Series of Lessons 8 English lessons using Luke & Freebody’s Four Reading Resources Model for reading(1999) , and Rose’s genre teaching and learning cycle for writing (2005).

One picture book and one factual text have been used as a focus for the series of eight English lessons. The narrative The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers was chosen as the picture book for two reasons; weighty themes of loss, grief, loneliness and love are explored; and visual literacy is needed to de-code, interpret, and comprehend the text. The main character in The Heart and the Bottle has a fascination with stars and which was the deciding factor in choosing the corresponding factual text, The Science of the Stars, by Derek Agnew (taken from the website ABC Spark). The similar subject matter of the texts enabled the lessons to be linked coherently and enhances the teaching of both texts. The issues covered in the picture book and both the content and vocabulary of the factual text are appropriate to be explored at grade 5/6 level and AusVELS level 4 descriptors have been outlined for each lesson. The sequencing of the lessons is fluid and introduces each text allowing children to explore and critically reflect on the texts both grammatically and structurally whilst working through the lessons. Each writing lesson uses the Rose’s 2005 genre teaching and learning cycle for writing which the DEECD (2012) describes as a three step process; joint deconstruction, join construction, and individual construction of text. The reading lessons incorporate all four of the reading practices according to Luke and Freebody’s model (1999) which are described by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development [DEECD] (2009) as what students need in order to be literate. Using both these models in the lessons builds on the children’s prior knowledge and produce skills which are required to obtain the aims of the English domain. These aims are outlined by the AusVELS (2012) as “to engage imaginatively and critically with literature to expand the scope of their (the students’) experience”.

Lesson no. 1 Text: The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers Reading practice: Code Breaker

Outcomes / Indicators / Descriptors

Explicit teaching Assessment Resources

Explore the effect of choices when framing an image, placement of elements in the image, and salience on composition of still and moving images in a range of types of texts (ACELA1496)Discuss how authors and illustrators make stories exciting, moving and absorbing and hold readers’ interest by using various techniques, for example character development and plot tension (ACELT1605)Use metalanguage to describe the effects of ideas, text structures and language features of literary texts (ACELT1604)Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts (ACELY1692)

Discuss literary experiences

Before reading: Show the book with the title covered. Discuss what the title of the book might be and what it might be about.Field building - Talk about the image of the heart – what does a heart symbolize (feelings e.g. love, heartbreak, heartache). Discuss how the heart symbolizes this even though the brain processes feelings. What about the bottle –what could it symbolize? Discuss bottling up feelings. Why would someone bottle up feelings? Is it healthy to bottle up feelings? Discuss again what the book might be about.During reading: Read through the book allowing children to absorb the imagery that goes along with the story.After reading: What information does “once there was” give us? (time code, past tense) Discuss: what does “curiosities” mean? Have children look it up in the dictionary, or online, including the etymological definition and brainstorm what some curiosities of the world might be. How does the girl abate her curiosity? (the man tells her things, they read in books, they discover together) What does the use of the punctuation…mean/infer? Refer to several pages where this is used. Discuss how it continues the sentence or phrase and makes us read further or turn the pageDiscuss imagery and how it affects the story. What information can we gather from the images that we don’t get from the text? (the man, friendship, sharing, death, sadness). What else is used in the images to add to the feelings in the story (colour, weather) Have children complete worksheet (see appendix 1a)Reflection: group discussion on findings after completing worksheet. Look at The Heart and the Bottle iPad app – what does being able to interact with the images bring to the story? How do sound effects support the story?

Contribution to class discussion

Completion of worksheet (appendix ) with good reasoning and comprehension of visual literacy cues

Multiple copies ofThe Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers

Worksheet (see appendix 1a)

ipad(s) and The Heart and The Bottle app for iPad

with others, sharing responses and expressing a point of view (ACELT1603)

Appendix 1a – The Heart and the Bottle worksheet (Code breaker)

The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver JeffersWrite the definition of curiosities.

List some things that you think are ‘curiosities of the world’

How has the author used colour in his images to represent feelings?

What effect has the use of diagramming (speech bubbles) had on the story?

How has movement been shown in the pictures? (give some examples)

What emotions can you see from looking at the pictures?

How is colour used in the images?

What do you think the images with no background symbolize?

Write a brief summary of the story in your own words.

Lesson no. 2 Text: The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers Reading practice: Text Analyst (grammar)

AusVELS level 4 Descriptors Explicit teaching Assessment Resources

Use metalanguage to describe the effects of ideas, text structures and language features of literary texts (ACELT1604)

Read different types of texts by combining contextual , semantic, grammatical and phonic knowledge using text processing strategies for example monitoring meaning, cross checking and reviewing (ACELY1691)

Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts (ACELY1692)

Before reading: Tell students we are going to analyse what the author is trying to convey in the story. Brainstorm on WB what themes the children can pick up and what they think the author is trying to inferDuring reading: Re-read story and add any more themes that might appear. Is the author trying to give us a message? If so, what? After reading: Watch Oliver Jeffers interview on YouTube until 1’50”. Discuss other themes mentioned and how the author’s opinion is portrayed in the book (i.e. it’s unhealthy to bottle up your feelings, celebrate life).Model making a wordle using text from blurb inside the front cover of the book. Ask children to create a Wordle using pertinent words from the text up until the page where the girl is running with her drawing|(see example appendix 2a) Then ask students to create a wordle using pertinent words from the rest of the story (see example appendix 2b). Have children compare the Wordles and answer the question “how has the author used grammar to construct meaning in the text?” Discuss the positive words in the first wordleDiscuss negative connotations of the words in the second Wordle.Get children to brainstorm more words that would fit into the story and add to the first wordle (friend, explore)Get children to think of 2 more contractions, adjectives and verbs that would suit the story and the second wordle.Reflection: show each person’s wordle and discuss what words they have added and why

Observation of understanding of themes and author’s opinion

Creation of 2 Wordles with appropriate words added to fit in with the story. Understanding of contractions, verbs and adjectives

The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers

IWB

Appendix 2a and 2b for reference

You tube clip : Oliver Jeffers interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F1frNrpglA from beginning until 1’50”

PCs/net books

www.wordle.net

Appendix 2a – example Wordle from start of text

Appendix 2b – example Wordle from completion of text

Negative contractions; couldn’t, didn’t. Adjectives; empty, awkward, heavy. Verbs; forgot, stopped

Lesson no. 3 Text: The Heart and the Bottle by O. Jeffers Spelling (hard and soft C)

AusVELS Descriptor Level 4 Explicit teaching Assessment Resources

Understand how to use strategies for spelling words, including spelling rules, knowledge of morphemic word families, spelling generalizations, and letter combinations including double letters (ACELA1779)

Incorporate new vocabulary from a range of sources into students’ own texts including vocabulary encountered in research (ACELA1498)

Building the field:Ask children what sound does the letter c make? (kuh)Prompt for (sss) if not heard. Explain the terms hard and soft c.Brainstorm other words as a class. Make a table on the whiteboard with two columns titled Hard C and Soft C and sort each brainstormed word into columns

Joint: Give children 5 minutes in small groups to see if they can work out a rule for identifying whether there should be a hard or soft c when spelling a word

Come back together as a group and talk about theories. Make a rule as a group which can be displayed in the room for future reference (see example appendix 3a)

Independent: Give children a copy of the text of The Heart and the Bottle. Ask children to go through and find words that start with and contain the letter c, and put them in the right column (appendix 3b). Early finishers can look through other texts and identify c words and add them to their table

Reflection: Bring children together and talk about which column had the most words, is there a trend? Are there any words that contain

Contribution to class discussion

Identifies all hard c and soft c words from the text and places them appropriately in the table

Uses the spelling rule to identify where

Individual copies of the text from The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers

Display paper and markers (A3)

Appendix 3a and 3b for reference

both a soft and hard c? E.g. cycle, circle, circus, circuit. Write some challenging c words on the whiteboard and get children to work out the pronunciation using the rule

to use a hard or soft c

Appendix 3a

Rule for Hard and Soft C

When c is followed by e, i or y, it says "s". Otherwise it says "k".

Appendix 3b

Hard or soft C – from the text from The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers

Hard C Soft C

curiositiesbecome

cameoccurredcouldn’t

noticedecidedbounced

once

Lesson no. 4 Text: The Science of Stars by Derek Agnew from ABC Spark website Reading practice: Text Participant

AusVELS level 4 Descriptors Explicit teaching Assessment Resources

Understand how texts vary in complexity and technicality depending on the approach to the topic, the purpose and the intended audience (ACELA1490)

Identify features of online texts that enhance readability including text, navigation, links, graphics and layout

Before reading: Read the title of the text “The Science of the Stars” and discuss what sort of text it might be (informative). Who would the audience be? (people interested in stars, students) What sort of word/writing would we expect to see in an informative/factual text? (facts, scientific words, formal language). Explain that we will be reading the text and then charting the facts that we have learned from the text.

During reading: Read text aloud and ask for some facts that the children heard mentioned. Joint deconstruction:Discuss how we could classify the information we have heard. (colour, size, names etc)Joint construction:

Contribution to discussion on informative/factual texts.

Extraction of facts from the

Individual copies of the factual text – The Science of the Stars by Derek Agnew, from ABC Spark website

(ACELA1793)

Identify characteristic features used in imaginative, informative and persuasive texts to meet the purpose of the text (ACELY1690)

Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts (ACELY1692)

Model using information from the text and classifying into a table (see appendix 4a for list of facts)Individual construction:Give each child a copy of the text and get them to write down as many facts as they can from the text.Get the children to make a chart of all the facts that they have found using own headings to group facts.

After reading: Reflection: Discuss some of the headings children used for their information. Now show the image from the text. Discuss how this had added meaning to the text or what the children have gleaned from the image. Can we be sure that the information we have gleaned is factual? Talk about inferences. What other information can we infer from the text - what would it sound like, look like, feel like in space amongst the stars using the knowledge we have gleaned from the facts?

text classified correctly according to labeling

Contribution to discussion regarding inferring information from texts

Whiteboard

Appendix 4a for reference

Appendix 4a

Facts from text of The Science of the Stars by Derek Agnew

Stars are giant balls of burning gasA star is formed by a nuclear reactionStars release energy as light and heatStars are described by their colour and sizeBlue stars are the hottest, then white, yellow, orange and red (coolest)

Small stars are called dwarvesLarge stars are giantsThe biggest stars are supergiantsOur sun is a yellow dwarf and is quite commonA giant star is 30 times the size of the SunA supergiant is 10 times the size of a giantStars eventually fade out or explodeWhite dwarves get dimmer until they become black dwarves or dead starsBlue supergiants create and enormous explosion called a supernova.Sometimes when a huge star dies it creates a black hole

Lesson no. 5 Text: The Science of Stars by Derek Agnew Stage in the curriculum cycle: Complete Cycle

AusVELS level 4 Descriptors Explicit teaching Assessment ResourcesIncorporate new vocabulary from a range of sources into students’ own texts including vocabulary encountered in research (ACELA1498)Recognise how quotation marks are used in texts to signal dialogue, titles and quoted (direct) speech (ACELA1492)Plan, draft & publish imaginative, informative & persuasive texts containing key information and supporting details for a widening

Building the field – Explain to students that we will be using facts gleaned from informative text The Science of the Stars in lesson 4 to make a conversation between the little girl and the man in The Heart and the Bottle Joint deconstruction:Brainstorm facts that can be remembered from The Science of the Stars text as group and refer to fact table created in lesson 4.Reintroduce the text on IWB and add any facts overlooked.Show image from The Heart and the Bottle ( page with text “with thoughts of the stars”) on IWB

Discuss: How would we need to change the facts to use them in an

Detailed list of facts from The Science of the Stars text created

Creates a

Text from The Science of the Stars by Derek Agnew on IWB

Image from The Heart and the Bottle on IWB (see appendix 5a)

range of audiences, demonstrating increasing control over text structures & language features (ACELY1694)

Reread and edit for meaning by adding, deleting or moving words or word groups to improve content and structure (ACELY1695) Understand how texts vary in complexity and technicality depending on the approach to the topic, the purpose and the intended audience (ACELA1490)Use comprehension strategies to build literal & inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating & linking ideas & analysing & evaluating texts (ACELY1692)

imagined conversation between the little girl and the man to suit a narrative text? How do you think a conversation between them would look? (girl asks questions, man answers them, girl observes aloud, man explains). Ask what kind of punctuation would we use for a conversation of this kind (quotation marks, question marks)

Joint construction of text:Model example on white board e.g. The man and the girl lay on the ground and looked at the stars. “I like the red star over there” said the girl. “Did you know you can tell how hot a star is by its colour?” asked the man. “Red stars are the coolest and blue are the hottest” he added. Ask children for more examples of how the two could interact using the facts from the list.

Independent construction of text: children work on creating a conversation of their own between the man and the girl using the facts from the WB and the image from the picture book to set the scene

conversational narrative text appropriate to the image using facts gleaned from the factual text

Appendix 5a – scanned image from The Heart and the Bottle – with thoughts of the stars.

Lesson no. 6 Text: The Science of Stars by Derek Agnew Reading practice: Text User (grammar- pronoun reference and connectives)

Outcomes / Indicators / Descriptors

Explicit teaching Assessment Resources

Understand how texts are made cohesive through the use of linking devices including pronoun reference and text connectives (ACELA1491)

Understand how texts vary in complexity and technicality depending on the approach to the topic, the purpose and the intended audience (ACELA1490)

Before reading: reflect on the text introduced in lesson 4 Discuss the purpose of the text (to gain facts about stars). What tense is the text? (present). Why is present tense used? (as its current and factual)

During reading: Introduce connectives. Connectives are words such as but, if and therefore which indicate logical relations between two clauses or sentences. Give an example and ask children to find examples in the text (see appendix 5a). Have children underline each connective in red. What is the purpose of each connective – what would the sentence look/sound like without using a connective?Discuss pronoun reference. E.g. Jan went to bed as she was tired. She is the pronoun referring to Jan. Note ‘as’ is a connective.Ask the children to identify pronoun references in the text and mark each one in green. (See appendix 6a) Discussion regarding how pronoun reference helped the text. Activity – children use conversation from lesson 5 and underline connectives used in red and pronoun reference in green. Re-read the text taking out the pronoun reference and the connectives.

After reading: Discuss: How has the text changed? How have connectives and pronoun references helped the text structure and meaning?

Contribution to discussion regarding informative texts

Correct location of connectives in the text

Correct location of pronoun references in the text

Contribution to discussion regarding how grammar has helped construct meaning

Individual copies of text from The Science of the Stars by Derek Agnew from ABC Spark website

Appendix 6a for reference

Appendix 6a: connectives highlighted in red, pronoun references in green

Derek Agnew investigates the Science of... the Stars.

In the night sky, stars are distant little twinkling lights. But if you could get up close you would find stars are actually giant balls of burning gas.

Great Balls of FireA star is formed when a huge cloud of dust and gas called a nebula is drawn together by gravity until it's hot enough to ignite in an enormous nuclear reaction. Unlike nuclear weapons, which split atoms to release energy (nuclear fission), stars join atoms together (nuclear fusion) and release energy as light and heat. Most stars fuse hydrogen into helium. Old stars that have burned all the hydrogen in their core start to fuse helium into heavier elements like carbon and oxygen. Nearly all heavy elements in the universe were originally made inside stars, including the carbon our bodies are made of and the oxygen in the air we breathe.

White Dwarves and Red GiantsStars are described by their colour and size. The colour of a star's light can be used to estimate the temperature on its surface, and ranges from blue (the hottest) down through white, yellow, orange and red (the coolest). The size of a star fluctuates throughout its life. Small stars are called dwarves, larger stars are called giants and the biggest are called supergiants. Our Sun is a yellow dwarf, a fairly common type of star.A giant is 30 times the size of the Sun and a supergiant is 10 times the size of a giant. Some supergiants are almost as large as our entire solar system.

This is the End

Eventually stars exhaust their fuel and either fade out or explode. White dwarves go quietly, growing cooler and dimmer until all their energy is gone and they become black dwarves or dead stars. Blue supergiants go out with a bang in an enormous explosion called a supernova. Usually an extremely dense neutron star is the result but sometimes the death of a massive star gives birth to a black hole.

Did you know?

The Sun is one of over 100 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. The Sun is already 4.6 billion years old and is expected to shine for about another 5 billion years.

Lesson no. 7 Text: The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers Stage in the curriculum cycle: Complete cycle

AusVELS level 4 Descriptors Explicit teaching Assessment ResourcesCreate literary texts that explore students’ own experiences and imagining (ACELT1607)

Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts containing key information and supporting details for a widening range of audiences, demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features (ACELY1694)

o

Reread and edit for meaning by adding, deleting or moving words or word groups to improve content and structure (ACELY1695)

Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts (ACELY1692)

Identify characteristic features used in imaginative, informative and persuasive texts to meet the purpose of the text (ACELY1690)

Joint deconstruction of text:Building the field: Discuss would the story of The Heart and the Bottle make sense without the pictures? Why not? What is missing from the text that we can glean from the images? (the man, the friendship/relationship b/w man and girl, feelings)Explain task: to re-write the text so that the story will be understood without the images but aimed at the same audience.What would we need to include? What can only be seen or gleaned from the images that are not in the text?(thoughts, conversation, emotions)

Joint construction of the text:Model the first page – what do we need to include here? (the man). How could we describe the little girl? (curious) How could we describe the man? (old) What is their relationship? (friends) Explain that we will need to add a lot of the descriptive language that the pictures bring to the story. E.g. “Once there was a little girl and an old man who were friends. The little girl was very curious and the old man would help her find the answers to her questions. They would do a lot of things together like reading books and going to the beach and exploring.”

Independent construction of the text:Independently students write the text in narrative form so it can be read without the pictures and aimed at a primary school audience.Reflection: Regroup to share each other’s stories. Discuss appropriateness of text and inclusion of all aspects of the story. Construct a class story using component from all texts

Interpretation of images

Construction of a narrative text aimed at appropriate audience interpreting cues and symbolism in the imagery and converting into descriptive text.

Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers – several copies.

Lesson no. 8 Text: The Science of Stars by Derek Agnew Stage in the curriculum cycle: Grammar - Prepositional phrases using complete curriculum cycle

AusVELS level 4 Descriptors

Explicit teaching Assessment Resources

Incorporate new vocabulary from a range of sources into students’ own texts including vocabulary encountered in research (ACELA1498)

Reread and edit for meaning by adding, deleting or moving words or word groups to improve content and structure (ACELY1695)

Understand that the meaning of sentences can be enriched through the use of noun groups/phrases and verb groups/phrases and prepositional phrases (ACELA1493)

Joint deconstruction of text: Field Building: explain to children that we will be reviewing the factual text. Then, posing as an astronaut, children will write a journal entry describing the sights and sounds around them using information from the factual text and knowledge gleaned from field-building activities. Discuss what the children already know about stars from the text and how they could use this knowledge in a journal entry. How would this kind of writing differ from the factual text? What would the tense be?Introduce prepositional phrases - prepositional phrase is one that begins with a preposition -- such as "in," "with," or "to" -- and ends with a noun, pronoun, gerund or clause, which serves as the object of that preposition for example: in the universe. Give children a copy of the text and get them to highlight other prepositional phrases. Discuss how the prepositional phrases help give meaning to the text.Introduce Genre; Journal writing. Children will pretend to be a space explorer who is submitting an entry into his journal describing where they are and what they see and feel. As a group discuss elements of a journal. Discuss what sort of language will be used, in particular adjectives and nouns. Joint construction of text: Model a sample entry including date and using facts from lesson 4 (see appendix 4a). Include prepositional phrases as often as possible to enhance the text e.g. Today I was travelled to Jupiter and I landed on its surface. Independent construction of text: Children independently create their journal entry using facts from their fact table from lesson 4 including and underlining as many prepositional phrases as possible in the entry.

Assessment: diagnostic assessment during field building at the beginning of the lesson to assess what they already know. Formative assessment: observation and questioning during the lesson. Summative assessment: Each student’s entry will be assessed according to structure, tense, punctuation, use of facts, punctuation and grammar. Inclusion and identifying of prepositional phrases will also be assessed.

Text from The Science of the Stars by Derek Agnew

Fact tables from lesson 4

References

Agnew, D. (2009). The Science of the Stars. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/spark/scienceof/stars.htm

AusVELS. (2012). English: Rationale and Aims. Retrieved from http://ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/English/Overview/Rationale-and-Aims

Bold Creative Apps. (2011). Oliver Jeffers Interview: The Story of a Sketchbook [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F1frNrpglA

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2009). Teaching Reading Using the Four Resource Model. Retrieved from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/english/literacy/strategies/4codebreaktsl4.htm

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2012). Overview of Literacy Learning. Retrieved from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/english/literacy/litoview.htm#2

Jeffers, O. (2010). The Heart and the Bottle. Hammersmith, UK: HarperCollins

Weheartbooks. (2010). The Heart and the Bottle Cover design [digital image]. Retrieved from http://weheartbooks.com/2010/01/29/the-heart-and-the-bottle/

Winch, G., Ross Johnston, R., March, P., Ljungdahl, L., & Holliday, M. (2010). Literacy Reading, Writing and Children’s Literature. (4th ed.). Melbourne, Victoria: Oxford University Press