Teach Reading and Writing Issue 19

T E ACH I NG T E CHN I QUE S Pie Corbett is an education consultant, poet and author known for Talk for Writing . His most recent book is Catalysts: Poems for Writing (talkforwritingshop.com) . TEACHING NOTES Background The Bulldozer is based on the fable of the three little pigs. Fairytales like this make an excellent resource for playful writing. The children already know the plot and can manipulate the structure for different purposes. In my detective story, I imagined a couple of children who have set up their own detective agency and get involved on the sidelines of various fairytale plots where there is an obvious villain. This would work well with the following combinations of stories and villains: • Goldilocks and the Three Bears – Goldilocks (yes, she’s a villain!) • Jack and the Beanstalk – the giant and Jack • Little Red Riding Hood – the wolf • Three Billy Goats Gruff – the troll Getting to know the story Reread the story a number of times and let children talk about their responses. This could lead into: • Comparing the characters. Is Hamzah fair when he talks about Hamid? • Which stories are referred to in the second paragraph? • Mapping and telling the story of what happened. • Hot seating both the boys. • Writing a diary entry from Hamid’s or Hamzah’s point of view. • Writing a 100-word news report on what happened. • In pairs, role-playing any two characters from the story, discussing its events. Writing toolkit Work with the class to explore how the writer builds suspense when the wolf appears. The suspenseful text: Hamid and I kept well-hidden in the shadows by the bus stop. Then we saw it. A huge shadow cast across the street and slowly approached. A massive creature, shabby fur and fiery eyes. Its jaws were open, showing yellowed fangs. Hamid whispered, “Werewolf!” and we crouched down. It paused by the house, inhaled and began to chant with a low hiss that made my spine tingle, “Let me come in!” The curtains twitched and we saw three faces peering out. The creature drew in its breath and like a massive pair of industrial bellows it blew; trees bent double, the garden fence crashed down, a tile or two flew off the roof, but the house was defiant. Writing tools used: • The main characters are on their own, in the dark, waiting for something scary. • The exact nature of the threat is disguised by using words such as ‘it’ and ‘the shadow’ to describe it. • The threat gets closer. • The threat is described bit by bit. • The writer shows how characters feel by their reaction, what they say and how they say it. • The threat behaves ominously, chanting and hissing. • The writer uses powerful images to describe the threat’s behaviour, e.g. the garden fence crashed down . Task the children with using these tools to create a new paragraph for a different story, such as Red Riding Hood . For example: She paused in the middle of the forest, quite alone. Shadows cast over her head and it was dark between the trees. Then she saw it. Something moved silently within the darkness, pacing towards her. It was grey as mist, had fangs like yellowed ivory and bright red eyes that seemed to beckon. Little Red shuddered and tried to hide herself, squeezing behind a tree. She could hear it now, whispering sweet nothings to try and enchant her: “Come here, my dear.” Red gasped and ran! Shortburst sentences Practise some useful sentence patterns with the children. For example: • Describe your threat using a sentence of three. It had a warty nose, hairy face and massive hands with sharpened claws. • Use an empty word (it, shape, shadow, outline, silhouette, etc) to hide what the threat is. A vague shape moved across the road. • Write a sentence to show or suggest how the character feels through their reactions. Hamid crouched down, clenched his fist and his heart beat fast. Shortburst 100-word challenges Take a well-known tale and challenge the children to write a response using only a hundred words. Here are two examples: what Goldilocks said to the police in her defence; what the prosecution lawyer said about Jack’s behaviour. Convincing the cops! “I just wanted to have a look officer. I thought no one was home! I walked in and I got a beautiful whiff of porridge. I just couldn’t resist! After I ate the porridge, I just wanted to sit down but the chair suddenly snapped from beneath me. It wasn’t my fault! I suddenly got very tired, so I decided to go upstairs and see if there were any beds. When I got into baby bear’s bed, it was so comfy that I drifted off to sleep. I got woken up by the bears!” (By Rebecca from St Celias’s College, NI) The terrible monstrosity “I believe Jack should go to jail because he literally murdered the poor giant! He should be in prison! Jack has also committed theft: he stole the giant’s sad chicken and a precious lyre! Jack made the giant fall when they were climbing the giant beanstalk. This axe is what made the beanstalk cut in half. Plus, the fingerprints related to Jack and are definitely Jack’s fingerprints! Just imagine the wife of that giant! How much she has been through; she must have been miserable in that state! Jack should be locked behind those bars,” claimed the annoyed prosecution lawyer. (By Ava from Wellington College, Bangkok) www.teachwire.net | 45