Summary / Duration
The activities are based on character, setting, theme and plot. There are comparisons of book and film versions. Students are asked to use their imagination and project beyond the action of the book. Research, grammar and word study are also part of the unit. Students’ will be exploring multimodal texts through digital and virtual technology.
[This unit has been adapted and modified from the ‘Lively Literature’ Upper Primary series – Blake Education] / 10 weeks
Outcomes / Unit overview / Resources overview
English K-10
› EN31A communicates effectively for a variety of audiences and purposes using increasingly challenging topics, ideas, issues and language forms and features
› EN33A uses an integrated range of skills, strategies and knowledge to read, view and comprehend a wide range of texts in different media and technologies
› EN35B discusses how language is used to achieve a widening range of purposes for a widening range of audiences and contexts
› EN36B uses knowledge of sentence structure, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary to respond to and compose clear and cohesive texts in different media and technologies
› EN38D identifies and considers how different viewpoints of their world, including aspects of culture, are represented in texts / Omri's magic cupboard turns a plastic toy Indian into a live Native American warrior. The story explores Omri's attempts to keep this secret, and the dilemma he faces about whether to keep this miniature human as his own. Complications arise when a cowboy is brought to life and when Patrick, Omri's friend, threatens to reveal the secret.
Major Themes: Friendship, loyalty, bravery, magic, prejudices, character stereotypes.
Grammar Focus: Adverbs - words that add information to a verb, telling how, where, when or why. / ~ Multiple copies of the book for group reading.
~ Copy of the video, The Indian in the Cupboard.
~ Simpson, Judith, Native Americans, Allenand Unwin, 1995.
~ Weebly (website creator)
~ Sim On A Stick (Virtual World on a USB)
~ MInecraft
~iMovie
~ YouTube clips of old cowboy and Indian films.
~ Voki and/or Tellagami
Content / Teaching, learning and assessment / Registration /
Stage 3 - Speaking and listening
Students:
§ use metalanguage to describe the effects of ideas,text structures andlanguage features on particular audiences (ACELT1795)
§ plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content andmultimodal elements for defined audiences and purposes, making appropriate choices formodality and emphasis (ACELY1700, ACELY1710)
§ participate in and contribute to discussions, clarifying and interrogating ideas, developing and supporting arguments, sharing and evaluating information, experiences and opinions (ACELY1709)
Stage 3 - Reading and viewing
Students:
§ explain and justify the responsible use of digital technologies
§ navigate and read texts for specific purposes applying appropriate text processing strategies, for examplepredicting and confirming, monitoring meaning,skimming and scanning (ACELY1702)
§ use comprehension strategies to interpret and analyse information and ideas, comparing content from a variety of textual sources including media and digital texts (ACELY1703, ACELY1713)
§ recognise how aspects of personalperspective influence responses to text
Stage 3 - Responding and composing
Students:
Develop and apply contextual knowledge
§ identify and discuss how own texts have been structured to achieve theirpurposeand discuss ways of usingconventions of language to shape readers' and viewers' understanding of texts
Respond to andcompose texts
§ compose more complex texts using a variety of forms appropriate to purpose and audience
§ identify and use a variety of strategies to present information and opinions across a range of texts
Stage 3 - Grammar, punctuation and vocabulary
Understand and apply knowledge of language forms and features
§ understand how ideas can be expanded and sharpened through careful choice of verbs, elaboratedtenses and a range ofadverb groups/phrases (ACELA1523)
Stage 3 - Expressing themselves
Students:
Develop and apply contextual knowledge
§ identify aspects of literary texts that convey details or information about particular social, cultural and historical contexts (ACELT1608) / Into the Book:
Plastic Toys
§ Give each student a plastic toy. Have them examine their toy, silently attributing characteristics, name and possible history.
§ Students become the toy - walking about the room, meeting and greeting and talking about themselves.
§ Students form groups and improvise a scene using all their characters to depict one event performing their scene to the class.
§ Discuss the elements that were brought out in the scenes, especially those relevant to the novel, such as danger in a giant world.
§ Introduce the story – the story you are about to read is about tiny plastic figures brought to life.
Title and Cover
§ Discuss what the title might indicate about the story. Examine the cover of the book and discuss what can be deduced.
§ Questions:
§ Who does the eye belong to?
§ What is the significance of the key?
§ Does the cover make you want to read the story?
Blurb
§ Read aloud the blurb on the back cover and have students make predictions based on the blurb. Tell students the purpose of the blurb is to entice people to read the book, without giving away too much of the story. Ask students if this blurb does this.
§ Allow students to use this as a model to write a blurb for a book they have read recently, or one they have written. Discuss with students why publishers include quotes from reviews of the book and what other advertising is included in the book.
Native Americans and Cowboys
§ Jointly construct a chart of what students know about Native Americans and cowboys. Like Omri, students will probably have stereotypical views, but these will change as the story progresses and as they do their own research. Make a display chart with the following headings, that can be progressively added to as each chapter is read: things we know about Indians and Cowboys / things we found out about Indians and Cowboys.
Narrative
§ Discuss the structural elements of narrative text - orientation or setting, complication or problem, events and resolution. Make a wall chart and use these elements as headings. Tell students they will need to identify the settings, list major events, identify the complications and the way they inter-connect. Advise students that you will be asking them about the resolution at the end of the book, and they should be aware of the following while the book is being read:
§ Questions
§ Did the characters ring true?
§ Did events in the story seem believable and logical to you?
§ Did you find it satisfying?
Reading the Book
**During the reading of the book encourage students to use different forms of technology/web2.0 tools to present their work.
Have students create their own website using Weebly. They are to present their answers to each chapter on their website pages. Questions [See appendix 1].
Chapter 1:
Omri's friend Patrick gives him a plastic Indian for his birthday. Omri also receives a cupboard as one of his birthday gifts. When he locks the Indian in the cupboard, the Indian comes to life.
Chapter 2:
Omri and the Indian get to know each other. Omri realises that little bull will require careful and thoughtful treatment.
§ Have students create character profiles. i.e. Voki/Tellagami [See appendix 2]
§ Ask students to prepare a menu that would satisfy the Indian and which Omri would be able to provide.
§ Students work in small groups to imagine that a newspaper reporter has discovered Omri’s secret. Students can use the proforma to make notes [see appendix 3] before presenting their news report i.e. drama/film/iMovie/News Bulletin.
Chapter 3 & 4:
Omri makes a plastic horse come alive as a gift for little bull. when little bull is injured Omri puts a plastic WW1 medical orderly into the cupboard.
§ Imagine yourself as Little Bull. Draw the landscape of the garden from Little Bull’s perspective.
Chapter 5:
Tommy Atkins, the WW1 medical orderly, is convinced that he is dreaming, but still provides first aid for Little Bull. Little Bull prepares to build a longhouse.
§ Find out about World War 1, including what countries were involved and what conditions were like for soldiers like Tommy Atkins.
Chapter 6 :
Omri buys a plastic Indian Chief so that he can bring it to life and give Little Bull clothing and weapons. At school he makes a teepee for Little Bull. The old Chief dies after being brought to life. Little Bull now decides he is a Chief.
§ Organise students into groups to make a story map. Have one group map Omri’s bedroom. Ask another group to map the garden. Tell a third group to map school. Advise students’ that the maps will link to form a complete map of the story, so assign a fourth group the task of making the links between the maps. These will include Omri’s bedroom within the house and showing the door to the garden, the route to school, and perhaps under the floorboards where the rat attack takes place. Remind students to add to the maps after each chapter, so that at the end of the story the maps will culminate in a larger wall display. Have students use the same scale when drawing their map.
Chapter 7:
Omri brings Patrick home to see Little Bull. Omri’s brothers have entered his room but the Indian hides from them. Patrick demands that other toys be brought to life but Omri refuses.
§ Find out what a longhouse is like, and what a life-size one is made of. Make models of Indian longhouses, teepees and tools. Make model Indians to inhabit these dwellings. Use a seed tray or baking dish filled with soil as the ‘ground’ for the model.
Chapter 8:
While Omri is out of the room, Patrick puts a plastic cowboy in the cupboard. The cowboy has a gun and shoots Patrick. Little Bull demands a wife. Patrick threatens to tell the secret unless Omri brings the cowboy to school.
§ Have students make bookmarks featuring a main character. Allow students, to use their character profile notes to write a description of the character on the bookmark. Draw or design on computer. Print and laminate.
Chapter 9 & 10:
Omri is woken early in the morning by the sounds of a battle between the Indian and the cowboy. He introduces them and makes them share breakfast.
§ Ask students to begin a character profile for Boone i.e. Voki/Tellagami. Have students write a sentence, using characters from the book, for each of the feeling words listed. Tell students each sentence must say WHO had this feeling, and WHEN or WHY they felt this way. Point out to students that an example has been provided [See appendix 4].
Chapters 11 & 12:
The boys, trying to keep the Indian and cowboy a secret at school, get into trouble. Patrick is forced to show them to the headmaster.
§ Crossword Puzzle [See appendix 5]
§ Organise students into groups and have them role-play adults being confronted with the miniature cowboy and Indian. An alternative role-play could be interaction between the cowboy and Indian inside the pocket.
Chapter 13:
In the art class, Omri lets Little Bull and Boone out so they can see what is going on. Boone draws a tiny picture of his town, and the art teacher is impressed, thinking Omri has done it. On the way home, Omri buys a wife for Little Bull and is accused of stealing other plastic figures from the shop.
§ Encourage students to draw a tiny, detailed picture such as Boone or Little Bull might have drawn in the art class.
§ Remind students that the story is written from Omri’s point of view. Ask students to select an incident in the story so far and write it from Patrick’s viewpoint. Advise students that this will help contrast the different attitudes each boy has to a ‘live’ toy.
Chapter 14 & 15:
Omri’s brother has hidden the cupboard, and when it is found the key is missing. Little Bull and Boone fight again, and the cowboy is wounded by an arrow. Little Bull ventures under the floorboards to look for the missing key and escapes a rat attack. Omri brings Tommy Atkins to life to treat a dangerously ill Boone.
§ Ask students to describe Little Bull’s search under the floor for the key. Tell students to write an account of it using ‘Indian English’, which is the style the author uses when Little Bull is speaking.
§ Synonyms – have students write descriptions using synonyms. Explain that synonyms are words with similar meanings. Point out to students that they have been given the character who is speaking, the character they are describing and one describing word. Ask students to complete the sentences by providing three synonyms.
§ Hold a viewing session of YouTube clips and look at selected parts of an old cowboy and Indian film. Note the stereotypes, and discuss how these scenes would affect Little Bull and Boone.
Chapter 16:
The plastic female Indian is brought to life and she looks after Boone, thus affecting reconciliation between Little Bull and Boone. Omri decides that the Indians and the cowboy should be sent back to their own times, and returns them to the cupboard.
Beyond the Book
Movie Version:
§ Look at the film version of The Indian in the Cupboard and list the differences. Ask students if they agree with the changes made and discuss why the film makers might have made these changes.
§ Have students imagine the next adventure of the Indian and/or the cowboy. Explain how moviemakers plan the screeplay using a storyboard depicting the main action in sequence. Tell students to draw /write/act out their main events.
§ Read other stories or look at films that deal with tiny people or creatures, such as The Borrowers, A Flock Of Blats, James and the Giant Peach, or Bob the Builder and the Elves.
§ Students are to work in small groups to create a new movie trailer for ‘The Indian In The Cupboard’ using iMovie.
Students’ Versions:
§ Ask students to write stories about plastic toys they have which they could bring to life. Tell students to publicise their stories using the plastic figures featured in their stories.
Headlines:
§ Have students devise headlines for various significant events in the novel, for example ‘Rat Attack!’ or ‘Cowboy Lives!’ Display these as newspaper flyers in order to promote the book to other classes. Students may choose to use image chef website to present their headlines.
Glossary:
§ Have students construct a glossary of the words listed, which were used by Boone and Little Bull [see appendix 6]. Explain what and how to use a glossary.
Board Game:
§ Have students make a board game related to the novel. Ask students to plot the sequence of main events on the board. Tell students to plan rewards (such as ‘go forward two spaces’ or ‘have another turn’) and punishments
(such as ‘miss a turn’). In turns, players throw dice and move around the ‘trail’. Remind students to write a set of instructions for their board games. Allow students to play each other’s’ games and give feedback to the designers of each game.
Favourite Scene:
§ Have students create their favourite scene using Sim On A Stick. Make sure they have accompanying note cards explaining why this was their favourite scene.
Evaluation
Appendix 1 - Chapter Questions: