Katie's Birthday
This task can be completed with pencil and paper or online (with some auto-marking).
Equipment:
"Katie's Birthday" by Sharon Holt. School Journal Part 1, Number 1, Learning Media Limited, 2005.
- Give each student a copy of the text. Read the text to them or ask them to read it independently. If you read it to them, they should follow the text as you read.
- The students may do the task independently or in groups.
- The purpose of question a) is to act as a scaffold. Here students gather evidence from the text that will help them respond to the evaluating questions, b) and c).
- The purpose of question b) is to provide evidence of student ability to use evidence from the text, as well as their background knowledge, to evaluate Abby's mum's action of calling Katie's mum.
- The purpose of question c) is to provide evidence of student ability to use evidence from the text, as well as their background knowledge, to make an overall evaluation of Abby's mum.
- For questions b) and c), tell the students that to explain their responses of Yes/ No/ Yes and No, they must support their thinking by using evidence from the text and from their prior knowledge, i.e., things that have happened to them, things they have seen, heard, or read about.
- integrate and use a variety of comprehension strategies, including evaluating information and ideas within a text in terms of their purposes for reading.
You may also find adjacent progressions helpful when you analyse your student data: For more information see http://www.literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/The-Structure-of-the-Progressions
The following section: Students who need to focus on using text details, is presented as an example of how you might foreground the Key Competencies within reading. In particular, it exemplifies how you might foreground "Using language, symbols, and texts" and, to a lesser extent, "Thinking" within reading through a focus on the way authors construct characters with carefully chosen details. This approach requires students to not just understand the text but to understand how the text is constructed and why it is constructed that way. This idea is expanded below. In the table below, "Using language, symbols, and texts" has the largest bolded font because it is the most important to this particular example.
Details that show us about Abby's Mum
The following details from the text will help you analyse student responses to questions a), b), and c). Students will draw on these details as they answer those questions. The details are not identified as relating to particular questions because many relate to more than one. We have listed details that show us about Abby's Mum. The details we have listed relate to what Mum looks like (appearance), what she says (dialogue), and what she does.
According to Burroway and Stuckey-French (2007: 81-82), "our eyes are our most highly developed means of perception...it is appearance that prompts our first reaction to people". A character's appearance, their clothing, features, shape, style, the way they hold themselves and objects associated with them such as the car they drive or the house they live in, make statements about who the character is, what kind of person they are, their character, the "inner" person.
Appearance (what Abby's mum looks like)
Note that in Katie's Birthday, evidence comes from the visual, not written, text.Page 17:
- The way Abby's mum is drawn: She smiles at Abby and looks interested in what she is saying.
Page 18:
- The way Abby's mum is drawn: She has her arm around Abby which makes her appear affectionate, caring, and someone Abby can trust.
Page 23:
- The way Abby's mum is drawn: She pulls a funny expression, suggesting she enjoys Abby's company.
Dialogue (what Abby's mum says)
Page 17:
- "Now sit down and tell me about your day at school."
Page 18:
- "We might have to talk to her mother first, then," said Mum.' This suggests she is prepared to compromise.
- "Come here and I'll tell you a story." This suggests she wants to teach her daughter something in a gentle, caring way.
Page 23:
- "Is that right?" This suggests that, although she is protective, she is not a meddler; she doesn't want to ruin Abby's excitement so she plays along.
Action (what Abby's mum does)
Page 17:
- She makes afternoon tea for Abby.
- She checks that Abby has an invitation. This suggests she is protective of her daughter and is a responsible parent.
Page 18:
- She puts her arm around Abby, encouraging Abby to snuggle up to her.
Pages 19-22:
- She tells a story about herself as a way of teaching her daughter something in a gentle, caring way.
Page 22:
- She makes a phone call to Katie's mum. This suggests she is protective of her daughter and is a responsible parent.
- She seems to have attempted to give Lynette the present, even though it wasn't Lynette's birthday.
- She comes back from the phone call to Katie's mum smiling having confirmed Katie's party is on.
This resource was trialled in August, 2010, by 25 Year 3 students from 1 decile 10 school. The story was read to the students.
Note that trial data has enabled us to begin to describe the learnig ideas at this year level and the student responses give us exemplars of performance. The New Zealand Curriculum (2007) and the Literacy Learning Progressions (2010) were closely consulted throughout the consideration of the learning ideas.
Question a): Which parts of the text tell or show us Abby's mum is kind?
Note that responses to question a) do not require students to evaluate - its purpose is to act as a scaffold so the students are better able to evaluate in questions b) and c). Responses should include a variety of details from the previous page listed under the heading Details that show us about Mum.
Question b) Was Abby's mum right or wrong to call Katie's mum?
Almost all the trial students believed Abby's mum was right to call Katie's mum.
Students who need to focus on using text details
Writers build characters with details. Good writers are meticulous in their choice of details, including only those that add value and meaning to the description of a character. It is these details, as well as background knowledge, that a reader uses in order to respond to questions such as "Which parts of the text tell or show us Abby's mum is kind?", "Was Abby's mum right or wrong to call Katie's mum?" and "Do you like Abby's mum?"
Details: telling and showing
Writers may choose to use details that tell readers about characters if they want to convey information quickly. For example:
"Were you worried?" asked Abby.
"No," said Mum. (p.21)
However by telling the reader that Abby's mum was not worried, the writer has not given the reader the opportunity to come to their own conclusion about how Abby's mum is feeling; and, increasingly, modern readers expect to have that opportunity.
More commonly, writers of fiction will choose to use details that show characters to readers. For example:
'Lynette was behind her [mum], hiding.' (p.21)
Here the reader must infer why Lynette does this: Perhaps she is frightened? Perhaps she is ashamed?
Ask your students to compare how they respond to having the opportunity to come to their own conclusion about why Lynette was hiding behind her mother with how they would respond if the author had simply told them "Lynette hid behind her mother because she was ashamed."
Details: general and specific
When writers tell readers about characters they use details that are general or broad. For example, Lynette's mother describes Lynette as:
"...a very naughty girl." (p.21)
The word "naughty" is general (or abstract); it has a broad rather than specific meaning because it can be generally applied to all sorts of situations. You might like to ask your students to tell you about the situations "naughty" can be applied to in an attempt to show them that it is not specific to any particular situation. (Note that at this point your students will probably be unclear about why "naughty" is general; in fact they may even argue that it has a specific meaning. It will probably not be until the end of the following exercise that they have a clearer understanding.) However, when writers show characters to readers they use specific (or concrete) details. For example:Abby snuggled up beside her on the sofa. (p.18)
Here readers create an image that is specific. They create a vivid picture in their heads; they can "see" this image. Most importantly, it is vivid pictures like this one that have impact upon readers.Finally, ask your students to attempt to create a picture in their heads of someone who is being "naughty" (you may need to explain at some point that it is much easier when they imagine a specific situation).