AWWS Teacher's Resource 1



Alone on a Wide Wide Sea

Teacher’s Resource

by Lucy English

William Collins’ dream of knowledge for all began with the publication of his first book in 1819. A self-educated mill worker, he not only enriched millions of lives, but also founded a flourishing publishing house. Today, staying true to this spirit, Collins books are packed with inspiration, innovation and practical expertise. They place you at the centre of a world of possibility and give you exactly what you need to explore it.

Collins. Do more.

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Visit the Collins Readers website at collinsreaders

Text ( HarperCollins Publishers Limited 2006

Maps ( Tim Stevens 2006

Extracts from Alone on a Wide Wide Sea ( Michael Morpurgo

Collins Readers Teacher’s Resources can be downloaded and duplicated as required for institutional use. However, this material is copyright and under no circumstances may copies be offered for sale.

Author: Lucy English

Introduction 5

Introducing the novel

Lesson 1: Questioning the world 6

Map 1

Map 2

OHT 1: Chapter 1 title

OHT 2: Opening paragraph

Lesson 2: Hook that reader! 11

Worksheet 3: Narrative hooks

Worksheet 4: Opening lines

Lesson 3: What’s in a name? 14

OHT 3 What’s in a name?

OHT 4: How to have a perfect start to school

Worksheet 5: Peer-Assessment sheet

Lesson 4: How do you feel? 18

OHT 5: Emotion chart

Lesson 5: Analysing character 20

OHT 6: Aunty Megs

OHT 7: Analysing Aunty Megs

OHT 8: Analysing Aunty Megs

Lesson 6: Leading the reader through 24

Worksheet 6: Connective categories

OHT 9: Connectives

OHT 10: How could connectives be used here?

Worksheet 7: Connectives bingo

Lesson 7: Getting to work 29

OHT 11: Gissa Job

Lesson 8: The Power of Pictures 31

OHT 12: Australian recruitment poster

OHT 13: Kim Phuc (1972)

OHT 14: Kim Phuc today

Worksheet 8: Bloom’s Taxonomy

Worksheet 9: War Photographer

Worksheet 10: What were they like?

Lesson 9: Over to Allie 38

Worksheet 11: Rank the phrases

Lesson 10: All at sea 40

OHT 15: Dear Mum and Grandpa

OHT 16: I want to change your mind…

Lesson 11: Why does it work? 43

OHT 17: Why the novel works for me

Worksheet 12: Why the novel works for me

Lesson 12: Assessment writing 46

Worksheet 13: Assessment sheet

Further teaching suggestions 48

Alone on a Wide Wide Sea

Eagerly anticipated by his many fans, Alone on a Wide Wide Sea is multi-award winning author Michael Morpurgo’s latest novel for young readers. A lyrical and life-affirming story incorporating a number of challenging themes, it was described by Kate Kellaway in The Observer as ‘his best book in years’.

The novel first tells the story of Arthur Hobhouse, shipped to Australia after WWII. Having lost his sister, his country and everything he knows, Arthur endures mistreatment, neglect and forced labour in the Australian outback before finding a home. Throughout his life, he is saved again and again by his love of the sea, and when he meets and marries a nurse whose father owns a boat building business, all the pieces of his fractured life come together. The second half of the novel tells the story of Arthur’s daughter Allie, whose love of the sea is as strong and vital as her father’s. She embarks on an epic solo voyage across the world’s roughest seas, in search of her father’s long-lost sister. Both moving and original, the novel is interwoven with Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, and tackles a number of challenging and difficult themes with gentleness and humanity.

The teaching suggestions below are designed for Year 7 students – however, the novel may be suitable for older classes as well. Students do not need to have any specific background knowledge before reading Alone on a Wide Wide Sea, but will need to be made familiar with ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ during their study of the book, as well as the history of child migrants.

The Author

Michael Morpurgo has written over 90 books and has an unparalleled reputation in the world of children's fiction. His works have been adapted for the cinema, TV and theatre and he has won numerous awards including the Blue Peter Book Award, the Whitbread Children's Book Award and the Smarties Prize. In 2003, he was appointed the third Children's Laureate.

Michael Morpurgo is, in his own words, “oldish, married with three children, and a grandfather six times over.” After attending schools in London, Sussex and Canterbury, he went on to London University to study English and French, followed by a job in a primary school in Kent. It was there that he discovered what he wanted to do.

“We had to read the children a story every day and my lot were bored by the book I was reading. I decided I had to do something and told them the kind of story I used to tell my kids - it was like a soap opera, and they focussed on it. I could see there was magic in it for them, and realised there was magic in it for me.”

Further reading

• Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

ISBN 0 00 720548 1

• The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips by Michael Morpurgo

ISBN 0 00 718246 5

• The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo

ISBN 0 00 675103 2

• Toro! Toro! by Michael Morpurgo

ISBN 0 00 710718 8

• Cool! by Michael Morpurgo

ISBN 0 00 713104 6

Lesson 1: Questioning the world

|Framework Objectives |

|R6 Adopt active reading approaches to engage with and make sense of texts |

|R14 Recognise how writers’ language choices can enhance meaning |

|S&L13 Work together logically and methodically to solve problems |

Enlarged versions of Map 1 and Map 2 (A3, ideally) will be needed, as well as marker pens and a stopwatch.

Starter

• Allocate students to mixed ability groups of four or five members for a Collective Memory Game. Give each team an A3 copy of Map 1 and a marker pen. An A3 version of Map 2 should be stuck to a flipchart and hidden from the students’ sight. They should not have access to the novel.

• Explain that they are going to work in teams to reproduce, as accurately as possible, the image you are going to show them. One person from each group comes to the front of the class in each round, where they are shown the image for 15 seconds (place the flipchart so no-one else can see it). They then go back to their group and add what they have seen and plan the next person’s turn (allow 30 seconds for this). Each group member is given two chances to see the image. The whole group has three minutes to plan their strategy. Remind students not to let other groups see or hear their work.

• When the game is finished, compare results and display Map 2. Teams discuss what they did well and how they would change their strategy if they were to repeat the task. (This provides an excellent opportunity for discussions about team-work, as well as focused reading.)

Introduction

• Ask students to suggest what they think the novel will be about. Then display OHT 1 and lead the class in ‘unpicking’ the title of Chapter 1, to work out what it might mean. Include discussion of:

• why a capital letter has been used for ‘Happening’

• what other words could be used for ‘Happening’

• why this might be considered a strange phrase (What would one normally expect of a ‘Happening’?)

• what it might suggest about Arthur Hobhouse.

Development

• Students then formulate questions they would like to ask the author or narrator (re-cap the difference) of the story. Display OHT 2. Read this and give the class two minutes, working in pairs, to write a set of questions. Then take feedback and discuss the sort of things students would like to know, categorising questions into different groups. Why does the reader want to know these sort of things at the beginning of the novel?

• Students work in pairs to read the rest of Chapter 1 and write questions for either the author or narrator.

Plenary

• Draw the class’s questions together, categorising them as appropriate. Ask students why they think the author has written an opening that raises so many questions. Why is it good writing to make an audience ask questions? (Aim at the idea of engagement and ‘captivating’ the reader).

Homework

Ask students to think of their first ‘real’ memory and write notes about it.

Arthur Hobhouse

is a Happening

Lesson 2: Hook that reader!

|Framework Objectives |

|Wr1 Plan, draft, edit, revise, proofread and present a text with readers and purpose in mind |

|Wr5 Structure a story with an arresting opening, a developing plot, a complication, a crisis and a satisfying resolution |

|Wr7 Use a range of narrative devices to involve the reader |

|S&L1 Use talk as a tool for clarifying ideas |

Thesauruses and dictionaries should be available to students in this lesson.

Starter

• Look back at Lesson 1 and remind students of how they formed a number of questions about the first chapter of the novel from reading the opening. Recap the discussion from the Plenary, and note that making a reader ask questions is one of several key ways to hook them into a story.

• Put students into pairs or groups of three. Give each pair or group a set of cut-up cards from Worksheet 3. They can then work to match each of the hooks with an example. Take feedback and write the seven different kinds of hook on the board.

Introduction

• Explain to the class that different writers and readers prefer different narrative hooks. However, they will need to try all different kinds of opening if they are to develop as writers.

• Distribute Worksheet 4. Using the notes they made about an early memory for Lesson 1 homework as a basis, students write opening sentences using each style of narrative hook. (The number of styles they are asked to attempt can be differentiated according to ability.)

• Students share their work within their previous pairs and groups. Then, as a class, discuss their findings. Which openings did they think were most successful, and which were particularly difficult or easy to write?

Development

• Students develop one or more of their styles into an opening paragraph, story outline and, if time allows, a full story. (Higher ability students could be encouraged to develop more of their openings.) Before they begin writing, point out that what informs a writer’s decision when choosing how to open a piece of writing is their consideration of purpose and audience. The purpose of narrative writing is to entertain and inform. The audience, in this case, will be their classmates (however, language should be kept fairly formal rather than colloquial).

Plenary

• Students read their work to each other in their pairs/threes and discuss. Gather feedback from groups to identify which styles suited which writers/stories.

• Ask students how they will use these ideas in future writing? (Aim to discuss purpose and audience again).

|Narrative hook |Example |

|The Puzzler – raises questions that puzzle the |I’m never really sure if it’s a real memory or just something that’s become more solid over time. But |

|reader |I’m sure that my brother once tried to murder me. |

|The Salesperson – stops the reader in their |So you want to know all about me? Well, stay there and I’ll begin… |

|tracks and addresses them directly | |

|The Hinter – the subtle approach, drops hints so|It wasn’t as if we hated each other. I don’t really think he knew what he was doing. I wasn’t much |

|the reader has to put the pieces together |better. |

|The Weatherman – sets the atmosphere |The sky was dark, the pavements shining with drizzle and reflected lights from lamp-posts and car |

| |headlights. I sploshed along in my cosy wellies. |

|The Painter – paints a visual image of the scene|My bright red wellies shone as they splashed through the puddles on the black tar pavement. |

| |Multi-coloured cars raced past, cutting through the drizzle and the dark of the winter… |

|The Comedian – the funny approach |Being splashed by a car so comprehensively that you are soaked to your underwear is really funny. |

| |Unless it happens to you. |

|The Interrupter – brings you in during a |“I can’t believe he did that! What happened next?” Liz demanded… |

|conversation | |

Have a go at using each Narrative Hook by writing an opening sentence in each of the different styles. You may find that you need to change your opening focus as well as your style.

|The Puzzler – raises questions that puzzle the reader |

|The Salesperson – stops the reader in their tracks and addresses them directly |

|The Hinter – the subtle approach, drops hints so the reader has to put the pieces together |

|The Weatherman – sets the atmosphere |

|The Painter – paints a visual image of the scene |

|The Comedian – the funny approach |

|The Interrupter – brings you in during a conversation |

Lesson 3: What’s in a name?

|Framework Objectives |

|R8 Infer and deduce meanings using evidence in the text |

|R14 Recognise how writers’ language choices can enhance meaning |

|S13a Revise the stylistic conventions of information writing |

|Wr11 Select and present information using detail, example, diagram and illustration as appropriate |

Students should have read up to ‘Wes Snarkey’s revenge’ (page 40)

Starter

• Show OHT 3 and ask students to unpick the names and phrases.

• Discuss how the language adds meaning to them – introduce concept of denotation and connotation.

• Add the name ‘Piggy Bacon’ and ask students to unpick and explain how its difference warns the readers about this character.

Introduction

• Ask students what they would expect an instruction text to do, i.e. it tells you (how) to do something. What key features they would expect of an instruction text, if any? (Expect answers including: Heading, sub-headings, sequenced lists, illustrations with captions, connectives for cohesion, subject-specific vocabulary, imperative verbs).

• Either show OHT 4 or a relevant text of your own choice and ask students to identify these features.

• Keep a list of them on the board.

Development

• Imagine a new batch of children are being delivered to Cooper’s Station. Students have to write the instructions that will help them to survive it. They should remember these are instructions to children from children – they won’t been seen by Piggy Bacon or his wife. Students should draw on as much info from the text as possible.

• They need to remind themselves of the conditions and try to use the conventions of instruction writing.

Plenary

• Use the peer-evaluation sheet to assess the writing (Worksheet 5)

• Look at the vocabulary used – does it keep the writing impartial or does it hint at the horrors at Cooper’s Station?

Homework

Change the writing into a different non-fiction piece, using the appropriate conventions. Ask students to now write an advert written by Mr Bacon to persuade children to come and work at Cooper’s Station.

Mighty Marty

Silver dancing dolphins

Lady Luck

Worksheet 5: Peer-Assessment sheet

Date:

Name:

Class:

The assignment involved...

What were the good points about the writing?

What needs to be improved?

Writing overview:

|Focus |Poor |Average |Good |V Good |

|Sentence structure and punctuation (the way your sentences are put | | | | |

|together; the accuracy and effect of your use of punctuation) | | | | |

|Text structure and organisation | | | | |

|(the way your writing is organised; for example, whether your paragraphs | | | | |

|help the reader to follow what you want to say) | | | | |

|Composition and effect (the particular choices of words and phrases used to| | | | |

|fit the sort of text you are writing) plus how well you interest the | | | | |

|reader. | | | | |

Lesson 4: How do you feel?

|Framework Objectives |

|W15 Use a dictionary and a thesaurus with speed and skill |

|Wr2 Collect, select and assemble ideas in a suitable planning format |

|Wr3 Use writing to explore and develop ideas |

|S&L13 Work together logically and methodically to solve problems, make deductions, share, test and evaluate ideas. |

Small squares of paper/sticky notes and thesauruses and dictionaries are required for this lesson.

Students should have read up to the end of ‘Couple of Raggedy Little Scarecrows’ (page 106).

Starter

• Put students into groups of three of four, each student with a thesaurus and dictionary and a stack of small squares of paper (or sticky notes)

• They are to undertake a vocabulary race. Each team has to find and write down as many words describing emotions as possible in three minutes. One word is to be written on each piece of paper/sticky note. Remind them they can use the thesaurus to find new words but they also need the dictionary to check exact meaning. (Might be worth reminding them of the terms synonym and antonym).

• When they are done, share some of their favourites and check understanding. As a group they now need to organise their word bank – they can arrange the vocabulary into a mind map or a shape that means similar emotions are together. You might want to give them sugar paper to glue these onto.

Introduction

• Show OHT 5 and, as a class, sketch the changing emotions Arthur has experienced since the start of the novel. The line should go up and down according to emotional intensity and students should label where individual emotions such as happiness or fear occur on this line.

• Ask the group to divide these experiences between them and allocate appropriate vocabulary from their word bank. (You might like to differentiate for students at this point, or allow them to self-differentiate).

Development

• Students are to write a personal recount of their experience, as if they are Arthur. However, they need to try to use some of their new vocabulary.

Plenary

• Each group puts their pieces together and crafts it to ensure it works.

• Ask: Have the new words helped or have they gone a bit over the top?

• Ask: Should there be a rule about using new vocabulary?

• Lead a discussion about this.

Lesson 5: Analysing character

|Framework Objectives |

|R12 Comment, using appropriate terminology on the how writers convey setting, character and mood through word choice and sentence structure |

|Wr11 Select and present information using detail example, diagram and illustration as appropriate |

|Wr19 Write reflectively about a text, taking account of the needs of others who might read it |

|S12 Organise ideas into a coherent sequence of paragraphs, introducing, developing and concluding them appropriately. |

Students should have read up to the end of ‘You’re my Boys, Aren’t You?’ (page 139).

Starter

• Show OHT6 and ask students what it tells us about Aunty Megs. Remind them of the connotations of what is said – they often have to read between and beyond the lines.

• Can they find a phrase or short quotation that tells us something about Aunty Megs? Ask students to explain what they have chosen and why they have chosen it to a learning partner.

Introduction

• Remind students of the PEE rule (Point, Evidence, Explanation). The quotations they have been working with act as the evidence and the unpicking they have been doing is the explanation. All they need to do is add a point to create an analytical paragraph.

• Model this or use OHT7 to show students how this works. Get them to identify the different parts of the paragraph.

• Mini plenary: Why are quotations needed in analysis paragraphs?

Development

• Students write a series of analysis paragraphs about Aunty Megs using the PEE Rule.

• They should aim to explore the following:

o Her character and personality

o Her behaviour and beliefs

o Her relationship with the boys

o How the author prepares us for what might happen in the future.

• You might like to display OHT8 which has these ideas and some phrases that might help the students analyse their chosen quotations.

Plenary

• Hear and evaluate some of the paragraphs.

• As a class, write the rules for successful analytical paragraphs.

• Lead a discussion about the hints that the author has given us about what might happen next – why and how has he done this?

Homework

Find and note down places in the book where the author gives us hints of what is going to happen in the future.

Extension: why has he done this?

She made it perfectly clear that this wasn’t an excuse in sentimentality, wasn’t just to make herself feel good. It was to give them a second chance of life, a chance they all deserved. It was a chance everyone deserved, she said, animals and people alike.

OHT 7: Analysing Aunty Megs

Aunty Megs is direct and matter-of-fact, ‘this wasn’t an exercise in sentimentality, wasn’t just to make herself feel good.’ This shows us that she has real purpose to her actions and she has thought about what she is doing. It also tells us that she has the strength to do what she feels is right rather than what she would prefer to do – this makes us think about what might happen to Arthur and Marty in the future.

OHT8: Analysing Aunty Megs

Write about

o Her character and personality

o Her behaviour and beliefs

o Her relationship with the boys

o How the author prepares us for what might happen in the future.

You might like to use some of these phrases to help analyse the quotations you have chosen:

This shows...

This tells us...

These words suggest...

From this we can see...

This language is ______ and suggests...

This implies...

She seems to be...

We can see that...

This suggests...

Lesson 6: Leading the reader through

|Framework Objectives |

|S8 Recognise the cues to start a new paragraph and use the first sentence effectively to orientate the reader |

|S12 Organise ideas into a coherent sequence of paragraphs, introducing, developing and concluding them appropriately |

|W20 Expand the range of link words and phrases used to signpost texts |

|Wr10 Organise texts in ways appropriate to their content and signpost this clearly to the reader. |

Students should have completed the task in lesson 5.

Starter

• Show students OHT9 and ask them to write the connectives in the correct categories on Worksheet6

• Lead discussion of why connectives are useful – they act as warning flags so your reader knows what is about to happen in your writing.

• Check understanding of each one.

Introduction

• Ask students to look back at their analysis paragraphs about Aunty Megs. They’ll probably find they stand alone rather than flow. This is where connectives can be really useful as they can help cohesion and coherence – inside and between paragraphs.

• Challenge students to work out how connectives can make the analysis on OHT 10 better.

Development

• Students to work in pairs or small groups to craft their analysis and use connectives to improve the cohesion and coherence.

Plenary

• Connective bingo: give out Worksheet 7 and ask students to write an appropriate connective in each category. Then, select students to read out an extract from their work. If they read out the connective that is on the sheet, students can cross it off. The first to cross off all categories is the winner.

• Lead a discussion about which are the most comment connectives and why this is.

Write the connectives into the correct categories

|category |connectives |

|Starting off[pic] | |

|Moving along[pic] | |

|Moving up a gear | |

|Doing a u-turn | |

|Coming to a stop[pic] | |

OHT 9: Connectives

Work out which category these connectives should go into and write them on your worksheet.

Firstly,

However,

Furthermore,

Secondly

In conclusion

And

But

Because

Also

Moreover

To start with

To conclude

In addition

OHT 10: How could connectives be used here?

Aunty Megs is very caring but wants to return everything to the wild, ‘she never talked to them, never stroked them. She just fed them.’ This shows she didn’t want to domesticate them. She wanted them to be able to return to where they should be. It wasn’t that she didn’t love them, it was better for the animals.

Aunty Megs is fond of the boys. She even says, ‘I'm your mother, aren’t I?’ This shows she loves them. She wants the best for this. This is why she sends them away.

Worksheet 7: Connectives bingo

Write a connective in each category

|category |connectives |

|Starting off | |

|Moving along | |

|Moving up a gear | |

|Doing a u-turn | |

|Coming to a stop | |

Lesson 7: Getting to work

|Framework Objectives |

|S17 Use standard English consistently in formal situations and in writing |

|S&L4 Give clear answers, instructions or explanations that are helpfully sequenced, linked and supported by gesture or other visual aid |

|S&L7 Answer questions pertinently, drawing on relevant evidence or reasons |

|S&L11 Adopt a range of roles in discussion, including acting as a spokesperson, and contribute in different ways such as promoting, opposing, |

|exploring and questioning. |

Students should have read to the end of ‘One January Night’.

Starter

• Show students OHT11 and ask them if they would give the writer a job

• Lead discussion of what is wrong with the letter – leading to the idea of formal and informal language. Discuss what makes language formal (discuss vocabulary and structure) and when it is required.

Introduction

• Read pages 15-156.

• Challenge students to imagine they are Arthur or Marty and to re-write the letter to get a job interview.

Development

• Divide class into six groups (or into the correct amount to allow students to work on one as employer or employee in a small enough group to contribute). Groups A, B and C have to imagine they are owners of a boat yard who are looking for employees. They should write the questions they will ask at interview and consider the answers they will expect in response.

• Groups D, E and F are to imagine they are Arthur or Marty and preparing for interview. They should work out what questions they might be asked and what they will say in response.

• Remind all students of the need for formal language.

Plenary

• Role-play the interviews, either all at once or watch a couple at the front of the class.

• Lead a discussion about who was the most authentic employer, and why. Consider who they would employ, any why.

Homework

Write a formal letter to the employee of your choice to offer him or her the job. Make sure you explain the requirements of the job clearly and your expectations. You need to use Standard English and ensure you use the correct level of formality.

Watcha Mate,

I heard you’ve a job going. I’d give it a go as I like working with boats and stuff. I'm pretty good at it all and like having a laugh with me mates so I can get on with the whole crowd you’ve got there also I'm really good at telling jokes so everyone likes me.

What d’ya reckon? Shall I come over for a natter and you can see how great I am?

See you soon,

Danny

Lesson 8: The power of pictures

|Framework Objectives |

|R8 Adopt active reading approaches to engage with and make sense of texts |

|S&L1 Use talk as a tool for clarifying ideas |

|S&L12 Use exploratory, hypothetical and speculative talk as a way of researching ideas and expanding thinking |

|S&L15 Develop drama techniques to explore in role a variety of situations and texts or respond to stimuli. |

Students should have read to the end of ‘Things fall apart’.

Starter

• Show students OHT12 and ask them to analyse it. What do they think its purpose was?

• Lead discussion of this poster. Explain it was produced for and used by the Australian Navy to encourage people to join during WWII.

• What impression of the men does the poster give? Why does it want to give this impression?

• Look again at page 168-9 where Arthur describes the smiling face on the poster he saw. Why did this have such a great impact on him at this stage in his life? (Remind students the Vietnam War was 1959-1975 and Arthur mentions the end of the war, so this would have been in the 1970s).

Introduction

• Read pages 170-172 ‘the sea had become a place of blood’.

• Show students OHT 13, the famous picture of Kim Phuc running after a Napalm attack in 1972. Ask them to write questions about this photograph. You might like to give them Worksheet 8 with Bloom’s Taxonomy on it to structure these questions.

Development

• Depending on ability, distribute Worksheet 9 with the poem ‘War Photographer’ by Carol Ann Duffy.

• Ask students to read this poem in groups and prepare a series of still tableaux to go with it.

Plenary

• Watch the tableaux and invite comments and questions about what happened and what the poet is saying. What does the poem suggest about the impact of war on people’s lives? Are people comfortable speaking about it?

• Show OHT 14 of Kim Phuc today and explain she is now a peace activist. Ask what these experiences might have done to Arthur.

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[pic]

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Knowledge

Define, name, state, recognise, recall, who, what, when, where, how, describe...

Comprehension

Why, describe in own words, select aspects, explain, identify

Application

Dramatize, illustrate, interpret, solve, how is...an example of, why is... significant?

Analysis

What is the motive? How and why has this happened? Compare, contrast, categorise

Synthesis

Inference and deduction, what would happen if? What solutions would you suggest ... and why?

Evaluation

Value decisions, resolving differences of opinion, prioritising, how would you decide? What criteria would you use to assess?

War Photograher

by Carol Ann Duffy

 

In his darkroom he is finally alone

with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.

The only light is red and softly glows,

as though this were a church and he

a priest preparing to intone a Mass.

Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.

He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays

beneath his hands which did not tremble then

though seem to now. Rural England. Home again

to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel,

to fields which don't explode beneath the feet

of running children in a nightmare heat.

Something is happening. A stranger's features

faintly start to twist before his eyes,

a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries

of this man's wife, how he sought approval

without words to do what someone must

and how the blood stained into foreign dust.

A hundred agonies in black-and-white

from which his editor will pick out five or six

for Sunday's supplement. The reader's eyeballs prick

with tears between bath and pre-lunch beers.

From aeroplane he stares impassively at where

he earns a living and they do not care.

Lesson 9: Over to Allie

|Framework Objectives |

|R3 Compare and contrast the ways information is presented in different forms |

|R10 Identify how media texts are tailored to suit their audience |

|Wr10 Organise texts in ways appropriate to their content |

|S&L9 Recognise the way familiar spoken texts are organised and identify their typical features |

|S&L16 Work collaboratively to devise and present scripted and unscripted pieces, which maintain the attention of an audience. |

Students should have read to the end of ‘Two Send-offs, and an Albatross’.

Starter

• Give students the phrases from Worksheet 11 and ask them to rank them in order of power. Which would make the most effective headline for an article about Allie’s adventure?

• Discuss choices and recap the idea of emotive language.

Introduction

• Recall the media interest in Allie as she sets off on her trip (see pages 209 and 210).

• Discuss why this is a good story for the media (look for ideas involving Allie’s age, the story of Kittie, Arthur’s dream, the whole family involvement, the sense of adventure, the interest in ‘good news’ stories etc).

Development

• Divide the class into groups and ask them to complete at least one of the following media tasks:

o Produce a general news bulletin about Allie’s trip

o Interview Allie and the family for an evening news programme

o Interview Allie and the family for a daytime magazine show

o Write the script of an interview with Allie for one of the above

o Produce the radio coverage of Allie’s departure

o Write the newspaper report of Allie’s departure

Plenary

• Watch/hear a selection of the work and discuss how it changes for different media forms and audiences.

Homework

Design the Kitty Four website. You may either do this on computer or on paper. Sketch the layout and key features. Write the text for the main pages you will include. Remember it is useful to think of the overall website design like a spider diagram or mind map with the home page in the middle and all the other pages branching out from there.

Rank these phrases in order of power (from least to most powerful).

Brave 18-year old

Allie’s Epic Voyage

Brave teenager

Heroic voyage

Family sailing trip

Battle with the waves

Allie’s awesome adventure

Allie sails away

Girl sails to England

Girl (18) goes to sea

Sailor takes to the seas

Allie Searches for Long Lost Auntie

The adventure begins

Start of the sailing trip

Lesson 10: All at sea

|Framework Objectives |

|S15 Vary the formality of language in speech and writing to suit different circumstances |

|S16 Investigate differences between spoken and written language structures |

|R7 Identify the main points, processes or ideas in a text and how they are sequenced and developed by the writer |

|Wr15 Express a personal view, adding persuasive emphasis to key points |

Students should have read to the end of ‘Dr Marc Topolski (page 261).

Starter

• Show OHT15 and ask students to identify the purpose, audience and text type. They should be prepared to explain the key features.

• Lead discussion of what makes this an informal email. Discuss the long sentences, the use of the dash, the lack of capital letters for some proper nouns, the inconsistency – so there are capital letters for others, the fragment sentences... You might like to point out informal emails are often like a stream of consciousness or someone talking – and we don’t talk or think in sentences.

• Why is this appropriate writing for Allie’s purpose and audience? Why do you think Michael Morpurgo uses the device of including Allie’s emails to tell parts of her story? What do they add that conventional narrative couldn’t?

Introduction

• Grandpa somehow persuaded NASA to contact Dr Marc Topolski and allow him to phone Allie. This would have taken some persuading!

• Show OHT 16 and ask students to identify the persuasive techniques it uses. Look for the following: emotive language, use of the collective pronoun ‘we’, rhetorical questions, facts and figures, pattern of three.

Development

• Ask students to write or role play the letter or conversation where Grandpa persuades NASA to make contact between Dr Topolski and Allie. Try to use as many persuasive techniques as possible, but remember not to get aggressive or go over the top!

Plenary

• Watch/read a selection of the students’ work. Lead peer-evaluation of its success and ask each student to write a summary of the more effective persuasive techniques.

You’ll just have to imagine me up on deck belting out my Whitney Houston special in a force 8 or 9 – and ieeeiiieeei will always love you. I found myself humming London Bridge is Falling Down in the cockpit just now, like Dad did. I’ve got Dad’s cds – louis armstrong, bob dylan, the beatles, buddy holly. I’ve got “What a Wonderful World” on right now, one of Dad’s favourites when we were at sea together. Got my own stuff too – Coldplay, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, few others. Couldn’t take much, not enough room, piled high with junk down here, hardly any room for little old me. feel like a really big sardine in a really small can.

Everybody knows that we in Britain have easier lives than many people in the developing world. But have you ever stopped to really think about how life would be if we didn’t have access to clean water?

Imagine you and your family lived in Tanzania, one of the most beautiful places in the world - if you go to the thriving tourist areas.

For the people who live there day to day it’s different, it’s harsh, it’s deadly. Diarrhoea accounts for at least 20% of infant deaths. Innocent babies die because they have to drink putrid, stinking, deadly water. Yes, water is a killer here where 70% of the rural population have no access to safe water. But it doesn’t just stop there: 30% of people in towns have no access to safe water.

If you lived past your vulnerable childhood you could expect to live to the age of 46 years. In Britain life expectancy is 80.

But it’s not all doom and gloom because you have the power to change this terrible situation. You have the power to save lives. Are you up for it?

Lesson 11: Why does it work?

|Framework Objectives |

|R4 Make brief, clearly-organised notes of key points for later use |

|R8 adopt active reading approaches to engage with and make sense of texts |

|Wr3 Use writing to explore and develop ideas |

|S&L10 Identify and report the main points emerging from discussion |

Students should have read to the end of the novel.

Starter

• Ask students to work in twos or threes and discuss and write down their top three parts of the novel.

• They should be ready to explain why these where the best bits.

• Lead a discussion of the students’ best bits. You might find some liked the realism – characters die, which doesn’t often happen in fiction for Year 7. Others might enjoy Arthur’s story more than Allie’s or vice versa – come to the realisation there is something in this novel for everyone.

Introduction

• Pick your favourite/most effective part and talk the students through why you find it effective. You might want to use OHT 17 for ideas.

• As a class, make a list of the features that make this novel so effective. You might like to include ideas such as the detail, the immense range of the story, the realistic events and characters, the amount you learn, the two different voices, the hints and hooks throughout the story, the descriptive passages, the historical insight the book gives us, the styles of writing...

Development

• Distribute Worksheet 12 and ask students to complete it with their ideas about what makes this novel so effective.

• If they really hate it, they can complete the worksheet to explain what makes the novel unsuccessful.

Plenary

• Explain they are going to write an assessment essay next lesson, using these ideas.

• Go through the ideas they have come up with, and discuss how they can change these into an essay by using the PEE rule.

Homework

Prepare for the assessment essay: What makes Alone on a Wide Wide Sea so effective?

I’ve had a lot of time to think things over since. I'm still angry about Cooper’s Station, about what they did to us there. But we weren’t the first. Two hundred years or so before we were sent out from England to Australia, others had made the same journey as we did. They had come in chains in the stinking bowels of transport ships. We may have come in a beautiful ship, with pillar-box red funnels and an orchestra, but we were prisoners just like them. And they must have very soon discovered, as we did, that you weren’t just a prisoner, you were a slave as well, and that when you’re a slave they don’t just take away your freedom, they take away everything else as well because they own you. They own you body and soul. And the soul, we were about to find out, was particularly important to our owners.

Complete this thoughtmap with examples of effective writing in the novel. You will need to add ideas of you own as well.

Lesson 12: Assessment writing

|Framework Objectives |

|R7 Identify the main points, processes or ideas in a text and how they are sequenced and developed by the writer |

|R12 Comment, using appropriate terminology on how writers convey setting, character and mood through word choice and sentence structure |

|R14 Recognise how writers’ language choices can enhance meaning |

|Wr12 Develop ideas and lines of thinking in continuous text |

|Wr19 Write reflectively about a text, taking account of the needs of others who might read it. |

Students should have read to the end of the novel and completed the preparation in the previous lesson.

Starter

• Distribute the Assessment Sheet (Worksheet 13) and ask students to highlight the key features they are aiming to achieve. Discuss the techniques they can use to help them write their response (PEE rule, connectives, evidence)

• Discuss the task and emphasise they will not have enough time to write about everything so should choose their most important points. You might like to differentiate at this point, to ensure students have the correct level of challenge.

Introduction

• Remind students of the title of the task: What makes Alone on a Wide Wide Sea so effective?

• Take any final questions.

Development

• Students to write their response. Ensure you give them time reminders.

Plenary

• Pair students up according to ability. They are to read and peer-assess each other’s work and write a target on it.

• Share some of the best bits.

Date:

Name:

Class:

The assignment involved...

What were the good points about the writing?

What needs to be improved?

Writing overview:

|Focus |Poor |Average |Good |V Good |

|Sentence structure and punctuation | | | | |

|(the way your sentences are put together; the accuracy and effect of your | | | | |

|use of punctuation) | | | | |

|Text structure and organisation | | | | |

|(the way your writing is organised; for example, whether your paragraphs | | | | |

|help the reader to follow what you want to say) | | | | |

|Composition and effect | | | | |

|(the particular choices of words and phrases used to fit the sort of text | | | | |

|you are writing) plus how well you interest the reader. | | | | |

Further teaching suggestions

Word level

• Unpicking meaning: Select a phrase such as: It was a grey day with drizzle in the air, the great sad cranes bowing to the ship from the docks as we steamed past. Put this onto an OHT and lead the class in ‘unpicking’ the meaning and connotation of individual words to lead to an understanding of the whole phrase. Discuss the impact of key words – how would the phrase change if one of them changed? As students get more confident working in this way, they can select the phrases to use and can eventually write an analysis of them.

• Recognise how word choices such as alliteration can enhance meaning: Look at examples such as Mighty Marty or Lady Luck and discuss the impact the alliteration has on our understanding. Students can then make up their own alliterative names for themselves or other characters in the novel.

• Using a dictionary: Look at the diagrams of Kitty IV on pages 214 and 215; students should look up any unfamiliar words in a dictionary.

• ‘Marooned in a sea of serpents’: Read this section on page 268 and the relevant stanzas of ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. Students should imagine they are sea-snakes, and write the chant they might say as they writhe around Allie’s boat. They should think about the sort of vocabulary and sounds that would go with this – maybe lots of long vowel sounds and sibilance?

Sentence level

• Use speech punctuation accurately to integrate speech into larger sentences: Provide students with a passage from the novel that includes speech, but remove the punctuation. Ask students to work out where it should go.

• Conventions of non-fiction: Revise how dictionary entries are written. Ask students to select a new word from the text and write the dictionary definition for it.

• Analyse the use of a sentence to hook and lead the reader on: Look at the following sentence on page 132: When she told us, she told us straight. Ask students to outline why this is a successful sentence and predict what might happen next. They should provide evidence for their ideas (such as how Aunty Meg always returns her animals to their natural habitat).

• Use of sentence length to create pace and emphasis: Look at the sentence lengths in the first paragraph of the chapter “You’re my Boys, Aren’t You?” (pages 133–134). What is the effect of starting so many sentences with ‘She’? What is the effect of the short sentences?

• Mixing metaphors: Ask students to compile a bank of clichéd metaphors, such as: the icing on the cake or the cat that got the cream. Discuss why they are used and what they mean. Can students invent some new ones?

• News headlines: Look at some of the ones Allie mentions on page 209. How are headlines different to sentences? Why is this? Ask students to make up headlines for other events in the novel.

• Stylistic conventions of email: Give students a copy of Allie’s first email on pages 216–218 and ask them to highlight all the errors and then explain why they are errors to a partner.

• Fog and mist: Look at the fog and mist stanzas in ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. You might also like to look at the opening of Bleak House by Charles Dickens. How have sentence structures been manipulated to reflect and represent the fog?

Reading

• Research: Students research the child migrants (see the Afterword for a useful web address to start your research; also try .au or type ‘child migrant’ into a search engine).

• Lucky key: Explore the power of symbols. Ask students to make a thinking map of all that the key means to Arthur. To extend this, students can make their own symbol thinking map.

• Understanding the author’s craft: Look at Piggy’s ‘welcome speech’ on pages 31–33. Unpick this to work out the techniques used to support his ideas. Include analysis of repetition, the use of the collective pronoun ‘we’, emotive language and cliché.

• Active reading: Read the descriptions of Cooper’s Station and The Ark; students make collages of each to highlight their differences. They should pick out key quotations to layer over the top of the collage.

• The power of the image: Show the class some recruitment posters and discuss how each image works and how it is still referred to today. Students can make their own recruitment posters using digital cameras and ICT photo manipulation programs. They will need to consider purpose and audience if these are to be effective.

• War: Use ‘What were they like’ by Denise Levertov to introduce the Vietnam War. Ask students to read the poem and use Bloom’s taxonomy of thinking skills to write questions about the poem. The photograph referred to in the novel (page 174) can also be used (search for ‘Kim Phuc photo’ online).

• Reading pictures: Look at the diagrams of Kitty IV on pages 214–215 and use them to explore Allie’s character. What can we learn about her from these diagrams?

• The Ancient Mariner: As students encounter the poem in the text you might like to provide the missing stanzas. With each stanza they should dramatise or storyboard what is happening.

• The Storm Blast: unpick vocabulary to check understanding and then create a picture or cartoon of this stanza.

• Shooting the albatross: (page 238) Remind students of the way the key became a symbol of hope for Arthur. What does the albatross symbolise for Allie? In the Coleridge poem the Ancient Mariner shoots the albatross – students should predict what will happen next in the poem and the novel.

Writing

• Writing a letter to persuade: Students should imagine they are one of the social workers trying to obtain a placement for one of the immigrant children, and write a letter to persuade a farmer to take a child. Recap conventions of letter-writing as well as persuasive techniques with the class.

• The policeman’s report: Aunty Megs takes the boys to a police station to tell their story. Recap conventions of a formal report. Students write the report.

• Conventions of formal writing: Outline conventions of obituaries (include purpose and audience). Students write an obituary for Aunty Meg.

• Conventions of newspaper articles: Students write the newspaper report of Allie’s departure.

Speaking & Listening

• Hot-seat: Using the research on child migrants, set up a hot-seating activity. To prepare, students write questions they would like to ask the children, the authorities sending them and the people receiving them. These characters can then be hot-seated. To extend the activity, roles such as ship passengers, workers on the ship, the people re-housing the children and other people in the places the children end up can also be hot-seated.

• Persuasive speaking: Recap persuasive techniques and split students into two groups. One group should write and perform speeches persuading Arthur to join the Navy, while the other should persuade him not to join.

• News interviews: Students role-play Allie, Grandpa and the news team as they interview Allie about her forthcoming adventure and her search for Kitty. Remember all the participants will have a different message they want to focus on!

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Contents

Introduction

Alone on a Wide Wide Sea

Worksheet 13: Assessment Sheet

Alone on a wide wide sea

Realistic characters

Allie

Exciting events

Cooper’s Station

escape

Important issues

Child migrants

war

Natural world

Marty

Arthur

Worksheet 12: Why the novel works for me

In what way? This passage makes me curious and also starts a sense of rage and anger. I want to read on.

We know he got past this but we also know the experiences we are about to read about are going to be life-changing in a negative way. We want to read on

Reminds us it was involuntary

Evocative and emotive description.

Sounds so grand and contrasts so strongly with his experiences. Reminds us of the ‘establishment’ who sent him out in the first place – increases our sense of rage

Really shocking – we want to find out how this can be true – he’s a little boy! Who are ‘they’? What happens?

[pic]

OHT 17: Why the novel works for me

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OHT 16: I want to change your mind...

OHT 15: Dear Mum and Grandpa

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Worksheet 11: Rank the phrases

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Worksheet 9: War Photographer

Worksheet 8: Bloom’s Taxonomy

OHT 14: Kim Phuc today

OHT 13: Kim Phuc (1972)

OHT 12: Australian recruitment poster

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OHT 11: Gissa Job

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Worksheet 6: Connective categories

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Alone on a Wide Wide Sea

OHT 6: Aunty Megs

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On the boat

Journey to Cooper’s Station

Cooper’s Station

Journey with the Aborigines

Meeting Aunty Megs

OHT 5: Emotion chart

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Alone on a Wide Wide Sea

OHT 4: How to have a perfect start to school

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Starting school: how to do it perfectly

1. Establish what time you are meant to be there and what you are meant to take.

2. Ensure you have the correct school uniform. Shirts must be tucked in and ties should be tied correctly (see diagram).

3. Take a full pencil case which should include:

• Blue and black pens (check they work)

• Ruler

• Pencils (sharp)

• Highlighters

• Rubber

• Sharpener

• Paper clips (really useful for keeping all the little bits of paper together)

4. Take a small dictionary, reading book and notebook in your bag. These are guaranteed to impress teachers.

5. Take a packed lunch, but also take some cash in case your new friends are going to the canteen – this means you can stick with them and get yourself a drink or snack.

6. Have a good night’s sleep the night before and get a good breakfast.

7. Try to enjoy it!

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OHT 3: What’s in a name?

Worksheet 23: The golden feather

Feather Boy

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Alone on a Wide Wide Sea

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Contents

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Worksheet 4: Opening lines

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OHT 2: Opening paragraph

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I should begin at the beginning. I know that. But the trouble is that I don’t know the beginning. I wish I did. I do know my name, Arthur Hobhouse. Arthur Hobhouse had a beginning, that’s for certain. I had a father and a mother too, but God only knows who they were, and maybe even he doesn’t know for sure. I mean, God can’t be looking everywhere all at once, can he? So where the name Arthur Hobhouse comes from and who gave it to me I have no idea. I don’t even know if it’s my real name. I don’t know the date and place of my birth either, only that it was probably in Bermondsey, London, sometime in about 1940.

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OHT 1: Chapter 1 title

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Map 2

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Map 1

Worksheet 3: Narrative hooks

Alone on a Wide Wide Sea

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Alone on a Wide Wide Sea

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