Note: Children working significantly above or below age-related expectations will need differentiated support, which may include tracking forward or back in terms of learning objectives. EAL learners should be expected to work within the overall expectations for their year group. For further advice see the progression strands and hyperlinks to useful sources of practical support.

Phase 1: Reading and response (6 days)

Teaching content:

• Introduce the unit by reading and responding to a short story by an author with whom children are likely to be familiar. Respond to the story, asking children to express their views with reference to other stories by this author, for example: Have you read anything else by this author? Is/are the setting/theme/characters like other books you have read? Consider what is distinctive about the story, for example realistic characters in a real-life, fantasy or historical setting. Map the story structure.
• Repeat with other stories by the same author.
• Select a novel written by the same author and begin reading as a serialised class story. Focus on the opening chapter and discuss the way the characters and theme are introduced. Discuss any similarities with the first story in style and theme.
• Note details of the setting and ask children to visualise a mental picture, imagining the details of sights and sounds and predicting what might happen in such a place. Record suggestions and refer back to them as the story unfolds. Reflect on how the visualisation helped children to engage with the story.
• Make ongoing notes about the story structure, drawing attention to repetition, with several episodes building to conflict and resolution before the end of the story. Represent the structure on a chart.
• Display further examples of the author's work for children to browse and read independently during the unit.
• Compare and contrast the openings of several more stories by this author. Ask children to suggest what the author aims to do in the opening paragraph or chapter and create a checklist. Children read examples of story openings in a range of other stories and build their understanding of different ways to start a story, for example an event, description or dialogue. Discuss any patterns children observe about the way particular types of story are opened.
• Start with a familiar story, for example from a picture book, and demonstrate how to plan and write different opening paragraphs, such as using dialogue or an event instead of description. Reflect on the way the opening sets the reader's expectations for what will follow.
• Children experiment with writing several alternative story openings for a familiar story.

Learning outcomes:

• Children can express their opinion of a story with reference to other work by the same author.
• Children can visualise a setting and make predictions about events that might happen there.

Phase 2: Analysis, response and writing (5 days)

Teaching content:

• Explore aspects of the author's style by making generalisations about recurring themes or settings, typical characters and their use of language. Refer to stories read together and draw on children's wider reading.
• Focus on characterisation. Refer to extracts from the stories you have read and look at different ways of presenting characters, for example using dialogue, action and description.
• Select a character and ask children to track the events in the story from their point of view. Use improvisation and role-play so that children can explore how the character feels and can make inferences about the reasons for their behaviour. Make tentative suggestions about the author's perspective on a particular character. Look at what is written and what is implied by discussing questions such as: Does the character change during the story? Do characters get a chance to put right their mistakes?
• Look at examples of dialogue in extracts from the class novel and analyse what they show in relation to plot and character. Review the conventions of punctuation and layout of direct speech. Look for examples of formal and informal speech in the story and discuss what it indicates about the relationship between characters. Role-play conversations between different pairs of characters to explore different patterns of speech (see also Grammar for writing, (Ref: 0107-2000), Year 5 unit 36 http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/literacy/63317/).
• Explore the author's use of language by rereading extracts and asking children to recall memorable phrases. Look at examples of the use of language for comic and dramatic effects and consider whether this is typical of a particular author's style.
• Demonstrate how to use what you have learned about the author's style to plan and write a new scene for the class novel. Demonstrate how to use paragraphs effectively to organise events in the scene. Children write their own scenes. Read examples aloud and discuss successful ways that children have taken on the author's style.

Learning outcomes:

• Children can talk about the distinctive features of an author's style by referring to characters, themes, settings or use of language.
• Children can write a new scene for a story in the style of the author. They can organise the scene into a sequence of paragraphs.

Phase 3: Speaking, listening and writing (4 days)

Teaching content:

• Explore the idea of a 'significant author' by researching information about the author you are reading in class. Pose questions for research, for example: What do we enjoy about this author's books? How popular are they in this class/school? How long have they written for and how many books have they written? Have they won book awards or written best-sellers? What do the experts say? Discuss ways to find the information, for example surveys, letters to publishers or the Internet.
• Plan a group activity researching other authors and making a presentation about what makes them 'significant'. Children are responsible for assigning roles within the group, planning how to carry out the research and negotiating problems. They report back to the class about favourite books and a range of background information about the author.
• Groups discuss and reflect on the group task, identifying what went well and things that they would do differently.
• Ask children to reflect on their own reading habits and preferences after listening to the presentation. Challenge them to try reading a book by at least one author that they have not read before.

Learning outcome:

• Children can work effectively as part of a group to research a significant author and make a presentation to the class.

Phase 4: Writing (5 days)

Teaching content:

• 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.