Y6 Revision Unit 3

Year 6 Literacy revision – Unit 3

Readingpoetry (5 days)

Daily plans and teaching notes

N.B.

These plans and notes are intended to supplement, not replace, the extensive notes for this unit which can be found on both the website and DVD versions of the renewed Primary Framework for literacy and mathematics by following the path:

(Standards Site Home >) Primary Framework Home > Literacy > Planning > Year 6 > Revision > Unit 3

They should be read and used alongside the notes from the electronic version, where you will find full details of:

- all learning objectives

- a prior-learning checklist

- suggested teaching approaches

- assessment for learning opportunities

- children’s learning targets

- key aspects of learning

- references for all supporting resources.

As explained in those notes, the focus in this revision unit is on reading poetry only. The writing of poetry is provided for elsewhere in the planning section of the Renewed Primary Framework.

Before starting the unit

To benefit from this unit pupils already need to be able to:

  • discuss their responses to a range of poetry;
  • identify and discuss the various features of a poem, including the structure and organisation of the text and the way the language is used to create effects on the reader.

While this unit will revisit and revise these it does not and cannot provide the opportunity to teach any of them from scratch. It is therefore essential that you first use previous and ongoing assessment to determine whether pupils have the prior knowledge and experience of poetry-reading needed. If there are either specific or more general ‘gaps’ in this knowledge or experience then you should take steps to address these (with the whole class, with particular ‘target’ groups, or with individuals) through ‘booster’ and ‘catch up’ lessons or sessions, before starting the revision unit. You will obviously need to build appropriate time for this into your planning and organisation for the spring and early summer terms.

The other Year 6 Poetry units from the planning section of the Renewed Primary Framework will help provide this prior experience, as will units from other year groups, provided their content is suitably adapted to be age appropriate.

The document Progression in Poetry (which can be found in the Renewed Primary Framework by following the route Literacy > Guidance Papers > Progression) is particularly helpful in defining the elements of poetry, and the levels of prior knowledge and experience necessary for Year 6 children.

Day 1 (1/5 days)

Plan

Whole class:

  • Select a range of poems such as might be encountered in the reading section of the QCA National Test for Year 6. These could represent poems on a particular theme, different poems by the same writer, or examples of a range of poetic forms.
  • Model reading and analysis of a couple of the poems, using extensive discussion and other interactive approaches to involve the children in this process (reading aloud; ‘performing’; adding rhythms; ‘sound effects’; looking at digital images, etc.).
  • As appropriate, use text-marking, note making, etc. to identify and extend responses to the writer’s intentions, the style and form of the poemand to the writer’s use of language and imagery. Display these annotated texts to act as models.

Independent:

  • In pairs or groups, allow children to explore other poems from within the group selected (or perhaps of a complementary or contrasting type).
  • Ask them to read, discuss and analyse the texts, using some of the approaches modelled earlier, and relating them to their previous experience of poems and other texts (and possibly referring to the displayed annotations and notes from the whole-class session as support).
  • Again consider writer’s intention; style and form; writer’s use of language and imagery. (Possibly with different groups considering different aspects, ready to share at feedback.)

Plenary:

  • Feedback, discuss and compare children’s responses to the range of poems.
    Compare these with those read and explored in the whole-class session.

Evaluate how well the children can read, analyse and discuss the various key features of poems, relating their responses to ‘evidence’ from the text itself. Involve them in similar self-evaluation of the same skills.Discuss how their reading of poems could be improved.
Day1 (1/5 days)

Teaching notes

  • Your LA Literacy Consultant may be able to help you choose and analyse suitable poetry texts.
  • The document Progression in Poetry (which can be found in the Renewed Primary Framework by following the route Literacy > Guidance Papers > Progression) is particularly helpful in defining the elements of poetry, and the levels of expectation for Year 6 children.
  • In this lesson concentrate purely on reading and response. (The answering of ‘comprehension’ questions will be covered in Days 3, 4 and 5 of this revision unit.)
  • Useful guidance for this process can be obtained fromUnderstanding reading comprehension leaflets, Ref: 1310-2005 to 1312-2005
  • It may be helpful to use some short drama or other interactive techniques (e.g. a few minutes exploring the ‘feeling’ of a poem through movement or ‘performance’) to further develop response to the reading.
  • At every stage of this lesson it is most important to allow children to articulate (to each other and to you) their understanding of and response to the poems and their features, relating this to other examples from their own reading experience. This will help both their learning and your assessment of it.
  • By the end of the lesson, children should be securing their ability to identify and discuss key features of poems, including: the writer’s intentions; its style and form; the language and images used by the writer; their own response to it as readers. If these skills are in need of further development it may be necessary to ‘side-step’ this plan or add additional sessions to address this. However, further opportunities to extend these skills are also provided on Days 2, 3 and 4 of this revision unit.

Day 2 (2/5 days)

Plan

Whole class:

  • Select a contrasting range of poems from those selected on Day 1.
  • Model reading and analysis of a couple of the poems, using extensive discussion and other interactive approaches to involve the children in this process (reading aloud; ‘performing’; adding rhythms; ‘sound effects’; looking at digital images, etc.)
  • As appropriate, use text-marking, note making, etc. to identify and extend responses to the writer’s intentions, the style and form of the poem and to the writer’s use of language and imagery. Display these annotated texts to act as models.

Independent:

  • In pairs or groups, allow children to explore other poems from within the group selected (or perhaps of a complementary or contrasting type).
  • Ask them to read, discuss and analyse the texts, using some of the approaches modelled earlier, and relating them to their previous experience of poems and other texts (and possibly referring to the displayed annotations and notes from the whole-class session as support).
  • Again consider writer’s intention; style and form; writer’s use of language and imagery. (Possibly with different groups considering different aspects, ready to share at feedback.)

Plenary:

  • Feedback, discuss and compare children’s responses to the range of poems.
  • Compare these with those read and explored in the whole-class session.
  • Evaluate how well the children can read, analyse and discuss the various key features of poems, relating their responses to ‘evidence’ from the text itself. Involve them in similar self-evaluation of the same skills. Discuss how their reading of poems could be improved.

Day 2 (2/5 days)

Teaching notes

  • Your LA Literacy Consultant may be able to help you choose and analyse suitable texts.
  • In this lesson continue to concentrate purely on reading and response. (The answering of ‘comprehension’ questions will be covered in Days 3, 4 and 5)
  • Useful guidance for this process can be obtained from Understanding reading comprehension leaflets, Ref: 1310-2005 to 1312-2005
  • Try to build on from the learning on Day 1, whilst at the same time applying that learning to this different range of poems.
  • It may be helpful to use some simple drama or other interactive techniques (e.g. a few minutes of simple ‘hot-seating’, or ‘thought-lining’ for one of the characters) within this lesson to further develop response to the reading.
  • At every stage of this lesson it is most important to allow children to articulate (to each other and to you) their understanding of and response to the text and features, providing other examples from their own reading experience. This will help both their learning and your assessment of it.
  • By the end of the lesson, children should confidently be able to identify and discuss key features of poetry, including: its purpose, audience and genre; its characters, and setting; the language and features used by the writer and their own response to it as readers. If these skills are in need of further development it may be necessary to ‘side-step’ this plan or add additional sessions to address this. However, further opportunities to extend this area are also provided on Days 3 and 4 of this revision unit.

Day 3 (3/5 days)

Plan

Whole class:

  • Select a poetry text (or texts) which has been (or could have been) used as a reading example in the QCA Year 6 test;
  • With suitable interaction, model reading and initial analysis of this text.Allow children the opportunity to respond to and discuss it.
  • In relation to this text, explore different types and levels of question found in National Curriculum tests, and how best to answer them. Consider literal, deductive and inferential questions, as well as those relating to reader response. Consider 1, 2 and 3 mark questions in the QCA mark schemes and how they need to be answered to gain the appropriate marks. Also discuss and exemplify relating answers to evidence in the text. Through discussion compile a list or chart of different types/levels of question, and try to define criteria for the ‘best’ answer to each.

Independent:

  • In pairs or groups, ask children to generate their own questions at different levels (information retrieval, inference, reader response and/or QCA ‘1’, ‘2’, and ‘3’ mark questions) relating to the same poem(s) or a very similar one. (If the latter it may be best to shared-read it first.)
  • Ask children to work out the ‘best’ answers to their own questions, demonstrating how to relate them to the text, etc.
  • Try out the questions on others and compare answers to their own.

Plenary:

  • Feedback and discuss both questions and answers, discussing any areas of uncertainty.
  • Make sure children can identify and understand the different types and levels of question, and what is needed to provide the ‘best’ answer to each. To check, refer back to the criteria generated earlier.
  • Recap, again referring back to the compiled question types and ‘good’ answer criteria, but also encouraging children to articulate their own understanding of them.

Day 3 (3/5 days)

Teaching notes

  • The text and analysis could be drawn directly from Year 6 planning exemplification 2002-2003: Term 3 revision unit: reading poetry
  • Your Literacy Consultant may also be able to help in defining different levels of questions and the appropriate response (related to the requirements of the QCA mark scheme). Alternatively you can explore previous test texts and questions on the QCA website ( or draw on your own/your school’s previous analysis of test papers and results.
  • At every stage of this lesson it is most important to allow children to articulate (to each other and to you) their understanding of the different types of questions and how best to answer them, always providing examples. This will help both their learning and your assessment of it.
  • By the end of the lesson, children should be beginning to have a good understanding of how to read and answer different types and levels of questions in relation to a poetry text. However they will have an opportunity to explore this further and reinforce their knowledge/understanding of it on Day 4.

Day 4 (4/5 days)

Plan

Whole class:

  • Select another poem text, similar to that used on Day 2, but with different content and/or form.
  • Again, working interactively, model reading and initial analysis of this text. Allow children the opportunity to respond to and discuss it.
  • In relation to this text, further explore different types and levels of question found in National Curriculum tests, and how best to answer them, building and adding to work from Day 3. Through discussion, build on your list or chart of different types/levels of question from the previous day and continue to define criteria for the ‘best’ answer to each.
  • Provide a range of different ‘questions’ and various sets of real (anonymous?) or simulated children’s answers to them.
  • Take one of these and demonstrate how to ‘mark’ it, referring back to the ‘best answer’ criteria already discussed and noted.

Independent:

  • In pairs or groups, ask children to ‘mark’ other sets of answers to the same (or different) questions, on the same (or a different) poetrytext, using the agreed criteria.
  • Ask children to justify their marking and note suggestions as to how the answers could have been improved.

Plenary:

  • Feedback and discuss both questions and answers, discussing any areas of uncertainty.
  • Make sure children can identify and understand the different types and levels of question, and what is needed to provide the ‘best’ answer to each. To check, refer back to the criteria generated earlier.
  • Recap, again referring back to the compiled question types and ‘good’ answer criteria, but also encouraging children to articulate their own understanding of them.

Day 4 (4/5 days)

Teaching notes

  • Choose a different (but still engaging) poemtext to that used on Day 3. Your LA Literacy Consultant may be able to help you choose and analysis a suitable text.
  • When discussing how to read the text, how to answer different kinds of question, etc., try to both recap and build on from the learning of the previous day.
  • Your Literacy Consultant may also be able to help in defining different levels of questions and the appropriate response (related to the requirements of the QCA mark scheme). Alternatively you can again explore previous test texts and questions on the QCA website ( or draw on your own/your school’s previous analysis of test papers and results.
  • Once again, at every stage of this lesson it is most important to allow children to articulate (to each other and to you) their understanding of the different types of questions and how best to answer them, always providing examples. This will help both their learning and your assessment of it. The stage of the session when children devise and answer their own and each other’s questions at different levels will provide a particularly good opportunity to assess their understanding.
  • By the end of the lesson, children should have a clear understanding of how to read and answer different types and levels of questions in relation to a poetry text. On Day 5 they will have an opportunity to try to utilise this understanding under ‘test conditions’, and then to reflect upon and learn from the way they went about this. This will provide further important assessment opportunities, not only through the ‘test’ itself, but as much if not more so in the ‘debrief’.

Day 5 (5/5 days)

Plan

Whole class:

  • Through discussion (more than closed questioning) briefly recap what was learned on the previous four days about how to read a poetry text, what kinds and levels of questions might be asked, and how best to answer them.

Independent:

  • Provide children with apreviously unseen example of a section of ‘the test’ that involves reading a poem or poems and answering a range of questions(preferably drawn from one of the previous QCA end-of-Key-Stage-2 tests).
  • Allow children to read and answer the questions under ‘test conditions’, and in a time roughly equivalent to that which would be available in the actual QCA test.

Plenary:

  • In a very discursive, interactive way, talkthrough the questions, modelling ‘good’ answers, and allowing the children to compare these answers with their own. Collectively mark, on the text, places where answers or the information for answers could be found or inferred. Also what ‘evidence’ needed to be included in the answers. Discuss which of the children’s answers are (not just ‘right’but) ‘good’ answers, which less good, and try to help the children to understand how these latter could be improved.
  • If a suitable climate of trust and collaborative learning has been well established within the class, then an alternative to the above would be to allow children themselves (in pairs, or possibly in small groups) to ‘mark’ others children’s outcomes, deciding for themselves which are ‘good’ answers at various levels and why (possibly after first discussing the criteria collectively with you), justifying their responses, and suggesting how answers could have been improved. This marking can then itself be used as the basis of further discussion on the questions and how best to answer them.
  • Take children’s outcomes away to ‘mark’yourself and on a later occasion provide detailed oral or written feedback on how answers could have been improved.

Day 5 (5/5 days)