Real Writing Year 6 - Unit 13
Model text: The Queen of the Curve (Biography of Zaha Hadid), by Jo Franklin
Curriculum links: Art (Famous Architects)
Unit overview
This writing unit for Year 6 is built around an original model text by Jo Franklin; an informative biographical recount of the life and achievements of British Iraqi architect, Zaha Hadid. The example text is available as a PDF in three versions (plain, illustrated and annotated); annotated and non-annotated PowerPoint presentations are also included.
Throughout this two-week unit, pupils will explore how cohesion is created through the use of a range of devices and will investigate concrete and abstract nouns, as well as learning the features needed for biographical writing. In the final writing task, pupils will have the opportunity to research other architects, such as Norman Foster and Frank Gehry, and write biographical recounts of these architect’s lives. This unit could be used alongside a topic on architecture or whilst studying famous architects in art and design.
Key curriculum skills
Two fully-resourced lessons are included for the following UKS2 English objectives, which can form part of the unit or be taught discretely:
1. Vocabulary: To explore abstract and concrete nouns
Pupils will: organise nouns to show whether they are abstract or concrete; write sentences that include given abstract nouns; write a recount of one of their achievements that includes abstract nouns to show feelings and emotions.
2. Composition: To use a wide range of devices to build cohesion within and across paragraphs
Pupils will: edit a range of paragraphs to ensure they use a range of cohesive devices including: pronouns, synonyms, adverbials, conjunctions, tenses and headings.
Revisited skills
- Paragraphing
- Prepositional phrases
- Subordinate clauses
- Relative clauses
- Fronted adverbials
- Using brackets, dashes and commas to indicate parenthesis
Additional year 6 curriculum teaching points
- Using the perfect tense
- Using a wider range of punctuation including: colons, semi-colons and dashes
Year 6 words: featured vocabulary
Spelling words: ancient, competition, environment, government, profession, marvellous
Tier 2 words: confluence, contribution, industrialist, interference, prestigious, radical, reputation, turbulence, urban
Tier 3 words: architect, architecture, commission