A 3-week, fully resourced primary literacy unit based on The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein. 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.

• 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 historical recount of Philippe Petit’s wire walk between the Twin Towers on 7th August 1974, followed by a persuasive speech written from Philippe’s point of view, addressed to the judge, arguing that his walk should be celebrated as art rather than punished as a crime.

Grammar features (Year 4 NC-aligned)

• Fronted adverbials of manner and place (with comma).
• Expanded noun phrases using prepositional phrases.

Themes explored

Ambition and daring, Art versus law, Memory and loss.

Key vocabulary

Ambition, daring, tightrope, horizon, balance, spectacle, verdict, monument.

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

Tags

KS2, Year 4, English, fiction, Mordicai Gerstein, reading and writing, complete unit, differentiated, NC-aligned, lesson plans, resources, the man who walked between the towers