Year 3 literacy planning: Narrative

The combined content of these units, together with continuous and discrete work at word and sentence level, carries the learning that children can be expected to achieve in Year 3. Further work on presentational skills and speaking and listening will be ongoing throughout the year. Literacy learning in Year 3 is summarised in the objectives in the twelve strands. The year divides into 18 weeks on narrative, plays and scripts, 11–12 weeks on non–fiction and 6 weeks on poetry but these timings and the ordering of many of the units can be flexible. This flexibility means that schools can position the units to create purposeful links across the curriculum. However care must be taken to maintain the progression in learning at text, sentence and word levels if these units are taught in a different order from the one suggested.

It is expected that the non–fiction units will take place before, after or alongside units from across the curriculum that will provide the content and purpose for speaking, listening, reading and writing. Many schools will also wish to link narrative, plays and poetry units across the curriculum.

See pages 29–36 of Learning and teaching in the primary years: Designing opportunities for learning (Ref: 0521–2004) to see how curriculum maps can be used to align units of study across curriculum areas.