Teach-Reading-and-Writing-Issue-21

T E ACH I NG T E CHN I QUE S TEACHING NOTES The two models here both show the same event from Chapter 17 of Betsy Byers’ classic The Midnight Fox . Published in 1968, it’s a gentle story of a boy sent to live in the country for two months whilst his parents go on a cycling holiday. The countryside does not suit Tom at all and, away from home, he feels isolated and lonely. Unfortunately, he’s scared of animals too... However, his discovery of a rare black fox and her cub changes his life. But, of course, foxes are not wanted on farms… and the tension builds from the moment his uncle says “... you and I’ll go after the fox .” This is a book that runs deep, exploring relationships, loneliness and our connection with the natural world with sensitivity. Different angles Exploring different points of view adds real depth to a reading of any meaty novel. There are often multiple viewpoints: the characters, the narrator, but also how different readers might view a text. In Chapter 17, Tom has just climbed out of the house, broken open the rabbit hutch and let the baby fox free. Read the chapter several times, discuss it and find clues for: • what Tom is thinking and feeling; • what Aunt Mille thinks, feels and does; • what Uncle Fred thinks, feels and does. Some of this will be factual. For instance, Aunt Millie fetches towels, wears a cotton robe and is first downstairs. Dig deeper for evidence about the feelings and thoughts of the characters. Discuss Tom’s motives for letting the cub free, and think about how he is feeling. The two models are written from Aunt Millie and Uncle Fred’s viewpoints. Who misread the situation?  A wilder point of view You can develop the idea of multiple points of view even further by asking what the fox saw. We know that she brought a dead frog for the cub to eat, but has been unable to get it into the rabbit hutch. Betsy Byars describes how the cub is cowering at the back of the hutch in a dry place. We know too that the fox barks when Tom is letting the cub loose. Given what we know of the fox, what might she be thinking and feeling? Write a paragraph or two from the fox’s angle. Phone-call warm-up To help tune the children into rewriting an incident from a different point of view, you can ask them to work in pairs: Partner A is a friend or relative; Partner B is the character. The children sit back-to-back and make a phone call that involves Partner B recounting the incident from the novel from their view as if it happened to them. They should draw on evidence from the text to help. Change the text type An alternative way into writing is to alter the text type. This means recounting a key incident from the novel into another form. For instance, Chapter 17 might be retold: • in Aunt Millie’s diary; • as Uncle Fred writing a letter to Tom’s parents; • as Tom writing to his friend, Petie Burkis. Of course, to do this the children have to read carefully, sentence by sentence, underlining or highlighting clues. In other stories, where there are dramatic incidents, this can be done by using the framework of a newspaper report. Bringing a scene alive A powerful way to help children slow down and deepen their experience of a text is to pause at a key point and then build a description. This could be done with Tom once he has climbed down the tree. Stop the reading at this point and together create a list poem, imagining: I can see… I can hear… I can feel… I can smell… I wonder… I hope… I’m afraid that… This exercise will help take the children deeper into any text and develop their ability to imagine a character, what they are experiencing and how they might be thinking and feeling. 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 ). “Exploring different points of view adds real depth to a reading of any meaty novel” www.teachwire.net | 45