Unit of Work: Term 4 2014
MARC Library
Unit of Work: Term 4 2014
MIDDLE/UPPER PRIMARY
AUTHOR STUDY: Paul Jennings
Learning Focus
(AusVELs used as the basis for all planning)
English
Literacy
Sub Strand: Interacting with others
- Use interaction skills, including active listening behaviours and communicate in a clear, coherent manner using a variety of everyday and learned vocabulary and appropriate tone, pace, pitch and volume.
- Interpret ideas and information in spoken texts and listen for key points in order to carry out tasks and use information to share and extend ideas and information.
- Listen to and contribute to conversations and discussions to share information and ideas and negotiate in collaborative situations.
Sub Strand: Creating Texts
- Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating text.
- Identify the audience and purpose of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts.
Sub Strand: Creating Texts
- Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts demonstrating increased control over text structures and language features, and selecting print and multimodal elements appropriate to the audience and purpose.
Literature
Sub Strand: Examining literature
- Discuss how language is used to describe settings in texts, and explore how the settings shape the events and influence the mood of the narrative.
- Discuss how authors and illustrators make stories exciting, moving and hold readers’ interest by using various techniques, for example character development and plot tension.
Sub Strand: Creating Literature
- Create literary texts by developing storyline, characters and settings.
Years 3-6
Lesson 1Collection of
books written by Paul Jennings / Learning Intention:
Be able to listen to and contribute to discussion, sharing information and ideas.
For students to interpret ideas and information in spoken texts and listen for key points in order to carry out tasks.
Success Criteria:
Be able to identify key points about the life of Paul Jennings when accessing his official website.
Be able to contribute and share information about Paul Jennings in a whole class discussion.
Be able to complete a LADDER of KNOWLEDGE about the life of Paul Jennings, listing all the new knowledge they have attained throughout the lesson. / Lesson Plan
Prior Knowledge: Task
Give each student a copy of the ‘LADDER OF KNOWLEDGE’. Ask students to write down what they already know about Paul Jennings on each rung.
Whole Class Discussion
Show students an old treasure chest of books. Ask students to guess the titles of books that are inside the treasure chest. Make a list of each title that they correctly guess on the whiteboard. Show students the remaining books in the chest and make a display of Paul Jennings’ books. Sort each book into the correct series.
Internet
Students view his official website and interpret information, identifying key points about the life of Paul Jennings. .
What new knowledge have you learnt about Paul Jennings from his official website?
Individual Task
Add any new knowledge that has been learnt about Paul Jennings during the lesson.
Early Finishers
Browse through the collection of Paul Jennings books on display.
. / Requirements
A collection of books written by Paul Jennings
Treasure chest
A3 copy of the LADDER of KNOWLEDGE
Access to the Internet
Lesson 2
The Paw Thing
by Paul Jennings / Learning Intention:
Discuss how language is used to describe settings in texts, and explore how the settings shape the events and influence the mood of the narrative.
To be able to use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, as well as linking ideas and thoughts.
Success Criteria:
Be able to contribute and share information about the main characters and the setting in ‘The Paw Thing’ during a whole class discussion.
Be able to accurately draw a picture of the setting at the beginning and show how it changes over time.
Accurately identify the character who is talking by matching the speech bubble with a picture of the character. / Lesson Plan
Whole Class Discussion
Revisit the previous lesson. What have we learnt about Paul Jennings so far? What is the title of the first book in the series about Singenpoo?
Read ‘The Paw Thing’ by Paul Jennings (up to Page 12)
Whole Class Discussion
What has Paul Jennings done to ensure that he engages the reader at the beginning of this story?
Focus on the humour of the storyline and the appealing nature of Singenpoo.
Finish reading ‘The Paw Thing’ by Paul Jennings.
Make a list of the characters in the story on the whiteboard. Identify the main characters in the story.
Why are they the main characters?
What was the setting at the very beginning of the story? How did it change? What was the setting like when all the mice appeared in the shop? What type of language did he use to change the mood of the setting?
Individual Task 1
Give each student a piece of A4 paper folded in three. Ask students to draw three pictures that show how the setting (in the chicken shop) changes throughout the book.
Individual Task 2
Who’s this Talking? - Match the speech bubble with the correct character from the story. / Requirements
A collection of books written by Paul Jennings
‘The Paw Thing’ by Paul Jennings
Worksheet- Who’s this Talking?
A4 sheet of white paper folded in three.
Lesson 3 / Learning Intention:
For students to interpret ideas and information in spoken texts and listen for key points in order to carry out tasks.
Success Criteria:
Accurately complete a profile page based on that of the main character in ‘Do Not Look Now 1’. / Lesson Plan
YouTube Clip
Introduce the new series by Paul Jennings-Paul discusses ‘Don’t Look Now’ and describes the idea behind the series.
Whole Class Discussion
Why did Paul write this series? Where did his inspiration come from?
Read ‘Don’t Look Now 1’ by Paul Jennings
Whole Class Discussion
How important are the illustrations to your understanding of this story?
What other book, written by another author, does that remind you of?
What do you notice about Ricky’s profile? (refer to an enlarged laminated picture of the profile taken from ‘Don’t Look Now 1’)
Why do you think Paul Jennings has created a character with this type of profile?
Ricky can fly. What would you like to be able to do?
Individual Task
Each child is to complete a profile page based on the profile of the main character in ‘Don’t Look Now 1’. You must include something out of the ordinary that you would like to be able to do.
Share individual profile page with the whole class. / Requirements
Don’t Look Now series of books written by Paul Jennings
A large laminated copy of Ricky’s profile taken from ‘Don’t Look Now 1’
Access to the Internet
Individual profile page
Lesson 4
Unbelievable
by Paul Jennings / Learning Intention:
For students to interpret ideas and information in spoken texts and listen for key points in order to carry out tasks.
Success Criteria:
Be able to successfully predict an ending for the Pink Bow Tie. / Lesson Plan
Show students the very first book that was written by Paul Jennings- Unreal! It was published in 1985. Show students another book from that series called Unbelievable that was published the following year.
Begin to read a story from Unbelievable called ‘Pink Bow Tie’ (up to Page 6).
Individual Task 1
Students are to predict an ending to the story and write a short description of what may happen.
Share predictions with the whole class.
Read the last part of the ‘Pink Bow Tie’.
Whole Class Discussion
Explain that the teacher read this story to a group of Year 5/6 student in 1986……. and they loved it!
Why do you think this story can be read in 2014 and children still love it?
Why has Paul Jennings’ writing stood the test of time?
Focus on his humour and the unpredictability of his stories- he has some great twist and his ideas are weird and wacky!
Individual Task 2
Pretend that they are a principal of their own school. Rule 1 is that all students must wear a bow tie as part of the school uniform. Children are to make up 5 more school rules- remembering that rules must have a touch of humour just like Paul Jennings in his writing. Create a sign for the front entrance of your school listing all rules.
Give each student an outline of a bow tie and they must create their own design. / Requirements
‘Unbelievable’ and ‘Unreal’
by Paul Jennings
An outline of a bow tie
A small piece of white card to create sign for school rules
Lesson 5/6
Rascal the Dragon
by Paul Jennings
Rascal’s Trick
by Paul Jennings
Rascal and the Hot Air Balloon
by Paul Jennings / Learning Intention:
To understand how make stories exciting, moving and hold readers’ interest by using various techniques, for example character development and plot tension.
Success Criteria:
Students will be able to list at least 10 words that best describe Rascal and why he is such an appealing character.
Students will be able to identify how Paul Jennings is able to hold the reader’s interest when creating a plot and then plan a Rascal story of their own. / Lesson Plan
Read ‘Rascal the Dragon’ by Paul Jennings.
Whole Class Discussion
Why do you think young children love this character? What is it about Rascal that makes him so appealing? Does he remind you of another animal- perhaps a pet you have at home?
Make a list of describing words on the whiteboard that best describe Rascal. Focus on the fact that Rascal is very unique but at the same time demonstrates very familiar behaviour.
Individual Task
Choose ten words from the list that you think best describe Rascal and write these around a picture of Rascal.
Read ‘Rascal’s Trick’ and ‘Rascal and the Hot Air Balloon’ by Paul Jennings.
Whole Class Discussion
Students have identified how important character development is to the success of a story and the focus is now the importance of a good storyline.
What is it about the storyline in the each of the Rascal books that is appealing to the reader? What makes them work?
List the students’ ideas on the whiteboard (e.g. simple, interesting, the unexpected twist, use of language, unusual names for the characters, etc).
Small Group Task
Plan the next book in the Rascal series for Paul Jennings.
Include- main characters, setting, plot and expected twist at the end.
Share ideas with the whole class.
Extension
Each student in the small group to design a front cover for the new book in the Rascal series. / Requirements
Books from the Rascal series of books written by Paul Jennings
A4 picture of Rascal
A3 sheets of coloured cover paper
Lesson 7/8
The Funniest Stories
by Paul Jennings
Cow Dung Custard
Smart Ice-cream / Learning Intention:
Be able to identify how Paul Jennings can make stories exciting, moving and absorbing and hold readers’ interest by using various techniques, for example character development and plot tension.
Be able to successfully use comprehension strategies to be able to link ideas between two texts.
Success Criteria:
Be able to predict and write down the possible inspiration for Cow Dung Custard and Smart Ice-cream.
Accurately complete a VENN diagram showing the similarities and differences between Cow Dung Custard and Smart Ice-cream. / Lesson Plan
Whole Class Discussion
Paul Jennings comes up with some weird and wacky ideas in his writing. What type of person do you think he is? Where do you think he gets his inspiration from for each story?
Read ‘Cow Dung Custard’ by Paul Jennings.
Individual Task 1
Write down on a strip of paper where you think he may have got his inspiration for this story. Share with the whole class.
Read ‘Smart Ice-cream’ by Paul Jennings
Individual Task 2
Write down on a strip of coloured cover paper where the inspiration for this story may have come from?
Whole Class Activity
Create a whole class VENN diagram making connections between these two texts- Cow Dung Custard and Smart Ice-cream. This will lead to discussion on bullying.
Copy VENN diagram into workbooks. / Requirements
‘Funniest Stories’
by Paul Jennings
Strips of coloured cover paper
Whiteboard/ Whiteboard markers
Lesson 8
FOR YEAR 5/6 STUDENTS
0NLY / YEAR 5/6 STUDENTS- EXCURSION TO THE HOME OF PAUL JENNINGS
Reflection Activity- Write a thank you letter to Paul Jennings
Include:
- A greeting
- Describe favourite part of the day
- Tell him something you learnt about him as a an author
- Tell him about your favourite book or story and why
- Thank him for the day