PARENT/CARERS - PLEASE SUPPORT

YOUR CHILDREN IN THEIR LEARNING. ALL

YOU NEED IS A PENCIL/PEN AND SOME PAPER TO COMPLETE THIS

LEARNING JOURNEY

Home Learning Journey 1

During your time away from school, you will have a writing learning journey to complete as you would normally do in school. Below is a brief summary of what a 2 week learning journey would look like:

Day 1 Introduction to genre we are writing. Looking at a WAGOLL (What a good one looks like) and highlighting the writing tools and vocabulary used.

Day 6 Writing the first draft trying to include all skills we have learnt to date but focussing on the two skills we are learning/revising for this learning journey. This will normally take two sessions.

Day 2 Looking in more depth at the first skill we are learning/revising and completing a task based on this.

Day 7 As above.

Day 3 Looking in more depth at the second skill we are learning/revising and completing a task based on this.

Day 8 Editing and improving using the footnote system. You are familiar with this as it is something we do in school for every learning journey.

Day 4 Completing a short written task based on a combination of skills we have learnt and are learning based on this learning journey.

Day 9 Writing your final drafts to include your editing and improving. It is vital that you make continuous improvements as you go along. This means that you are further improving on your first draft as you write (beyond the editing and improving you have already done in your editing and improving session). This will normally take two sessions.

Day 5 Planning our first draft using a planning template.

Day 10

As above.

Each day will be set out in task cards where you will be given an explanation of the task and example where appropriate. We have designed these so that they can be done on sheets of paper or on the task cards themselves. For ease, the genre and the stimulus (what we are using to base our writing on) will be the same across the school. The skills you are covering will be specific to each year group. So, please work together if you have siblings and help each other. Parents – we have included the writing objectives for each year group to help you see the expectations.

Stimulus for Learning Journey 1

This learning journey will be based on a scary narrative fiction as we are all big fans of horror stories. We would like you to finish the start of this story.

As I stepped into the bathroom, I felt a cold gust that sent chills through my spine…

Day 1 Task Card (40 minutes) – Below is a WAGOLL of the start of a horror story. Your task is to highlight or underline writing tools/grammatical tools we have used in one colour and the carefully selected vocabulary used in another

Use of fronted adverbial – this would help clarify events for the reader and give more information about time, place or manner.

Unnerving stare – this would make the reader feel that the character feels uncomfortable and may even feel a sense of danger.

colour. See the year group objectives to give you an idea of what writing tools you should be looking out for. Year 3 and 4, you are required to just highlight and label writing tools and vocabulary. Year 5 and 6, you are required to also give an explanation of their use and talk about the impact on the reader. See the examples below. Do this on the sheet. Once you have done this, continue our version of the story by writing the next paragraph, try to include writing tools we have not used (for example, we have not used any relative clauses). You can do this on a separate piece of paper. See the year group objectives to give you an idea of what writing tools you should include.

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Day 2 Task Card (1 hour – 2 x 30min) – today, we will be writing descriptive walkthrough based on a setting (inside of a scary house). Below is a table showing you what skill you are learning/revising based on your year

As I stepped into the bathroom, I felt a cold gust that sent chills through my spine… I knew I should not have entered this house.

It all started this morning when I was doing my chores in the front garden. Whilst trimming the hedges, I noticed Old Man Stine staring at me through his window. I had never spoken to him despite him living across the road from me ever since I could remember. I tried to look away; he wouldn’t stop staring. Distracted by his deep, unnerving stare, I managed to trip on a lump in the soil of my garden and cut myself on the shears I was using. A stinging pain shot through the cut on my arm.

Suddenly, a tall, dark figure was looming over me. “Come with me, we will see to that cut and have you fixed up in no time,” came a deep voice from the figure. I squinted my eyes and realised it was Old Man Stine. He was an extremely old man yet he stood tall – almost robotic. His clothes were tattered and there was a musty smell coming from him. There was no way I was going with him!

I stood and followed him across the road. What was I doing? My mind was telling me to run but my body was disobeying. “Hurry along,” he said. Involuntarily, my pace quickened. How was this happening? It was like he had me hypnotised.

Another voice then filled my ears, which caused my heart to stop in terror, “Bring him to the house quickly.” Where had this voice come from? Was something controlling Old Man Stine? Before I knew it, I was in the corridor of Stine’s house.

group, with a short explanation and an example. Your parents/carers will help you with this and together, you can research the skill on the internet.

Year group

Skill Explanation (please do further research if needed).

Example

Year 3 Use a range of conjunctions including, when, if, because, although to write sentences containing more than one clause.

Subordinate clauses are used to expand detail given in a main clause. Main clauses will make sense by themselves but subordinate clauses will not.

The stairs let out a loud, painful creak when I stepped onto them.

When I stepped onto the stairs, they let out a loud, painful creaking sound. (Here the subordinate conjunction is at the start of the sentence so we separate the subordinate clause and main clause with a comma.

Year 4 Use commas for clarity after fronted adverbials.Use inverted commas in direct speech.

Fronted adverbials are adverbial phrases that go at the start of a sentence. These will give the reader information about time, place or manner related to the main clause.

Time – Just then, I saw a figure of a child dart across the darkened room.

Manner – Slowly and cautiously, I made my way up the decaying, worn out stairs.

Place – Above my head, thick webs reached down towards me as if they were trying to grab me.

Year 5 Indicating degrees of possibility using adverbs [for example, perhaps, surely] or modal verbs [for example, might, should, will, must].

Modal verbs are used to indicate certainty or possibility to the reader. This is a great tool to impact the reader in different ways by either making them think something might happen or something definitely will happen.

I knew I should not go up the stairs but I knew I had no choice.

Going forward, I thought I might be able to find a way out.

I will not see the light of day ever again.

I can feel the souls trapped within the house drifting through the air desperate to move on.

Year 6 Use the range of punctuation taught at key stage 2 correctly – Semi-colons.

A semi-colon is used to link two main clauses which are closely related to each other. Remember that main clauses make sense by themselves.

The room was dark and dreary; it was filled with old furniture that had clearly been neglected.

Floorboards creaked and groaned when I stepped on them; without warning, one gave way.

Your descriptive walkthrough should be at least 3-4 paragraphs and should describe sights, smells, sounds, feelings (touch and emotional).

Day 3 Task Card (20 min researching and 40 min on the task) – today, we will be writing sentences using direct speech between two characters. Direct speech is an objective for every year group so this task will be the same for everyone. However, there will be varying expectations in terms of punctuation and language.

Year group

Skill Explanation (please do further research if needed).

Examples

Year 3 Punctuation is used, mostly accurately, including some use of inverted commas to indicate direct speech.

The use of dialogue is vital in narratives as it advances the story and develops a clear impression of what characters are like. It also gives the reader a feel for the situations and events the characters are facing. It is important that when writing dialogue, the narration is carefully worded to match what the character is saying. There are strict rules about writing speech. Please spend 20 minutes researching the use of inverted commas for speech and the rules for doing this with your parents/carers.

Freddy walked towards the house and Irfan called out to him, “Are you feeling alright? Don’t go near that place!”

“What do you mean? It is empty.” Freddy replied in defiance.

Comma before you start the speech. Inverted commas to show when the character starts

speaking. Capital letter for the start of speech. Punctuation is still needed within speech. A punctuation mark before you close speech. Inverted commas to indicate the character has stopped

talking. The following narration straight after speech does not need

to be capitalised unless it is a name. New speaker, new paragraph.

“Oh my God!” shrieked Mary.

“What?” screamed back Sophia, “What did you see?”

Split speech when there is narration between the same person speaking.

Year 4 Use direct speech with some punctuation.

Year 5 A range of punctuation is used, mostly accurately, including commas after fronted adverbials, possessive apostrophes for plural nouns, and other punctuation to indicate direct speech. Include the use of split speech and interrupted speech.

Year 6 Integrate dialogue in narratives to convey character and advance the action. Include the use of split speech and interrupted speech.

You will have 3 scenarios for which you are required to write a short paragraph on. These must include the use of speech between the characters.

1) Two children discussing whether or not to go into the garden of an abandoned house to get their ball. 2) Three children trapped in a haunted house. 3) A discussion between the characters in Scooby Doo on how to trap a monster.

E.g. The two boys stared longingly at their ball laying amongst the weeds on the overgrown garden. “Go on, climb over and get it,” said Billy to Jacob.

“No way, I am NOT going in there,” bellowed Jacob in response, “That’s where the witch lives.”

“What? Don’t be silly. There is no such thing!” replied Billy.

Jacob nodded his head furiously, “Oh yes there is! My friend from football club told me.”

The two boys argued whilst the witch spied on them from the window, waiting for them to cross the threshold. She will be eating well tonight.

Day 4 Task Card – (1 hour or 2 x 30 min) - today, you will be doing some independent writing to apply the skills you have learnt in this learning journey. You are to re-write a version of your favourite film or show. It is vital that you think of how to include all of the writing tools you have learnt so far this year, but remember

Example sentences for writing skill 1 -

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Vocabulary I will use in my story. Think about adjectives, verbs and adverbs.

to focus on the two skills in this learning journey. For example, if you are in Year 4, your focus will be fronted adverbials and speech.

Day 5 Task Card (1 hour or 2 x 30 min) - today, you are going to plan your story for the starter given –

As I stepped into the bathroom, I felt a cold gust that sent chills through my spine…

Below, is a template for you to complete in preparation for writing your first draft tomorrow. This should be completed using only words, phrases and bullet points (examples of skills in

sentence form).

Characters (at least two) – describe appearance and personality

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Plot – Beginning __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Plot – Middle ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Plot – End ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Example sentences for writing skill 1 -

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Vocabulary I will use in my story. Think about adjectives, verbs and adverbs.

Day 6 and 7 Task Card (45 min over two days) - today, you will be writing the first draft of your story. There are a few vital points for you to think about and discuss with your parents/carers before you begin.

You must think about how to include different writing tools and skills you have learnt since the start of the year. It would be useful to look at your year group’s writing objectives within this pack.

Give special consideration to the two skills that you have covered in this home learning journey. It is vital that you look back at the learning you have done to help you with your writing, especially

your plan! Carefully think about the vocabulary you will be using. Normally, we will have Words of the Learning

Journey at school, so at home, come up with 6 adventurous words you will use in your first draft. Any words you do come up with, please use them in the correct context.

Flow is important and you must make sure your writing makes sense.

Day 8 Task Card (40 min) - today’s task is the editing and improving phase. This is one of the most important parts of the learning journey: annotating your first draft in a different coloured pen.

There should be a minimum of 10 corrections or single word improvements within the body of your writing. This includes correcting spellings, improving or adding single words and correcting or adding punctuation.

There should be a minimum of 5 footnotes. These are written below your first draft and are used to add in whole sentences or to re-write and improve sentences.

Please see below for an example of what your editing and improving should look like.

Day 9 and 10 Task Card (45 min over two days) - today, you will be writing – or typing - your final draft. This does not mean just writing up your first draft as neat as possible. You must remember to include all your

editing and improvement annotations and footnotes but more importantly, there must be continuous improvements made. These are improvement you think of in your head as you are writing. We do this as adults and this is a skill you must develop yourselves.