Introduce the writing task by asking children to reflect on a favourite author or text. They consider what it is that they like about it and use this as the starting point for their own writing, for example a funny story with a real-life setting about a favourite character. They discuss in pairs and note their ideas for a style of story, a setting, characters and some key events.
Children work independently to plan and write a complete story with an interesting story opening, paragraphs for build-up, climax or conflict resolution and ending, and examples of language used to create a particular comic or dramatic effect. Use a range of connectives to introduce scenes and link events.
Children follow their story plans, rehearse sentences orally and reread and check as they are writing. Work with guided writing groups to review writing and offer support as appropriate.
When children have completed their stories, support the process of discussing, proofreading and editing their own writing. Demonstrate how to check and improve sentence construction and punctuation by modelling alternative sentence construction. Talk about the effect of using longer or shorter sentences for dramatic effect at particular points in the story (see also Grammar for writing, (Ref: 0107-2000), Year 5 unit 34 http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/literacy/63317/).
Give time for children to make changes or improvements to their stories. Read finished stories aloud.
Learning outcome:
Children can write a complete story with a sequence of events arranged into paragraphs, linked with a range of connectives and varying sentence length.
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