The Rice Balls

The Rice Balls

Pencil and paper
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Working with Students
Further Resources
This task is about identifying what the characters are like and the main idea from a text.

Read the story "The Rice Balls" pages 21-25 of Junior Journal 19. 

A story shows us what sort of people its characters are. Complete each chart to show what sort of person each character is; also give some evidence to support your thinking. An example has been done for you. 

Example:

The old woman

What sort of person is she? Evidence to support my thinking
caring She cooked more rice balls for her husband after the first ones rolled away.

 

a)  The old man

What sort of person is he? Evidence to support my thinking
1.   
2.  

 

b)  The neighbour

What sort of person is he? Evidence to support my thinking
1.  
2.  

 

c)  What is the main idea of "The Rice Balls"?

     What idea does the author want you to think is most important and valued? 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Task administration: 

This task can be completed with pencil and paper.

To complete this task, students will need access to "The Rice Balls", retold by Dot Mehary, from pages 21-25 of Junior Journal 19 (1998, Learning Media Limited).

Level:
3
Curriculum info: 
English, Making meaning, Reading
Key Competencies: 
Thinking
Keywords: 
character, junior journal, fables, main idea, evaluating, think critically
Description of task: 
Students identify what type of people the characters in the story are and choose evidence from the text to justify their decisions; they also identify the main idea of the text. Suggestions for evaluating character and the author's style of characterisation are under the "Working with Students" tab.
Curriculum Links: 
Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading:
This resource helps to identify students’ ability to:
  • 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. 

Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with
Reading for literary experience, set 4
within the Reading Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 
    Y7 (03/2003)
2 marks
(1 mark for each characteristic and related evidence)
 a) Any 2 of these characteristics and related evidence:

  • Polite/grateful (thanked the mouse).
  • Caring/nice/kind (thought about how poor he and his wife were).
  • Sharing (showed the necklace to his wife/told his neighbour about their good luck).
  • Not greedy (only took what he needed).
  • Fair (he traded his food for the jewels).
  • Any other acceptable answer.

NOTE: Do not accept lucky or fortunate.
2 correct – moderate
1 correct – easy
2 marks
(1 mark for each characteristic and related evidence)
 b) Any 2 of these characteristics and related evidence:

  • Cunning/tricky (called out "CATS").
  • Greedy (took lots of jewels – more than he needed).
  • Unkind/mean (he thought the old man was silly).
  • Selfish (he wanted all of the jewels for himself).
  • Any other acceptable answer.
2 correct – moderate
1 correct – easy
1 mark c) Any 1 of:

  • Being greedy does not bring happiness.
  • Don't be greedy.
  • Money doesn't bring happiness.
  • Any other acceptable answer.
 moderate
Next steps: 

This resource has assessed student ability to analyse character. If you wish to begin to move your students on to evaluating particular characters and also evaluating the author's style of characterisation, present your students with the following questions (ask them to use evidence from the text and from their prior knowledge when responding).

a) Did you feel any sympathy for the neighbour when you learnt he was trapped in the hole?b) Has the author been successful in making the old man a character you care about?