ANTHONY HOLLAND

The English curriculum is built around the three interrelated strands of Language, Literature and Literacy. Teaching and learning programs should balance and integrate all three strands. Together the strands focus on developing students knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating. Learning in English builds on concepts, skills and processes developed in earlier years, and teachers will revisit and strengthen these as needed. (Australian National Curriculum 2013). I chose to focus on the stage 2-age range. The book I have focused much of this lesson series on is Flood by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley. While I feel that this book could be used across all ages, I found it fit well with the expectations of the curriculum at the stage 2 level. Literary texts that support and extend students as independent readers involve sequences of events that span several pages and present unusual happenings within a framework of familiar experiences. Informative texts present new content about topics of interest and topics being studied in other areas of the curriculum. These texts include language features such as varied sentence structures, some unfamiliar vocabulary, a significant number of high-frequency sight words and words that need to be decoded phonically, and a range of punctuation conventions, as well as illustrations and diagrams that both support and extend the printed text. (Australian National Curriculum 2013). I feel that the use of the book Flood allows the students the opportunity to involve themselves in a sequence of events, and look at unusual happenings, within a framework of familiar experiences. Introducing biographies, by looking at the biography of the Premier of Queensland, during the floods, also helps the children to relate the story back to their own experiences and make the experience more realistic for them. The use of both the story Flood and the biographies allow the students to engage in a variety of sentence structures, some unfamiliar vocabulary, and a range of challenging words set to challenge the student. The book also has some amazing illustrations that portray to the reader the mood and emotion of those affected.

Lesson no. 1. Text:_Flood, Jackie French & Bruce Whatley Reading practice or stage in the curriculum cycle: Text Participants Outcomes / Indicators / Descriptors
Students are toUnderstand how characters' feelings and motivations and settings are represented in stories. Discuss how depictions of characters in print, sound and images reflect the contexts in which they were created (ACELT 1587) Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning and begin to analyse texts by drawing on growing knowledge of context, language and visual features and print and multimodal text structures (ACELY1670)

Explicit teaching

Assessment

Resources

Before reading- discuss with the children what are some different emotions that we can feel, (happy, sad, excited, nervous, scared, angry etc). Introduce Flood from looking at the cover, what do you think the story is about? (List class responses). Does the book like a happy or sad story? Why? (List responses) Where is the story set? Why? (list responses). Reading- Read through the whole story. Then read each page and ask the children to put themselves into the picture, and list how they would feel in each situation (paying special attention to emotive language) Activities- divide the class into small groups, give each group a page of the story to focus on. Have each group imagine that it was them in the story, and write down how they would have felt (refer to the emotions list from earlier if needed). - Have each group report back to the class how they would have felt, and discuss why they would have felt this way. (opportunity here to discuss if anyone has had any personal experience with this, or with something similar, and how they and their family handled the situation) - Watch you tube footage of the floods, to gain an insight into what happened in Brisbane; reflect again if they now feel differently. - Watch the you tube reading of the book, to cement the story in the childrens minds

French,J & Whatley,B Ask and respond (2011). Flood. to questions Scholastic Australia, about emotions Linfield NSW. to check understanding. http://youtu.be/lvlAE sRguQM Observations when in small http://youtu.be/zo7 groups, and mxyMtEWg during presentation

Lesson no. 2

Text: Flood & Brisbane Times article Reading practice or stage in the curriculum cycle: Code Breaking Explicit teaching Before reading -Introduce the term timeline, and what it is. (Show examples) Ask the children what uses a timeline could have? Show different forms of a time line. Read Timeline- Read the timeline from the Brisbane times, paying attention to the dates and the events of the floods. As a class create a timeline of the events. Read Flood- Read the story Flood, ask the children to look for any similarities between the timeline and the story. Activities- Working in small groups, design a timeline for the story, using written descriptions and illustrations. Present these to the class. Discuss the similarities and differences between their own timeline and the class timeline from the newspaper article. Which one is more detailed, which one do they like best and why? What do they think makes a good timeline, and why? Assessment Observations Resources Google timeline examples for kids, select images that attract the childrens attention.

Outcomes / Indicators / Descriptors Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning and begin to analyse texts by drawing on growing knowledge of context, language and visual features and print and multimodal text structures (ACELY1670) Know some features of text organisation including page and screen layouts, alphabetical order, and different types of diagrams, for example timelines (ACELA1466) Understand that different types of texts have identifiable text structures and language features that help the text serve its purpose (ACELA1463)

http://www.brisba netimes.com.au/qu Checklist- does eensland/timelinethe timeline how-disasterhave all unfoldedimportant 20120106parts of the 1poia.html story, is the order of events correct, showing comprehensio n of the story.

Lesson no. 3 Text: Anna Bligh Biography / Flood Reading practice or stage in the curriculum cycle: Text Analysis/ Writing non fiction Outcomes / Indicators / Descriptors Explicit teaching Before reading- Look at the inside cover of the book Flood. Ask the children if they have heard of Anna Bligh, and why would she be commenting on this book, read her inscription and discuss again why she liked this book. Once established who she is, watch the You Tube clip of the press conference during the floods. Discuss as a group, why they think that Ms. Bligh was so emotional at this time. Read Biography- Introduce the term Biography, and why biographies are interesting. Then have the children work in small groups to read the biographies of Anna Bligh, have each group list what they feel are important parts of a biography. (Name, birthday, Job, important facts) -Share the findings with the class and list these findings. Discuss what the children would have in their own biography, and why these facts would be interesting to the reader. Activity- Working individually each child will complete the biography template, where they will have the chance to design their own biography. The children will be given the opportunity to draft, edit and publish their biography. The completed work will be collated and made into a class book. Assessment Individual one on one editing assistance. Anecdotal records. Resources http://www.youtub e.com/watch?v=nfP XmEtyKrA (Anna Bligh Speech) http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Biography Attached Biographies

Compare opinions about characters, events and settings in and between texts (ACELT1589) Identify aspects of different types of literary texts that entertain, and give reasons for personal preferences (ACELT1590) Understand that different types of texts have identifiable text structures and language features that help the text serve its purpose (ACELA1463)

Biography worksheet, attached.

Lesson no. 4

Text: Flood Reading practice or stage in the curriculum cycle: Text User Explicit teaching Refresh the childrens knowledge of timelines; revisit their own timelines from the story Flood. Discuss what makes a good timeline, and what is included on a timeline. (Important facts and dates of importance). Have the children Think, Pair, Share, what important events and dates they would like to include on their own timeline (Birth, family birthdays, moved house, started school, changed school, had an overseas holiday, first communion etc.), and what makes these events or dates important to them. (If the children cannot remember exact dates then they can work back to what year it was or how old they were when the important event took place). The children will then be asked to rule a line on an A3 piece of paper and fill in the important dates of their life on their own timeline (starting from their birth, or that of their older siblings if applicable). The children will then present their timelines to the class, explaining why they chose the events and why these events were important to them. Assessment Anecdotal records/ observations Resources
French,J & Whatley,B (2011). Flood. Scholastic Australia, Linfield NSW

Outcomes / Indicators / Descriptors Understand that spoken, visual and written forms of language are different modes of communication with different features and their use varies according to the audience, purpose, context and cultural background (ACELA1460) Identify the audience of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts (ACELY1668) Understand the use of vocabulary about familiar and new topics and experiment with and begin to make conscious choices of vocabulary to suit audience and purpose (ACELA1470)

Interactive whiteboard

Teacher and peer evaluations of oral presentation.

Lesson no. 5

Text: Flood

Reading practice or stage in the curriculum cycle: Code Breaker / Grammar Explicit teaching Assessment Anecdotal records, questioning during whole class activities to gauge understanding Resources

Outcomes / Indicators / Descriptors

Understand that nouns represent people, places, things and ideas and can be, for example, common, proper, concrete or abstract, and that noun groups/phrases can be expanded using articles and adjectives (ACELA1468)

Before reading- What are descriptive words? What are adjectives? Discuss as a group what adjectives are, and when they are used. Read Flood- As a whole class, read the book, Flood. Then revise the book page-by-page looking for describing words. Activity- As a whole class, create a word wall of adjectives from the book and any other describing words the children can think of. Revisit the story Flood, and as a whole class try and substitute the describing words identified earlier, with another describing word from the word wall. Re-read the story with the new words for meaning.

French,J &
Whatley,B (2011). Flood. Scholastic Australia, Linfield NSW

Interactive white board.

Lesson no. 6

Text: Flood

Reading practice or stage in the curriculum cycle: Text User / writing - fiction Explicit teaching Assessment Text annotation. Observations. Resources Interactive white board,
French,J & Whatley,B (2011). Flood. Scholastic Australia, Linfield NSW

Outcomes / Indicators / Descriptors Understand that simple connections can be made between ideas by using a compound sentence with two or more clauses usually linked by a coordinating conjunction (ACELA1467)

Listen for specific purposes and information, including instructions, and extend students own and others' ideas in discussions (ACELY1666) Identify language that can be used for appreciating texts and the qualities of people and things (ACELA1462)

Following on from the work on descriptive words, the children will now focus on using these words in their own writing, while attempting to engage their audience with compound sentences and more descriptive language. Introduction-Brainstorm the different characters in the story, look at their characteristics (much of this is inferred from the book, not spelled out specifically) and their features. List these for the class to use. With the childrens help, model a short story of what may happen next to one of the characters, deliberately using short sentences with little or no descriptive words. In pairs have the children look at the writing and suggest improvements, punctuation and spelling. Help model how the use of joining words can make their story flow and sound better for the reader. Re-read Flood paying special attention to the different characters in the story, i.e. the dog, the tugboat driver, and the members of the mud army, the other volunteers and the boy at the end of the story. Activities- The children will select one of the characters from the story; they will then continue the story from the point of view of this character, to see what happens next after this book ends. The children will have to introduce the character and tell the reader what they did in the flood and hen what happened next in their lives. The children will plan, draft, edit and publish this story. Share their stories with the class.

Lesson no. 7

Text: Flood Reading practice or stage in the curriculum cycle: Text participants/ Writing- Fiction Explicit teaching Assess the childrens prior knowledge of Biographies. Identify the most important elements of a biography. Review their own biographies they created earlier, have some of the children read their own biography to the class. Discuss, the dog character in the story Flood. While the dog is telling the story, we dont know a lot about him/her. Prompt the childrens imagination by asking for their thoughts on..Where does the dog come from, who is his owner, what does the dog, like / dislike, how did the dog feel during the floods, and what did he/she do to stay safe. Activity- Individually, the children will have the opportunity to create their own biography for the dog in the story. The children will be asked to draft, edit and publish their biography. Assessment Resources
French,J & Whatley,B (2011). Flood. Scholastic Australia, Linfield NSW

Outcomes / Indicators / Descriptors Understand that spoken, visual and written forms of language are different modes of communication with different features and their use varies according to the audience, purpose, context and cultural background (ACELA1460) Identify the audience of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts (ACELY1668) Understand the use of vocabulary about familiar and new topics and experiment with and begin to make conscious choices of vocabulary to suit audience and purpose (ACELA1470)

Text annotation, observations. Attached rubric

Lesson 7

Assessment Task Name: Description: Learning Area Criteria

Knowledge and understanding

Type: Imaginative biography Date: Students create a biography about a character from a familiar picture book ENGLISH A B C D

Written

Uses evaluative language to engage the audience and meet the purpose of a Uses everyday language features and biography. Uses expanded noun topic specific groups to provide vocabulary detailed descriptions.

Selects vocabulary to describe the character, their qualities and the event.

Includes noun groups. Uses capital letters and full stops.

Uses nouns and verbs and some punctuation.

Selects words

Creating texts (Productive) Creates an imaginative biography about a character from a familiar picture book

Connects the feelings and behaviours of animals in stories with human emotions and relationships.

Builds empathy for the character Varies sentence structure including simple and compound sentences.

Tells the story using imagination and information learned. Sequences events and provides relevant information. Uses appropriate text structure to suit the audience and purpose.

Lesson no. 8 Text: Flood Outcomes / Indicators / Descriptors

Understand how to use digraphs, long vowels, blends and silent letters to spell words, and use morphemes and syllabification to break up simple words and use visual memory to write irregular words (ACELA1471) Recognise most sound letter matches including silent letters, vowel/consonant digraphs and many less common soundletter combinations (ACELA1474)

Reading practice or stage in the curriculum cycle: Writing - Spelling Explicit teaching Create a spelling list of words used in the book Flood. From the frequent readings of the book, the children are by now familiar with the words and the context that they are used in the book. Divide the words up to suit the individual childs ability, have each child learn the words, using the look, cover, say, write, check method. (Revisit this over a number of days). Have a traditional spelling test to check if the children are able to remember the correct spelling of their words. In this story there are a number of compound words, explain to the children that, a compound word is made when two words are joined to form a new word. Think, Pair, share, what are some compound words that they can think of. Look again through their spelling list from the book, Flood. Identify any compound words. Working individually, break these words up into the two words it came from. When completed the children can, in pairs, attempt the word search, made from words from the spelling list. Assessment Resources Spelling list.

Spelling test, differentiated for the different spelling groups. Word search attached

Biography

A biography is a description of a persons life and achievements.

Fill in the details below to create your own biography.

Name-

Birthday-

Members of your family-

Achievements/ Awards-

Hobbies-

What I like-

What I dont like-

Flood

W J Y D P Y D L P T D S W Q N C F N E W D R E M T M A E Z Z R Q K I K N X I A S G I E G L E U B W E Q C B P I L E T K E K T N C F N Q W G O Q B K A N Q E I I L M Y S B K E R N U V L I R C D R C B K V L N M R H A A M O E T L S A N D B A G S Q S Y K U R G L D H V A A Y E S N T I F Q C O D T B U E G F L X O W S W C F R J B B U S N N H D K P T H E B S K Q F Z R I L T D T K R G P C T J E I G T O L W I L K U E V L B Q E V T Y I R Y U F O Z G P E E E B A T N E R R O T L O F T O H R T R V Y J W A P Y O Y N T K T E Y D B E S N P C S D H K N C L N J V E P S U Y I

U R E V I R W X J M E H Q I H B W K I M O Q I B Y A Y E E G R Q P P Q M K S F E M J V U U O P I H S D N E I R F K E O R H V R I W B X F R X R K Q S F A Q S I P W A V E L Y C C L N C F Z G S A V A G E Z O G A E T R X P T D J R C N F J U K C

BLUE BURST FLOOD GENTLY KINDNESS PREMIER RIVER SAVAGE SWALLOWED TUGBOAT WATER WRECKAGE

BOARDWALK ENEMY FRIENDSHIP HEROES NIBBLED RAIN SANDBAGS STRANGERS TORRENT VOLUNTEERS WAVE

Interesting facts-

Picture-