Resources for Teachers

4. Peace Weavers - schemes of work devised by teachers for Y8 pupils.

Thank you to Liz Wickins and Sarah Keenan of Margaret Beaufort Middle School for generously sharing their enthusiasm and experience of teaching this text.

a) Lesson plans

b) Over view of plans

c) Analysis of Chapter 12 - turning point chapter

7. Beginnings

Adapt these documents for use with your own pupils. Please acknowledge sources.

Julia Jarman Books and the National Literacy Strategy and National Curriculum Links

(Written by V. Pearce English Language Coordinator, Wigmore Primary School.)

The imaginative teacher sees the NLS and NC as stimuli not straight jackets. You can use the books you want to use! Use books you enjoy! Many books fit into several categories - as you'll see!

Stories with familiar settings

Big Red bath

Gertie and the Bloop Year 2, Term 1

The Jessame Stories Year 3, Term 1

Adventure and Mystery Stories Year 3 term 3

Georgie and the Dragon

Georgie and the Planet Raider

Georgie and the Computer Bugs

The Time Travelling Cat series

The Sewer Sleuth

Nancy Pocket and the Kidnappers

Historical Stories and short novels

Year 4 Term 1

The Time Travelling Cat and the Egyptian Goddess (Every day life and cat worship in Ancient Egypt)

The Time Travelling Cat and the Tudor Treasure (Tudor everyday life and famous explorers: Francis Drake, Martin Frobisher and John Hawkins.)

The Time Travelling Cat and the Roman Eagle. (Roman Britain in AD79 - based on finds in Calleva Atrebatum near Silchester, Topher, a British boy, is apprenticed to a Roman mosaic maker from Pompei. and comes into conflict with the druid from his local tribe.)

The Time Travelling Cat and the Aztec Sacrifice (The cat accompanies Cortes on his trip to Tenochtitalan and meets Montezuma)

The Time Travelling Cat and the Viking Terror (Ninth century Britain and Anglo Saxon England is being terrorised by Ingwar the Boneless, leader of the Vikings.)

Convict (Victorians - crime and punishment)

The Sewer Sleuth (Victorians - health and housing)

The Crow Haunting (Stone Age)

Ghost Writer - set in a school built in 1841, haunted by a Victorian pupil who writes a mysterious message on the black board.

Stories/Short novels that raise issues

Year 4 Term 3

Hangman (bullying, Fascism,)

Flying Friends. (bullying)

Rabbit Helps Out. (self esteem)

Gertie and the Bloop ( assertiveness, self esteem)

When Poppy Ran Away (prejudice, environment - saving woodlands)

Convict (justice, crime and punishment)

Squonk (bullying)

Nancy Pocket and the Kidnappers (sibling rivalry)

Georgie and the Dragon (aggression, killing in computer games)

Georgie and the Planet Raider (environment, cleaning up the planet)

The Ghost of Tantony Pig (environment, saving the countryside)

Ghost WRiter (dyslexia, education in Victorian times and today.

The Time Travelling Cat and the Tudor Treasure. ( animal rights, vegetarianism)

Stories / novels about imagined worlds

Year 4 term 2

Georgie and the Dragon

Georgie and the Planet Raider

Georgie and the Computer Bugs

The Time Travelling Cat

A Test for the Time Travelling Cat

The Crow Haunting

Stories in Series

Year 4 term 2

Georgie and the dragon

Georgie and the Computer Bugs

Georgie and the Planet Raider

The Time Travelling Cat and the Egyptian Goddess

A Test for the Time Travelling Cat

The Time Travelling Cat and the Roman Eagle

Novels and Stories from a variety of cultures and traditions

Year 5 term 3

The Jessame Stories - Jessame comes form an Afro-British family

More Jessame Stories

Longer Established Stories and Novels from more than one genre.

Year 6 Term 2

The Crow Haunting

The Ghost of Tantony Pig

The Time Travelling Cat Stories

Ollie and the Bogle

Novels, poems and stories by significant children's writer

Year 2 term 3

Year 5 Term 1

A selection of the above.

Stories by the same author

Year 4 Term 3

A selection of the above

Julia Jarman Books and National Curriculum Links

HISTORY KS2

The Time Travelling Cat and the Egyptian Goddess

The Time Travelling Cat and the Tudor Treasure-

The Time Travelling Cat and the Roman Eagle

The Time Travelling Cat and the Aztec Sacrifice.

The Sewer Sleuth Study Unit 3a/Victorians

Convict StudyUnit3a/Victorians

Ghost Writer Victorians

The Crow Haunting Study Unit 3a

MATHS KS1

Squonk AT4 size

Little Mouse Grandma AT4 size

SCIENCE KS1/KS2

Will there be Polar Bears? AT3 L1/AT4 L2

The Sewer Sleuth AT2 L5

GEOGRAPHY KS1/KS2

The Magic Backpack - Children find out where the ingredients for a chocolate cake come from. Josh flies to Africa to get the cocoa.

Squonk L2

Will there be Polar Bears? L2

The Time Travelling Cat stories L3

How to Improve your Writing

EDITING

Notes for teachers which can be adapted for use with pupils of different ages and abilities and circumstances.

I'd find it hard to write a good story in SATS conditions!

To produce a publishable script most writers do several drafts, editing as they go along. In the final draft the writer will have expressed his or her thoughts as precisely as possible. Through carefully chosen words the writer’s thoughts can enter someone else’s head. Don’t make pupils redraft all their writing. It’s hard work and may be discouraging, but do encourage them to try and improve some pieces. It's encouraging for some to learn that they can take their time to improve a piece of writing. They don't have to get it right first time.

***

When you write a story think of the story in your head as a film, with characters, actions, locations and atmospheres. You may also want to suggest tastes, textures and smells! A film arouses thoughts and feelings with moving pictures and a sound track. A written story does all this with words alone.

(If your story is going to be illustrated, you, the writer must put the pictures into the illustrator’s head by careful choice of words.)

Good writing is the right words in the right order. Good writing puts clear images in the reader’s head. The writer writes and re-writes to make things clearer. The writer improves each draft by editing to make it clearer. This goes through several stages. Suggest to pupils that they:

1. Self-edit as they go along. Say, 'You might need to -

- cross out a word if you think of a better one while you’re writing, and put another in its place.

- cross out a word - or several - because you don’t need it/them.

- add a word -or several - to make your meaning clearer. (Use arrows /\ /\)

- change the punctuation or add capitals to make your meaning clearer.

- You might also need to change the sequence - (order of saying things) (Use brackets and arrows)

- Make sure you can read your writing, but don’t worry about untidiness at this stage.

Then:

Re-write your story - (Onto the word processor perhaps, then print it out.)

Read it out - aloud if possible. (Correct any mistakes that you notice while you read.)

Use a co-editor. Ask a friend to read it. Ask him/her the following questions -

a) Which character did you like best in my story? What is s/he like?

b) Which character didn’t you like? What is s/he like?

c) What happened in my story? How did it begin, continue, end?

d) What was the most exciting bit?

e) Where did it happen?

f) When did it happen?

g) What did my story make you feel like? (Happy, sad, frightened, excited, amused, bored?)

If your friend can answer a question give yourself a tick . You have succeeded in putting that part of your story into your reader’s head. If your friend can’t, then you need to make things clearer. Ask yourself -

a) Have I shown what the characters are like? (Showing, by giving evidence, convinces your reader.)

b) Have I put the evidence of at least three of my senses into this story? Have I shown what things looked, sounded, smelt, tasted and/or felt* like? -

(* both sorts of feeling - touch/texture and touch/feelings.)

Have I used the best words I know to show what I mean?

Have I got the sequence and pace right?

Re-draft, improving your story by adding, changing or removing bits.

Some bits may be boring and unnecessary. In a film the camera can be close-up showing some moments in detail, and it can move swiftly over vast areas of space and time. So can words! “The princess slept for a hundred years.” You don’t have to describe the hundred years in detail! You may mention that the palace gardens became a tangled forest that hid the place from human eyes.

Copy-edit - check spelling, punctuation, capital letters etc.

3. Give it to a Teacher-editor.

Explain to pupils that, at this stage, a professional writer would send the script to the editor of a publishing house, who might ask the writer to do another re-write! The editor would make The editor would mark the script with corrections and suggestions for improvement. The writer and the editor would discuss these comments.

This is best practice in lots of school. Teachers act as editors. Ask pupils not to be offended by the marks on their script. Ask them to discuss your suggestions then do a final draft.

Then why not publish it? Make it into a book for the class or school library and let the public read it!

Julia Jarman (updated Jan 2006)

Resources for Teachers

5. My Writing Recipe

7. Beginnings

Julia Jarman Books and the National Literacy Strategy and National Curriculum Links

Adventure and Mystery Stories Year 3 term 3