Weekly Plan 1
Subject: Literacy Hour
Range: Poetry
Year: Group 5&6

Lesson One

1. Whole Class Shared text work ( 15mins)
   Pupils to view Guardians of Millennium Space Station web site. Talk in general about space travel how exciting it must be, the loneliness, why go into space, the benefits and the costs. Concentrate on one of the modules and discuss in depth what it must be like for the astronauts.
2. Whole Class Sentence level work (15mins)
   Read selected poem (teacher to select). Children to work with teacher to identify noun and verb agreement, identify style and content.
3. Independent work
   Children to be given a selection of poetry books from which to locate and select 'favourite space poem. Write out poem in correct format. (opportunity to use computers to develop communication skills by word processing selected poem and adding clip art, photos, sound and/or video clip. Encourage use of spell check, choosing font and bordering work.)
   Inform children that they may be asked to read out their elected poem at the end of the lesson encouraging them to check pronunciation of unknown words.
4. Teacher to work with one group to discuss a specific poem Identify author, style and content.
5. Plenary Discuss with whole class the poems they have selected and choose one or two to read out their selection.

Lesson Two

1. Whole Class Shared text work ( 15mins)
   Choose some of the poems that the children selected from the previous day or ones you feel appropriate and identify what is distinctive about the poem. Compare styles consider full rhymes, half rhymes and other sound patterns.
2. Whole Class Sentence level work (15mins)
   Select one poem to look at in detail. Identify structure. Work with children to suggest alternative rhymes and therefore constructing alternative poem linked to space if possible.
3. Independent work (20 Mins)
   Children to work in groups to make up own space poem. Encourage children to think about feelings, sights, thoughts, worries, excitement and wonder. Encourage the children to jot down their thoughts in rough before embarking on poem if it helps them.
   (opportunity for new groups to word process their own poems on the computers as previous day) See poems - sites must be previously checked by teacher.)
4. Plenary Select children to read out efforts so far - celebrate good practise.

Lesson Three

1. Whole Class Shared text work (15mins)
   Select suitable child's poem from previous day and whole celebrate poem, child to read out, then whole class to make suggestions which the child can choose or not choose to use.
2. Whole Class Shared Sentence work (15mins)
   This would be an ideal opportunity to concentrate on adverbs and adjectives and extend to phrases and clauses for the more able
3. Independent Work (20mins)
   Give the children some differentiated worksheets to consolidate uses of adjectives and adverbs before allowing them to return to improving their poems.
4. Plenary
   Recap on adjectives and adverbs to check understanding.

Lesson Four

1. Whole Class Shared text work ( 15mins)
2. Read poem that deals with feelings to encourage the children to make final effort to improve their own poem. Discuss how the writer uses punctuation to create pauses etc.
3. Whole Class Shared Sentence Work (15mins)
   Concentrate on use of comma for pauses or lists and full stops for longer pauses. Introduce use of colons for more able children.
4. Independent Work
   Pupils to produce final version of their own poem in best handwriting or using word processor.
5. Plenary
   Select children to read out poems