The Spider and the Fly - Learning Sequence

The "Spider and the Fly" learning sequence is a comprehensive unit centred on enhancing writing skills in children, with the aim of fostering independent application of these skills and contributing to a robust foundation for teacher assessment. This flexible unit spans several weeks and incorporates a variety of writing activities, which educators can select based on the needs of their class. It also allows for the integration of toolkits from different year groups to cater to diverse text types, such as explanatory texts from Year 4, thus emphasising the development of ideas and independent writing among students.

Over the course of six weeks, the unit delves into various aspects of writing. In the initial weeks, children engage in vocabulary-building exercises, in-depth discussions of the poem "The Spider and the Fly," and explore character perspectives through role-play and dialogue writing. As they progress, they focus on developing setting descriptions, experimenting with sentence structures, and making independent writing choices with an emphasis on self-evaluation and proofreading. The unit culminates with advanced writing tasks such as crafting a balanced argument, composing a newspaper report with consideration of bias, and creating a kenning poem using descriptive language. These tasks are supplemented with further activities that link to other subjects like science, ensuring a well-rounded educational experience. The unit is designed to encourage children to think critically, develop their writing style, and enhance their ability to communicate effectively through written language.