Boy's Song

Boy's Song

Pencil and paper
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Working with Students
Further Resources
This task is about using evidence to predict and make inferences from a poem.
Read the first three verses of the poem Boy's Song by Sam Hunt (School Journal, Part 3, No. 3: The Sleepy Giant & other poems, 1989). Then complete the tasks below.
 
Task One: Visualise each verse as a film clip, then fill in the storyboard below. Make a prediction for the fourth verse.
 
  Verse one Verse two Verse three My prediction for Verse four is:
Quick drawing
of main picture
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
      
Time of day
 
 
 
 
 
      
Action
 
 
 
 
 
      
Sound effects
 
 
 
 
 
      
Colours
 
 
 
 
 
      
Mood
 
 
 
 
 
      
 
 
 
a)
Describe your prediction for verse four:
 
 
 
 
 
b)
Explain why you think the poem will end the way you predicted:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Task 2: Read verse four of Boy's Song and then answer the following questions.
 
c)
This verse could be interpreted in different ways. Describe what you think it means:
 
 
 
 
 
d)
Explain why you think it means that:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
e)
What clues does the writer give in the first three verses that help you make a prediction for verse four?
 
 
 
 
Task administration: 
​This task can be completed with pencil and paper.
  1. Students read verses 1-3 (do not show them verse 4 - have it folded back or cut off).
  2. Storyboard: students visualise verses 1-3. You may need to explain that this involves drawing a picture and writing words connected with their visualisations in the boxes below their drawings. Make it clear that if they do not have anything to write in a box, they are to leave it blank rather than make something up.
  3. Students draw and write their prediction for verse 4.
  4. Students do (a) and (b).
  5. Give out or reveal verse 4. The students read it, then do (c), (d), and (e).
The student sheets and/or poem can be projected on to a screen. This task can be done individually or in groups. Responses can be discussed by teacher and student only, or within larger groups.NOTE: When filling in the storyboard, it may be appropriate to leave some boxes blank. For example, in verse 1, students may decide not to fill in the 'sound effects' box if they believe the poem does not provide sufficient evidence of sound effects.
(This resource was trialled by 187 Y8 students)
Copyright: 
Boy's Song - Text by Sam Hunt. Published for the Ministry of Education in School Journal, Part 3, No. 3, ‘The Sleepy Giant & other poems', Learning Media, 1989.
Level:
4
Curriculum info: 
English, Making meaning, Reading
Key Competencies: 
Using language, symbols, and texts
Keywords: 
comprehension, visualisation, inference, poetry, storyboards, progressive disclosure, text features, SJ-3-3-1989
Description of task: 
This comprehension task involves progressively disclosing a poem to students. It assesses their ability to visualise and infer. SJ-3-3-1989. Text not provided.
Curriculum Links: 
 
Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading:
This resource helps to identify students’ ability to:
  • use comprehension strategies
  • monitor their reading for accuracy and sense
as described in the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading at: http://www.literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/The-Structure-of-the-Progressions.
Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with
Making sense of text: processing system, set 5
Reading for literary experience, set 5
within the Reading Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Diagnostic and formative information: 

Visualising

Visualising an inference – trial students found this very difficult.

Visualising something explicitly stated by the author – trial students found this very easy.

Visualising an inference:When visualising was dependent on first having made an inference, students in the trial sample generally found the task very difficult. For example in verse one, students could only visualise an afternoon scene becoming a night scene if they had also inferred that the change in hill colour represented the afternoon turning into night.

Visualising something explicitly stated by the author:When visualising was not dependent on also making an inference, that is, when the students visualised something explicitly stated by the author, they generally found the task very easy. For example, all students visualised a father and son walking on a track for verse two.

Inferring

Inferring from a symbol, and knowing they had used a symbol – trial students found this very difficult

Inferring from a symbol, but not knowing they had used a symbol – trial students found this moderately difficult

Inferring from a symbol, and knowing they had used a symbol:Only one student showed an explicit understanding of a symbol, commenting that the track was like 'a life cycle'.

Inferring from a symbol, but not knowing they had used a symbol:Just over half of the students showed they had an implicit understanding of a symbol, and were able to make an inference from it. None of these students seemed to be aware it had involved using a symbol. For example many inferred that the father had died, but could not identify the symbols they had used to make that inference (i.e., the black hills, the track, and the father going up the track and not coming back).

Boy's Song is a poem of symbols, and making inferences when reading it is often dependent on understanding those symbols. Here are some examples of symbols in the poem:

The black hills can be interpreted as a symbol of sadness/death.
The track can be interpreted as a symbol of life's journey.
The hills turning from blue to black can be interpreted as a symbol of life's journey coming to an end.
The father taking the boy high up can be interpreted as a symbol of the father's guidance of his son.
The father giving the boy piggy-backs can be interpreted as a symbol of the father's support of his son.
The boy falling asleep can be interpreted as a symbol of the son's trust in his father.
The father going up the track and not coming back can be interpreted as a symbol of the father's death.

Predicting verse four

Predicting from symbols – trial students found this very difficult.

Predicting from evidence not involving symbols, but involving inference – trial students found this moderately difficult.

Predicting from symbols:Students generally found predicting from symbols very difficult. For example only a small number predicted that the mood for verse four would be sad in some way. A large number predicted it would be happy.

Predicting from evidence not involving symbols, but involving inference:

Just over half predicted that in verse four, time would move on. The evidence the students must have based their prediction on does not involve interpreting a symbol, but does involve making an inference (i.e., the boy being carried in verse two, and being able to walk in verse three).

A small group of students were only able to predict from evidence explicitly stated by the author. For example, one prediction for verse four was that the father and son would go on a picnic.

Summary

It appears that the most successful students were those able to interpret symbols, and those who could use a number of strategies simultaneously, that is, integrate their use of strategies. For example, when predicting, the most successful students were, at the very least, also inferring, and interpreting symbols.

Next steps: 
Students having difficulty understanding symbols:In Boy's Song, the symbols are not metaphors, which makes it a reasonably uncomplicated piece to use when teaching the use of symbols in poetry.
 
Begin with a well-known graphic symbol like the peace sign, and ask the students what it makes them think about, what it represents or symbolises. Then make a list of text symbols that have generally accepted meanings, and ask the students to say what they think each one is symbolic of. For example:
Pigs – gluttony, messy eating
Lions – courage
Rats – deceit
The colour red – passion
The colour black – death
 
Then introduce symbols that are more complex because they mean different things to different people. For example:MacDonald's golden arches – great tasting food / bad food / the obesity epidemic / no one cooks any more / low wages...

Ask the students to think of a piece of clothing or technology that is very popular at the moment, i.e., they all think about the same thing. Then ask them what it symbolizes to them, making sure they give evidence for their thinking. Responses will probably range from very positive to very negative.

Finally, turn the focus to symbols that exist within a particular context, for example, the symbols in Boy's Song. It is important at this stage to acknowledge that no two people will ever have exactly the same reading of a poem, and that all ideas are to be accepted as valid as long as they are supported by evidence in the poem. It is likely that some students will have strongly held ideas about the meaning of particular symbols: impress upon the students that the power of symbols lies in their ability to open up our minds to the possibility of what they might mean, and not in any exact or fixed meaning.

Students creating their own symbols:

This is probably most easily done through using similes (when you say something is like another thing, then it is a simile). For example:

A house as big as a castle.
She swims like a fish.

Anaphoric poems (poems where the same word or phrase is repeated) are a simple place to start. For example:

My Best Friend is (the items below are symbols of the best friend)

Like a book by Margaret Mahy.

Like the sound of laughter.

Like a duvet.

Waking up on Monday Morning is (the items below are symbols of waking up on Monday morning)

Like Ed Hilary not quite getting there.

Like forgetting your togs.

Like coming last.

Students having difficulty integrating strategies (e.g., predicting and inferring).

In their guided reading programme:

  1. Choose a text with content that is interesting enough for the students to make good predictions and inferences (many narratives will offer these opportunities).
  2. Prior to the lesson, determine the length of the sections that will be read before the students stop for discussion. Base this decision on where important events in the story occur.
  3. Make sure the students all understand the learning intention, e.g., integrating the strategies of inferring and predicting.
  4. Ask the students to predict what will happen, and to provide evidence of their thinking (this will come from the text itself, and from their prior knowledge). They may be able to make an initial prediction based on the title, author, illustrations, tables etc, or they may need to also read the first paragraph or two.
  5. There won't be time for all students to discuss their prediction/s at every stopping point, so choose only 1 or 2, then ask if anyone else has further evidence that supports or challenges the prediction/s. You might have time for others in the group to quickly say which prediction they agree with. If you think the pace of the lesson is too slow, read a few paragraphs to the group without stopping for predictions, except at the point where you ask the students to take over the reading.
  6. As soon as a student offers a prediction that uses inferential evidence (evidence that is not explicitly stated by the author but which the reader has inferred), stop and draw the students' attention to it if they haven't already done so. (Authors rarely make explicit statements about character or mood, so you may find that the first prediction based on inferential evidence relates to these elements of the text). At this point, you need to support the student who made the prediction to unpack the thinking process they went through as they made it.
  7. First, the inference: They need to note the implied clues in the text, then think about their own experiences relating to those clues. Next, they need to talk about how they put the information implied in the text, and what they know from their own past experiences, together to make an inference. Finally, they need to restate their prediction. You may need to make it clear to them and the other students that this is an example of a reader integrating the strategies of inference and prediction.
  8. Continue the lesson, stopping for discussion, and placing particular emphasis on the integration of strategies.
Change, Loss, and Grief: Mental Health: Years 1 – 8. The Curriculum in Action series. Learning Media.
Crisis and Change. Health Exemplar, Levels 3 & 4, Understanding Loss and Helping Others, Health Exemplar, Level 3. Ministry of Education, 2004.