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Fiction Level 1-2 - A Strange Visitor: Session 3

Session 3: Read pages 6–9

Sample text: A Strange Visitor
(Mary O’Toole, Macmillan Company, Australia)

 

Collate what the students know

Students review and collate what they already know about the novel. They:

  • Imagine that they were in the room with the old lady. Students describe what has happened so far.
  • Review by reading some of the key words on the cards made the previous sessions, for example, ‘night’, ‘old’, ‘lady’, ‘lived’, ‘dark’, ‘night’, ‘woman’, ‘spun’, ‘wool’, ‘herself’, ‘visit’, ‘come’, ‘lonely’, ‘strange’, ‘visitor’, ‘bush’, ‘waited’ and ‘door’.
  • Think ahead by suggesting questions the next few pages might answer. These are collated, for example:
    • ‘Who comes to visit next?’
    • ‘What things does the old lady do?’
    • ‘What things can you do to help you to understand what to do when you read?’
    • ‘What words might the next few pages say?’

 

Read pages 6–7 using comprehending and consolidating strategies while reading

The aim of these activities is to assist students to continue to learn During Reading Strategies interactively. The teaching cues and scaffolds various reading strategies and focuses attention on identifying sources of information in the text in systematic ways.

The teacher reads each sentence initially and one or more students repeat the reading aloud. Each sentence is read twice. The group of students can read it in unison. Prior to beginning to read, students are asked to make mental picture of what the story tells them. After the second reading, each sentence can be said in other ways; they suggest other ways of saying each of the sentences.

Student learning activities

Activity 1
Students say in sentences what the pictures on pages 6-7 tell them. For example ‘Leg bones are sitting on the chair.’

Activity 2
Students answer questions about the pictures on pages 6-7 and reflect on what new things the picture tells them.

Activity 3
Students read the text after it has been modelled for them. They point to each word as they say it.

Activity 4
Students retell the text, saying it in their own words after the second reading.  

Activity 5
Students describe the image they have formed having read pages 6-7.

Activity 6
Students identify the questions they can now answer having read pages 6-7.

Activity 7
Students focus on reading the written words and parts of words. For example, students identify which words on the cards are on pages 6–7. They select other key words that haven’t been written on cards and make cards for these. Students compare ‘short’, ‘short’ and ‘long’, and ‘long’. 

Activity 8
Students silently read incomplete sentences made using the word cards and select the card that finishes them. For example,

Two short short legs came…
They sat on top of the…

Activity 9
Students infer feelings. For example, the teacher asks questions such as, ‘How would you feel if you were the old lady looking at the two legs on the two feet?’

Activity 10
Students identify the aspects of the text that are repeated and use this to predict what might be repeated on later pages. For example, students review pages 6–7 and note that ‘short’, ‘short and long’, and ‘long’ are repeated.

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Read pages 8–9 using comprehending and consolidating strategies while reading

The teacher initially reads each sentence and one or more students repeat the reading aloud. Each sentence is read twice. Prior to beginning to read, students are asked to make a mental picture or video tape of what the story tells them. After the second reading, each sentence is said in different ways based on students’ suggestions.

Student learning activities

Activity 1
Students say in sentences what the pictures tell them on page 8 - 9 such as, ‘Two wide hips are sitting on the chair.’

Activity 2
Students answer questions about the pictures on page 8-9  and reflect on what the picture tells them. For example, ‘What do the two wide hips look like? How are the hips joined to the leg bones?’

Activity 3
Students read the text after it has been modelled for them. They point to each word as they say it.

Activity 4
Students work on key vocabulary, work out the meanings of unfamiliar words and suggest synonyms for content. Example task: students work on the meanings of unfamiliar words, making use of instructions from the teacher such as, ‘Show wide with your arms. Show short and long with your arms.’

Activity 5
Students retell the text, saying it in their own words after the second reading. They suggest, for example, other ways of saying ‘short legs’, ‘big feet’ or ‘wide hips’.

Activity 6
Students describe the image they have formed of the text up to the end of page 9.

Activity 7
Students identify the questions they can now answer having read pages 8-9.

Activity 8
Students focus on reading the written words and parts of words. For example, students identify which words on the cards are on pages 8–9. They select other key words that haven’t been written on cards and make cards for these, such as ‘wide’ and ‘hips’.                                                      

Activity 9
Students infer feelings. For example, the teacher asks questions such as, ‘How do you think the old lady would be feeling as she was looking at the two hips on the legs on the two feet?’

Activity 10
Students identify the aspects of the text that are repeated and use this to predict what might be repeated on later pages.

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Consolidate and review

Having read four pages the students are guided to compose an understanding of or impression of the text so far. The aim of these activities is to assist students to learn After Reading Strategies interactively. They are cued and scaffolded to review and consolidate various aspects of literacy knowledge.

Student learning activities

Activity 1
Students retell and summarise the pages read so far. For example students respond to questions such as, ‘Say what the pages have told us. What questions do they answer?’ They practise reflecting on the mental pictures they have made so far of the text and talk about what has happened.

Activity 2
Students talk about how the writer presents the main ideas. For example, students respond to questions such as, ‘How would you describe the old lady? Does the writer make her seem happy or sad?’

Activity 3
Students talk about their emotional response to the chapter. For example, students respond to questions such as, ‘How do you like the story so far?‘ They are taught to ask themselves, ‘How did I feel while reading the story? What made me feel that way?’

Activity 4
Students identify key actions they used while reading the pages. For example, students respond to questions such as, ‘What things did you do to help you understand the story?’ They add these to their ‘Things I did while I read’ list:

  • ‘I make a mental picture of each sentence.’
  • ‘I say other words for some of the words.’
  • ‘I say sentences in my own words.’

Activity 5
Students anticipate the next pages and infer what they might say. They extend their understanding of the text into the next few pages. For example, students respond to questions such as, ‘Some foot bones, leg bones and hip bones came into the old lady’s house. What bones might come into the old lady’s house next? What sentences might be said again in the next pages?’

This framework can continue to be applied to the remaining pages in the text.

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Review the text

When the students finish reading the text as an interactive learning activity, they are cued and scaffolded to consolidate their understanding of the text as a whole.

Student learning activities

Activity 1
Students retell and summarise the story. For example, students respond to questions such as, ‘Say what the pages have told us. What questions do they answer? They reflect on the mental pictures they have made of the text and talk about what happened. Students retell the story in their own words and suggest other ways of saying particular phrases that are repeated such as, ‘short legs’, ‘big feet’ and ‘wide hips’. They say the questions they can answer having read the story.

Activity 2
Students talk about how the writer presents the main ideas. For example, students respond to questions such as, ‘How would you describe the old lady? Does the writer make her seem happy?’

Activity 3
Students talk about their emotional response to the chapter. For example, students respond to questions such as, ‘How do you like the story? Was it funny, scary or exciting?‘ They are taught to ask themselves, ‘How did I feel while reading the story? What made me feel that way?’

Activity 4
Students identify key actions they used while reading the pages. Example task: students respond to questions such as, ‘What things did you do to help you understand the story?’  They add these to their ‘Things I did while I read’ list:

  • ‘I make a mental picture of each sentence.’
  • ‘I say other words for some of the words.’
  • ‘I say sentences in my own words.’

Activity 5
Students review key vocabulary, the new word meanings they learnt and suggest synonyms for them. For example: students identify types of words that are used in the story and new words they have learnt by reading the story. In pairs they locate as many words as they can that describe how things are, such as, ‘long’, ‘cold’, ‘big’, ‘wide’, ‘fat’, ‘broad’, ‘thick’. Students suggest antonyms for as many of these as possible.

Activity 6
Students review reading the written words used in the text, particularly when these are arranged into sentences using word cards. For example:

There was a knock at the door.
The big feet were on the cold floor.

Activity 7
Students infer feelings. For example, students respond to questions such as, ‘How would you feel if you were the old lady seeing more and more parts of the body coming into her house?’

Activity 8
Students reflect on how the writer used language to tell the story. For example: students reflect on why the writer kept repeating the names of body bones and what they looked like as well as the fact that the old lady sat and spun.

Activity 9
Students automatise and practise reading aloud and silently similar text to achieve increased fluency. For example: students review pages 6–7 and note that ‘the best pizza in the world’ is repeated. In later reading sessions students reread this prose to achieve fluency. Other useful activities include:

  • Choral reading of the text. For example, students read it as a play with some children taking the role of the old lady, some the body parts and some the story teller.
  • Students can rearrange the word cards into novel word strings and sentences for peers to read.
  • Students in groups can write similar text for peers to read.
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