The Iron Man by Ted Hughes

The Iron Man by Ted Hughes A three/four week teaching sequence

The Iron Man is a short children’s novel by the poet Ted Hughes. Written forty years ago this modern fairy tale has become a children’s classic. Hughes instantly engages the reader with a dramatic opening and memorable language. The novel tells the story of a mysterious iron giant whose destructive quest for food alarms the local farming community. During the novel The Iron Man turns from villain to hero in the eyes of the public as the world faces a bigger threat, the arrival of a colossal space monster. The story unfolds through the eyes of a young boy, Hogarth, who forms a friendship with the Iron Man.

The sequence aims to engage the reader through exploration of this powerfully written story. Children learn to empathise with the feelings of the characters through drama approaches and writing in role. They develop their abilities to form and give opinions through taking part in discussions about the central dilemma; what to do with The Iron Man. Children will develop their own ability to use language creatively through listening to the strongly patterned and descriptive language read aloud, re reading, shared poetry writing and performance.

Key teaching approaches
Reading aloud and re reading
Drawing and annotating
Role play hot seating freeze frame
Writing in role
Shared writing
Visualisation
Discussion and debate

Cross curricular opportunities:

Maths Estimation and measurement of length, area and perimeter

Science Sort materials to find suitable ‘food’ for The Iron Man.

Find out about space, the solar system

Construct a circuit to light up the Iron man’s eyes.

ICT Explore control devices using an ‘Iron man roamer’ - guiding him into the pit or

The scrap yard

Art Class or individual collages of the space-bat-angel-dragon ‘When all his fatness had been changed by the fires of the sun into precious stones.’

Music Create mechanical music to represent The Iron Man or the music of the spheres

Dance Create group or individual dances linking mechanical movements to mechanical music represent the Iron Man.

Session One.

Reading aloud, re reading and performance reading

Read the opening of the story aloud until:

‘A few rocks tumbled with him.

Then

Silence.’

Invite the children to respond to this and encourage discussion by posing questions such as ‘What kind of story do you think this might be? Or ‘What might happen next?’

Have the text of the first two pages displayed on an IWB or a flip chart. Read these two pages again inviting the children to join in with the refrain ‘Nobody knows’ in the style of a ‘call and response’. It would be helpful to highlight this phrase in the text to indicate when the children should read.

Ask half of the children to stand in a space and imagine they are the Iron Man standing on the edge of the cliff turning their heads to the left and right while the other half use their voices, or alternatively musical instruments, to make the sounds of the sea and the wind. Then repeat this activity asking two children to read the opening at the same time to create a mini performance of the opening of the book.

NB If space is limited it might be better to plan to use the hall for this activity.

For homework:

Ask the children to draw a picture to illustrate the opening of the story.

Session Two

Drawing and Annotating

Read the rest of the first chapter. Ask children to work with a partner and give each pair a copy of the opening of the story. Ask them to reread this together and then to make a large drawing of the Iron Man annotated with all the information they have found out so far. Gather the class together and record the information collected onto a flip chart under the heading ‘What we know about the Iron Man’. Then ask children to go back to their annotated drawings and think about what they would like to know, the puzzles in the text. Hughes has included several in the story opening (such as, ‘Where has he come from?’) the children could use these and then see if they can add more of their own.

Start a wall display with the children’s annotated drawings and their questions.

During art sessions the class could make a large collage or 3D version of the Iron Man as the centrepiece of the display.

Session three

Role play and writing in role

Start the session by reading the rest of the first chapter.

Ask the children to think about the arrival of the Iron Man from the gulls’ viewpoint. Talk with the children about what they would have seen. Ask them to imagine what the gulls might have said to each other or to their chicks about what they saw on the beach. Organise the children into groups of four and ask them to role play this imaginary scene. Share some of these ideas as a class and scribe a selection of the phrases the children use during their role-play. Then ask the children to choose some of their ideas about what the gulls might be saying or thinking and record them on thought or speech bubbles. Images of the gulls and their speech bubbles could be added to the wall display.

In preparation for the next session ask the children to measure their bedrooms.

Session four

Visualising and drawing comparisons

Talk about the size of the children’s bedroom and agree an average size with them. Then in the playground or the hall measure this out with the children and draw the Iron Man’s head ‘shaped like a dustbin but as big as a bedroom’ using chalk or masking tape. Ask the class to sit inside the shape to visualise and experience and how small they are in comparison with the Iron Man. Then, in the classroom, ask the children to work with a partner and write about the shape and size of other parts of the Iron Man’s body, drawing comparisons in the same way as the text. For example, his body was shaped like a drum but as big as a swimming pool. Use the [grid] attached to help the children organise their ideas. Share the descriptions as a class and ask each pair to choose one or two to copy and add to the wall display.

Session five

Visualising and mind maps

Read the first two pages of the second chapter aloud. Ask the children to close their eyes and visualise the scene by the stream when Hogarth saw the Iron Man for the first time. Ask them to imagine they are Hogarth and think about what they can see, hear and feel. Share some of these as a class. Make a collection of the words and phrases the children use when they describe the scene on a flipchart or onto separate cards and then demonstrate how to record these onto a mindmap. Then ask the children to work individually and create their own mind maps of the scene. This will help the children when they write in role as Hogarth in the next session.

Session six

Feeeze frame and writing in role

Organise the class into groups of four and ask them to freeze-frame the moment when Hogarth arrives home to show how each of his family is reacting. Share some of these asking children to voice their character’s thoughts at that point in the story. Spend some time focusing on Hogarth and discussing his reactions to what he has seen.

Then give all the children a mini book to use as Hogarth’s diary. Click here for instructions on how to make a simple book. Ask them to write in role as if they are Hogarth and describe the night he saw the Iron Man. Encourage the children to use the mind maps they prepared during the last session to support them as they write.

Session seven

Discussion and debate

Continue reading chapter two until the point when the farmers decide they will have to do something for themselves:

‘They couldn’t call the police or the Army, because nobody would believe them about this Iron Monster. They would have to do something for themselves’.

Have a whole class discussion about the problem of the Iron Man, asking the class to imagine they are the farmers meeting to discuss the situation. Taking the role of chair of the meeting yourself, scribe the farmers’ concerns about the Iron Man. Then ask the children to work in small groups and discuss what to do in role as the farmers. Still in role, draw the class back together and end the ‘farmers’ meeting by listing the ideas and asking the children to vote on the favoured course of action.

Finish the session by reading to the end of the chapter and allowing time for the children to respond to this.

Session eight

Re reading and writing in role

Re read the last two pages of chapter two (The Return of the Iron Man) which describes Hogarth’s idea. The children could join in with the clinking sounds using triangles. Ask the children to talk with a partner about why they think Hogarth feels guilty about trapping the Iron Man. Then give the children a copy of the [mini journal] and ask them to use the first page as to write in role as Hogarth, describing the night he trapped the Iron Man, showing not only what happened but also how he felt about this.

Session nine

Shared writing

Before this session read chapter three, ‘What’s to be done with the Iron Man’. Talk about the scrap yard and all the things that were there. Have the section of the text that describes the scrap yard displayed for the children to see on a flipchart or an IWB. Click [here] to download a copy of the extract. What does the Iron Man think of the scrap yard? Pick out some of the phrases describing the objects in the scrap yard eg greasy black stove. Talk to the children about other metal objects that might be in the scrap yard and ways to describe them. Ask the children to turn to a partner and using mini whiteboards scribe about three phrases describing the objects in the yard. Ask each pair to select one of these to read out and then put their ideas together on a flip chart or the IWB to create a class scrap yard poem. Ask the class to help you improve the rhythm and structure of the poem. For example, phrases such as ‘clink clink’ could be used as a refrain. Read the poem out as a class. The poem could be displayed on the wall and possibly performed to another class or during an assembly.

For homework ask the children to write a menu for the Iron Man in their mini journal.

Session ten

Poetry writing

Ask children to write their own poem, about the Iron Man this time, They could use the images they created on day four and the puzzles or questions about the Iron man displayed around the room to help them create a poem which not only describes the Iron man but also reflects the language of the text. They could use a repeated phrase such as the ‘clink clink’ in the class poem or Nobody knows to help them structure their Iron Man poems.

Session eleven

Shared writing and drawing

Read chapter four, ‘The Space Being and the Iron Man’. Look at a globe or large map find Australia and ask children to think about the size of this creature. Ask children to imagine the world’s reaction to this dramatic event asking questions such as ‘How might the leaders of the world be feeling?’ ‘What could be done?’ ‘What might the newspaper headlines say?’

It would be helpful to have a few headlines to display, which demonstrate journalistic style. Compose headlines with the class as a shared writing activity. Ask the children to choose one of these headlines and then draw a picture and write a caption to illustrate this dramatic event.

For homework the children could write a newspaper report of the Iron Man’s challenge in their mini journals

Before the next session read chapter five, the ‘Iron Man’s Challenge’. Find time to discuss the children’s responses to the end of the story. What they liked or disliked and anything they would have liked to ask the author.

Session twelve

Visualising and responding in role

Organise the class into groups of four or five and ask them to visualise the scene and think about what eyewitnesses might have said about the spectacle of the Iron Man and the space monster engaged in the challenge. One child could take on the role of interviewer, perhaps with a microphone as a prop, asking each witness in turn for comments. Then ask the children to record their comments onto ‘post-it’ notes or in speech bubbles. Gather the class together and ask the children to read out their comments to indicate the crowd’s reaction. The notes could then be stuck onto a central board.

Session thirteen

Hot seating

Discuss with the children the kinds of questions they would ask the Iron Man if they interviewed him and how he might respond. Ask them to work with a partner and jot down some questions to ask the Iron Man and think about what his answers might be. Then ask them to role-play the interview. Share some of these as a class, with one child in role as the Iron Man and questions from the rest of the class or from a single interviewer. If the children are not familiar with ‘hot seating’ then demonstrate by taking the ‘hot seat’ yourself.

Session fourteen and fifteen

Narrative writing in role

Start the session by discussing the ideas generated about the Iron Man and his story during the hotseating activity.

Ask the children to imagine they are the Iron Man and write a prequel to the book from his viewpoint, unravelling the mystery of where the Iron Man has come from and why he is there.

Allow time at the end of session fourteen and the beginning of session fifteen for the children to share their ideas.

If additional time is available the children could work with a partner to edit and improve their work and then write a best copy of their prequel to be included in a class book.

The children could continue with the other activities in the mini journals for homework or during class reading sessions.

After finishing the book watch The Iron Giant (Warner Bros 1999) and compare the film interpretation with the original text