology topic unit). The skills covered include writing cohesively, text structure and organization, identifying and imitating figurative language, imitation of an author’s style, use of relative clauses, use of parenthesis, varying tense for effect and using a range of sentence types. There are many long and short writing opportunities, and resources differentiated to support EAL learners.

Forget all your RWI and Early Reading data tracking woes! For a detailed run through, please view my video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/AsmknmRTAlE This spreadsheet allows you to: log and record Read Write Inc. groups on a half-termly basis measure progress within the groups as numerical data monitor children in a Fast Track intervention lead grouping meetings where staff can identify starting texts and spotlight children view stage not age vertically grouped lists, populated automatically option to track Reception separately as part of the ‘Making a Strong Start in Reception’ initiative Log mock and historical outcomes for the DfE phonics screening check in Year 1 and to monitor colour-highlighted progress towards these create your own drop-down menus add internal interventions and KS2 reading tracking easily visualise colours and progress with conditional formatting pre-set up

Pick and choose from this extensive ancient history-based literacy unit! Having taught a variation of this IPC history unit in some form or another for three years in a row with Year 5, I ended up building, tweaking and modifying it so many times there are multiple weeks to choose from in this unit. There is non-fiction and sentence level work on the Ancient Greeks and Romans which also feed nicely into topic lessons, research skill and gathering information. There are several weeks on reading and comparing different versions of the same myths by different authors, and making character comparisons within and across myths. There is also some additional material on assessments and evaluating your own writing. The unit draws heavily on the Year 5/6 / Upper KS2 National Curriculum Objectives, embodies a range of strategies and text types, and includes all smart boards and resources. You will need access to multiple texts as these are not included in the unit.

This 5 week literacy unit uses the Year 1/2 2014 National Curriculum objectives for reading and writing, and follows the T4W teaching cycle. Students learn the text by heart, use drama and role play to show their understanding of character, create story maps, write poetry, and finish with a diary entry. A strong emphasis is placed on language, both in terms of Never Heard the Word grids and tackling tricky words in reading, but also in learning pirate vocabulary that links to topic. A great stand-alone or end/start of year unit and can accompany ‘Treasure Island’ IPC unit.

Drawing on the texts, ‘The Dot’, and ‘I can’t do this’ (by K. J. Walton), this 3 week unit is a great introduction to a new school year, or for a class/year group starting the IPC for the first time. It draws on the UK 2014 National Curriculum objectives for English in Years 5 and 6, as well as the Milestone 3 IPC skills and curriculum. The stories, which focus on resilience and growth mindset, are a great way to stimulate and empower your learners. The unit focuses on fiction, story construction and some SPaG objectives. There is some review of Lower Key Stage 2 work (fronted adverbials) but it is mostly an ambitious unit aimed to stretch students, and incorporating a range of genres in its short writing opportunities.

Based on Frank Cottrell’s Boyce witty pseudo-sequel to the Iam Fleming novel and film, this unit of work utilises my drama games and activities handout (included). Using a ‘creative comprehension’ approach to engage readers, students create role-plays from their predictions, stage their own press conference and use short-writing opportunities to create texts in a range of genres. This unit draws on objectives for Year 5 and 6 from the 2014 UK National Curriculum. Smart Notebook files, planning (4 weeks plus an additional starter week on 'being a responsible tourist), and differentiated resources and word banks, this unit is tried and tested and is one of my favourite units/novels I’ve ever taught.

This unit uses the Year 5/6 2014 National Curriculum objectives for reading and writing, exploring the features of formal speech, persuasive writing, rhetorical oracy, distinguishing between facts and opinion, writing cohesively, and using passive verbs for effect. The emphasis is on distinguishing the features of a balanced argument, ensuring balance, and knowing how to write an effective introduction and conclusion. Formal language word banks and differentiated EAL resources, such as audio transcript are included. The theme is a witty or philosophical approach to topics on Christmas: For example, are Santa’s elves effectively slaves? There are examples of a variety of arguments at a range of levels. Smart Notebook is used.

This unit uses the Year 5/6 2014 National Curriculum objectives for reading and writing, exploring the features of narrative. The reading focus is on prediction and inference for the first week, with lots of drama activities and exploration of the context and the clever use of figurative language. The emphasis in the second week is on drawing links between the cleverly interplayed plots, using debate, first person narrative, short writing opportunities and story mapping to explore this. In the final week they will plan and write their own version of the story, building on the work from Week 2 to show their understanding of the chronological narrative in a story that winds time back and forth! They will explore new vocabulary and edit and improve their own work by looking at inconsistencies in tense. There is an abridged version/summary of the text for EAL learners. Smart Notebook is used.

This 2 to 3 week Literacy unit for years 5 and 6 is based on/inspired by/ideal to accompany the IPC unit ‘Bake it!’. Focusing on a range of sentence and structure skills from the UK 2014 curriculum for years 5 and 6, it builds towards some SpaG-derived poetry tasks, text-structure-derived procedural/instructional texts and draws on Roald Dahl’s ‘Revolting Recipes’. Note: The slides/files are on Smart notebook as opposed to PowerPoint.

This 4 week literacy unit uses the Year 1/2 2014 National Curriculum objectives for reading and writing, and follows the T4W teaching cycle. I wrote this original text based on a south american fable when we needed something to accomapny a topic unit on animal habitats. Students learn the text by heart, use drama and role play to show their understanding of character, create story maps, write poetry, and innovate on the original text. A strong emphasis is placed on using adjectives to describe.

Using Gene Luen Yang’s acclaimed graphic novel, this 12 lesson unit explores the themes of imperialism, sexism and racism through this unique genre. The text draws on objectives from the 2014 National Curriculum for Years 5 and 6, but is probably best suited to a Key Stage 3 class. The themes of the text are explored, but the lessons focus on the interplay of text and language, the conventions of the graphic novel genre and the representation of time. Includes differentiated resources, Smart Notebook files, and a unit lesson plan.

Having taught an IPC biology unit in some form or another for three years in a row with Year 5, I ended up building, tweaking and modifying it so many times there are multiple weeks to choose from in this unit. I have 2 weeks on animal poetry that draw heavily on Dahl’s ‘Dirty Beasts’ alongside simpler poems for EAL learners, a week focusing on the biography picture book ‘Deep in the Ocean’ about oceanographer Sylvia Earle, 2 weeks exploring the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition through role play and real-life scenarios, a week on non-chronological reports, and then 2 weeks drafting and recording documentary voiceovers which we used for an Exit Point. There is also some additional material on assessments and researching famous desert explorers. The unit draws heavily on the Year 5/6 / Upper KS2 National Curriculum Objectvies, embodies a range of strategies and text types, and includes all smart boards and resources.

Using Space Explorers IPC Unit (Milestone 3) this unit is 8 weeks long and covers a broad range of texts and genres. Non fiction, Team Moon, Moonshot, Kandinsky’s artwork and space poetry are all covered, as is a full range of 2014 NC Year 5 objectives. Using ‘Go!’ by the band Public Service Broadcasting to sue aural prediction skills, this unit is creative in its delivery and embodies a range of teaching methods and techniques for speaking and listening, close reading skills and drama, as well as building in long and short writing opportunities and teaching some embedded SPaG objectives. EAL/SEN differentiated resources also included.

Based on the Milestone 3 IPC Unit ‘Champions for Change’, this unit explores themes of democracy, government and representation. I have written an accompanying unit of work for English/Literacy (3 weeks plus an additional week on debating skills). This unit uses the Year 5/6 2014 National Curriculum objectives for reading and writing, exploring the features of formal speech, persuasive writing, rhetorical oracy, distinguishing between facts and opinion, writing cohesively, and using passive verbs for effect. The unit focuses on environmental change, and uses young speech writers such as Severn Suzuki and Greta Thunberg’s addresses to the UN. The unit includes powerpoint slides, weekly plans, differentiated resources and word banks, and some planning templates for writing a balanced argument.

This 12 lesson literacy unit uses the Year 5/6 2014 National Curriculum objectives for reading and writing, exploring the features of narrative and the genre of the detective novel. The reading focus is on text features and imitation of these, followed by an exploration of well-written character descriptions and dialogue. The unit then explore how authors use structure for their purpose, and there is a SPaG focus on the different forms of verbs and planning formulaically to achieve success with this tricky genre. Smart Notebook is used.