Teaching and Learning Sequence – A Drove of Bullocks by

PatrickGeorge

YEAR 6 UNIT Revision TEACHER CORE TEXT A

Drove of
Bullocks by
PatrickGeorge

Key learning Outcome

To write a short text describing an animal based upon its collective noun
All children must… Most children should… Some children could…
Write a description of an animal Write a short text describing an animal
that engages the reader in relation to its collective noun
focusing on devices to engage the
reader

Curricular target:

Key Learning:
( I can… I know… I understand… )

Teaching Guided Work Differentiation and

linked to scaffolding
sequence (may include deployment of
support staff )
(speaking & listening;
reading, planning,
writing)
Indicate group and
focus for session and
link to pupil targets)

Familiarisation/ Immersion in text/Analysis

• Share some of the pages from A drove of bullocks and
talk about the text and what it is doing. Include a
personal response (Book talk)
• Explore the notion of collective nouns and look more
closely at those in the book and the description – how
are they related? (This might include the use of images.)
• Look through websites of collective nouns and collect
those that appeal to put on the working wall.
http://www.ojohaven.com/collectives/ ,
http://www.rinkworks.com/words/collective.shtml , and
http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/collnoun.htm
.
• Explore the idea of a writer’s toolkit and what devices the Explore the devices Support from TA for group
children have that they can choose from when writing. and collect examples
• How do the authors use language to engage the reader from the book to
in this book? (Writer talk) magpie
o Alliteration
o Powerful verbs linked to the collective noun
 o Unusual facts
o Variety of ways of opening sentences,
subordinate clauses, adverbial phrases, subject
+noun, expanded noun phrases, adjective Focus on particular
• Choose a picture of an animal and try using some of the devices that the
above devices to describe it. Record. group is not
confident to use
Capturing Ideas
• Choose a collective noun that is your favourite
• From the noun, list as many verbs as you can that relate
to the collective noun, e.g. band of coyotes think of verbs
to relate to band (musical) such as hooting, parading,
orchestrating etc
• Research your animal and try to find a couple of unusual
facts to write about as well as an image
• Collect your information on a non-chron skeleton
diagram
Guided talk – oral
• Talk your text (some children may need to map it) using rehearsal of text
some of the devices to engage your listener involving the use of
the devices

Shared Writing

Write text focusing

• Model to using the writer’s toolkit to engage the reader upon individual targets
(as listed in familiarisation)