Teacher notes · not for pupils Vocabulary sequence

Posh or Plain?

Lesson 6 of 10
Year 5 45 min

Objective

Choose vocabulary that suits the audience and purpose of a piece of writing, understanding that formal and informal registers are each correct in their own place.

Board title: Words to suit the reader · Say it: “Today we're choosing words to suit the person who will read them, and discovering that the plain word and the formal word are each right somewhere.”

Curriculum

Y5: selecting appropriate grammar and vocabulary to change or enhance meaning
Y5/6: vocabulary appropriate for formal speech and writing (Appendix 2)
Y6: informal and formal registers (forward link, FRMLF)
Terminology: audience · purpose · register · formal · informal

Success criteria

name who a piece of writing is for
choose plain words for a friendly note
choose formal words for an official letter
explain why the longer word is not always right

Key vocabulary

audience · purpose · reader · register · formal · informal

Run of the lesson

5 min

Write the two readers on the board, a friend and the council, and leave them there all lesson. Show Fancy a bite? and Would you care to dine?, ask which is better writing, and refuse to settle it. Neither, yet.

9 min

Model the same news twice: Sorry it is late beside We apologise for the delay, and praise the plain one out loud, or half the class will spend the lesson reaching for long words. Ask what happens if the two letters go through the wrong letterboxes. Then read Mum, I require assistance with my homework aloud, straight-faced, as though you meant it, and let them hear it collapse.

8 min

Flavour Match on the whiteboard, Spicy: level 4 is the register set, kids/children, get/receive, buy/purchase, ask for/request, find out/discover, and it is the only level that teaches this lesson, levels 1-3 are a warm-up at most. Honest limit: the game only ever asks for the formal answer, so name the reader out loud first each round and let the class tell you when the plain word would win.

6 min

The four vote pairs, each with its reader attached: a child says WHO is reading it before every reveal (answers: a-left, b-right, c-right, d-left). Kindly rendezvous at the gate read aloud to a best friend makes the point better than any explanation.

14 min

Worksheet, independent. Circulate on Task 2, the letter to the council: the classic dodge is swapping the opening and sign-off and leaving well grim in the middle, so make editors read the whole letter back in one voice. On Spicy one phrase is only a shade too casual, expect them to read straight past reckons. Task 3 is the assessment.

3 min

Plenary: two children read a Task 3 answer and the class names the reader it suits. Then the class quiz: Polpetta's birthday card says I hereby extend my felicitations upon the occasion of your birth, who is going to open that card?

SPAGhetti · Vocabulary sequence · Lesson 6 of 10 · Teacher notes 1 of 2

Teacher notes · not for pupils Posh or Plain? · side 2

On the day

On screenSPAGhetti → Flavour Match → Spicy. One screen only; no pupil devices needed. Read the bank first: level 4 is the register set, kids/children, get/receive, buy/purchase, ask for/request, find out/discover, and it is the only level that teaches this lesson. Levels 1-3 are synonyms, antonyms and word families and make a decent warm-up, no more. Note the honest limit: the game only ever asks for the formal answer, so it quietly implies formal is better. Say the opposite out loud each round, give the reader first, and let them tell you when the plain word wins.

If the tech failsSkip the game entirely. Task 1 is the same content on paper, read the four pairs aloud and vote with thumbs. Or write one sentence on the board and have the class say it twice: once to a friend, once to the council.

If they're on devicesLesson code TONEE (on the worksheet footer) opens the right game, locks the café until 10 items are done, then unlocks it as the reward.

Misconceptions to watch for

Formal treated as the better register. They rank the two instead of matching them, and start writing playground notes in the voice of a solicitor. Give the reader before the writing, every time, and mark the plain choice as correct out loud so the class hears it.

Spoken register written straight down. well grim, dead good, gonna, innit arrive in the letter to the council because that is the voice in the child's head. It is not a vocabulary gap; it is a switching gap. Say the formal version aloud first, then let them write it.

The longest word available wins. I require assistance, we shall commence, I convey my wishes. The child is reaching for impressiveness, not accuracy. Ask them to read it to the actual reader, the sentence usually collapses on its own.

Register changed one word at a time. Dear Sir or Madam, your bins are proper bad. They swap the opening and the sign-off and leave the middle alone. Read the whole thing back in one voice and the mismatch is audible.

The three sheets

Same four tasks on every sheet, in the same order, with the same look. Only the demand changes. Print the one each child needs; nobody does two.

Mild

Same four tasks as every other sheet, same order, same look, the demand is lower, not the dignity. Shorter passage in Task 2, and in Task 3 a word bank or words to tick, with printed sentence starters. Give it to anyone who needs a way in, and expect them to move up.

Medium

The core sheet. Give this to most of the class. No word bank; in Task 3 pupils choose from a few close options, then use one in a sentence of their own.

Spicy

Same four tasks, more demand, a longer passage with a subtler error, and Task 3 asks for two things at once. Not extra work; harder work. Nobody should be doing Spicy and the Medium sheet.

Adaptive teaching

Support: give the reader as a picture on the desk, a friend, a mayor. They point before they write. Task 1, then Task 3 prompt one only.
SEN: gentle mode on; two readers rather than four, and read Task 2 aloud before they edit.

Stretch: Task 3 extension, one piece of writing that has to suit two readers at once, and a sentence on how they managed it.
EAL: register is learnt last in a new language and is rarely taught explicitly. Give the pairs directly, kids/children, loads of/many, rather than expecting them to be inferred.

Play it

Lesson code TONEE at playspaghetti.com. The code is printed on the bottom of every pupil sheet with a QR, and Class Quiz in your dashboard opens the plenary quiz for this lesson pre-picked.

SPAGhetti · Vocabulary sequence · Lesson 6 of 10 · Teacher notes, not for pupils 2 of 2 · Ludora