Burnley Y6/7 Transition Project · Michael Morpurgo novel "Kensuke's Kingdom" (see appendix 1)...

LANCASHIRE PRIMARY LITERACY AND SECONDARY ENGLISH TEAMS

Burnley Y6/7 Transition Project

2009‐2010

Julie Clack, Primary Literacy Consultant

Cathy Clarke, Secondary English Consultant

Margaret Simmonds, Secondary English Consultant

Introduction

The purpose of the Burnley Transition Project was to improve the transfer of Literacy assessment information between primary and secondary colleagues. This means that secondary teachers can immediately build on the work done in primary schools because they have detailed assessment information at their disposal at the beginning of Y7 rather than just having a child's overall level achieved. APP is the ideal format for the transfer of this assessment information and secondary schools have been using APP for several years. As most Lancashire primary schools are still in the process of implementing (or embedding) the use of APP in Writing and Reading, and most have not yet started to implement speaking and listening APP, the agreement was that a minimum of a sample group's APP writing grids would be passed on this year with a view to extending this to Reading and Writing grids for all the Y6 children next year. Some primary schools indicated that they were able to pass up more APP information than the minimum requirement.

The project has started on a small scale this year, involving two secondary schools, Blessed Trinity RC College and Sir John Thursby Community College, and their feeder primary schools (Briercliffe, Barden, Brunshaw, Heasandford, St James' Lanehead, Stoneyholme, Rosewood, Burnley St John's, Padiham St John's, Christ the King, Burnley St Mary's and St Augustine's). We hope to extend it to include more secondary and primary schools next year.

The Project Model

The Burnley Transition Project model used some ideas from an already-established and very effective model used by schools on The Wyre and hosted by St Aidan's, Poulton-le-Fylde. The Burnley model involved an introductory half day in term 2 for all the schools involved. This session was kindly hosted by Sir John Thursby Community College. During introductory session, the primary schools were provided with a unit of work on the Michael Morpurgo novel "Kensuke's Kingdom" (see appendix 1) along with some moodle materials designed by Janet Gough, Assistant Headteacher at Cockerham Parochial Primary School. The Lancashire I.T. consultants gave some input with teachers on how to upload moodle and were a link to provide support. The Kensuke's Kingdom unit is designed to be completed in the summer term (probably after SATS) and the activities are linked to Reading and Writing Assessment focuses so that they provide APP evidence, along with the teacher's existing knowledge of the children.

Because some schools have not completely embedded APP yet, two half days optional APP training were provided later in term 2. Teachers came to whichever APP training (Reading or Writing) they felt they needed, some of course not needing either . Feedback from the APP sessions indicated that it filled in gaps, clarified messages and provided reassurance for participants.

It was agreed that all primary schools would complete at least three core tasks from the Kensuke's Kingdom materials

although most used much more. Y6 teachers were provided with copies of "Kensuke's Kingdom" to use with all their Y6 children. They taught using the Kensuke's Kingdom materials later in the summer term and used the evidence generated to help complete APP grids. The children's transition unit work and the completed APP grids were collected at the end of the summer term and delivered to the relevant secondary school.

Project Evaluation

At the end of term 3, the primary and secondary schools met for a final day to moderate APP reading and writing level judgements together, to evaluate the project and consider possibilities for a 20010-11 project. Suggestions for next year included still having an optional APP training day (possibly looking further at APP Reading evidence, and also introducing APP Speaking and Listening). There was a lot of very positive feedback about the Kensuke's Kingdom tasks. Teachers said that children had really enjoyed the unit tasks and that the learning styles involved particularly appealed to boys. They also felt that the fact that the children's work was being passed on to secondary school at the end of the summer term provided motivation for the children to continue doing their best. Teachers added suggestions for extra tasks to the ones offered, often based on ones promoted by the Literacy team, such as "role on the wall" and thought tracking characters' feelings. They also offered their own excellent suggestions for additional activities which could be included next year - such as creating a story sack to go with the book; writing in role and sending a message in a bottle; writing a ship's log; or writing from different characters' viewpoints based on an incident when

the main character is swept overboard. Some further suggestions were given such as it being useful if all children had books published by the same company for ease. Some schools found it difficult to upload the moodle materials but enjoyed using the same materials provided on a disc instead. Feedback from schools who did use moodle was very good.

Next steps

On the final day at the end of term 3 the Secondary English consultants provided a unit of work for the Y7 teachers, based on Michael Morpurgo's short story "My Father's a Polar Bear". Y7 teachers will use this unit of work to build on work done in Y6 and to provide continuity and familiarity for the children. There was also some discussion around whether a new Y6 unit needed to be provided next year, in case some teachers had both Y5 and Y6 children in the same class. Many teachers wanted to re-use the Kensuke's Kingdom unit as the children had enjoyed it so much this year. It was therefore decided that a new unit based on a different Michael Morpurgo book be provided as an option. As long as primary schools do one of the units, secondary schools can use this as a base to build upon at the beginning of Y7.

There were lots of good ideas in terms of scaling up the project next year. One suggestion was that generic formats/ writing frames could be devised for some of the unit activities e.g. diary writing in role. Then, when the children enter Y7, secondary colleagues can use exactly the same formats/ frames with a new text in order to ensure that children experience familiar

materials and learning approaches. Another suggestion was for primary and secondary schools to bring examples of APP evidence, exemplifying effective teaching approaches, to meetings in order to share good practice. One teacher suggested that the Burnley Learning Partnership could be involved and Transition could be offered as a CPD option to all Burnley schools.

We would like to thank all the schools involved for their positive contributions and in particular Melanie Booth from Sir John Thursby Community College for organising the use of her school for the introductory session, and also Janet Gough from Cockerham Parochial Primary School for providing the moodle materials. We are looking forward to an even better project next year!

Burnley Transition Project

Evaluation

Name: Anne Reid

School: Stoneyholme

Kensuke's Kingdom Tasks and Moodle materials:

Resources were excellent. Couldn't open some of the video clips (web based)- blocked in school. Didn't use Moodle materials as Moodle- not enough access to ICT.

Would want to use the unit again next year because of the time spent on modifying materials etc.

APP Training (if accessed) and moderation:

Training was fine.

Would have liked the opportunity to moderate between primary schools more.

Comments about what you would like from the Transition Project next year:

Build on success of this year.


Evaluation

Name: Emily Chambers (representing Melanie Booth)

School: Sir John Thursby CC


N/A (secondary)


APP training- N/A

Moderation – very useful to work with primary colleagues.


Continue to grow- maybe link to more feeder primaries?


Evaluation

Name: Maxine Burrell

School: Heasandford


• Tasks- fantastic! Lovely ideas.

• Had a brief look at the Moodle materials- some of the children used these when writing their explanations.


Very useful and needed!


Further training.


Evaluation

Name: Susan Mullen

School: St Mary's RCP, Burnley


Tasks were interesting and appropriate. The children enjoyed completing them very much and were motivated by the Transition aspect.

Couldn't access some of the materials on the CD- volcano video. We're not "wired up" for the moodle yet but there were lots of interesting and exciting activities.


V useful. Informative and well-presented.



Evaluation

Name: Wayne Sutcliffe

School: Rosewood Primary


• Interesting activities

• "Boy friendly"

• Lots of resources (variety)

• Children enjoyed completing tasks

• Book was pitched well

• Moodle- good resources


Wish I had come to APP course.


APP for Reading and Speaking and Listening (course).

Y6/7 Literacy Transition

Unit

Lancashire Primary Strategy: Literacy

Primary Literacy and Secondary English Consultants

Introduction The following transition unit tasks are linked to reading and writing assessment focuses in order to provide evidence to inform APP (Assessing Pupils’ Progress) judgements. Judgements should be made using a wide range of evidence and the following tasks are intended to provide just part of that evidence, supplemented by the teacher’s knowledge of the child. When assessing pupils, teachers must give credit for independent, consistent learning. Primary teachers are asked, to complete at least the three key tasks (tasks 3, 4 and 7) and highlight APP writing grids for at least a sample group of children. Many primary schools will now be embedding APP Writing and will be able to provide grids for more children and possibly APP Reading grids as well. The tasks in this booklet will be very much enhanced by use of the moodle activities and resources kindly provided by Janet Gough, Assistant Headteacher at Cockerham Parochial Primary School. It is expected that Kensuke’s Kingdom is read as a class novel and that teachers select from the following activities, or from the moodle activities, ensuring that at least the key tasks are completed. At the end of the summer term, the children’s work on Kensuke’s Kingdom and the APP grids will be passed on to secondary schools so that Y7 teachers are able to use this detailed assessment information in order to inform their teaching from September.

Learning objectives This transition unit is designed to teach and develop reading skills although there will also be many opportunities to assess children’s writing through the incidental writing opportunities. The reading objectives which are taught through the unit are: Drama

Improvise using a range of drama strategies and conventions to explore themes such as hopes, fears and desires

Understanding and interpreting texts

Understand underlying themes, causes and points of view

Understand how writers use different structures to create coherence and impact

Appraise a text quickly, deciding on its value, quality or usefulness

Engaging and responding to texts

Sustain engagement with longer texts, using different techniques to make the text come alive

Compare how writers from different times and places present experiences and use language

Task 1 Chapter 4 Gibbons and Ghosts

Collecting effective language and writing a poem Objectives


Assessment opportunities Reading AF5 - explain and comment on writers' use of language, including grammatical and literary features at word and sentence level Reading AF6 - identify and comment on writers' purposes and viewpoints, and the overall effect of the text on the reader First collect effective language to describe Michael’s fear and despair when he is initially on the island. Work as a class/ children work in guided groups to create a poem with the title “Despair” using the language they have collected. The children then present their poems to other groups and justify the author’s language which they have selected for their poems. Author intent prompts could be used as speaking frames to help the children justify choices of language. Independent / group work The children then work in pairs, or individually, to produce a poem in a similar style entitled “Joy” based on Michael’s feelings when he discovers that he is not alone, after

being left food and water by Kensuke. The children annotate the language from the book they used in their poems, justifying how it made them feel. APP evidence can be collected by observing groups presenting their “Despair” poems to each other and from children’s “Joy” poems and annotation produced individually or in pairs.

Task 2 Chapter 4 onwards

Visualising Kensuke’s island Objectives



Assessment opportunities Reading AF2 - understand, describe, select or retrieve information, events or ideas from texts and use quotation and reference to text. Independent / group work Ask the children to work individually /in pairs/ groups to draw a map of the island on a large sheet annotating with references to the text. Continue adding to the map with other details e.g. of animals living on the island.

Task 3 (KEY TASK- moodle topic 10) Volcano Explanation

Objectives


Assessment opportunities Reading AF2 - understand, describe, select or retrieve information, events or ideas from texts and use quotation and reference to text Reading AF3 - deduce, infer or interpret information, events or ideas from texts Writing AF5 - vary sentences for clarity, purpose and effect Writing AF6 - write with technical accuracy of syntax and punctuation in phrases, clauses and sentences Writing AF3 - organise and present whole texts effectively, sequencing and structuring information, ideas and events Writing AF4 - construct paragraphs and use cohesion within and between paragraphs Writing AF1 - write imaginative, interesting and thoughtful texts Writing AF2 - produce texts which are appropriate to task, reader and purpose Writing AF7 - select appropriate and effective vocabulary Writing AF8 - use correct spelling Writing Handwriting and presentation

In the book, Kensuke refers to the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai whose most famous works are his "Mount Fuji Views”. Explain that Mount Fuji is a volcano. Show a clip of a volcano erupting and using a question hand, encourage the children to generate questions about volcanoes. Then ask the children to research volcanoes using the moodle/ other ICT materials or books and to produce an explanation about volcanoes. This task assumes that the children will already be familiar with the features of explanations and this is an incidental writing opportunity. If the children are not familiar with the explanation format, the explanations publisher genre leaflet on the disk can be referred to beforehand.

Task 4 (KEY TASK- moodle topic 11) Chapters 6 and 7 Writing about the jellyfish incident from Kensuke’s point of view Objectives





Read chapter 6 and 7 exploring Michael’s changing feelings towards Kensuke after the Jellyfish incident. Drama techniques such as hotseating, freezeframing or the “Empty Chair” could be used. The “Empty Chair” drama activity involves children addressing an empty chair as if Michael were sat there. A signifier (e.g. a football /toy dog/ football shirt ) will help the children interact with the “character” in the chair better. Encourage the children to address the empty chair as if they are Kensuke and the character of Michael is sitting in the empty chair. The scenario takes place before Michael is rescued after being stung by a jellyfish. Ask the children, in the role of the angry Kensuke, to address Michael. Then explore Kensuke’s changing feelings towards Michael after rescuing him from the sea. Create a “freezeframe” after Michael has been pulled from the sea. Interview children in role as Kensuke or ask them to address the character of Michael. Then, as an incidental writing opportunity, ask the children to write their own version of the jellyfish incident from the point of view of Kensuke (see moodle topic 11).

Task 5 Chapter 8 Everyone dead in Nagasaki Creating a story board and writing diary in role as Kensuke Objectives






After reading Kensuke’s recount of events up to “..so that was it, the whole story,” ask the children to produce a storyboard, plotting the events from Kensuke’s point of view. Then, after some whole class modelling hotseating/ thought-tracking the character of Kensuke to provide a stimulus, the children can produce Kensuke’s diary recounting what has happened since he first rescued Michael from the sea. Entries could be written, and illustrated in, “octopus ink” (black ink or paint!) as Kensuke worked to add interest. When assessing Reading AFs 2 and 3, look for relevant details supported by the text and clear inferences about how Kensuke may have felt at key points in the story, supported by evidence from and across the text.

Task 6 Chapter 10 Killer men come Hotseating and writing in role as the author Objectives


Understand how writers use different structures to create coherence and impact



Assessment opportunities Reading AF3 - deduce, infer or interpret information, events or ideas from texts Reading AF4 - identify and comment on the structure and organisation of texts, including grammatical and presentational features at text level Reading AF6 - identify and comment on writers' purposes and viewpoints, and the overall effect of the text on the reader Reading AF7 - relate texts to their social, cultural and historical traditions Writing AF5 - vary sentences for clarity, purpose and effect Writing AF6 - write with technical accuracy of syntax and punctuation in phrases, clauses and sentences Writing AF3 - organise and present whole texts effectively, sequencing and structuring information, ideas and events Writing AF4 - construct paragraphs and use cohesion within and between paragraphs Writing AF1 - write imaginative, interesting and thoughtful texts Writing AF2 - produce texts which are appropriate to task, reader and purpose

AF7 - select appropriate and effective vocabulary Writing AF8 - use correct spelling Writing Handwriting and presentation After reading the ending to the book, discuss the children’s reactions to the story. Then discuss why Kensuke would not leave the island and the background of World War 2. (Topic 5 from the moodle course involves reading about Hiroo Onoda, a real Japanese soldier who fought in World War 2 and did not surrender until 1974, and would support this). Discuss how the author may have wanted the reader to feel about Kensuke, why the book is written in the first person and how that makes the reader feel close to the central character. Ask the children to give examples of any other books they have read which are also written in the first person. Reread the book’s opening and discuss how it begins in the present and “flashbacks” to the past. Make a class display of stories which are written in the first person or begin as flashbacks. Ask the children to discuss why the author wrote using this structure and discuss any other examples of “flashback” stories which the children might know. Practise hotseating Michael as the author of the book. Then start to model and ask the children to write a letter to the “publisher” in the role of Michael justifying why he wants to write the story, how he wants his readers to feel and discussing his decisions as writer about how he will communicate the story. When assessing reading, look for children referring to writer’s decisions about writing in the first person, the flashback structure of the text and how the writer intended the reader to feel. Also look for children showing understanding of Kensuke’s actions and feelings based on his experience of World War 2.

Task 7 (KEY TASK) Postscript Writing e mails in the roles of Michael and Kensuke’s son, Michiya Objectives



Assessment opportunities Reading AF2 - understand, describe, select or retrieve information, events or ideas from texts and use quotation and reference to text Reading AF3 - deduce, infer or interpret information, events or ideas from texts Writing AF5 - vary sentences for clarity, purpose and effect Writing AF6 - write with technical accuracy of syntax and punctuation in phrases, clauses and sentences Writing AF4 - construct paragraphs and use cohesion within and between paragraphs Writing AF1 - write imaginative, interesting and thoughtful texts Writing AF2 - produce texts which are appropriate to task, reader and purpose Writing AF7 - select appropriate and effective vocabulary Writing AF8 - use correct spelling After reading the postscript (Kensuke’s son’s letter to Michael after reading the book), ask the children to write a series of extended emails (or letters) in the roles of Michael and Michiya (Kensuke’s son) detailing the events (reading AF2) and Michael’s thoughts and feelings about Kensuke (reading AF3).

My Father is a Polar Bear Y7 Unit of work

What is it about?

• It is a short story • About a boy, Andrew Van Diemen Macleish, who finds his real father • Set just after the Second World War • Andrew and his elder brother lose touch with their father from a very early age

and have no real memories of him • After the war the father becomes an actor and stars in a pantomime as a polar

bear – hence the title!

What do the pupils do?

• Read it! • Complete a reading journal

The Reading Journal

• There are two journals which have been differentiated for different ability levels

• There is a large variety of tasks for the pupils to complete • The tasks vary from dictionary work, prediction activities, character analysis,

time lines, biographies to inference

APP task

• The pupils will also be asked to write a review of the story that will be assessed using APP grids

Burnley Y6/7 Transition Project · Michael Morpurgo novel "Kensuke's Kingdom" (see appendix 1)...

Documents

Transcript of Burnley Y6/7 Transition Project · Michael Morpurgo novel "Kensuke's Kingdom" (see appendix 1)...