The Big PictureThis unit uses an extract from a tale of pirates to study narratives. Read the text with students, and write on the board any words they don’t know. Ask students to predict the structure of the next pages of the narrative. What other books, films or television programs do you know of that have pirates in them? Ask students to describe the flag on p54.

Grandma on board—is from a longer narrative called Grandma on Board. Ask students to discuss the characters in the pictures. What makes them look like pirates? Ask students to think of names for the crew members and describe what they think Captain Red Beard’s character is like.

In the texts—page 56• After students have completed q1, discuss the terms

fiction and nonfiction. Ask students where they might find nonfiction writing about pirates.

• Talk about the differences between narratives and other text types (q2). What do you expect to get from a narrative? Entertainment? (yes) Information? (often) Instructions? (no). Ask students to make up titles for texts about pirates that are procedures (eg How to Bury Your Treasure) or information reports (eg Famous Pirates and Their Ships).

• Discuss the terms introduction, complication and resolution (q3).

• Students should draw Grandma and Captain Red Beard in q4.

read and learn—pages 57 and 58• After students complete q1, ask them to make up

another set of questions about the text using the same question starters.

In this unit• Source texts—Contemporary literature

(illustrated fiction)

• Text features—Narrative, sequence of events, speech

• Writing—Continuation of a narrative about pirates

• On the DVD—Grandma’s diary page; Template for readers’ theatre; Images of pirates and pirate life

• Other resources—Craft materials to make pirate hats and eye patches for Dress as a Pirate Day; Pirate treasure hunt: eight challenges Curriculum Corporation, 2009. The Le@rning Federation digital content L8304

See Teaching Guide pvii for this unit’s syllabus outcomes.

• Students rewrite the pp54–55 narrative as a readers’ theatre, adding an ending to the story. Use the template on the DVD as a starting point.

• Students write diary entries (personal recount) based on the narrative from Grandma’s point of view. Use the diary page from the DVD.

• Students write another narrative about pirates, using images and a treasure map from the DVD as inspiration for characters, setting and plot.

• Students experiment with readings of the text on pp54–55. They consider techniques such as volume, pitch, speed and tone when they read.

• Students organise Dress as a Pirate Day. They take photographs of their costumes, add labels and captions and display them in the class.

• Students complete Pirate treasure hunt: eight challenges, a learning object to develop maths and literacy skills (see Other resources). Students help Pirate Jack solve problems and find the hidden treasure. Using a map, they work through obstacles one by one and in the right order.

• Students include some or all of these words in their weekly spelling lists: board, holiday, Friday, grandmother, Monday, narrative, pirate, subject, Thursday, Tuesday, Wednesday, wonderful.

Listening, speaking and extension

TARGETING ENGLISH LOWer PrImary TEACHING GUIDE

Student Book pages 54–61

Unit 6: Grandma on board

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• Make sure students know about alphabetical order and how to use a dictionary before attempting q3. Encourage students to write definitions that match the context of the word in the text.

• A rhyming word (q4) has the same last sound as another word. See Unit 1, p5 for other activities about rhyme.

• Ask students to re-read the text before sequencing the narrative (q5).

• In the first instance, challenge students to attempt q6 without referring to the text. Later, have them check their answers against the text. If necessary, revise punctuation; see Work Sheet 1, p28 in this Teaching Guide.

your turn—pages 59• Ask students to look at the structure of each page of

Grandma on Board—each page is a day of Grandma’s holiday. Make sure students follow this structure in their own writing. There are reminders down the side of the page.

• If possible, read the full text of Grandma on Board to students, but make sure that students understand that their writing will be assessed on its creativity, rather than on its closeness to the original text. (In the full text, Grandma holds a cooking class on Thursday and makes the pirates eat vegetable mash. On Friday she makes the crew practise yoga. Before Grandma heads back to shore, she makes one last request of her grandson: a goodbye kiss. When Grandma offers to paint the ship purple and pink, Captain Red Beard and his crew head off for a very long journey.)

Subjects and verbs—pages 60–61• Students identify the subjects of verbs. These activities lay

the groundwork for important future work on subject-verb agreement.

• Encourage students to think of as many actions as possible (q2), eg breathing, thinking, walking, stepping, smiling, digesting, questioning, blinking, sailing, moving.

• Assign each student a partner before attempting q3. Students take it in turn to tell their partner of one thing they can do. They have a limited time to answer (eg 3 seconds). The winner of the activity is the student who thinks of more responses.

Work Sheets • Work Sheet 1 assesses students’ comprehension of the

text. Have students focus on using the correct punctuation, especially when recording Grandma’s speech.

• Work Sheet 2 revises students’ knowledge of subjects and verbs.

• Work Sheet 3 is a task in rewriting the narrative from p59 as a recount from another character’s point of view. Remind students to write in first person (the person speaking, eg “I sailed …”, “My holiday…”), rather than third person (the person spoken about, eg “She sailed …”, “Her holiday …”). If students write from Grandma’s point of view, ask them to think about how the story would change if it was from Red Beard’s point of view or that of one of the crew members.

Assessment• Work Sheet 4 assesses knowledge of narrative structure,

verbs, subjects and compound words. See Assessment Answers opposite.

• To assess Student Book writing and the DVD work sheet, use the narrative rubric (Teaching Guide p83). To assess Work Sheet 3, use the recount rubric (Teaching Guide p92).

Assessment Answers (see Teaching Guide page 37)

TARGETING ENGLISH LOWer PrImary TEACHING GUIDE

Unit 6: Grandma on board

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1 Captain Red Beard, Grandma

2 on a pirate ship

3 (Two of) take a bath, roll up every rope, fix the rigging, mend their clothes, darn their socks

4 a mend, darn b rolled, fixed c will be

5 a Grandma b crew c Captain Red Beard

6 a grand/son b ship/shapec every/oned grand/mothere Grand/ma f spot/less

7 introduction, complication, resolution

Work Sheet 1

Copyright © Blake Publishing 2009 TARGETING ENGLISH LOWer PrImary TEACHING GUIDE

Unit 6: Grandma on board

Who Said What and When?1 a On Sunday, what did Grandma do?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

b What did Grandma say?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2 a On Monday, what did Grandma do?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

b What did Grandma say?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3 a On Tuesday, what did Grandma do?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

b What did Grandma say?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 a On Wednesday, what did Grandma do?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

b What did Grandma say?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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TARGETING ENGLISH LOWer PrImary TEACHING GUIDE Copyright © Blake Publishing 2009

Who Did What?1 Underline the verbs in each sentence. Find the subject of the sentence by

answering the question.

a The crew fixed the rigging.

Who fixed the rigging? _____________________________________________

b Grandma ordered them to have a bath.

Who ordered them? _____________________________________________

c They darned their socks.

Who darned their socks? _____________________________________________

d Grandma said it was a wonderful ship.

Who said it was a wonderful ship? _____________________________________________

e The pirates lifted the treasure chest.

Who lifted the treasure chest? _____________________________________________

f The flag blew in the breeze.

What flew in the breeze? _____________________________________________

2 add a verb to each of these sentences.

a Grandma _________________________________________________ the crew to mend their clothes.

b The crew _________________________________________________ between their toes.

c “The ship _________________________________________________ a woman’s touch.”

d Grandma _________________________________________________ on a holiday.

3 Write three sentences where yOU are the subject.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Work Sheet 2Unit 6: Grandma on board

35

Work Sheet 3

Copyright © Blake Publishing 2009 TARGETING ENGLISH LOWer PrImary TEACHING GUIDE

Unit 6: Grandma on board

Let Me Recountrewrite your narrative from page 59 as a recount.

Which character will your recount be written by? __________________________________________________

Thursday

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Friday

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Saturday

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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TARGETING ENGLISH LOWer PrImary TEACHING GUIDE Copyright © Blake Publishing 2009

AssessmentWork Sheet 4

(First name) (Family name)

Grandma on Board 1 Name the two main characters in the narrative Grandma on Board.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2 Where is the narrative set? ________________________________________________________________________________

3 Name two things Grandma makes the crew do.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 Circle the verbs in these sentences.

a They had to mend their clothes and darn their socks.

b They rolled up the ropes and fixed the rigging.

c This place will be shipshape in no time.

5 Write the correct subject for each sentence.

a _______________________________________________________ ordered the crew to take a bath.

b The _______________________________________________________ darned their socks.

c _______________________________________________________ is the captain of the pirate ship.

6 Write the two words that make up each compound word.

a grandson _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

b shipshape ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

c everyone _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

d grandmother ___________________________________________________________________________________________________

e Grandma _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

f spotless ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7 Complete these sentences.

A narrative begins with an i__________________________________ . It also has a c____________________________

and a r__________________________________ .

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