Autumn Term

Autumn Term

Welcome to the Autumn term English page! This term, we have got many exciting things planned related to our topic: India. We will start off the term by looking at persuasive writing, after this, we will then be doing some work on Poetry. The second part of the Autumn term will also focus on Poetry, however we will also be doing some work on newspaper recounts and sci-fi stories. Make sure to check out the key skills page for S.P.A.G. related links:

Persuasive Writing

To start off this term, we are going to begin by doing some persuasive writing all about India. This is a form of writing where you try to convince somebody about the benefits of something (in this case, the benefits of travelling to India).

What is persuasive writing?

Vocabulary:

When writing for persuasion, your choice of vocabulary is very important. Remember, you want to think about all of the positive things you are discussing (e.g. for India, think about all of the great places that can be visited). 

Features:

When writing persuasively, there are several things that you will need to include within your writing. For example, you will need:

• An interesting title - As this is the first thing that the reader will see, you need to make sure that your title is interesting and eye catching. This will determine whether the reader will continue to read your work! Try to avoid making your title too long or too short (a short-medium sentence should be enough). You could also use writing features such as alliteration to make it sound even more exciting!
• Reasons to support your view - When you suggest something to the reader, make sure to justify your reasons (e.g. instead of saying 'visit the Taj Mahal', say, 'visit the tremendous Taj Mahal where you can ....'). Try and use vocabulary such as 'because' to make your statements clear.
• Facts and evidence - You will need to use your research to help you with this! You can also find lots of facts and web links on the topic page!
• Connectives to link ideas - To make sure that your writing flows nicely from one paragraph to the next, make sure to use connectives such as 'however, therefore and furthermore'. 
• Persuasive devices - Use vocabulary such as 'obviously, of course, etc'. This will make the reader agree with your statements. 
• Powerful adjectives - To improve the quality of your sentences, make sure to use lots of powerful adjectives to really persuade the reader!
• Rhetorical questions - e.g. Why don't you come and visit India?
• Conclusion - Summarise the main points of your argument!

Poetry

The second topic we will cover in English is poetry, again, related to our India topic. We will be thinking about the sights, sounds and smells of India on this occasion. 

What is Poetry?

Newspaper Recounts

The third topic that we will be covering this term is newspaper recounts. This involves writing in the past tense about something which has occurred. We will be linking this work to our topic: Anglo-Saxons. We will also be looking at an event that has taken place in school and writing about that in greater detail.

Sci-Fi Stories

For the final part of the Autumn term, we will be writing Sci-Fi themed stories! We will start off by planning our story, thinking carefully about the problem and the solution, after which we will write the final version. 

For our writing, we need to think about the following things - 

Setting - This is the place in which the story takes place (in this instance it will be the planet on which your story will be based). You may start the journey elsewhere however (e.g. Earth). Make sure to include lots of descriptive language to describe your setting!

Characters - Make sure to use lots of interesting adjectives to describe the characters in your story. It may be a good idea to use similes here to describe what the sci-fi character looks like (e.g. skin as red as a tomato). 

Problem - Your story needs to have a clear problem that occurs along the journey (e.g. the ship breaks down/crash lands on another planet). 

Solution - Your story needs to have a clear solution to the problem - In other words, how is the issue resolved.