Teaching Package

Jan Gerrit 2013

Contents

1. Introduction and goal(s)

2. Part 1 Warm-up

3. Part 2 Pre-reading activities

4. Part 3 While-reading activities

5. Part 4 Post-reading activities

6. Worksheets

7. Answer keys

Introduction and Goal(s)

As part of a Young Adult Literature Course I received an

assignment which involved the development of a package for

teachers to facilitate the stimulation of reading targeted at

young adults. The package was to be attractive, with easily

copyable worksheets which can be used to aid in the reading

and understanding of the assigned novel, in this case 'The

London Eye mystery' by Siobhan Dowd.

The package includes a warm-up, pre-reading-, while-reading-,

and post-reading activities, and worksheets with example

answer-key(s).

What you have in front of you is a proposed way of teaching

and guiding students through the book. The activities and

worksheets can be used as and when needed and/or at the

teacher's discretion. They can also be copied or cloned to suit

the teacher's/student's requirements and/or level.

As to the when and where of reading the book, my view is that

reading begins in the classroom and is carried on at home, on

the bus or wherever the student finds the time and space to

read. It is however recommended that the teacher keeps a

close eye on progress and motivates where necessary.

The choices made are meant to encourage, challenge, motivate

and peak the interest of your students.

The book may also lead to interesting discussions about the

different ways in which people's brains are wired and how

viewing things from a different perspective changes reality i.e.

perceived reality.

Learning Goals Improve reading skills

Expand vocabulary (words and expressions)

Expand general knowledge

Become sleuths

Required materials Book 'The London Eye mystery'

Teaching package with copies of worksheets

Beamer and Laptop (for warm-up)

Pens, Markers, etc...

Part 1 Warm-upTo get your students into detective mode use the 'Riddles'

worksheet and/or 'coolriddles' on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CoolRiddles

The idea behind this is to get your students thinking logically,

as a detective would, besides which they are also fun to do and

can have a competitive element. Split your class into groups of

3-4 and have students come up with answers.

Introduce the concept of deductive reasoning. As Ted quoted

Sherlock Holmes  "when you have eliminated the impossible,

whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? "

What does this quote mean?

Part 2 Pre-reading : discussionTo get started on the story first look at the cover of the book,

read the title, "what goes up must come down...mustn't it?".

What do the students think it's about? What can they deduce?

What does that sentence mean?

Now read the blurb on the back cover.

What do they think now? How much do they know?

Now read Chapter 1 together, either silently or have students

read along as you read it out loud.

What is the mystery? What happened? From who's point of view

is it being told? What do we already know about him/her?

The above points can be discussed in class after each part or

students can use the worksheet provided.

Part 3 While-reading: LanguageIn this book there are a lot of terms and expressions

which students may not know. To help them acquire this new

language and to understand Ted's confusion there is a list of

expressions and sayings to be found on the worksheet for part

3.

Ted takes things literally and is thus often confused, this

provides plenty of opportunities for comical situations. Included

in the worksheet for part 3 is room for creativity with

expressions. Students can be asked to create images which

depict the sayings literally. This can be used as a step to

researching the etymology of expressions/sayings.

Are there Dutch equivalents?

These exercises can be done individually or in groups.

Now is also the time for students to come up with theories of

their own. What do they think happened to Salim?

Have them write down their theory.

Part 4 Post reading : CharactersAfter reading students can be encouraged to delve into the

main characters and their characteristics.

How much do we actually know about the characters?

What do they look like? How old are they? What type of person

are they? What role do they play in the narrative?

Worksheet Part 4 provides room for group activities.

Divide the class into groups of 4 and assign them a character.

The groups shouldn't know which character the other groups

have.

Have them find descriptive sentences in the book relating to the

character.

They will use these sentences to create a presentation after

which the other groups have to guess which character is being

described.

Finally evaluate the book. Who guessed correctly? Check the

theories written down while reading.

Worksheets

for

Students

Worksheet Part 1 : Warm-up

1. RiddlesBelow are some riddles.

See if you and your group can figure them out.

1. Some months have 30 days, some have 31. How many

months have 28 days?

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2. If you had only one match and went into a dark room where

there was an oil lamp, some paper and some wood, which one

would you light first?

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3. A man builds a square house with four sides. Each side faces

south. A big bear comes past his house. What colour is the

bear? Why?

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4. If you drove a bus with 42 people on it from London and

stopped at Leeds, you picked up 12 more people and drove to

York, dropped off 6 people and drove to Hull and arrived back in

London 8 hours later, what is the driver’s name?

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5. As I was going to St Ives, I met a man with 7 wives, each of

his wives had 7 sacks and in each sack were 7 cats. How many

were going to St Ives?

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6. A pet shop owner had a parrot with a sign on it's cage that

said "parrot repeats everything it hears". A young man bought

the parrot and spoke to it for 2 weeks but it didn't say a word.

He tried to return the parrot but the shopkeeper hadn't lied.

How can this be?

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2. Deductive reasoning

What do you think the following quote means?Explain your

group's answer in the space provided.

"when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever

remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

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Worksheet Part 2 : Pre-readingFirst look at the cover of the book, read the title, and the

sentence "what goes up must come down...mustn't it?".

What do you think it's about? What can you deduce? What does

the sentence mean?

Write your answer(s) below.

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________________________________________________________________

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Now read the blurb on the back cover.

What do you think now? How much do you now know?

Write your answer(s) below.

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Read Chapter 1

What is the mystery? What happened?

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From who's point of view is it being told? What do we already

know about him/her?

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Worksheet Part 3 : While-reading

1. LanguageTed doesn't understand a lot of expressions/sayings. Can you

help him? Is there a Dutch equivalent?

1. They were running around like headless chickens.

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2. She was talking up a storm.

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3. It was raining cats and dogs.

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4. I’ll have your guts for garters.

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5. You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife.

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6. Speak of the Devil.

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7. Small talk.

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8. That should be right up your street

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9. She’s going off the rails.

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10. Shake a leg.

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11. That building was sick - It has to come down.

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12. He’s the spit of his Dad.

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13. You’d better pull up your socks, young man.

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14. We’re going to have to tighten our belts.

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15. He was so fond of work, he’d lie down beside it.

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16. That car is on its last legs.

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17. My feet are killing me.

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18. I was so angry, l was fit to be tied.

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19. I was caught between a rock and a hard place.

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EtymologyPick your 3 favourites from above and figure out where they came from. What is the story behind the saying?Write your answer below.1._______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________2.________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Theories

Ted comes up with a lot of theories.

Which theory do you think is correct?

Or do you have a theory of your own?

Note down your opinion/theory in the space below.

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Worksheet Part 4 : Post-reading

CharactersIn groups of 4 you will be assigned a character from the novel. Your task is to find passages in the novel which describe your character. Physical and mental/emotional characteristics.Write down as many as you can find in the space provided below.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Using these passages create a group presentation for your classmates.

The aim of the presentation is to describe your assigned character as completely as possible without naming him/her or giving too much away.At the end of your presentation your classmates are going to try and guess who your character is.

Answer keyWorksheet Part 1

1. Riddles

1. All of them

2. The match

3. White, it's a polar bear, house is on the North Pole.

4. What's your name?

5. 1, me!

6. The parrot is deaf.

2. Deductive reasoning

Open discussion in which opinions are exchanged. Aim is to

think logically and make connections.

Worksheet Part 2

Open questions/answers. Ideal for discussion.

Answer key

Worksheet Part 3

1. Language

1. Not having a plan or structure.

2. Talking a lot.

3. Raining very heavily

4. You'll be in trouble

5. Tense situation

6. We were just talking about the person who just came in

7. Chit chat

8. It suits you, you'll be good at it.

9. Things are going wrong/crazy.

10. Hurry up.

11. Not safe anymore.

12. Spitting image, looks just like.

13. Work harder, act correctly.

14. Spend less money, live frugally.

15. Lazy.

16. Almost broken/useless.

17. My feet hurt.

18. Very, very angry to the point of insanity

(straightjacket)

19. No good options, either way I lose.

Worksheet Part 4

Open.