Using Class Texts in Year 5
Millbrook Combined School
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‘I have never seen boys so enthusiastic about writing.’ ‘English lessons are much better because we are doing fun activities. I’ve learnt about speech marks, changing questions into statements and commands.’ |
School Context:
Millbrook Combined School is a larger than average sized primary school situated in one of the most deprived areas of High Wycombe. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is in the highest percentile rank, almost 4 times the national average, as is the proportion of pupils learning to speak English as an additional language. The largest ethnic group represented in the school is of Pakistani origin. A high number of pupils have arrived at the school this year with no English. Many of the children enter the school working well below age related expectations in English.
Millbrook Combined School is a larger than average sized primary school situated in one of the most deprived areas of High Wycombe. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is in the highest percentile rank, almost 4 times the national average, as is the proportion of pupils learning to speak English as an additional language. The largest ethnic group represented in the school is of Pakistani origin. A high number of pupils have arrived at the school this year with no English. Many of the children enter the school working well below age related expectations in English.
Focus Group and the reason for choice
Year 5
We chose Year 5 to be part of the project because we wanted to address some issues that seemed more evident in this cohort compared to others. The main aims were:
The Year 5 cohort comprises two classes with a total of 50 pupils: 33 boys and 17 girls. Last year, the Year 5 class had to face some challenges, such as the change of their class teacher in Year 4 and new pupils joining the class, including some pupils starting with no English. Overall pupils were making better progress in reading compared with writing.
The Year 5 class teachers commented that at the beginning of the academic year pupils in Year 5 were not enthusiastic about writing and lacked motivation -especially when writing extended pieces of work. As teachers, we felt that many of the pupils were not producing the written work that we knew they were capable of.
Before we embarked on the grammar project, we looked at recent research that supported the idea that grammar teaching improves pupils’ writing skills. We considered the Myhill, Jones, Lines & Watson (2012) study which concluded that contextualising grammar within the teaching of writing has positive outcomes for children’s writing, particularly for more able pupils. The study also highlighted the need for teachers to have secure subject knowledge in grammar. We used this information to inform how we planned and taught English in the classroom.
We wanted to use engaging texts to support the teaching of writing and each class had their own core text: the higher ability set used My Name is Mina by David Almond, the middle ability set used The Firework-Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman and the lower ability set used Horrid Henry Stinkbomb by Francesca Simon. We chose books that would spark pupils’ interest in language and generate discussions.
Year 5
We chose Year 5 to be part of the project because we wanted to address some issues that seemed more evident in this cohort compared to others. The main aims were:
- To ensure more pupils were on track to make expected progress or above in English
- To ensure more boys were on track to make expected progress or above in English
- To ensure pupils who are eligible for pupil premium were making expected progress in writing
- To address the disparity between reading and writing attainment (pupils were making more accelerated progress in reading compared to writing)
- To engage pupils in meaningful and purposeful writing activities
The Year 5 cohort comprises two classes with a total of 50 pupils: 33 boys and 17 girls. Last year, the Year 5 class had to face some challenges, such as the change of their class teacher in Year 4 and new pupils joining the class, including some pupils starting with no English. Overall pupils were making better progress in reading compared with writing.
The Year 5 class teachers commented that at the beginning of the academic year pupils in Year 5 were not enthusiastic about writing and lacked motivation -especially when writing extended pieces of work. As teachers, we felt that many of the pupils were not producing the written work that we knew they were capable of.
Before we embarked on the grammar project, we looked at recent research that supported the idea that grammar teaching improves pupils’ writing skills. We considered the Myhill, Jones, Lines & Watson (2012) study which concluded that contextualising grammar within the teaching of writing has positive outcomes for children’s writing, particularly for more able pupils. The study also highlighted the need for teachers to have secure subject knowledge in grammar. We used this information to inform how we planned and taught English in the classroom.
We wanted to use engaging texts to support the teaching of writing and each class had their own core text: the higher ability set used My Name is Mina by David Almond, the middle ability set used The Firework-Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman and the lower ability set used Horrid Henry Stinkbomb by Francesca Simon. We chose books that would spark pupils’ interest in language and generate discussions.
Daily Lesson Starter - Studying Sentences
At the start of each English lesson pupils were set the task of examining and exploring different sentences. The same sentence was used throughout the week as a model for pupils own writing (Anderson, 2005). Each sentence that the class teacher used was taken from the core text they were reading. Primarily, we wanted pupils to really understand what a sentence is and begin to see patterns in terms of grammar and punctuation. Furthermore, we wanted to begin to teach children the grammatical terminology, but also ensure that pupils were learning about grammar in context.
The Year 5 higher ability set used the book My Name is Mina by David Almond as their core text and each pupil in the class had their own individual copy of the book. The class teacher investigated many sentences from the book.
Below is one of the sentences studied and an explanation of how the class teacher used it to explore grammar.
‘But this horrible world is so blooming beautiful and so blooming weird that sometimes it’ll make me faint’(Almond, 2010).
At the start of each English lesson pupils were set the task of examining and exploring different sentences. The same sentence was used throughout the week as a model for pupils own writing (Anderson, 2005). Each sentence that the class teacher used was taken from the core text they were reading. Primarily, we wanted pupils to really understand what a sentence is and begin to see patterns in terms of grammar and punctuation. Furthermore, we wanted to begin to teach children the grammatical terminology, but also ensure that pupils were learning about grammar in context.
The Year 5 higher ability set used the book My Name is Mina by David Almond as their core text and each pupil in the class had their own individual copy of the book. The class teacher investigated many sentences from the book.
Below is one of the sentences studied and an explanation of how the class teacher used it to explore grammar.
‘But this horrible world is so blooming beautiful and so blooming weird that sometimes it’ll make me faint’(Almond, 2010).
Day 1
Invitation to Notice
Pupils were asked:
· What do you notice about this sentence?
· What do you like about this sentence?
Pupils worked in pairs to discuss what they could find and to talk about what they liked about the sentence. They wrote responses on whiteboards. In the sentence they noticed:
All the pupils liked the sentence and below are some of their responses.
Day 2
Let’s Notice some more!
Pupils were then asked to highlight, in different colours, all the things that they found e.g. naming different word classes, punctuation, clauses, phrase etc. Then pupils discussed with their partners what they had found and shared ideas with each other. (See appendix 2).
Day 3
Invitation to revise
In pairs pupils were asked to revise the sentence. Then as a whole class the teacher scribed a shared sentence. The class wrote together:
But this horrible, horrible world is so blooming beautiful and so wonderfully weird that sometimes it’ll make me keel over in a heap on the ground.
Day 4
Invitation to imitate
Then individually pupils had to imitate the sentence. One pupil wrote:
And this naughty noisy classroom is so extremely exciting and so carelessly crazy that sometimes it’ll make me whizz up and down the playground until I’m sick.
Invitation to Notice
Pupils were asked:
· What do you notice about this sentence?
· What do you like about this sentence?
Pupils worked in pairs to discuss what they could find and to talk about what they liked about the sentence. They wrote responses on whiteboards. In the sentence they noticed:
- alliteration –blooming beautiful
- adjectives – blooming beautiful
- contraction – it’ll
- adverb – so
- verb –is
- conjunction –But, that
- Discussion about whether it was passive or active
- determiners – this
All the pupils liked the sentence and below are some of their responses.
- ‘The word ‘blooming’ makes the world sound really beautiful and really weird.’
- ‘The alliteration makes it fun to say, I like saying this sentence.’
- ‘It starts with ‘but’ which is a conjunction and I like that because it’s different.’
- ‘The word ‘so’ makes the adjectives sound really important.’
- ‘The sentence makes the character sound really interesting.’
Day 2
Let’s Notice some more!
Pupils were then asked to highlight, in different colours, all the things that they found e.g. naming different word classes, punctuation, clauses, phrase etc. Then pupils discussed with their partners what they had found and shared ideas with each other. (See appendix 2).
Day 3
Invitation to revise
In pairs pupils were asked to revise the sentence. Then as a whole class the teacher scribed a shared sentence. The class wrote together:
But this horrible, horrible world is so blooming beautiful and so wonderfully weird that sometimes it’ll make me keel over in a heap on the ground.
Day 4
Invitation to imitate
Then individually pupils had to imitate the sentence. One pupil wrote:
And this naughty noisy classroom is so extremely exciting and so carelessly crazy that sometimes it’ll make me whizz up and down the playground until I’m sick.
Day 5
Invitation to edit
In pairs children used peer assessment to check spelling, grammar and punctuation. Sentences were then shared with the group and pupils discussed which sentences could be displayed in the classroom. The chosen examples were displayed around the classroom. The pupils then had a visual display of sentences to use and support their work.
Invitation to edit
In pairs children used peer assessment to check spelling, grammar and punctuation. Sentences were then shared with the group and pupils discussed which sentences could be displayed in the classroom. The chosen examples were displayed around the classroom. The pupils then had a visual display of sentences to use and support their work.
Anchor Charts
The class teachers also took any important grammatical rules they had discovered together and created anchor charts to display in the classroom.
Talking about Books: A bridge between reading and writing
During the project, pupils had many opportunities to talk about books. Each class had daily guided reading lessons either using the core text or a different text; teachers also provided lots of opportunities to make comparisons between the core texts and different texts.
Below is a conversation about My Name is Mina by two girls in Year 5. They are discussing chapter 4. They were not prompted or coached – it was a natural conversation between two pupils.
Child 1:
I like the way that she (Mina) says that: I let my legs dangle. She is trying to take control of her legs. Instead of saying: My legs dangle.
Child 2:
And the first sentence is quite short, it’s nice and simple. The first sentence is: I love my tree.
She (Mina) says: sometimes I let my legs dangle and sometimes she sits with her knees raised. So she is not doing any of them all the time, she does one bit one time, and another bit another time.
Child 1:
And when she says: it’s very comfortable, I like the way she says: it’s made for me. She’s trying to say that it is so comfortable that it was actually made for her.
Child 2:
Yes, because it’s not really made for her, is it?
No, it’s just a way of saying it’s really comfortable.
The conversation shows how, quite naturally, the two girls discuss the language structure as well as some of the grammatical features of the text. Child 1 notices the impact of the active voice on the text and that Mina has quite a distinctive voice in the story. Child 2 discusses the adverb of frequency when discussing the use of the word ‘sometimes’, and she notices that Mina autonomously makes her own choices. By critically reviewing the text, we hoped that pupils would transfer some of the features they noticed in their own writing. During English lessons, the pupils used the concept of writing a journal, like the character Mina, to compose their own journals using some of the aspects they had noticed in their discussion about the text. (See appendix 4). The teacher facilitated pupils’ writing through shared writing activities. (See appendix 5).
The class teachers also took any important grammatical rules they had discovered together and created anchor charts to display in the classroom.
Talking about Books: A bridge between reading and writing
During the project, pupils had many opportunities to talk about books. Each class had daily guided reading lessons either using the core text or a different text; teachers also provided lots of opportunities to make comparisons between the core texts and different texts.
Below is a conversation about My Name is Mina by two girls in Year 5. They are discussing chapter 4. They were not prompted or coached – it was a natural conversation between two pupils.
Child 1:
I like the way that she (Mina) says that: I let my legs dangle. She is trying to take control of her legs. Instead of saying: My legs dangle.
Child 2:
And the first sentence is quite short, it’s nice and simple. The first sentence is: I love my tree.
She (Mina) says: sometimes I let my legs dangle and sometimes she sits with her knees raised. So she is not doing any of them all the time, she does one bit one time, and another bit another time.
Child 1:
And when she says: it’s very comfortable, I like the way she says: it’s made for me. She’s trying to say that it is so comfortable that it was actually made for her.
Child 2:
Yes, because it’s not really made for her, is it?
No, it’s just a way of saying it’s really comfortable.
The conversation shows how, quite naturally, the two girls discuss the language structure as well as some of the grammatical features of the text. Child 1 notices the impact of the active voice on the text and that Mina has quite a distinctive voice in the story. Child 2 discusses the adverb of frequency when discussing the use of the word ‘sometimes’, and she notices that Mina autonomously makes her own choices. By critically reviewing the text, we hoped that pupils would transfer some of the features they noticed in their own writing. During English lessons, the pupils used the concept of writing a journal, like the character Mina, to compose their own journals using some of the aspects they had noticed in their discussion about the text. (See appendix 4). The teacher facilitated pupils’ writing through shared writing activities. (See appendix 5).
Comparing Texts
The pupils, in the higher ability set, compared an extract from My Name is Mina with the poem The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. (See Appendix 6). In the story My Name is Mina, the character is faced with what she considers the arduous task of completing a SATS writing assessment, set by her teacher Miss Scullery, but instead of producing a story she decides to write a piece of nonsense. The nonsense story provoked lots of discussion in class about language and generated questions e.g. What type of word is it? Is the word a verb or an adjective? The children tried to make sense of it, however, they found translating the Jabberwocky easier because of its clear and more predictable sentence structure; whereas the Mina piece was harder to translate because it introduces new words that they found hard to define. The activity gave the children the opportunity to play with words and take risks with their own writing.
Glibertysnark
In thi biginin glibbertysnark woz don in the woositinimana. Golgy golgy golgy thang, wiss wandigle. Oliotoshin under smiffer yes! Glibbering mornikles which was o so diggibunish. Hoy it! Hoy it! Then woz won so stidderuppickle. Aye aye woz the replifing clud.
(Almond, 2010)
A translation by a child in Year 5
In the beginning school was down in the wasteland. Bored bored bored, Miss Scullery. Spiders under desks yes! Disturbing mornings which were oh so disgusting. Hit it! Hit it! There was one so horrific. Ahh Ahh was the response back.
The pupils, in the higher ability set, compared an extract from My Name is Mina with the poem The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. (See Appendix 6). In the story My Name is Mina, the character is faced with what she considers the arduous task of completing a SATS writing assessment, set by her teacher Miss Scullery, but instead of producing a story she decides to write a piece of nonsense. The nonsense story provoked lots of discussion in class about language and generated questions e.g. What type of word is it? Is the word a verb or an adjective? The children tried to make sense of it, however, they found translating the Jabberwocky easier because of its clear and more predictable sentence structure; whereas the Mina piece was harder to translate because it introduces new words that they found hard to define. The activity gave the children the opportunity to play with words and take risks with their own writing.
Glibertysnark
In thi biginin glibbertysnark woz don in the woositinimana. Golgy golgy golgy thang, wiss wandigle. Oliotoshin under smiffer yes! Glibbering mornikles which was o so diggibunish. Hoy it! Hoy it! Then woz won so stidderuppickle. Aye aye woz the replifing clud.
(Almond, 2010)
A translation by a child in Year 5
In the beginning school was down in the wasteland. Bored bored bored, Miss Scullery. Spiders under desks yes! Disturbing mornings which were oh so disgusting. Hit it! Hit it! There was one so horrific. Ahh Ahh was the response back.
Persuasive Writing
The core books were used as a basis to teach a persuasive writing unit. Pupils discussed the fact that both Horrid Henry and the character Mina struggled with aspects of school. Miss Ali’s set (HA) decided to work towards writing a persuasive letter to Mina to convince her to come back to school (in the story of My Name is Mina, Mina opts out of mainstream school to be home-schooled). Similarly, Mrs Hussain’s set (LA) wanted to write a persuasive letter to Horrid Henry suggesting that he should be kinder to his teacher and try to enjoy school.
Role-play was used as a learning tool, and the children were given the scenario that they were in charge of recruiting a new teacher to their school, who would either entice Mina back to school or help improve Horrid Henry’s behaviour. They created written adverts, TV adverts, composed interview questions, interviewed different teachers, and then wrote a persuasive letter to either Horrid Henry or Mina.
Each class embarked on a variety of activities (leading up to the main writing outcome) and the class teachers attempted to embed the teaching of grammar into each lesson. As was mentioned earlier, every day pupils engaged in the activity of studying one sentence before moving onto the main English lesson. Pupils spent time discussing the features of persuasive texts. (See appendix 7). Pupils discussed terms such as: imperatives, tenses, 1st person, 3rd person, modal verbs e.g. could, must, can’t etc. and examined punctuation. Pupils considered the use of imperatives as opposed to the subjunctive e.g. ‘You will be kind’ vs ‘We hope you are kind.’ Teachers used the draft English curriculum (2013) to support their planning.
The core books were used as a basis to teach a persuasive writing unit. Pupils discussed the fact that both Horrid Henry and the character Mina struggled with aspects of school. Miss Ali’s set (HA) decided to work towards writing a persuasive letter to Mina to convince her to come back to school (in the story of My Name is Mina, Mina opts out of mainstream school to be home-schooled). Similarly, Mrs Hussain’s set (LA) wanted to write a persuasive letter to Horrid Henry suggesting that he should be kinder to his teacher and try to enjoy school.
Role-play was used as a learning tool, and the children were given the scenario that they were in charge of recruiting a new teacher to their school, who would either entice Mina back to school or help improve Horrid Henry’s behaviour. They created written adverts, TV adverts, composed interview questions, interviewed different teachers, and then wrote a persuasive letter to either Horrid Henry or Mina.
Each class embarked on a variety of activities (leading up to the main writing outcome) and the class teachers attempted to embed the teaching of grammar into each lesson. As was mentioned earlier, every day pupils engaged in the activity of studying one sentence before moving onto the main English lesson. Pupils spent time discussing the features of persuasive texts. (See appendix 7). Pupils discussed terms such as: imperatives, tenses, 1st person, 3rd person, modal verbs e.g. could, must, can’t etc. and examined punctuation. Pupils considered the use of imperatives as opposed to the subjunctive e.g. ‘You will be kind’ vs ‘We hope you are kind.’ Teachers used the draft English curriculum (2013) to support their planning.
Investigating Persuasive Texts
Stage 1
Creating a written job advert
Stage 2
Interviewing
~ Make eye contact
~ Use hand gestures to emphasise what you mean or to show feeling
~ Use your face and voice to show meaning
~ Keep as still as possible
~ Give clues that you are listening e.g. nod your head
~ Ensure that only one person speaks at a time (turn-taking)
~ Try and ask a question at the end which shows that you were listening
Writing a persuasive letter
Quotes from pupils and teaching staff
‘I have never seen boys so enthusiastic about writing.’
Mrs K Ghadiali (Teaching Assistant)
‘English lessons are much better because we are doing fun activities. I’ve learnt about speech marks, changing questions into statements and commands.’ A boy in Year 5 (LA set)
‘English lessons are fun because we have learnt how to do interviews and ask good questions.’ A boy in Year 5 (LA set)
‘I’ve learnt lots about persuasive texts, how to use the words and what you can do to help yourself when writing.’ A boy in Year 5 (HA set)
‘English lessons are one of my favourite lessons now because we do things like role-play and creating adverts. I really enjoyed writing my advert and then typing it up on the computer, and we got to write our own journals. I’ve learnt loads of new vocabulary, and I know the meanings of lots of new words. I liked looking at the sentences – that was the best lesson starter. I didn’t know about adjectives, nouns, bossy verbs or imperatives before.’ A boy in Year 5 (HA set)
‘I enjoyed the drama and the role play. I liked looking at different styles of writing. I can now pick out subordinating clauses and main clauses. That’s helped me with my writing.’ A girl in Year 5 (HA set)
‘I like being a writing thief and getting new ideas from my friends.’ A girl in Year 5 (MA set)
Next steps
Following the success of the project we are now looking forward to developing the next steps for Millbrook in terms of teaching grammar. Our next steps are:
Stage 1
- Pupils looked at a variety of persuasive texts and made notes and talked about their initial ideas.
- Pupils picked out the features of persuasive texts – lots of ideas were generated from the daily sentence study activity.
- Pupils watched a variety of adverts (e.g. the Cillit Bang advert) and discussed features, for example the use of modal verbs.
Creating a written job advert
Stage 2
- Pupils read passages that described how Mina and Horrid Henry felt about school.
- Pupils then created a list of characteristics they felt the characters would like in a teacher. (See appendix 10)
- Pupils created a job advert for a teacher in their own colloquial language.
- Pupils discussed the appropriateness of writing in slang.
- Pupils then composed more formal adverts. (See appendix 11).
- Pupils edited then typed up their adverts on a computer.
- Pupils used their written adverts to create group TV adverts and wrote jingles.
- Pupils performed and filmed their adverts.
- Pupils watched their adverts and made peer assessments.
Interviewing
- Pupils discussed good speaking skills:
~ Make eye contact
~ Use hand gestures to emphasise what you mean or to show feeling
~ Use your face and voice to show meaning
~ Keep as still as possible
- Pupils discussed good listening skills:
~ Give clues that you are listening e.g. nod your head
~ Ensure that only one person speaks at a time (turn-taking)
~ Try and ask a question at the end which shows that you were listening
- Pupils looked at different types of sentences: exclamations, statements, commands and questions.
- Pupils discussed open-ended questions and closed questions.
- Pupils in small groups wrote a list of questions they wanted to ask each teacher.
- Pupils recorded interviews, listened and reviewed the outcomes.
Writing a persuasive letter
- In pairs, pupils came up with reasons for why Mina should come back to school and why Horrid Henry should be good at school.
- Pupils made notes of their ideas.
- They took part in hot seating activities with the class teacher being Mina or Horrid Henry – pupils asked questions and responded to answers
- Shared writing –pupils collaboratively developed a checklist of what they needed to include in their letter e.g. the use of questions, formal language, present tense, powerful adjectives, emotive language, opinions as facts, imperatives etc.
- Shared writing – teacher modelled writing a letter.
- Pupils planned their letter.
- Pupils wrote a first draft.
- Pupils edited and then peers edited their work
- Pupils wrote their final letter.
Quotes from pupils and teaching staff
‘I have never seen boys so enthusiastic about writing.’
Mrs K Ghadiali (Teaching Assistant)
‘English lessons are much better because we are doing fun activities. I’ve learnt about speech marks, changing questions into statements and commands.’ A boy in Year 5 (LA set)
‘English lessons are fun because we have learnt how to do interviews and ask good questions.’ A boy in Year 5 (LA set)
‘I’ve learnt lots about persuasive texts, how to use the words and what you can do to help yourself when writing.’ A boy in Year 5 (HA set)
‘English lessons are one of my favourite lessons now because we do things like role-play and creating adverts. I really enjoyed writing my advert and then typing it up on the computer, and we got to write our own journals. I’ve learnt loads of new vocabulary, and I know the meanings of lots of new words. I liked looking at the sentences – that was the best lesson starter. I didn’t know about adjectives, nouns, bossy verbs or imperatives before.’ A boy in Year 5 (HA set)
‘I enjoyed the drama and the role play. I liked looking at different styles of writing. I can now pick out subordinating clauses and main clauses. That’s helped me with my writing.’ A girl in Year 5 (HA set)
‘I like being a writing thief and getting new ideas from my friends.’ A girl in Year 5 (MA set)
Next steps
Following the success of the project we are now looking forward to developing the next steps for Millbrook in terms of teaching grammar. Our next steps are:
- To make grammar an integral part of teaching English in the school by sharing the ideas and activities implemented in Year 5.
- To embed grammar teaching in English lessons using a contextualised approach.
- To make the reciprocity between reading and writing explicit in English lessons.
- To use the ideas generated from the project to support the implementation of the new English curriculum.
- To develop a shared language in terms of grammatical terminology.
- To raise standards in writing across the school.