Throckley Primary, ( Jenny Cross) Reading, Writing and Music

Literature Works aims to … Promote a vibrant reading culture. Connects to cross curricular learning. Offers ‘depth’ in learning. Build children’s understanding, knowledge, skills and attitudes. Prepare pupils to ‘read to learn’. Develop pupil reading stamina and independence. Promote ‘New Texts, New Authors’.

Connecting Learning… How can we connect up pupils’ learning in reading to other parts of the curriculum? How can we improve pupils reading development through quality talk, close reading and writing?

Approach Identification of texts Links to one area of the curriculum other than English ‘before’, ‘during’, and ‘after’ approach Talk for reading/close reading strategies Writing opportunities

Needs of the class/groups etc We aimed to use music to engage lower ability children in English and to inspire all children by exposing them to a range of literary and musical experiences.

Making the Link In order for the children to make progress in both music and English, a strong link between both curricula needed to be made. Music Skills Progression- Year 1 Enjoy making, playing, changing and combining sounds. Sing in tune within a limited pitch range, and perform with a good sense of pulse and rhythm. Join in and stop as appropriate. Follow and lead simple performance directions. Listen with increased concentration, responding appropriately to a variety of live and recorded music, making statements and observations about the music. Respond to musical cues. Musically demonstrate increased understanding and use of basic musical features. Begin to recognise and musically demonstrate awareness of a link between shape and pitch using graphic notations. Begin to recognise rhythmic patterns found in speech. English Objectives- Year 1 Listening to and discussing a wide range of poems, stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently. Being encouraged to link what they read or hear to their own experiences. Becoming very familiar with key stories, fairy stories and traditional tales, retelling them and considering their particular characteristics. Discussing word meanings, linking new meanings to those already known. Drawing on what they already know or on background information and vocabulary provided by the teacher. Discussing the significance of the title and events. Making inferences on the basis of what is being said and done. Predicting what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far. Participate in discussion about what is read to them.

Pre reading In order to engage the children within the focus text, pre reading is essential.

By taking part in a series of lessons around a focus text, children were engaged and excited whilst: Becoming familiar with a text Sequencing events Composing Exploring new vocabulary Considering viewpoints of characters Looking at musical features

Examples of activities Learning the Bertie Blue song to introduce the characters Continuing the story after reading the first paragraph to make predictions Inferring Bertie’s thoughts and emotions at different points in the story (revisited in more detail with a feelings graph) Playing instruments to match a given mood Composing music to match phrases from the story to increase understanding of new vocabulary Using hand signals and body shapes to conduct a choir Composing a theme tune for a character Using notation to record a composition Retelling a story through song Exploring volume and dynamic through role play as a conductor

Lesson Objective: English- Becoming very familiar with key stories like fairy stories and traditional tales and consider their particular characteristics. Music- Musically demonstrate increased understanding and use of basic musical features. What does volume mean? What does pitch mean?

Lesson Objective: English- Becoming very familiar with key stories like fairy stories and traditional tales and consider their particular characteristics. Music- Musically demonstrate increased understanding and use of basic musical features. Look at the front cover of this story. Can you mind map some ideas about one of the characters? Think about: Are they good or bad? Are they magical? What do they do in the story?

Lesson Objective: English- Becoming very familiar with key stories like fairy stories and traditional tales and consider their particular characteristics. Music- Musically demonstrate increased understanding and use of basic musical features. Use your mind map as a starting point to come up with a theme song that could be played whenever your character appears in the story. Record your composition by drawing a picture of each instrument. You could add some key words about the pitch or volume as a reminder for when you perform.

Sharing our Learning We used our WW1 topic alongside our Bertie Blue work to create a multisensory display which all visitors to our school can experience!

Outcomes The skill set that children develop during this lesson provide an excellent foundation in creative expression, critical thinking and inference. These skills will also form the basis for English SAT preparation. Children have learnt to: Consider different perspectives Give their own opinion on literature Compare more than one text Think inferentially Comprehend complex storylines Explore different types of text