Year 6 Narrative Unit 2 – Extending narrative

Extending narrative (2 weeks)

This is an extension unit designed to be taught towards the end of the school year. It further develops children's engagement with and motivation for fiction writing through exploring and then creating the kind of quest-type text adventure that forms the basis for many electronic games. The unit has considerable potential to be further extended, if desired, to involve the creation of multimodal text (incorporating some or all of digital images, video and sound into children's writing). A sample text, and other materials for the basic unit, could be drawn directly from NLS Y6 planning exemplification 2002-03: narrative writing unit (see Resources section). Materials and ideas to extend the unit into the area of multimodal writing can be found on the DVD Keys to learning: Literacy: multimodal writing, (Ref: 0360-2006DVD-EN) (see Resources section).

Phase 1

Children are introduced to, play and explore a non-linear, quest-type text adventure either as a paper text, or as a simple on-screen adventure game. They read and analyse particular sections of the text, identify language and organisational features and compare a second such text in a different medium. They identify and note the devices the author uses to engage and motivate the reader or player.

Phase 2

Children analyse the structure of the adventure text, using devices such as story-boarding and story mapping to clarify its organisation, for example its possible reading pathways and their various outcomes or consequences.

Phase 3

After teacher modelling, children working in collaborative groups are supported in planning, drafting and writing (on paper or on screen) a number of chapters or text segments and then linking these into a simple adventure game. The game is then tried out on other children, evaluated and further developed. If desired this third phase can also involve children capturing or creating, for example, digital images, video clips, sound files, and integrating these so that the end product becomes a simple multimodal text adventure.

The unit also has considerable potential for collaborative writing between children in different classes, schools or locations linked via the Internet.

This unit is specifically designed to revisit and revise the reading and writing of fiction and play texts, and is probably best placed in the late spring or early summer, prior to the National Curriculum tests.

Overview

• Children play with and explore a non-linear, quest-type adventure either on paper or on screen. They read and analyse particular sections of the text, identify language and organisational features and compare a second text in a different format. They identify and note the devices the author uses to engage and motivate the reader/player.
• Analyse the structure of the adventure text, using devices such as storyboarding and story mapping to clarify its organisation, for example its possible reading pathways and their various outcomes/consequences.
• After teacher modelling, children work in collaborative groups and are supported in planning, drafting and writing (on paper or on screen) a number of chapters or text segments and then linking these into a simple adventure game. These drafts are tried out on other children, evaluated and further developed. This phase can also involve children taking/creating digital images, video clips, sound files, etc. and integrating these so that the end-product becomes a simple multimodal adventure text.
• This unit is specifically designed to revisit and revise the reading and writing of fiction and play texts.

1998 Framework objectives covered:

Year 6, Term 3: T10 and T11 write a brief synopsis of a text; write a brief review tailored for real audiences; T14 write an extended story worked on over time on a theme identified in reading.

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