Free writing – any writing about the text (ideas include description of the robot/bluebird, book review, own story of where the bird came from/journey) Identifying, discussing and collecting effective words and phrases which capture the reader’s interest and imagination e.g. metaphors, similes Based on finding and collecting adjective, metaphors, similes and explaining why the author has used the different phrases. This two week guided reading plan focuses on The Robot and the Bluebird by David Lucas. This plan follows a whole class guided reading approach meaning that all children are required to do the same activity on each day. The activities are differentiated. This is a weeks whole class reading based on the book The Bluebird and the Robot. These are all PowerPoints with differentiated resources - and the planning is in the notes sections of the slides.

The lesson is based on direct instruction with the teacher modeling an example then discussing non-examples and then working with the children to complete an example together. At the end there is reminder of the steps to success and a diagnostic question yo help support your AFL.

Each lesson has a ‘Steps to Success’ section which allows the children an overview of what they can do in this lesson to complete the learning successfully. These use simple imagery to support each step and hopefully help the children remember each step. What do we do with Tin Men who have no heart? Well, we kindly show them that no matter whether the organ is there or not, this is not where kindness and love truly reside. As with Baum’s Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz, Lucas presents us with a Robot without a heart (it starts off broken) and he is left to rust because of it. On a huge scrapheap he remains open to the elements, gradually loses his sheen and rusts. It is only when a bluebird, tired from journeying, takes harbour in the space with his heart once was that his life and purpose changes. This encounter begins a touching journey and a legacy of friendship that is deeply beautiful.

The slides are created using dual coding strategies to reduce the children’s cognitive overload and hopefully support children with SEN and EAL. I believe the world is alive with magic - and it's that feeling that really inspires my work. My drawing is picture-writing - I never draw from life - I make patterns, as if I were knitting with ink. Writing, for me, is pattern-making too - putting words together as if they were simple shapes, making story-patterns that are a mixture of autobiography and myth and fairytale. I spend the mornings writing, looking out onto the park, listening to the birds singing and the canal boats chugging past. I paint and draw in my studio near London Fields. As well as making picture books I'm also working on an illustrated fantasy novel." Some of the prior attainment (retrieval) task at the start are based on previous books the children have read based on our Rise of the Robots topic and these can be changed to match your previous books. Children to work in pairs to come up with different language features to describe the robot that will engage the reader more. (adverbial phrase/expanded noun phrase/ compound sentence/complex sentence/simile/metaphor)

About David Lucas