Year 6 Week 8 This week, you will be applying all the skills you learnt from last week to planning and writing a full newspaper article that includes year 6 writing criteria.

TITLE: SCHOOLS SHUT DUE TO CORONA VIRUS.

Day 1 - Planning:Headline

Remember your headline has to be:

Eye-catching

A title for the news story

Short and snappy

You can also include bias in support or in opposition to the news story or no bias.

Go to the next slide to see some examples. You may use the same title provided or you can come up with your own.

Opening paragraphYou need to include your 5Ws.

What happened?

When did it happen?

Where did it happen?

Who was involved?

Why did it happen?

Day 2 - Plan the rest of the news story in detail.

You can create a similar template in your book or on paper, like the one on the next slide to help you. However, it should not limit you as to what to include in your article.

Day 3 – Writing the news story.YOU NOW NEED TO USE YOUR PLANNING TO HELP YOU WRITE THE ARTICLE.

Day 3 - Tell the news story in detail.

Telling the news story in detail.Normally, when we write a story, we use lots of descriptive language – adjectives and figurative language. However, when we write a newspaper article (apart from the first paragraph) we do NOT include descriptive language. We simply say what happened.

The UK had been hit with a wave of infection, which caused grave devastation to the country. As the rate of infection spread, it became apparent that schools needed to be shut in order to help fight the spread of the virus. The decision was made to close all schools on the 23rd of March 2020.

PAST PERFECT TENSE

Past perfect tenseThe UK had been hit with a wave of infection, which caused grave devastation to the country. As the rate of infection spread, it became apparent that schools needed to be shut in order to help fight the spread of the virus. Head teachers had been left with no other option. The decision was made to close all schools on the 23rd of March 2020.

Can you spot use of the past perfect in the above report?

The passive voiceNewspaper reports are more formal than story writing. Therefore, to make the

report sound more formal, the passive voice is used.

The UK had been hit with a wave of infection, which caused grave devastation to the country. As the rate of infection spread, it became apparent that schools needed to be shut in order to help fight the spread of the virus. The decision was made to close all schools on the 23rd of March 2020.

Day 4 – Writing the news story.CONTINUE TO USE YOUR PLANNING TO HELP YOU WRITE THE ARTICLE.

QuotesAfter we have told how the story happened, we then go onto give quotes of people who were involved in the incident in some way or who witnessed it.

In giving a quote, we need to write the name of the person who is speaking and also tell the reader who they are.

The quote is written between speech marks and is written in the present tense. An example of a quote is given below.

Boris Johnson, the prime minister, remarked during the daily briefings, “We will base our decision on scientific evidence; we will open schools only when it is safe to do so.”

Closing paragraphAfter recounting the news story in chronological order, we finish the article with information about what the situation is now or what might happen in the near future.

This is written in the present tense as it says what is being done now concerning the situation/incident.

An example of a closing paragraph is given below.

Currently, the government is following scientific advice in order for them to make the decision as to whether schools remain close or open in the near future.

Day 5 - Editing and improvingYou now need to take time to read through your article.

Does it include:

1. All the features of a newspaper report?(see week 5 PowerPoint)

2. Passive sentences?

3. Past perfect tense?

4. Year 6 writing criteria including correct spellings, a wide range of punctuation and different sentence structures? (see next slide for the checklist)

We hope you enjoy writing as a reporter/ journalist!

WE LOOK FORWARD TO READING YOUR ARTICLES.