LITERACY / UNIT PLANNER

Topic: My Place Lilly: 1988

Year Level: 5

GRAMMAR FOCUS: (levels)

Text type
and mode

1. Whole text structure of a diary entry (information

narrative)
Orientation
Complication
Series of events
Resolution
Language features for the text-type:

Information
narrative

Term:

Weeks:

Date:

Listened
to

Spoken

Read

Written

Viewed

Produce
d
x

Steps in Teaching and Learning Cycle: (adapted Derewianka, 1990/2007)

1. Building topic knowledge
2. Building text knowledge/Model the genre
3. Guided activities to develop vocabulary and text knowledge
4. Joint construction of text
Descriptive language to create vivid images: adjectives
5. Independent construction of text
6. Reflecting on language choices
Conjunctions: Words to join words, phrases and
Frequently used Literacy Instructional Strategies: Gradual Release of
clauses.
Responsibility Model
Language Experience Approach (R/W)
Picture Chat Read to Shared
(Wing Jan, 2009, pp. 235-237).
R/W
Guided R/W Modelled writing Interactive writing Independent
CONTEXT: Overview of series of lessons and background
R/W Literature Circles Reciprocal Teaching Mini lesson Roving
information
conferences
We will be explore content from the 1980s including
Teaching techniques: Think Aloud, Text analysis, Cloze exercises, Notereasons for moving to Australia, immigration, refugees, taking,
children starting school, new friendships and learning a Graphic Organisers: T-chart, Y-chart; Venn diagram, Data grid, Sunshine
wheel, KWL chart, Flow chart, Story map, templates for text-types for
new language.
planning,
We will look at many examples of information
narratives, find similarities and differences, and learn
how to use facts in our information narratives. To
consolidate our new knowledge we will plan, edit and
write our own information narrative about the 1980s.

Students will have written narratives in previous years,

however will have a limited understanding about the
structure of information narratives.

1|Page

Pre-assessment of students skills and knowledge:

Standardized tests for reading/writing/ NAPLAN
Profile of Data Progression of Reading Development
Conferences/interviews
Student written work samples
Self-assessments
Literacy Learning intention: We are learning to use
information we have learnt about the 1980s to plan, write and
edit an information narrative.
Learning behaviours: I need to be able to locate key
information, summarise ideas, plan and edit a piece of
writing.
Success criteria: I know Im doing well if I can produce an
information narrative based on factual information from the
1980s.
Topic-specific vocabulary for the unit of work:
Orientation
Complication
Resolution
Immigrant
Refugee

Four resource model (Freebody & Luke, 1990/1999): Code Breaker; Text
Comprehension Strategies: Predicting; Visualising; Making connections;
Questioning; Inferring; Determining important ideas; Summarising; Finding
evidence in the text; Understanding new vocabulary; Synthesising; Comparing
and contrasting; Paraphrasing; Recognising cause and effect; Skimming and
scanning; Five semiotic systems: linguistics, visual, auditory, spatial, gestural.
Question types: self-questioning; 3 levels; (literal, inferential, evaluative);
QAR
Thinking Routines: See, Think, Wonder; Headlines; +1, Three word
summary, 5VIPs, Give One, Get One (refer Ritchhart, R., Church, M., & amp;
Morrison, K. (2011). Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement,
Understanding, and Independence for All Learners. eBook online)

Resources:
Wing Jan, L. (2009). Write ways: Modelling writing forms (3rd ed.). South Melbourne,
Vic.: Oxford University Press.
Australian Children's Television Foundation. (2011). 1988: Lily | My Place for
teachers. Retrieved from
http://www.myplace.edu.au/teaching_activities/1988/episode_landing_3.htm
Making thinking Visible
Hertzberg, M. (2011). Focus on Oracy. In Teaching English language learners in
mainstream classes (pp. 48-75). Marrickville Metro, NSW: Primary English Teaching
Association Australia.
Gibbons, P. (2002). Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: Teaching second
language learners in the mainstream classroom. Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.

Analysing
Checking
Classifying
Cooperating
Considering
options

Estimating
Explaining
Generalising
Hypothesising
Inferring
Interpreting
Justifying

Listening
Locating
information
Making choices
Note taking
Observing
Ordering events

Performing
Persuading
Planning
Predicting
Presenting
Providing
feedback

Reading
Recognising bias
Reflecting
Reporting
Responding
Restating
Revising

Seeing patterns
Selecting
information
Self-assessing
Sharing ideas
Summarising
Synthesising

Testing
Viewing
Visually
representing
Working
independently
2|Page

Organising
TEACHING &
LEARNING
CYCLE
1. Building
topic
knowledge
We are learning
how to use our
senses to
interpret
information from
the 1980s.

WHOLE
CLASS

Semantic
web about
what we
know about
1980

Questioning

MINI LESSON

Discuss different ways we can

understand information using
our eyes, ears, etc. Model by
using the classroom. I can see
children wearing a uniform, the
classroom has an interactive
Questions: whiteboard, lots of chairs. I can
hear children talking nearby,
What
events different accents, teachers
happe talking, girls and boys talking.
Watch video (First day) using
ned
around back-to-back viewing, discuss
ideas in pairs and fill in chart
this
showing what we heard and what
time?
we saw (Appendix )
What
would
childre
n have
done?

INDEPENDENT
LEARNING

Students in pairs to complete

thinking routine see-think-wonder
picture analysis
(Making Learning Visible, 2011,
p. 55-63). Children to interpret
information discuss in their pair
and write ideas on worksheet.
SMALL GROUP:
Students to analyse one of the
pictures using think-pair-share
strategy. Teacher to direct
questions about:
What they saw
What themes were in the
picture
How they could relate to
the picture
What they wondered about

SHARE TIME
AND
TEACHER
SUMMARY
As a class,
students to
discuss ideas
found in the seethink-wonder.
Teacher to ask:
What did
we see?
What did
we think
about
What
connection
s did we
make?
What did
we wonder
about?

ASSESSMENT
STRATEGIES

Anecdotal
notes:
Teacher to take
notes on
student ability
to visually
interpret
information
from the picture
and ability to
make
connections
with elements
or people in the
picture.

New information
will be written on
the semantic web
from the
beginning of
lesson as a
reference point.

3|Page

2. Building
topic
knowledge
We are learning
to understand the
difference
between fact and
fiction to interpret
information from
the 1980s.

3. Building
topic
knowledge
We are learning
to summarise
main information
about 1980s
children.

Students to
write 1
sentence
(about
anything)
could be
about
something
that has
happened
that day,
something
imaginary
etc.

Model: The difference between

fact and fiction fact is
something that has actually
happened, fiction is something
that is made up. Demonstrate:
My cat ate a hamburger for
breakfast and I have a cat
called Abbey, and Many families
escaped from Vietnam and came
to Australia during the 1980s
and 10 million people came to
Australia from Vietnam during the
1980s. Ask students whether it
is possible or impossible link to
fact or fiction.

In groups of 3, students re-watch

MyPlace video, Lilly 1988: first
day. Using t-chart (Wing Jan,
2009, p. 171), students discuss
what information presented in
video is fact or fiction, and fill in tchart.
Small group:
Guided Reading: Vietnam Diary.
Students to read-aloud several
pages of book, and teacher to
guide questions on fact or fiction.
Talk about pictures (such as the
conscription letter), characters
are they real or make believe
(fact or fiction) and events of
story.

As a whole class,
students will
discuss what
information in the
video was fact or
fiction. Add any
new information
to the semantic
web, and create
a word wall of
topic appropriate
language to use
as a reference
point.

Anecdotal
notes:
Teacher to write
notes on
student ability
to visualise
information
from Vietnam
Diary,
understand the
impact of
pictures and
evidence
(documents
etc) and
identifying facts
from the book.

Teacher
Students to order sentences from
questions to
hook into fact or fiction on the
include:
board.
How did
we know
that was
fiction/fact
?
Did
anyone
think
anything
else?
We will complete a Dictogloss (Hertzberg, 2011) using information from the time period to summarise the main information.
We will separate into groups of three to watch the third video from MyPlace Lilly: 1988 and complete headlines thinking
routine. We will come back together to share headlines, and add new ideas to the semantic web.

4|Page

4. Building
text
knowledge
/Model the
genre
We are learning
to understand the
elements of an
information
narrative.
5. Building
text
knowledge
/Model the
genre
We are learning
about the
elements used in
information
narratives.

6. Building
text
knowledge
/Model the
genre
We are learning
to use facts in our

Students will discuss what an information narrative might be. They will then work in expert/homegroups (Gibbons, 2002) to
read several examples of information narrative and share with the other groups. They will discuss similarities and
differences within these new small groups. They will then all come together as a class to discuss the elements of an
information narrative.

Students to
construct a
semantic web
about what
they know
about
information
narratives.

Read-aloud The Little Refugee.

Have a class discussion about
the elements of the information
narrative. By the end of the minilesson students should have
identified the orientation,
complication, series of events
and the resolution.

Students will work in pairs to

complete a text reconstruction
(Hertzberg, 2011). Students will
unjumble (information narrative
will be in several pieces), order,
label and discuss the elements of
an information narrative.

As a class we will
discuss how the
groups ordered
and labelled the
jumbled
information
narrative.

Anecdotal
notes:
Teacher will
assess student
ability to find
the sections in
the information
narrative and
correctly label
the piece of
writing.

Small group:
The teacher will
Teacher questioning should
We will use the same information reinforce ideas
include:
narrative as the whole class,
about what is
except
it
will
not
be
jumbled.
We
necessary in an
How do we know that this
will use guided reading to read
information
is the .(orientation etc)
through
the
information
narrative,
narrative, and
What does the
and discuss the elements. We will what is important
orientation/complication
then order what happens in the
to each section,
need to include?
information narrative and label
and add to
the piece of writing.
semantic web.
Teacher will instruct students how to include facts in their information narratives, including ideas about using facts for the
orientation, complication, series of events and resolution. Students will then work in groups of 3 to use facts in a dot point
orientation, complication, series of events and resolution. Students will use story starter cards (Wing Jan, 2009, p. 244) as
the basis of their information narrative. Students will come together as a class to discuss ideas about how to write good
information narratives, and then add new ideas to the semantic web.

5|Page

information
narratives.
7. Guided
activities
to develop
vocabulary
or specific
language
feature

Have a whole
class
discussion on
what an
adjective is.

We are learning
to use more
sophisticated
words when
writing
information
narratives.

8. Guided
activities
to develop
vocabulary

Students to
write 1
sentence
about their

Students will complete a cloze

activity (Hertzberg, 2011) as a
whole class. The teacher will reread The Little Refugee with the
adjectives covered. Students will
guess what the adjective could
be, and have a discussion about
when it is appropriate to use the
suggested adjectives.

Complex sentences are when we

combine 2 ideas by using a
subordinate conjunction. Give
examples of subordinate

Students to work in groups of 4

and use the thinking routine:
Generate-sort-connect-elaborate
(Making Thinking Visible, 2011, p.
125) to find adjectives that make
our writing better. Students to
work in groups to generate words
that relate to (1 word per group)
either sad, great or big. They then
sort these words onto their
concept map, connect similar
words together, order the words
(such as sad to happy) and
elaborate by using each word in a
sentence.
Sad upset happy
Great fantastic
Big small tiny
Small Group:
What are adjectives?
Describing words
Read through The Little Refugee
again, and pull out several
adjectives used. Students to use
thinking routine think-pair-share
to come up with new sentences
for adjectives.
Think-Pair-Share strategy
(Hertzberg, 2011). Students to
individually read an information
narrative with no complex

Discuss concept
maps, and
discuss what
words would
work better in
The Little
Refugee (such as
sad). Insert new
words and reread The Little
Refugee.

Anecdotal
notes:
Teacher will
assess student
ability to create
sentences that
appropriately
use the
selected
adjectives from
The Little
Refugee.

As a whole class,
we discuss
different ways
that we modified

Anecdotal
notes:
Teacher to
assess student
6|Page

or specific
language
feature
We are learning
how to combine
ideas when
writing
information
narratives.

week.

conjunction. Model non examples

Lilly went to school. She took
her cousin with her. The cousin
was from Vietnam. She was a
refugee. Demonstrate good
sentences Lilly and her cousin
went to school. Her cousin is a
refugee because she escaped
from Vietnam. Emphasise
sentences without subordinate
conjunctions are choppy and
stilted, using complex sentences
makes the sentences flow better.
Students in groups of 4 to use
sentences created in hook to
create complex sentences.

sentences. They think about how

they would change it and why,
and then share with a partner.
After short discussion they share
with another pair (group of 4) and
edit the information narrative.

the information
narrative.
Teacher to ask:
Why did
we change
that
sentence?
How does
it sound
different?
Does this
make our
writing
more
fluent?

ability to vary
their sentence
starters, and
replace and
then.

Small group
Varying sentence starters
(instead of and then). Show
students the sentences And then
Lilly explained to her friends that
her cousin could not speak
English. And then she explained
that she would speak for her. And
then her cousin spoke English!
And then her cousin talked about
the pirates. And then everyone
was surprised! Students to use
think-pair-share (Hertzberg, 2011)
to decide on appropriate words to
use instead of and then using
words from appendix
9. Joint
Students to refresh knowledge on what elements are necessary in an information narrative, and teacher will write elements
constructio on the board as a visual. Students will complete a shared writing piece on an information narrative by using a circle
n of text
technique (where a student will share one sentence, and the person next to them will continue the story with the next
We are learning sentence). Teacher to ensure students remember to add elements of an information narrative. Students will work in groups
to write an
of three to form a plan for a piece of writing. Needs to include at least 3 characters, an orientation, a complication, a series
information
of events and a resolution.
narrative.
10. Joint
Students to complete a shared writing on an information narrative (teacher to write story on board or using interactive
constructio whiteboard to write it). Students (same groups as previous lesson) will finish their information narrative and will use iPads to
n of text
film it (instead of writing the entire piece).
We are learning
to write an
information
7|Page

narrative.

11. Independe
nt
constructio
n of text
We are learning
to write an
information
narrative.
12. Independe
nt
constructio
n of text.
We are learning
to write our
information
narratives and
edit our work
13. Reflecting
on
language
choices

Students to work independently to write an information narrative on the question: Write an information narrative about what
life would have been like for an Australian refugee student in the 1980s.

Students to spend 20min on a plan, rest of class writing.

Students to continue writing piece from previous lesson. The last 10 minutes of the lesson students should only be focusing
on editing work.

Students to share their information narratives with a partner. They then discuss similarities and differences with another pair
(group of four). Students will complete a self-assessment (Wing Jan, 2009, p. 89) and discuss what they would change next
time as a whole class.

8|Page