Scheme of work: Family
This is a suggested scheme of work for ELC Step up to English (5970), Component 2
Family. You can use this scheme of work for students working at Silver step and Gold
step.
Aims and learning outcomes
All students will:



read a selection of literary and literary non-fiction texts
use the texts to learn how to: infer, comment on language and structure and to
compare ideas and perspectives
learn how to plan, write, edit and proof read a story.
Component 2
Family
Learning
objective
Learning activity
Differentiation Resources
and extension
Reading
Split an unseen extract about
the family into chunks. Put
students into small groups. As
a group they read their part of
the text aloud to each other.
Then, tell students that they
must act out their section. Tell
students to think carefully
about what the key information
is that they need to show their
audience. Put the chunks in
order and ask students to act
their section out in turn. Can
the groups guess what the key
ideas were that each group
were trying to portray?
Cross
curricular
links
How to
infer.
How to
understand
how
language is
used.
How to
understand
how
structure is
used.
How to
compare.
Give students a family based
extract and ask them to pick
out some key pieces of
information. You may wish to
split the class into two and give
out a different extract to each.




Art
ICT
ASDAN
History
Suggested
field trips
Theatre to
watch a play.
Museum to
research a local
historical
figure.
Research
library to look
for literary
non-fiction
Suggested extracts
Gold Source A
Queen Victoria
Scrapbook. Family
Chapter Queen
Victoria's scrapbook
Mrs Beeton's Book of
Household
Management Mrs
Beeton website
Suggested extracts
Gold Source B
Carrie's War - Nina
Bawden
The Railway Children
- Edith Nesbit
Apple and Rain Sarah Crossan
Learning
objective
Learning activity
Differentiation Resources
and extension
Can they use that information
to design a True/False game to
test another member of the
class?
events/figures.
Read part of an extract from a
text. Highlight some key words
that students won't know. Play
Call My Bluff using a
PowerPoint, where students
select what they think is the
correct definition from a choice
of three. Then give students the
rest of the text to read and
highlight any words that they
don't understand. Ask students
to use a dictionary/internet to
write a definition of what those
words mean.
Put a picture grid of different
members of a family (from your
extract) on the board or on
laminated A4 sheets. Ask
students to play Taboo
(describe a character without
actually saying their name).
Then give students an extract
(Silver level may be supported
with visual stimuli) and ask
them to highlight different
features of the language used.
Differentiate based on the AO2
thread. Gold students should
also begin to explain the impact
of those features.
Create/source a simple five
frame comic strip based on a
family situation eg a day out, a
disagreement over what to
watch on TV or a family meal.
Ask students to use inference
(what they can deduce from the
pictures) to fill in speech or
thought bubbles.
Read an extract based on the
family to students or in groups.
Extension
activities
Gold - Ask
students to rewrite a pre19th century
extract they
have read in
modern day
language.
Students could
create their
own Call My
Bluff game.
The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold
Suggested extracts
Silver Source A
Graphic Novel Sisters
- Raina Telgemeier
Suggested extracts
Silver Source B
Persist - Melvin
Burgess
Street Corner Dad Alan Gibbons
Other resources
Text extracts
Video/YouTube clips
Scenario cards
Call My Bluff
PowerPoint
Taboo character card
Animation app
Magazines
Video camera/flip cam
Dictionaries/thesaurus
Learning
objective
Learning activity
Give students a worksheet with
two columns headed Fact and
Inference. Then give them
statements or ask them to find
statements from the extract
that are either facts or
something that has been
inferred.
Give students the two extracts
that you have been studying.
Can they pick out what is
similar and different about
them? Silver students may
need to match pre-written
statements.
Writing
Creating characters
How to
plan a
story.
Choose a character from a
family based text/extract that
students have read. Or ask
students to look through a
magazine and choose a picture
of a person.
What good
looks like:
appropriate
form,
language
and
structure.
How to
edit.
How to
proof read.
Ask students to write a family
fact file for that character. They
must focus on:
 what the character's role in
the family is
 where the character lives
with their family
 who is in the character's
family.
 why the character is
important to the family.
Creating setting
Put students into small groups
and give them a picture of a
family scene eg day at the
beach, family trip on the train,
family BBQ, Christmas dinner,
TV night, family
playing/watching sport. Ask
students in their groups to
create a soundscape. Each
must take on a different sound.
Differentiation Resources
and extension
Learning
objective
Learning activity
They may wish to use
instruments to help them.
Record or present to the group,
explaining why each sound was
important in the setting.
Building tension
Give students a plain piece of
writing about a family
discussing a TV programme. Eg
"I do not like football," I said.
"Well I do" said Dad. Ask
students to change key words
or add key words to add
dramatic tension. You could
give different students different
genres to work on eg comic ("I
do not like football." I joked
"Well I do" Dad said winking at
me.), horror, thriller etc and
ask them to change and add
words to the text to create or
change atmosphere or add
tension. Finally act out their
piece.
Punctuation
Watch a clip from a video or
YouTube about a family
scenario. Ask students to write
a phrase/simple
sentence/extended
sentence/paragraph about the
family in the clip or their own
family eg I have a dog. My Mum
said "don't forget your dinner
money." Give different students
different punctuation marks to
focus on depending on ability
(. ! ? ... , " " ; :) Then write or
display them on the board and
have a go at either:
Acting out Punctuation. Acting
Out Punctuation with Diane
Merkel YouTube video
Differentiation Resources
and extension
Learning
objective
Learning activity
Or Kung Fu Punctuation Kung
Fu Punctuation YouTube video
Ask students to discuss in
groups all the comic scenarios
that happen in everyday family
life (someone eating the last
biscuit, waiting for the
bathroom, losing the remote
control etc). Compile a list. Ask
students to choose one of those
scenarios and then build a story
around it. Remind students that
they will need to plan:
 beginning - introduce
setting and characters
 problem - where things
start to go wrong
 pivotal point - how they
deal with the problem
 consequence - what
happens as a result of
dealing with the problem
 a resolution - how things
are put right.
Using their plan, ask students
to draft either a comic strip or
short story.
Ask students to swap their
drafts or self-correct
punctuation, grammar and
spelling.
Ask students to write up or use
a cartoon/comic strip app to
create their final story.
Differentiation Resources
and extension