Tell the moon to come outby Joan Lingard

Introduction

New Windmill titles are supported with Student and Teaching resource sheets to engagestudents with the novel and to help you with your planning. Each set of resourcesincludes a series of self-contained lessons with photocopiable worksheets, teaching notesand suggestions for Guided Reading. Each activity is mapped against the Framework tohelp you with your planning. There are also suggestions for further study areas includingspeaking and listening, writing and reading activities. If your students have enjoyedstudying this novel there are suggestions of other New Windmills they may like to readfor pleasure.

Resources for Tell the moon to come out:

Synopsis

Activate prior learning

Activities

– The Spanish Civil War

– Nick’s journey through Andalusia

– Letters from Nick to his mother

Guided reading

– Deductive reading

– Making notes

– Inferential reading

Further study areas

Reading for pleasure

Activities by Alan Pearce

The following pages can be downloaded and printed out as required. This material may be freely copied for institutional use. However, this material is

copyright and under no circumstances can copies be offered for sale. The publishers gratefully acknowledge permission to reproduce copyright material.

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Teacher’sNotes © Harcourt Education Limited, 2005

Synopsis

Nick Torres journeys to Spain in 1939, to try to find his father who went missing duringthe Spanish Civil War. However, the atmosphere in Spain is threatening, withRepublicans and Nationalists still hating each other. Food is scarce and towns and citieshave been ruined. Members of the Civil Guard have enormous power and use it to theirpersonal advantage.

Nick gradually moves from the north of the country to the south, being helped by hisfather’s friends. Early in his journey he is badly affected with blood poisoning, but ishelped by a Spanish girl, Isabel. Unfortunately, Isabel’s father is a sergeant in the CivilGuard and Nick is arrested and beaten. Isabel rescues Nick, because she hates her fatherso much, and accompanies him on the remainder of his journey.

Nick and Isabel get a lift to Madrid where a contact provides them with false identitypapers and train tickets to Seville and then Malaga. The train journey is made precariousbecause of two people who share the carriage with Nick and Isabel: an inquisitive nunand an army officer. Nick and Isabel are drawn into conversation and have difficultykeeping their true identities secret.

From Malaga Nick and Isabel get a lift to Competa where they stay with some of Nick’srelatives, and discover important details about Nick’s father. Nick’s journey, from oneend of Spain to the other, ends when he is reunited with his father in the small fishingvillage of Nerja.

For most of the novel we expect Isabel to travel to Scotland with Nick, but when Nickand his father set off Isabel refuses to go, saying that she would not be able to live in adifferent culture such as Scotland. However, in the final chapter, set seven years later,Nick returns to Nerja, finds Isabel and she agrees to return to Scotland with him.

Activate prior learning

It would be helpful if the students had some understanding of the Spanish Civil War.However, one of the extended tasks asks the students to research the war and to producea leaflet. Elicit what the students know about Spain and the Spanish Civil War, whichmay actually be very little. A lot of students will be able to give a typical view if Spain asa holiday resort/clubbers paradise, but try to bring out knowledge of the country itself,the terrain, the food, and any other cultural knowledge they may have.

It may help students to consider civil war in a more general context: they may be morefamiliar with the English Civil War of 1642–51. The idea of brother fighting brother isequally applicable, as is the ensuing poverty and unrest.

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Teacher’sNotes © Harcourt Education Limited, 2005

Teaching notes

Activity 1 The Spanish Civil War

Framework Objectives

Year 7: R2 Use appropriate reading strategies; R6 Adopt active reading strategies;Wr14 describe an object, person or setting in a way that includes relevant details andis accurate and evocative.

Year 8: R2 Undertake independent research; Wr12 Describe an event, process orsituation, using language with an appropriate degree of formality.

Year 9: Wr3 Write in Standard English; R2 Synthesize information from a range ofsources; Wr11, Make telling use of descriptive details.

Activity aims:

To research for relevant information.

To produce an informative leaflet.

This activity asks the students to research into the Spanish Civil War, and to produce aninformative leaflet.

Provide the students with Resource Sheet 1. The students’ task is to read some extractsfrom the novel and to identify some of the human costs of the civil war. The students aredirected to words that suggest the insecurity and poverty caused by the war. Someweaker readers might need help with inferential reading.

Provide the students with Resource Sheet 2. The students are asked to research into thecivil war and to produce an informative leaflet. They are asked to include answers to tenquestions within the body of their leaflet text.

The first stage of this research task must be for the students to be clear about what theyare researching. For example, blanket research into the Spanish Civil War will locatemany resources written for an adult, academic audience. Encourage the students to usebooks from the school library before they are allowed to use the Internet. For theirInternet search, ask the students to identify the key words from the eleven questions thatthey must answer in their leaflet. When the students enter their key words into a searchengine, encourage them to include the term ‘KS3’ as this will help them to locate moreappropriate information.

It might be necessary to remind the students of the stylistic conventions of leaflets. Theseconventions are listed on Resource Sheet 2.

The questions that the students have to answer, with brief answers to help the teacher,are provided below.

1 When did the Spanish Civil War start? (1936.)

2 Who were the Nationalists? (People with right wing political views; supporters ofthe military coup.)

3 Who were the Republicans? (People with left wing political views.)

4 How did the war start? (After years of civil unrest, General Franco led a militarycoup, and set about wiping out left wing opposition.)

5 Who was Francisco Franco? (Chief of Staff in 1936. Ruthlessly put down strikes andother political protests. Became Head of State in October 1936.)

6 What is fascism? (An authoritarian form of government.)

7 Which countries supported the Nationalists? (Italy and Germany.)

8 Did the Republicans receive help from other countries? (Russia.)

9 What was the International Brigade? (This is a collective term to describe all of thevolunteers who travelled to Spain to fight against fascism. Over 40,000 men andwomen came from over 40 countries.)

10 How many people died during the war? (Over 500,000)

Guided reading – Deductive reading

Select a small group of students who would benefit from support with deductivereading. Together, re-read page 131 from ‘They had quickly realised…’ to the bottom ofpage 133. Ask the students to identify the problems faced by Spanish civilians during andafter the civil war. Although some of the information is purely factual, students will haveto deduce some of the problems from the passage.

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StudentSheet

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© Harcourt Education Limited, 2005

How the Spanish Civil Waraffected the people

The novel Tell the moon to come out makes it clear that the people of Spain sufferedtremendously during the civil war. Look at the two extracts below, and in the boxesrecord details about the way the civilian population were affected by the war.

Page 103

They began to walk. They turned into another,similar street. A gaggle of children, some of the ones who’d been playing in the crater, had comeafter them. They were barefoot and their clotheshung in rags. They danced like dervishes on thepavement in front of them, flicking their fingers andholding out cupped hands. ‘Por favor, Por favor!’Please, please!

Isabel and Nick shook their heads and held onto their knapsacks and bedrolls. ‘We have nothing,’they said. Nada. The children did not believe it butgradually they dropped back.

Isabel stopped the next passer-by. The woman,who was elderly, put her head to the side and ahand to her ear. Isabel had to shout the address out three times, which made Nick feel nervous. The woman finally said, ‘Never heard of it,’ andshuffled on, her empty shopping bag trailing on the ground behind her.

A man appeared then at their elbow, saying he’dhappened to overhear that he knew the street. Hismother lived there. It was only ten to fifteen minutes’walk. He was going that way so he escorted them,chatting, asking where they came from and if theyknew Madrid. They began to feel a little uneasy,thinking he was asking too many questions. Theywere relieved when he said, ‘Adiós,’ and left to gointo a building.

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StudentSheet © Harcourt Education Limited, 2005

2 Researching the Spanish Civil War

In this novel there are many references to the Spanish Civil War. However, it would behelpful to readers if they knew something about the events of the war before they readthe novel. Imagine that the publisher Heinemann is going to provide a booklet about theSpanish Civil War that they are going to give away free with every copy of Tell the moonto come out. They have asked you to write the leaflet.

Your task is to produce a leaflet that provides some background information about theSpanish Civil War. The leaflet should be written for people of your own age, and shouldbe as attractive and interesting as possible. Heinemann would like the leaflet to provideas much information about the war as possible, but the leaflet must contain answers tothe following questions:

1 When did the Spanish Civil War start?

2 Who were the Nationalists?

3 Who were the Republicans?

4 How did the war start?

5 Who was Francisco Franco?

6 What is fascism?

7 Which countries supported the Nationalists?

8 Did the Republicans receive help from other countries?

9 What was the International Brigade?

10 How many people died during the war?

Things to remember

In this piece of information writing:

write in the past tense

use connectives to link ideas together

avoid using too many adjectives and adverbs when you are presenting factual information

use formal language.

Connectives that might be helpful: similarly, obviously, for example, however,despite this, above all, next, then, eventually.

Try to make the leaflet as attractive as possible. Think about:

different font sizes

different colours

illustrations

headings and sub-headings

bullet points.6

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© Harcourt Education Limited, 2005

Teaching notes

Activity 2 Nick’s Journey through Andalusia

Framework Objectives

Year 7: R2 Use appropriate reading strategies; R4 Make brief, clearly-organised notesof key points; Wr11 Select and present information.

Year 8: R3 Make notes in different ways; W10 Organize and present information.

Year 9: R3 Increase the speed and accuracy of note-making skills; W11 Make tellinguse of descriptive details.

Activity aims:

Select appropriate information.

Produce a piece of informative writing.

This activity asks the students to select details about some of the places Nick visits on hisjourney through Spain. These details are then used to write a tourist article about Andalusia.

Provide the students with Resource Sheet 3. The students’ task is to read an extract fromthe novel closely, and to select details about one of the villages that Nick visits. Thestudents are asked to list all of the factual details about the village that is described in theextract. It might be possible to challenge students to provide a pictorial representation ofthe village using the details that they record.

Provide the students with Resource Sheet 4. The students’ task is to read extracts fromthe novel closely and select details about the places in Andalusia Nick visits during hisjourney. They are then asked to write an article for a tourist guide about the region ofAndalusia. Seven towns are identified in a table, and relevant page references areprovided. The students need to re-read the relevant pages, select the appropriateinformation, and then write this information up into an article appropriate for a touristguide of the time. This might be an opportunity to explore the difference between factand opinion, and the role this distinctions plays in tourist guides.

Guided reading – Making notes

Select a small group of students who would benefit from some help with note-taking.Together, re-read pages 1-6 which deal with Nick’s journey over the Pyrenees from Franceinto Spain. Ask the students to make notes to answer one or more of the following questions:

What was the terrain like in the Pyrenees?

What was the weather like as Nick crossed the Pyrenees?

What advice did Jean-Luc give to Nick?

Ask each student to read a note aloud for each question and discuss why some noteswould be more useful/effective than others.

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Teacher’sNotes

3 Facts and description

We learn a great deal about Nick’s journey through Spain. The details are a little vagueat the beginning of his journey but very clear about his travels in the south of Spain.Read the extract below, about the village where Ricardo lived. In the box at the bottomof the page record all of the factual details about the village.

Pages 14–15

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StudentSheet © Harcourt Eduction Limited, 2005

It was much darker within the narrow streets of the village than it had been out in

the open fields. There were no street lamps, though a half-moon gave some light.

He saw that a number of the terraced houses had been wrecked, shelled probably

during the war.

The rubble lay uncleared. Something scuttled across his path. A rat, he thought.

The village was spread out in a long straggly line with one main street – Calle

Real, Royal Street – and a number of shorter ones running off it. Francisco had

drawn a plan for him before he left and he had fixed it in his head. No paper must

be found on him if he were caught. Any information he gave could mean arrest,

possibly death, for anyone who helped him.

Water was trickling down the middle of the street. He swerved round a small

child playing in it with a tin can. The child did not even glance up at him. A little

further on a low bridge spanned a stream, or a burn, as they would have called it

back home. On the bridge two girls were filling jugs with water from a fountain.

They did look at him. They stared but said nothing. He passed on by, keeping his

eyes averted. The only other person abroad was an elderly man walking his dog.

4 A tourist’s guide to Andalusia

We learn a great deal about Nick’s journey through Spain. The details are a little vagueat the beginning of his journey but very clear about his travels in the south of Spain.

The table below lists the places Nick went to as he travelled through the south of Spain.All of the places listed are in the region of Spain known as Andalusia. The secondcolumn of the table provides the page references related to each of the places he visited.

1 Complete the final column by making notes about the key features of each of theplaces Nick has visited. One example has been completed for you.

Place Pages Key features

Seville 125–128

Malaga 128–141

Caleta de Velez 142

Sayalona 146

Torrox 155

Competa 149–158

Nerja 157

2 Now, using the details that you have recorded, write an article for a tourist’s guideto Andalusia, as it would have appeared in 1939. The article should be at least 250words long. See whether you cam find any appropriate illustrations to support yourarticle.

Things to remember

You will need to think about the purpose of your article. Is it to inform orpersuade?

You will need to think about your audience. Are you writing for adults orpeople of your own age? Your decision will influence the focus of your writingand the language that you use.

You will only mention attractive things in your article. It would not beappropriate for example, to mention all of the war damage.

You will use adverbs and adjectives to make your description more interesting.

You are likely to include a map of Andalusia.

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StudentSheet © Harcourt Eduction Limited, 2005

Small village; in a valley; white houses; narrow,dusty roads; simple – man rode past on donkey.

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Teacher’sNotes © Harcourt Eduction Limited, 2005

Teaching notes

Activity 3 Letters from Nick to his mother

Framework Objectives

Year 7: S13 Revise the stylistic conventions of non-fiction; S15 Vary the formality oflanguage; R2 Use appropriate reading strategies; R8 Infer and deduce meaning; Wr6 Portray character through writing.

Year 8: S12 Explore and use different degrees of formality; R4 Review active readingstrategies; Wr6 Experiment with figurative language; Wr7 Establish tone in writing;S9 Adapt the stylistic conventions of non-fiction.

Year 9: S&L14 Convey a sense of character in writing; Wr9 Integrate diverseinformation into a coherent account.

Activity aims:

Read to select appropriate information.

Produce two letters that Nick might have written to his mother.

This activity asks students to write letters from Nick to his mother.

Provide the students with Resource Sheet 5. This Resource Sheet presents an extract fromthe novel and asks the students to speculate about Nick’s feelings. The students are askedto make notes in the boxes around the page about Nick’s feelings. It might be necessaryto prompt students who are unable to empathise with Nick. It might also be necessary tohelp students to consider implicit meaning in the extract.

Provide the students with Resource Sheet 6. This Resource Sheet asks the students toselect two moments from the novel and to write about them in a letter from Nick to hismother. The students need to choose two from five moments identified in the table. Thestudents are asked to re-read the pages listed as relevant to each of these moments, andto make notes about important details, and about the ways Nick might have been feeling.The task is to write a letter from Nick to his mother, and so it might provide anopportunity to consider an appropriate style for the letter: formal or informal. Thestylistic conventions of formal and informal writing might need to be revised.

Guided reading – Inferential reading

Select a small group of students who would benefit from support with inferentialreading. Together, re-read pages 27–29. Ask the students to imagine that they are Nick.Explore together how Nick might have felt as he walked alone, suspicious of everyone.This guided reading activity could be extended into a piece of drama, with the group hot-seating a student acting the part of Nick.

5 Nick’s emotions

While Nick travelled around Spain he had some interesting experiences. However,because the novel has been written in the third person, we do not always know howNick feels about events. Imagine that you are Nick. Read the extract below and in theboxes around the extract make notes about the feelings you might have had. Remember,you might have been feeling different emotions at the same time: write them all down.

Pages 73–4

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StudentSheet © Harcourt Eduction Limited, 2005

‘My name is Nicolás Macintosh,’ he said, using hismother’s maiden name. He could not go on pretendingto be a native Spaniard. He had a story ready, preparedwith Jean-Luc. ‘I am from Scotland.’‘Scotland eh? Why, then, are you not wearing a skirt?’The sergeant laughed and the constable sniggered.‘We only wear kilts for special occasions.’‘And this is not a special occasion? Tut, tut! So,Scotsman, what are you doing here in our country andhow is it you speak Spanish like a native?’‘My mother is a teacher of Spanish.’‘Ah, that is so? She has lived here then?’‘For a while.’ Nick’s throat was bone dry. Heswallowed and carried on, ‘When she was student. Along time ago. Twenty years or so.’‘And your father. Does he teach Spanish as well?’‘he is a gamekeeper.’‘In Scotland?’‘Yes’‘What then, are you, the son of these two Scottishpeople, doing wandering about in Spain?’‘I was curious.’‘Curious?’‘I want to be a journalist so I thought if I could write apiece about General Franco and the new Spain itmight give me a chance to get started on anewspaper.’‘A scoop?’‘Well in a way.’‘Plausible I suppose.’ The sergeant leant forward andsaid in a soft voice, ‘The only thing is I am notconvinced.’ He smiled and sat back again.Then he got up, walked slowly round the table andstruck Nick across the face with the back of his hand.

6 Nick’s letters home

While Nick travelled around Spain he made contact with a number of his father’scolleagues, and some of his father’s relatives. Bit by bit he builds up a picture of whathis father did during the Spanish Civil War, and where he had been. However, it is notclear whether Nick was able to tell his mother about any of this.

Imagine that Nick actually wrote a series of letters to his mother while he travelledthrough Spain. Your task is to write two of these letters.

The table below records some of the key moments of Nick’s journey. The relevant pagereferences appear in the final column of the table. First of all, choose two momentsfrom Nick’s journey that you think would be good moments for him to write homeabout. Then re-read the relevant pages to remind yourself about the details. While youare reading, make notes about the details of the moment, and about the way Nickmight have felt.

Moment Key points Pages

Trip from France Witnessed armed guards stealing from old to Spain man’s van.

Finds Francisco’s house.Learns something about his father. 7–13

Time spent in the cave Isabel takes him to the doctor.Isabel’s father visits.Returns to cave.Witnesses man stabbed to death.Pedro discovers Isabel and Nick. 33–69

Arrested Taken to Civil Guard Station.Beaten up.Rescued by Isabel. 70–81

Time in Madrid Visits Salvador.Gets information about his father.Given identity papers, and train tickets. 102–117

Reunited with father Found Jaime the fisherman’s house.Discovered his father.Made arrangements to return to Scotland. 157–168

Remember, when you are writing your letters:

you are writing to your mother

write in the past tense

write in the first person

use informal language

do not make your letters just factual accounts of your journey – explain howyou felt about events.

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StudentSheet © Harcourt Eduction Limited, 2005

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Teacher’sNotes

Further study areas

This novel explores how a boy from Scotland travels through a war-torn Spain to find hisfather who was fighting in the Spanish Civil War.

The following study areas provide ideal opportunities for creating interesting andstimulating activities:

Personal view: Was Nick a brave or foolish person?(Writing reflectively: Yr7 W19; Yr8 W16; Yr9 W13)

Writing to entertain: Take any of the key moments in the novel and retell them fromNick or Isabel’s point of view.(Writing to entertain: Yr7 W6; Yr8 W6; Yr9 W5)

Author’s craft: How would this novel have been different if it had been written in thefirst person?(Author’s craft: Yr7 R12; Yr8 R10; Yr9 R9)

Group discussion: Can a civil war ever be justified?(Group discussion: Yr7 S&L12; Yr8 S&L10; Yr9 S&L10)

Persuasive writing: Persuade Isabel that she should travel to Scotland with Nick and his father.(Persuasive writing: Yr7 W15; Yr8 W13; Yr9 W13)

Collaborative drama: Create any of the scenes that we know will have happened but donot appear in the novel:

Nick telling his mother that he wants to go to Scotland to look for his father

the moment Nick’s parents were reunited

the conversation between Nick and his mother immediately after Nick’s father’sdeath.

(Collaborative drama: Yr7 S&L16; Yr8 S&L16; Yr9 S&L14)

Reading for pleasure

This novel, set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, focuses on the resourcefulnessof a teenage boy. If students enjoy this novel they will also enjoy The Garbage King byElizabeth Laird. This novel focuses on the resourcefulness of children living on the streetsof Addis Ababa. It follows the story of Mamo, an orphan who is sold as a slave, andDani, a rich boy who runs away from home to escape his father. Additionally, I am Davidby Anne Holm tells a similar tale of a boy’s journey through Europe after escaping from acamp where he had lived his whole life, and The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier charts thejourney of four children searching for their parents after World War II.

Tell the moon to come out

© Harcourt Eduction Limited, 2005