New
New
Year 6

Writing the diary entry of a Windrush passenger before their arrival in the UK

I can write the diary entry of an imagined Windrush passenger before arriving in the UK, using a conversational tone and a range of cohesive devices.

New
New
Year 6

Writing the diary entry of a Windrush passenger before their arrival in the UK

I can write the diary entry of an imagined Windrush passenger before arriving in the UK, using a conversational tone and a range of cohesive devices.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Writing is most successful when we orally rehearse before writing.
  2. A diary can include events and feelings written in the past and present tense.
  3. We use a range of cohesive devices in all writing, including different punctuation, sentence types and parenthesis.
  4. Because a diary is a personal piece of writing, it can have a conversational tone.
  5. We can create a conversational tone using questions, exclamatives, verbless sentences and conversational openers.

Keywords

  • Conversational tone - the effect created by using language features such as conversational sentence openers that may break normal ‘rules’ of writing

  • Exclamative - a word, phrase or sentence that expresses strong emotion or surprise

  • Verbless sentence - a conversational or informal sentence that does not contain a verb, breaking the normal written convention

  • Cohesive devices - language structures that develop text cohesion

Common misconception

Pupils will have been taught that exclamation sentences must contain a verb, as in 'What a mess there is!'

We use the term exclamative to include verbless construction like 'How cool!' alongside 'proper' exclamation sentences like 'How warm it is!'.

Ensure pupils have access to their plans and that they draw on all their role play experiences when writing. If required, complete lessons on the cohesive devices briefly mentioned here can be found in our KS2 Grammar curriculum.
Teacher tip

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
True or false: a diary can only be written using the present tense.
Correct Answer: false, False
Q2.
In which tense is this sentence written? 'I am determined to make a success of this place.'
future
Correct answer: present
past
Q3.
In which tense is this sentence written? 'I rushed over to her and I hugged her tightly.'
Correct answer: past
present
future
Q4.
Which of these sentences show thoughts and feelings rather than events?
Correct answer: I was shocked by their ignorance.
The train sped past bombed-out streets.
I collapsed onto my narrow bunk bed.
Correct answer: Had I done the right thing by coming here?
Q5.
Which feeling best completes this action? 'As I sat down on the bed, ...'
Correct answer: I imagined what my mother's advice to me would be.
I couldn't believe the beauty of what I saw.
I felt completely exhilarated.
I knew I had come to the right place.
Q6.
How does Celia feel at the end of our diary plan?
happy and exhilarated
Correct answer: tenacious and determined
deflated and defeated

6 Questions

Q1.
Why is a conversational tone appropriate for a diary entry?
It is written for children to read
Correct answer: It doesn't have an intended audience; you are writing for yourself only
It is written to be persuasive
It is written to entertain a large audience; it should be engaging and chatty
Q2.
Which of the following are features that build a conversational tone?
Correct answer: verbless sentences
Correct answer: conversational sentence openers
Correct answer: exclamatives
relative complex sentences
Correct answer: rhetorical questions
Q3.
Which of the below are verbless sentences?
Correct answer: How incredible!
How extraordinary it is here!
Correct answer: Not much hope of that.
There isn't much of that.
Q4.
Which of the sentences below use conversational sentence openers?
I yearned to go, but it was impossible.
Correct answer: But I'm exploring the world!
Correct answer: And here I am.
I packed my things and I got on the bus.
Q5.
Which sentence has the colon in the correct position?
I was overflowing with: emotions fear, anxiety, excitement and exhilaration.
I was overflowing with emotions fear, anxiety: excitement and exhilaration.
Correct answer: I was overflowing with emotions: fear, anxiety, excitement and exhilaration.
Q6.
How is Celia feeling at the end of this diary entry?
deflated
Correct answer: optimistic
apprehensive

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