This term, children in Year 5 have diary writing as their genre. To facilitate their learning and understanding, the book ‘My Secret War Diary’ by Marcia Williams is being used. In the book, the author assumes the identity of Flossie Albright, a girl of nine-and-a-half years of age at the outset, whose diary charts her experiences, thoughts and feelings throughout the course of World War II. Alongside this, the current novel being read to the two classes is ‘Goodnight Mister Tom’ by Michelle Magorian – a story about a nine-year-old boy, Willie, who is evacuated from London during the War to live with Tom, who has lived on his own for 40 years since the death of his wife and daughter.
The primary learning outcome at the end of the topic is for every child to ‘create a diary entry from the perspective of a key character’. Along the way, each child has his or her individual target to achieve – ranging from using fronted adverbials at age-related standard to weaving together home and life events from history for those aspiring to write above the age-related standard.
‘My Secret War Diary’ has a particularly colourful and engaging appearance. Below can be seen the book cover and some pages of the text:
The English Blog 