The Sleeper Wakes

The Sleeper Wakes

Pencil and paper
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Working with Students
Further Resources
This task is about identifying details that support a main idea.
A main idea that the author David Hill often explores is: New Zealand's natural environment, and how awesome and powerful it can be. 1
Read the following passages from pages 7, 8 and 9 of "The Sleeper Wakes" by David Hill.
 
a) Find details in the text that support this main idea and Underline these details.
 
b) The title suggests how this main idea will be developed. Reread the title. Think about what the 'sleeper' is, and how it would 'wake' up.   details in the text that suggest how the main idea is developed.
 
Two girls stood with their parents by a car, watching him. So Corey tried to look cool and expert, and he started up the track behind his father.The blunt pyramid of Mt Taranaki lifted into a blue winter sky. Snow softened the cliffs where lava had flowed, thousands of years ago. High up towards the summit, the ridge of The Lizard showed where more lava had crawled downwards before cooling and setting.
Corey lowered his gaze to the 4WD track twisting up the mountain's north-east flank. Packed grey and green trees rose on either side. After just ten metres, all sounds from the carpark faded away. Only the crunch of their boots broke the silence.
Three steps ahead, his Dad walked steadily. He wore a woollen hat and green Gortex jacket to keep out the June cold. Warwick Lockyer, Department of Conservation Field Officer; expert on Mt Taranaki; tramper and climber.His father loved this mountain. He loved its silences and stories, the way it tested people. Corey felt the same way. Being up here was the greatest feeling in the world. Pity some other people couldn't see it that way.* * *
After 30 minutes' climbing, they paused, took deep breaths, and gazed around. The trees were lower. Tangled, waist-high shrubs had taken over, crammed together for shelter, tops flattened by the wind. In summer, white and yellow flowers blazed here, flowers that grew nowhere else in the world. Now everything huddled beneath winter snow.
Far below, the towns glinted like little grey models – New Plymouth, Inglewood, Stratford. Off to the left, the Tasman Sea was a sheet of grey steel.On the horizon, blue-and-white shapes shouldered upwards: the peaks of Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, Tongariro. Corey thought of Riki, the other DoC Field Officer. From Riki, he'd heard how Mt Taranaki once stood beside those other volcanoes, fought with them for the love of beautiful Mt Pihanga, then marched away in anger after losing the fight. Hardly any Māori people lived along the line between Ruapehu and Mt Taranaki; they believe that one day, Taranaki would head back in the fire and smoke to find his love again.
Corey stood listening to the silence. A puff of wind slid past. A pebble, loosened by the morning sun probably, dropped from an icy bank nearby.
'Awesome day,' Corey said.
His father nodded. 'Pity Dean couldn't make it.'
Corey glanced up at the dazzling white summit. Dean was a volcanologist who monitored New Zealand's North Island volcanoes to see if any eruptions seemed likely. He came to visit two or three times a year, even though nothing ever happened on Mt Taranaki.
Corey's father was gazing upwards, too. He stretched, and grinned at his son. 'Come on, mate. We're sleepier than this mountain.'
[1] "Awesome" - meaning impressive and amazing.
Task administration: 
This task can be completed with pencil and paper.
  • The task is to be done within a guided reading programme. The student sheet could be enlarged for more than one person to work on at a time.
  • Remind students that the main idea is what the author wants readers to understand is important and valued in the text as a whole.
  • Responses should be discussed by the group. Group discussion has the advantage of giving students opportunities to consider others' ideas and to practise justifying their own
  • As the text in this task comes from the very beginning of "The Sleeper Wakes" by David Hill, this task is ideal as an introduction to the book and for the continued reading of it as a shared novel.
Level:
4
Curriculum info: 
English, Making meaning, Reading
Key Competencies: 
Thinking
Keywords: 
comprehension, main idea, inference, narrative, analysis
Description of task: 
The assessment focus is on student ability to identify details that support the main idea of a text, and to identify where the main idea is developed.
Curriculum Links: 
Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading:
This resource helps to identify students’ ability to:
  • use comprehension strategies
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.
Answers/responses: 

Everyone brings their own interpretation to text, so the following responses are not definitive. Accept other responses so long as students can justify why their details support the main idea in a) and the development of the main idea in b).

a) Student identifies details in text that support the main idea of New Zealand's awesome and powerful natural environment

For example, Paragraph 2:

  • "The blunt pyramid of Mt Taranaki lifted..."
  • "Snow softened the cliffs where lava had flowed..."
  • "...where more lava had crawled..."

Paragraph 3:

  • "Packed grey and green trees rose..."
  • "After just ten metres, all sounds from the carpark faded away. Only the sound..."

Paragraph 5:

  • "He loved its silences and its stories, the way it tested people."
  • "Being up here was the greatest feeling in the world."

Paragraph 7:

  • "Tangled, waist-high shrubs had taken over, crammed together for shelter, tops flattened by the wind."
  • "...flowers blazed here, flowers that grew nowhere else in the world."
  • "Now everything huddled beneath winter snow."

Paragraph 8:

  • "Far below, the towns glinted like little grey models...", i.e., the mountain is high.
  • "...the Tasman Sea was a sheet of grey steel."

Paragraph 9:

  • "On the horizon, blue-and-white shapes shouldered upwards..."
  • "...Mt Taranaki once stood beside other volcanoes, fought with them for...beautiful Mt Pihanga...marched away after losing the fight."

Paragraph 13:

  • "...dazzling white summit."

b) Student identifies details in text that suggest the development of the main idea

For example, Paragraph 2:

  • "...lava had flowed, thousands of years ago."
  • "...where more lava had crawled..."

Paragraph 5:

  • "...the way it tested people."

Paragraph 9:

  • "...one day, Taranaki would head back in the fire and smoke to find his love again."

Paragraph 10:

  • "Corey stood listening to the silence"
  • "A pebble, loosened by the morning sun probably, dropped from an icy  bank nearby."

Paragraph 12:

  • 'Pity Dean couldn't make it.'/there is an expert who monitors volcanic activity.

Paragraph 13:

  • "...to see if any eruptions seemed likely."
  • "...nothing ever happened on Mt Taranaki."

Paragraph 14:

  • "We're sleepier than this mountain."
Diagnostic and formative information: 

This resource was trialled by 34 students. The trial involved small groups of Year 8 and 9 students across a range of 4 schools.

Details identified by studentsAt a) and b), the most commonly identified details were those that were more explicitly stated. For example, for a) "The blunt pyramid of Mt Taranaki", "flowers that grew nowhere else in the world";for b), "...one day, Taranaki would head back...", "We're sleepier than this mountain".

  Examples of student responses Analysis of student responses
a)
  • the summit
  • the wind
  • flowers
 These responses were not accepted as they did not include details about the awesome and powerful qualities of our natural environment. Students probably did not fully understand the main idea and/or the task.
  • June being cold
  • 'Awesome day'
 These responses were not accepted as they identified details not related to the main idea.
  • "The blunt pyramid of Mt Taranaki..."
  • "Tangled, waist-high shrubs had taken over..."
  • "...flowers blazed here, flowers that grew nowhere else in the world."
  • "...dazzling white summit..."
 These responses show that students are able to identify details where natural objects are described using figurative language where the details appear in close proximity to each other. Students had difficulty identifying details that were linked within and between sentences.
  • "...Mt Taranaki once stood beside other volcanoes, fought with them for the love of..."
  • "...then marched away in anger after losing the fight."
 These responses show that students are identifying details where figurative language is used in a more familiar way, i.e., the telling of a legend.
b)
  • "...lava had flowed, thousands of years ago."
  • "...where more lava had crawled..."
  • "...the way it tested people."
  • "Corey stood listening to the silence"
  • "A pebble, loosened by the morning sun probably, dropped from an icy bank nearby."
  • 'Pity Dean couldn't make it.', i.e., the expert was not around.
  • "...to see if any eruptions seemed likely."
  • "...nothing ever happened on Mt Taranaki."
 These responses show that students are identifying details that have an ominous quality about them, therefore they can be justified as evidence related to the development of the main idea.
  • "In summer, white and yellow flowers blazed here..."
 This response is not justified as evidence related to the development of the main idea.
Next steps: 
Students having difficulty identifying details that support the main idea:Break task a) into two steps:

  1. Have students highlight examples in the text of New Zealand's natural environment, e.g., "Mt Taranaki" (including other similar references like "this mountain", "blue-and-white shapes"), "trees", "flowers", "the Tasman Sea".
  2. With a different colour, highlight the words used to describe those natural objects' awesome and powerful qualities. To help students reject descriptions not related to the main idea, ask students questions like 'Does the description of the "blue winter sky" really make it sound awesome or powerful; Does the fact that the trees were lower make them sound awesome or powerful?'

To help students identify descriptions that do relate to the main idea, ask "How can you justify the white and yellow flowers as being awesome? (Firstly, the use of the word "blazed", and secondly the fact that they grow "nowhere else in the world".)"

Students having difficulty identifying details that use figurative language:

The suggestions above will also help students identify how the writer has used figurative language to create a sense of awe in the reader about the power of our natural environment. Examples are: "Packed grey and green trees rose", "flowers blazed", "blue-and-white shapes shouldered upwards", "the Tasman Sea was a sheet of grey steel". There is one simile "Far below, the towns glinted like little grey models" (paragraph 8).In paragraph 9 of this text, the personification of Mt Taranaki is extended and intensified to include other mountains. Before this paragraph, Mt Taranaki "lifted", it had "silences and stories", it "tested people". In paragraph 9, it "stood", "fought", "marched away in anger" and "would head back...to find his love again". In paragraph 9, the other mountains "shouldered upwards", and won the fight with Mt Taranaki for the love of "beautiful Mt Pihanga".

Students having difficulty identifying details that include words used to link ideas:

Cohesive devices make links between various items in the text so that the reader is able to track how meaning is being developed. One such device is referring words that set up links by referring to something that has already been mentioned. The most commonly used referring words are pronouns. Others are the definite article (the), pointing words, and words that replace verb and noun groups and even whole clauses.A good example in this text is the fourth paragraph:"His father loved this mountain.  He loved its silences and stories, the way it tested people.  Corey felt the same way.  Being up here was the greatest feeling in the world.  Pity some other people couldn't see it that way."Here the pronouns "its", "it" and the word "here" (that replace the noun "this mountain") need to be unpacked so that students can link these ideas to those that support the main idea.See section 2 of Part Two of https://arbs.nzcer.org.nz/research-and-articles#thinking-about-how-language-works.

Students who have difficulty connecting the title with the development of the main idea:

In this text, the title "The Sleeper Wakes" suggests the main idea How awesome and powerful New Zealand's natural environment can be will be developed to include an eruption. In calling the book "The Sleeper Wakes", the writer is implying that something has been asleep and will wake up. Students need first to identify what that "something" is (Mt Taranaki), then to find details about the mountain either waking up or not sleeping that suggest how the main idea will be specifically developed. However, it is important for students to realise that titles, especially those of narratives, do not necessarily encompass the main idea. For example, while "The Whale Rider" is a story about Paikea, the main idea is to do with the communion that exists between people and nature, the past and present, and fantasy and reality.

 

Other resources

Make links to other David Hill books that have a similar main idea, e.g., "Running Hot", "Cold Comfort", "The High Wind Blows", "Take it Easy", "Impact", and "No Big Deal" (which has a similar ARB written for it: https://arbs.nzcer.org.nz/resources/no-big-deal).

What's the main idea? https://arbs.nzcer.org.nz/research-and-articles#whats-the-main-idea        

Derewianka, B. (2005). A grammar companion. Newtown, NSW: PETA.Burroway, J. & Stuckey-French, E. (2007). Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft. London, Pearson Longman.