Fat, four-eyed and useless II
- The text could be printed and given to students to refer to.
- This assessment could be done with a group or class as appropriate, prior to reading the novel.
- This assessment could be done individually, and then in pairs, with students filling in their new understandings in a different colour. This method shows what you know and what you build with someone else.
- Having multiple copies of the book to read as a shared novel after completing this assessment would mean that students could check on their predictions about the characters during the course of their reading.
| Y8 (09/2005) | |||||||||||
| a) |
Student predicts how the storyteller's feelings might change about other characters and matches predicted feelings with three pieces of evidence from the text:
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moderate/moderate
difficult/moderate
easy/easy
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| b i) |
Student identifies how the storyteller's feelings about himself have changed:
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very easy | |||||||||
| b) ii) |
Student matches feelings in i) with three pieces of evidence from the text:
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3 pieces of evidence - moderate
1 or 2 pieces of evidence - easy |
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| c) |
Student suggests the author's possible intention to either:
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difficult |
- reflect critically about character
- infer ideas and information that are not directly stated in the text
as described in the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading at: http://www.literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/The-Structure-of-the-Progressions.
An analysis of student responses in the trial of this resource identified two main areas of difficulty:
Making inferences
The following example illustrates that many students were not reading between the lines. The subtle changes in Ben's responses to Athol in the 'THURSDAY' section were not picked up by 50% of trial students. This meant that at h)ii), students did not predict any change in their relationship.For b) ii), the "I" statements made by Ben were the most commonly identified pieces of text as suggesting a change in the way Ben feels about himself. For example, trial students identified "I'm an author!", "I felt pretty cool!", "I enjoyed the meeting", and "I felt good". The more indirect statements, e.g., "Everyone listened", "I don't usually admit such things to people", and where Ben records the positive feedback he received, were less likely to be identified by trial students.
Making inferences
The ability to see other possible interpretations could be developed in texts such as this by using drama. The natural flow between dialogue and monologue lends itself well to this. Simple re-enactments of words or phrases, using different voice tones and expression, would demonstrate how something, said differently, can mean something different. This could be done by getting students to make one word statements, such as "Yes" and/or "No". Scaffold students into this by first suggesting an intention on the part of the speaker, e.g., to be enthusiastic/negative/passive. Brainstorm other possible intentions and demonstrate how saying "Yes" one way, leads to a particular "No" response. Move on to exploring other possible intentions behind the actual text/storyteller's words, e.g., "I suppose it was OK".
Identifying author's purpose
- Because it summed up how Ben felt well, and left the rest of the story open and gives you a sense it's going somewhere.
- Because the author wanted people who are reading the book and maybe don't know that they are good at something and could be feeling the way Ben was, to realise that everyone is good at something and they are not useless.
- The author left the reader wanting to keep reading.
- It leaves the reader in suspense and makes them think.
To build student familiarity with the conventions of narrative texts, analyse strategies used by authors in a variety of these text types. With regard to section or chapter endings, ask:
- Are there any patterns in the ways authors end sections or chapters? If so, what are they?
- What could the reasons be for authors doing this at the end of sections or chapters?
- Students could write their own examples of chapter endings, e.g., "but wait, there's more".
- Exploring Language: A Handbook for Teachers, Ministry of Education, Learning Media, 1996.
- The Learner as a Reader: Developing Reading Programmes, Ministry of Education, Learning Media, 1996.