On the Reclaim

On the Reclaim

Pencil and paper
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Working with Students
Further Resources
This task is about a character – thinking about him and how the author made him.
 
a)  How do you know Lance is unhappy at the beginning of the story? Use evidence from pages 2 and 3 and the top of page 4 to support your thinking.
 
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b)  Is Lance justified in thinking he has the "boringest life"? (Circle one)
 
Yes       No       Yes and No
 
Explain why you chose this:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
c)  Has the author been successful in making Lance a believable character? (Circle one)
 
Yes       No       Yes and No
 
Explain why you chose this:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Task administration: 

This task can be completed using pen and paper.

Equipment: "On the Reclaim", by Janice Marriott. School Journal Part 4 Number 3, Learning Media, 2004.

  • This task can be done individually or in groups.
  • Tell students that the question for task a) relates to the beginning of the story (pages 2 and 3 and the top of page 4).
  • Before beginning task b), make sure students understand what being "justified" means in this context: to have a good reason for the way you feel, think, or behave.
  • For tasks b) and c), tell students that to explain their response 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.
  • You may need to explain that "a believable character" (task c) is a character who seems real, someone you could believe is living out there in the world - a credible character.
  • Responses can be discussed by teacher and student only, or within larger groups.
Copyright: 
On the Reclaim - Text published by Learning Media on behalf of the Ministry of Education, © Janice Marriot, 2004. Illustrations © Crown. Reproduced with permission.
Level:
4
Curriculum info: 
English, Making meaning, Reading
Key Competencies: 
Thinking, Using language, symbols, and texts
Keywords: 
evaluating, character, comprehension, narrative, School Journal, SJ-4-3-2004, think critically
Description of task: 
Students read a narrative then complete three tasks that focus on one of the characters. Assessment focus: an evaluation of a character and the author's construction of that character. SJ-4-3-2004. Text provided.
Curriculum Links: 
Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading:
This resource helps to identify students’ ability to:
  • reflect critically about character
  • evaluate and integrate ideas and information
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: reading critically, set 4
Reading for literary experience, set 5
within the Reading Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 

a) How do you know Lance is unhappy at the beginning of the story?

For task a) we have listed evidence that shows us Lance is unhappy. We have not listed evidence that tells us he is unhappy since that type of evidence is relatively easy to identify. (NOTE: not all texts have evidence that "tells" about a character.) The evidence relates to what he looks like (appearance), what he says (dialogue), what he does (action), and what he thinks (thought). 

Appearance (what Lance looks like)Note that in On the Reclaim, evidence for appearance as related to this question comes from the visual, not written, text.Page 3:

  • The way Lance is drawn: his downcast face, eyes, and mouth; his slumped shoulders; and his hands in his pockets all make Lance look despondent, dejected.
Page 4:

  • In the top picture, Lance again looks despondent, dejected.
Dialogue (what Lance says)
 
Direct dialogue (a direct quote; speech marks will always be used)Page 2:
  • "Hey, you ruined it!" (His annoyance at his imaginary world ending suggests he is unhappy about being where he is/ his reality.)
  • "Better to pretend you're on a hot Pacific island...than be stuck on this lump of phoney land - this rubbish heap."
  • "I never climb up trees to collect coconuts or go snorkelling or spear fishing. I've got the boringest life." 

Page 4:

  • Lance tells the storyteller he's playing "a pathetic game". (This suggests Lance is unhappy because when someone puts another person down, it's often because they are unhappy themselves.)

Summarised dialogue (speech that is summarised by the storyteller/ narrator or author) Page 2:

  • Lance always says he hasn't got anything cool to write to Filo about.

Page 3:

  • Lance says it's [Filo not replying to his email] because life on the reclaim is so boring.

Action (what Lance does)Page 2:

  • Lance ignores the storyteller initially. (This suggests that he could be feeling down.)
  • Lance creates an imaginary world for himself. (This suggests he's not happy about being where he is.)

Page 4:

  • Lance makes no effort to get to his feet, and needs to be dragged up by the story teller which suggests his movements lack energy and enthusiasm; he is lethargic.

Thought (what Lance thinks)

Summarised thought (thought that is summarised by the storyteller/ narrator or author)Note that in this case the storyteller/ narrator summarises Lance's thoughts; we do not have access to Lance's thoughts first hand, it is only the storyteller's mind that we enter.Page 3:

  • But Lance doesn't think so [that the reclaim is cool], not any more. (This suggests he's unhappy/ dissatisfied with what he does/ where he goes because Filo has not replied to his email about the reclaim.)
Diagnostic and formative information: 

This resource was trialled by 41 students. The trial involved Year 7 and 8 students from 5 schools.

Task a): How do you know Lance is unhappy at the beginning of the story?

Appearance

A small group of trial students noted Lance's appearance as evidence of his unhappiness.

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, the "inner" person.

It is not Lance's appearance in terms of his features or his clothes that give strong evidence for him being unhappy. It is his demeanour; his general bearing is slumped, making him look depressed. Given that only a few students noted Lance's appearance, vital clues about his emotional state in the visual text on pages 3 and 4 were overlooked. This may be because students at this level no longer value or recognise visual cues as valid evidence. It may also be that some students cannot infer from illustrations.Dialogue

Most trial students noted the dialogue as evidence of Lance's unhappiness. The evidence trial students most often gave for Lance being unhappy was the direct dialogue, i.e., when Lance says "I've got the boringest life" and when he tells the storyteller he's playing "a pathetic game". (Note that direct dialogue will always feature speech marks.)

By using dialogue, direct or summarised, a writer can simultaneously suggest image, personality, and emotion. In doing so, a narrative moves forward and the reader's understanding is enriched. By using summarised dialogue, the writer conveys readers quickly and economically through to the core of the narrative - in this case, Lance's emotional state. About a third of trial students gave the storyteller's summarised dialogue as evidence, for example:

  • Lance always says he hasn't got anything cool to write to Filo about.

Action

A small group of trial students noted Lance's actions as evidence of his unhappiness. Most of this small group noted Lance's action of creating an idyllic world to escape to. Only a very small group noted Lance not talking or responding to the storyteller at the beginning of the story; this is possibly because it is easier to notice what a character does do than what they do not do. No students noted that being "dragged...up" by the storyteller suggests Lance's movements were lacking in energy, unenthusiastic, or lethargic. This is probably because to come to this conclusion would require a high level of inference and visualisation.

Thought
 
A small group of trial students noted Lance's thoughts (as summarised by the storyteller) as evidence of his unhappiness. There are no direct thoughts of Lance that give evidence of his unhappiness. Lance's thoughts are summarised by the storyteller. For example, "But Lance doesn't think so [that the reclaim is cool], not any more."  It is probable that only a small group have explored this narrative technique.

Task b): Is Lance justified in thinking he has the "boringest life"?

NOTE: There is no right or wrong answer for this task. The task requires readers to make a judgement of a character and justify their response, drawing on both the text and their prior knowledge. What is important is the quality of the justifications they give for their stance.

Ability to use both text details and background knowledge when making a judgement about a character 

A small group were able to use both. The judgements made by this small group were based both on background knowledge and on details from the text. For example:

  • His friend Filo has a cool life - he gets to go up high trees, pick coconuts, and go snorkelling.
  • There doesn't seem to be much for the boys to do. It's the dads who have the fishing rods.
  • He has everything he needs right where he is - a beach, the sea, his dad, and a good friend.

The judgements made by a large group were primarily based on background knowledge. For example:

  • He should be grateful that he is in a safe environment like New Zealand.
  • Often kids Lance's age think their life is boring when it isn't really. They might just be in a  bad patch and have to do something about it to turn their life around.
  • Lance doesn't have a boring life. He has a negative attitude. He chose to be negative, but he could look on the positive side and say "it's a beautiful day - it's sunny and  warm. I'm not alone and I have a cool friend in Sāmoa who I email".  Lance does not  believe in himself so his life becomes boring.

These findings suggest students over-rely on their background knowledge for evidence, and under-use evidence from the text. Students who neglected to use details from the text cannot be said to have the necessary skills to evaluate a character. 

Justifying 

A small group were not able to provide justification for their 'Yes and No' response. Responses were accepted only if they gave reasons why Lance was and wasn't justified. For example:

  • I think that fishing and counting cars is boring. But Lance has a great friend and I'm sure they have loads of fun together. Also how often is it that you get to meet a dolphin and swim with it?

This was accepted because it gives a reason why he was justified: I think that fishing and counting cars is boring and reasons why he wasn't: But Lance has a great friend and I'm sure they have loads of fun together. Also how often is it that you get to meet a dolphin and swim with it?

Some students failed to give reasons for both parts of their 'Yes and No' response:

  • He sees the dolphin and realises the reclaim isn't that bad after all. (No, he isn't justified.)

Task c): Has the author been successful in making Lance a believable character?

NOTE: There is no right or wrong answer for this task. This task requires readers to evaluate the author's construction of character and justify their response using both the text and prior knowledge. What is important is the quality of the justifications they give for their stance. 

Appropriateness

Most students appeared to understand that for a character to be believable, they need to behave in a way that is appropriate to who they are.

Burroway and Stuckey-French (2007: 145) write that although writers aim for individuality in characters, those characters must still be typical in the sense that they must be appropriate. For example, a "Baptist Texan behaves differently from an Italian nun; a rural schoolboy behaves differently from a professor emeritus at Harvard." A successful individual character, one who seems real and individual, will also behave in a way that is typical or appropriate to the kind of person they are. Writers achieve this through explicitly stating or implying appearance, tone, and action.

Appearance - No students noted that Lance did or did not look like a typical teenage boy.

Tone - A large group of students noted Lance's bored and envious tone and his changeable mood as appropriate or inappropriate:

  • Sometimes they [friends] get jealous of each other. There are also kids who are bored with life and just can't appreciate the good things in life.
  • The author made Lance a person who sometimes thinks their life is boring, and then when something good happens, they change their mind. That seems typical to me.
  • A lot of kids can relate to this character - boys and girls. A lot of kids say they have a boring life and think that other peoples' lives are better than theirs. But when something exciting happens they forget they have a boring life and just want to tell everyone about it.
  • A boy Lance's age would not be bored. He would be into the reclaim and all the things around it.
  • It's hard to believe someone that whiney and bored.

Action - A small group noted Lance's actions as appropriate.

  • I know a kid who plays make-believe when he wants to be somewhere else.
  • Lance running into the sea was real believable. I'd have run into the sea too!
Ability to use text details when making a judgement about an author's construction of a character 
 
Only a small group were able to use text details. Most made rather general statements. One student noted:
  • I can easily imagine a boy being, feeling, and acting like this in an everyday scenario.
This student is certainly able to form an opinion about the credibility of Lance as a character but has not explicitly based that opinion on detailed evidence. For example, they could have noted the author's use of details showing Lance's excitement at seeing the dolphin as evidence of believable behaviour.
Students who neglected to use details from the text cannot be said to have the necessary skills to evaluate an author's construction of a character. Responses such as the one above beg the question, "Why?"
 
Suspending disbelief 
 
A small group of students were not able to accept the illusion created by fiction as "real". This group made responses such as:
  • Lance is only a character in a story so he's not really real.
  • He must be real because nothing unrealistic happens like the trees talking to him.

Writers of fictional narrative create illusion. They attempt to reproduce the emotional impact of everyday life for the reader so that powerful feelings such as love, fear, embarrassment, frustration, loathing, despair, and excitement can be experienced without the reader having to risk what Burroway and Stuckey-French (2007: 25) call the "powerful consequences" of such feelings. So readers "experience" but at a safe distance. In order to experience fiction, the reader must suspend disbelief, they must believe the illusion. This group of students is, perhaps, not willing or able to suspend disbelief.

Next steps: 

The following section Students who need more work 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 more work 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 "How do you know Lance is unhappy at the beginning of the story", "Is Lance justified in thinking he has the boringest life?" and "Has the author been successful in making Lance a believable character?"

Details: telling and showing

Writers may choose to use details that tell readers about characters if they want to convey information quickly. For example:

  • The next day at school, Lance was still pumped up about the dolphin. (p.7)

However by telling the reader that Lance was "pumped up" the writer has not given the reader the opportunity to come to their own conclusions about how Lance might be 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:

  • He pulled me close to the screen, and we read it together. (p.7)

Here the reader must infer how Lance might be feeling: perhaps that he wants to share the experience with his friend; perhaps he feels some kind of bond with his friend.

Ask your students to compare how they respond to having the opportunity to come to their own conclusion about how Lance might be feeling with how they would respond if the author had simply told them "Lance felt close to his friend".

Details: general and specific:

When writers tell readers about characters they use details that are general or broad. For example the storyteller tells us:

  • It was amazing. (p.5)

The word "amazing" 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 "amazing" 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 "amazing" 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:

  • We ran into the sea and stood, wobbling, on the stones. (p.4)

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 "It was amazing" (you may need to explain at some point that it is impossible unless they imagine a specific situation).

Other ARBs that focus on evaluating characters and the author's construction of them are: Get Out of My Hair, Kissing Frogs.

For the Teachers' Notes for this story: http://www.tki.org.nz/r/literacy_numeracy/professional/teachers_notes/school_journal/tchr_notes/SJ_Par3-4/on_the_reclaim_e.html?part=34

For more information on the terms "abstract" and "concrete":http://www.nzcermarking.org.nz/help/AbstractInformation.html

Reference

Burroway, J. and Stuckey-French, E. (2007). Writing Fiction: A guide to narrative craft. Seventh Edition. New York, NY: Longman.