Year 6 - English
Writing the diary entry of a Windrush passenger before their arrival in the UK
The Empire Windrush: diary writing
Study Hub
Study Guides
This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit, pupils use research around the Empire Windrush and an account of a fictional passenger to write a diary entry from a Windrush passenger's perspective. They use a conversational tone and informal devices, including exclamatives and verbless sentences, to meet the writing purpose.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to write the diary entry of an imagined Windrush passenger before arriving in the UK, using a conversational tone and a range of cohesive devices.
Key Notes
- Writing is most successful when we orally rehearse before writing.
- A diary can include events and feelings written in the past and present tense.
- We use a range of cohesive devices in all writing, including different punctuation, sentence types and parenthesis.
- Because a diary is a personal piece of writing, it can have a conversational tone.
- We can create a conversational tone using questions, exclamatives, verbless sentences and conversational openers.
Vocabulary To Learn
- 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 Mistakes To Avoid
- Pupils will have been taught that exclamation sentences must contain a verb, as in 'What a mess there is!'
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.
Writing is most successful when we orally rehearse before writing. A diary can include events and feelings written in the past and present tense.
2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'conversational tone'
the effect created by using language features such as conversational sentence openers that may break normal 'rules' of writing.
3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.
Mistake: Pupils will have been taught that exclamation sentences must contain a verb, as in 'What a mess there is!'. Correction: We use the term exclamative to include verbless construction like 'How cool!' alongside 'proper' exclamation sentences like 'How warm it is!'.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Exploring the Empire Windrush and the experiences of its passengers Study Guide
- Generating ideas for the diary entries of a Windrush passenger Study Guide
- Planning the diary entries of an imagined Windrush passenger Study Guide
- Retelling a Windrush story Study Guide
- Writing the diary entry of a Windrush passenger after their arrival in the UK Study Guide
Browse all guides in the Year 6 English guide library.