Real Writing Year 6 - Unit 20
Model text: The Glittering Collar, by Jon Mayhew
Curriculum Links: History (Ancient Egypt)
Writing Unit Overview
This writing unit for Year 6 is built around an original model text by Jon Mayhew; a finding tale set in Ancient Egypt. The example text is available as a PDF in three versions (plain, illustrated and annotated); annotated and non-annotated PowerPoint presentations are also included.
In this two-week unit, pupils will read and use their knowledge of the Ancient Egyptian time period to write their own story with a historical setting. They will investigate how the author uses expanded noun phrases and information about Ancient Egypt to describe the setting and apply these skills to their own story. This unit could be used as part of a topic on Ancient Egypt, or on ancient civilisations, as the final story could be written in an alternative historical setting.
Key Curriculum Skills
Two fully resourced lesson plans are included for the following Year 6 English objectives, which can form part of the unit or be taught discretely:
1. Vocabulary: To distinguish between homophones and other words that are often confused
Pupils will: match homophones KS2 to the correct images; proofread paragraphs, correcting homophones; write homophones for given sentences; collect homophones for a class display.
2. Vocabulary: To consider how authors describe settings and use these techniques in their own setting descriptions
Pupils will: highlight and annotate information that describes a setting and the writing techniques used; write a setting description for Senenmut’s palace and think carefully about their vocabulary choices; discuss how examples of setting descriptions create images for the reader.
Additional skills to teach or revisit:
- Punctuating speech
- Paragraphing
- Relative clauses
- The use of noun phrases
Additional Y6 teaching points
- Using dialogue to convey characters and advance action
- Using cohesive devices
- Using a range of punctuation including semi-colons to punctuate clauses and lists, colons to introduce lists, hyphens, ellipses and commas
Year 6 vocabulary
Year 5 / 6 statutory spelling words: ancient, mischievous, symbol
Tier 2 words: adorn, architect, bejewelled, cymbal, flank, practice, practise, scoundrel
Tier 3 words: Egyptian, hieroglyphics, incarnation, Pharaoh, staff
What are homophones?
Homophones are words that sound the same but are spelt differently and have different meanings.
Examples of homophones or words that are often confused from English Appendix 1: years 5/6
- advice/advise
- device/devise
- licence/license
- practice/practise
- prophecy/prophesy
- farther/father
- guest/guessed
- heard/herd
- led/lead
- morning/mourning
- past/passed
- precede/proceed
- aisle/isle
- aloud/allowed
- affect/effect
- altar/alter
- ascent/assent
- bridle/bridal
- cereal/serial
- compliment/complement
- descent/ dissent
- desert/dessert
- draft/draught
- principle/principal
- profit/prophet
- stationary/stationery
- steal/steel
- wary/weary
- who’s/whose