Analysing features of a diary entry
I can identify and analyse the layout and linguistic features of a diary entry.
Analysing features of a diary entry
I can identify and analyse the layout and linguistic features of a diary entry.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.
These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- The purpose of a diary entry is to recount important experiences and express feelings.
- A diary entry has a specific layout, it is written in the first person and it uses informal language.
- Simple past and progressive past tenses recount what the writer experienced and felt.
- Fronted adverbials of time support in sequencing events in a recount chronologically.
- The present tense is used towards the end of a diary entry to show how the writer is feeling now.
Keywords
Purpose - the aim of the text
Recount - a piece of writing that recalls an event or experience
Layout - the way a text is structured
Linguistic feature - a structure of language that uses words
Common misconception
Children may find it difficult to identify informal language.
Spend some time examining different ways informal language appears in the model diary entry (e.g. exaggeration, contractions, capitalised words, informal vocabulary).
To help you plan your year 4 english lesson on: Analysing features of a diary entry, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 4 english lesson on: Analysing features of a diary entry, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 english lessons from the 'Into the Forest': diary writing unit, dive into the full secondary english curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
You need a copy of the 2022 Puffin Books edition of ‘Into the Forest’ by Anthony Browne for this lesson.
Licence
Lesson video
Loading...
