A 3-week, fully resourced primary literacy unit based on Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. KS2 Fiction. National-Curriculum-aligned grammar, WT/ARE/GD differentiation, and ready to teach.

What’s inside

This complete English unit gives you everything for three weeks of high-quality teaching, designed to match the standard of leading primary schemes (Literacy Tree, Write Stuff, Power of Reading).

• 15 lesson PowerPoints — illustrated cover slides, success criteria, vocabulary previews, modelled writing, “big questions” (Bloom’s-laddered), differentiation tiers, plenary, and reflection.
• 15 differentiated resource sheets — Working Towards, Age-Related Expectations, and Greater Depth, with sentence frames, word banks, and writing frames.
• Complete teacher unit plan — unit overview, key themes, model texts, full session-by-session plans, key questions, assessment focus, and vocabulary focus.
• Child-friendly mark scheme — “I can…” success criteria for the final writing piece, ready for self- and peer-assessment.
• 3 weekly exit tickets — 5 multiple-choice questions per week, with teacher answer keys.

Final writing outcome

A Revolutionary-American historical narrative written from the perspective of an enslaved girl living in New York during the American War of Independence. Pupils will craft a sustained, formally-pitched chapter (approximately 400-600 words) that places a young Black protagonist at a real historical moment — the British occupation of Manhattan, the burning of the city, or the smuggling of intelligence across enemy lines — and that holds, without flinching, the contradiction between a revolution declaring all men free and a revolution conducted by slaveholders.

Grammar features (Year 6 NC-aligned)

• The passive voice for a formal-historical register.
• The subjunctive mood for moments of moral choice; semicolons for parallel clauses and colons to introduce stages of the war.

Themes explored

The contradiction of a ‘free’ revolution conducted by slaveholders, The courage and isolation of a young spy, The daily cost — and small dignities — of being owned, What the American story still asks of its readers.

Key vocabulary

Loyalist, Patriot, manumission, indenture, sedition, subjugation, occupation, liberty.

Format & compatibility

• Editable PowerPoint (.pptx) and Word (.docx) files.
• UK English spelling.
• One printer-friendly A4 page per resource sheet.
• Compatible with Literacy Tree, Write Stuff, and Power of Reading planning approaches.

Year groups & key stage

• Year 6 (KS2).
• 15 sessions over 3 weeks (≈45–60 minutes per lesson).

Tags

KS2, Year 6, English, fiction, Laurie Halse Anderson, reading and writing, complete unit, differentiated, NC-aligned, lesson plans, resources, chains