This Year 4 Real Writing unit draws on an original text by published children’s author Loretta Schauer. The unit leads pupils through Matthew Bourne’s life and work, using a carefully mapped framework supported by two to three weeks of detailed planning.
The sequence introduces dance and theatre through clear, purposeful reading and writing. The children will meet essential vocabulary, revisit key grammar skills and discover how biographical recounts take shape.
Links to English objectives and P.E. strengthen the unit’s focus and help pupils write with confidence.
Vocabulary
- Tier 2 words: autograph, stereotype
- Tier 3 words: audience, ballet, choreographer, contemporary, director, musicals, performer, production, theatre
- Common exception words: different, famous, history, popular, strength, various
Resources included
- Three versions of the model text (plain, illustrated and annotated PDF)
- Annotated and standard teaching slides
- Vocabulary cards and matching activities
- Writing skills check
- How to write a recount poster
- Margin planner for pupil planning
- Activity sheets for grammar and vocabulary sessions
- Full teacher notes for each phase of the sequence
Curriculum links
English
- Prefixes and suffixes
- Present perfect tense
- Fronted adverbials
- Expanded noun phrases
- Conjunctions
- Paragraphs
- Headings and subheadings
- Cohesion through nouns and pronouns
Cross-curricular
P.E (dance performance and choreographic appreciation)
Key teaching activities
- Begin with a video hook showing Matthew Bourne’s work to spark discussion about dance and performance
- Read and analyse the model text to identify tense choices, organisational features and examples of revisited grammar skills
- Explore new vocabulary using contextual clues and card-based sorting tasks
- Create a job advertisement for a professional dancer using target words and precise noun phrases
- Practise prefixes, suffixes and the present perfect through guided tasks
- Write questions as subheadings to support later organisation of independent writing
- Investigate features of biographical recounts using the poster and additional examples
- Research Matthew Bourne and plan a recount using the margin planner
- Draft, edit and read aloud a polished biographical recount
Outcomes
By the end of the unit pupils:
- Understand how writers organise and shape biographical recounts
- Use dance and theatre vocabulary confidently in context
- Apply grammar skills including prefixes, suffixes and the present perfect
- Organise writing into clear paragraphs with effective questions as subheadings
- Produce an independent biographical recount about Matthew Bourne with clear structure and purpose