As teacher, when I venture beyond a text it can mean and look like a variety of things. It is a discussion about the major characters in the text, who are they and what influence do they have over our experience of the story? Or what are the important themes that engrained in the story, what was the author trying to teach the reader? Or it can symbolize the end of the reading of the text. The 'beyond the text' venture that I am talking about the ending of the actual reading, novel study and figuring out what our next step. My students in 9KLe are currently reading Gary Paulsen's Hatched. I want to do something creative and fun whilst working from home. Originally we were going to do a creative writing activity where they would have to write an alternative ending for the story, like the choose your adventure PD that I went to in term (see the link to the awesome PD here - Choose your own adventure PD ). However I want to be able to go through this with the students in person and because this is not going to happen anytime soon, I have decided for a different creative route. But I will get into that soon. Here is what 'beyond the text' looks like for me with 9KLe and their novel study during online learning.
THE TEXT
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| Click on the image to access the novel |
The novel follows Brian Robeson, who finds himself in an extraordinary circumstance in that he was involved in a plane crash and he is left to survive in a remote island. Key word - survive. The read is relatively reader-friendly and the students have enjoyed reading through this. We started out reading through this text as a class but with the lockdown interrupting everything in Week 4, the students have spent the last 3 weeks reading through the novel on their own.
BEYOND THE TEXT
I have broken the post reading novel study into 5 parts. Each section of part of a scaffolding structure I like to use when studying an extended text. Ultimately each part will help the students write a reading log about the text and more importantly give them an in depth insight of the text. I am going to go through each part here.
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| Click on the image to access the Hatched chapter questions |
In this section, after the students have read through each chapter, they then have to answer the chapter questions. The questions have been framed in a way that the students will have to remember the main part of each chapter. They are not too long and too complicated. It is a good way for the students to revisit the chapter and recount the most important or significant events in the chapters.
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| Click on the image to access the Major Character Study |
In this section the students will focus solely on the major characters. I have narrowed it down to 4 major characters - I have already decided which characters I want the students to focus on are. The students are asked give a description for each characters, explain significant moments in the text for each character and collect memorable quotes from or about the characters.
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| Click on the image to access the Themes study |
In this section the students will write look at significant themes from the texts. I have already given the themes and the students have to describe what the theme means in their own words and find memorable quotes that link to the theme. This is helpful especially when they get into the final part where they have to write about the main message in the text. This will help narrow their study of themes down and they are able to specifically find detailed evidence from the text that links to the main themes.
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| Click on the image to access the Important Quotes study |
Using evidence from in the text when you are crafting a text is important in English literature study. It highlights that one is able to dissect specific parts of a text and explain what it is, how it links to the author's purpose or theme and the overall affect it has. This part enables students to do that, by going through the text again and finding important quotes - they have to justify why this quote is important.
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| Click on the image to access the Reading Log |
This part is where the students combine the 4 areas they have worked on and compile it into a report (reading log) on the text.
WHERE TO FROM HERE?
I have decided to take a break from the text and to do some a little creative and fun this week. Poetry is always a fun way to get students engaged in literature and writing. This week, I have posed a Poetry Lockdown Challenge to 9KLe. The students have one to write ANY type about ANYTHING. Why did I decide to do this and not continue with the novel study, in particular the creative writing where the students were to create an alternative ending. I have seen how the students have engaged - well ironically disengaged with online learning. The ones who have engaged have done well so far and I wanted to take a break from our extended text study and do something that is different. I am hoping that the students engage with this task. I think if anything, I am trying to find ways to engage with the students. Let's see how this one goes.
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| Poetry Lockdown Challenge for 9KLe week 8 |
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