White Sunday in Samoa
Read White Sunday in Sāmoa by Sarona Aiono-Iosefa (Ready to Read, 2005). Then answer the questions below.
This task can be completed with pencil and paper or online (with auto marking).
Equipment:
"White Sunday in Sāmoa", written by Sarona Aiono-Iosefa, photographs by Jill MacGregor, Ready to Read, Learning Media, 2003. An audio version of the text is available on the Ready to Read CD Readalong 2005. An audio version and an MP3 link are available on the Literacy Online website.
- Remind students that the main idea is what the author wants readers to understand is important.
- You may wish to explain to students that finding the main idea is hard, but that it can be found if they first work out what information is important to the whole text. You may also wish to explain that important information will be mentioned more than unimportant information.
- Explain to students that a) assesses if they understand which information in "White Sunday in Sāmoa" was important. Tell the students that first they need to read "White Sunday in Sāmoa ", then tick three boxes next to the information they think is important to Tafu's story.
- Explain to students that b) assesses if they understand what the main idea is. Tell the students they need to think about the important information in the text, then put a tick next to the main idea.
- The task can be done individually or in groups. Responses can be discussed by a teacher and student only, or within larger groups.
- Consider how the text should be presented to your students, to support effective comprehension of the text. It might be read by independently by students, presented as a shared or guided text, or presented through a combination of these approaches.
- use comprehension strategies
| a) | The three pieces of important information are listed below: |
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| b) |
The main idea of the story is:
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This resource was trialled by 28 students. The trial involved small groups of Y4 students across a range of 5 primary schools.
| a) |
Identifying the most important information – Most students correctly identified two items of important information.
The item most often missed was "Tafu was nervous". Students who missed this did not integrate the different written and visual references to nervousness. (Pictures on the title page and on pages 9 and 11 show a nervous child; written references to nervousness are made on pages 7, 9 and 11.) Instead of choosing "Tafu was nervous" most chose "Tafu had to line up to go into church". They possibly did so because they had given too much weight to their own prior experiences of lining up as an important, frequent activity at school. The other most often missed item was "Tafu wore special, white clothes." Students who overlooked this did not integrate the multiple visual references, and one written reference, to his white clothes. (Pictures on the cover, title page, and on pages 3, 8-12; the written reference is made on page 3.) |
| b) |
Finding the main idea – Most students correctly identified "White Sunday was an important day for Tafu, and he got a bit nervous".
However, a large number chose "lots of people had work to do for White Sunday". Students who made this choice possibly did so because they found and grouped one set of details about work to form the main idea "lots of people had work to do for White Sunday", but did not simultaneously find, group, and combine two sets of details – one about how special the day was for Tafu (i.e., learning the Bible verse and wearing white clothes) and another about his nervousness – to form the main idea "White Sunday was an important day for Tafu, and he got a bit nervous". Students who chose "lots of people had work to do for White Sunday" may also have done so because they were influenced by the title. "White Sunday in Sāmoa" implies the text will be about White Sunday in Sāmoan society. Understanding that the text is about the specific experience of one child is only revealed by close reading of the text. Although most students correctly identified the main idea, it cannot be assumed that they can independently do so since this resource provides considerable scaffolding. For example, in a) the students only have to choose between six pieces of information, whereas if they were independently finding the main idea they would need to choose from all the information the text presents. |
Students having difficulty integrating written and visual evidence to find important information and the main idea
It may be necessary to revisit the text with these students and explicitly model making links between written and visual sources of information (i.e., the text and the photographs). For example, the picture on page 9 shows Mum hugging an obviously nervous Tafu and the text states "I feel nervous, Mum". You may wish to ask the students to look for other pictures of Tafu looking nervous and ask them why they think the author has included these pictures. What do they think the author wants them to be thinking about as they look at these pictures? How do the pictures reinforce the author's message?
Students having difficulty working with more than one group of details
Support these students by telling them which groups of details they are looking for. For example, on one large sheet of paper write the heading "Special Day" and on another write "Nervous". Read the text to the students, stopping to give them time to add details to the sheets. When this is complete, support them to combine the two groups by asking, "how might those two groups go together to make the main idea? Might the main idea be something about both of them together…?" With time, gradually transfer the responsibility for grouping and combining details to the students.