No More Cats

No More Cats

Pencil and paperOnline interactive
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Working with Students
Further Resources
This task is about thinking about how authors use language to create characters.

Read "No More Cats", from pages 2 to 8 of School Journal Part 1, Number 3, 2008.

Question 1Change answer

Which parts of the text tell or show us Dad doesn't want a cat?

Write down the page number for each part of the text, as well as the words that tell or show that Dad doesn't want a cat.

Question

Was Mum right to encourage Dad to feed the cat?

    • Right

    • Wrong

    • Right and Wrong

Question 1Change answer

Explain why you chose this.

Question

Do you like Dad?

    • Yes

    • No

    • Yes and No

Question 1Change answer

Explain why you chose this.

Task administration: 

This task can be completed with pencil and paper or online (with some auto-marking).

  • 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 Mum's action of encouraging Dad to feed the cat.
  • 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 Dad.
  • 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.
Equipment:
"No More Cats" by Jennifer Beck, School Journal Part 1, Number 3, Learning Media Limited, 2008.

 

Copyright: 
No More Cats - Text and images first published by Learning Media Limited for the Ministry of Education. Text copyright © Jennifer Beck, 2008.  Illustrations copyright © Penelope Newman, 2008. Reproduced with permission.
Level:
2
Curriculum info: 
English, Making meaning, Reading
Key Competencies: 
Thinking, Using language, symbols, and texts
Keywords: 
evaluating, comprehension, character, narrative, think critically, SJ-1-3-2008
Description of task: 
Students read a narrative about a family's encounter with a stray cat. They then use evidence from the text and their background knowledge to evaluate the characters. SJ-1-3-2008. Text provided.
Curriculum Links: 

This assessment task was trialled with year 4 students in the second half of the year.

Literacy Learning Progressions (Reading)

Because this assessment task was trialled with year 4 students in the second half of the year, the most relevant progression is:

By the End of Year 4. The most relevant bullet point is:

When students at this level read, respond to, and think critically about texts they:

  • meet their purposes for reading by employing specific comprehension strategies, such as:[there is no example given under this bullet point that relates specifically to evaluating but it should be assumed that students are expected to evaluate at this level.]
Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with
Making sense of text: reading critically, set 2
Reading for literary experience, set 3
within the Reading Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 

Details that show us about Dad

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 Dad. The details we have listed relate to what Dad looks like (appearance 1), what he says (dialogue), and what he does (action).

Appearance (what Dad looks like)

Note that in No More Cats, evidence comes from the visual, not written, text. Usually, the visual text reflects the written text but in No More Cats, a more complex approach has been taken. Although the written text provides evidence of Dad not wanting a cat, the visual text consistently subverts this by showing Dad in another light.

Page 3:

  • Dad's expression is kind, suggesting someone who will show compassion towards the cat.

Page 5:

  • Dad is not angry even though the cat has just scratched him. He patiently waits while Mum dresses the scratches.

Pages 6-7:

  • Dad is gently reaching out as he attempts to stroke the cat.

Pages 7:

  • Dad is tickling the cat under its chin as it relaxes on his lap.

Dialogue (what Dad says)

Page 2:

  • '"I don't want another cat," Dad said ... "He'll cost money to feed, and pets need looking after..."'
  • "I'll catch him and take him to the SPCA."

Page 5:

  • "He's certainly quick ... I'll have to be more cunning." (Dad seems determined to catch the cat so he can take it to the SPCA.)

Page 6:

  • "Good ... My plan's working. I'll take him to the SPCA tomorrow." (Again, Dad seems determined.)

Action (what Dad does)

Page 3:

  • Dad brings the cat carrier box out of the garage (visual and written text).
  • Dad used to let his old cat, Rusty, sleep on his lap for hours.
  • Dad had been upset when Rusty had been put to sleep.

Page 4:

  • Dad pounces on the cat in an attempt to catch it but it escapes.

Page 6:

  • Dad feeds the cat for a week to gain its trust so he can catch it and take it to the SPCA (visual and written text).

Notes1 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.

Diagnostic and formative information: 

This resource was trialled in August, 2010, by 23 Year 4 students from 1 decile 4 school. The story was read to the students.

Question a) Which parts of the text tell or show us Dad doesn't want a cat?

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 as listed in "Marking Student Responses" under the heading Details that show us about Dad.

Question b) Was Mum right to encourage Dad to feed the cat?

Almost all the trial students believed Mum was right to encourage Dad to feed the cat.

Next steps: 

Key Competencies

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.

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 Dad doesn't want a cat?", "Was Mum right to encourage Dad to feed the cat?" and "Do you like Dad?"

Details: telling and showing

Writers may choose to use details that tell readers about characters if they want to convey information quickly. For example: Dad had been really upset when the vet said she had to put Rusty to sleep. (p.3). However by telling the reader that Dad was upset, the writer has not given the reader the opportunity to come to their own conclusion about how Dad felt; 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:"He's certainly quick," muttered Dad. "I'll have to be more cunning."  (p.5). Here the reader must infer why Dad mutters: Perhaps he is sore from the scratches? Perhaps he is frustrated by the cat escaping?

Ask your students to compare how they respond to having the opportunity to come to their own conclusion about why Dad mutters with how they would respond if the author had simply told them "Dad felt frustrated because he was unable to catch the cat".

Details: general and specific

When writers tell readers about characters they use details that are general or broad. For example, the narrator says:

I felt sad. (p.6)  The word "sad" 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 "sad" 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 "sad" 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:Then I saw the cat, curled up on his [Dad's] lap and purring like a well-tuned motor. (p.7) 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 "sad" (you may need to explain at some point that it is much easier when they imagine a specific situation).

References
Burroway, J. and Stuckey-French, E. (2007). Writing Fiction: A guide to narrative craft. Seventh Edition. New York, NY: Longman.
Ministry of Education (2010). The literacy learning progressions: Meeting the reading and writing demands of the curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.