Tag: T shaped literacy

LI: to describe the first impressions we got of a character and compare them with other characters

We recorded our first impressions of the wolf character from three different texts on the table. Two texts show the wolf as the antagonist and one text shows the wolf as the protagonist. To synthesise our ideas we used our prior knowledge and the new knowledge we gained from reading the text to help us form new ideas. Protagonist is the main character who leads the text, who we see the point of view from (e.g. the three pigs). Antagonist is the character who stands against the protagonist in the story (e.g. the wolf).  

In this task, we wrote an informed comparison from the texts that have different perspectives in the story, to see how the wolf is resembled by looking at the whole table and each character trait we established.

I found this activity helpful because it allowed me to have an understanding of the similaries and the differences between the three different texts. 

LI: to describe a character from a text we have read.

This term we have been looking at the different ways author’s bring characters to life. We thought about where the characters were, what situations they were in, the emotions they may have felt, what might have been going through their minds and how the author used sensory imagery to show us, rather than tell us about personalities and adventures of the characters we were reading about. I have used examples from the text and my own word knowledge to describe the character as seen through the author’s eyes.

To complete this activity, I described the wolves that had been in the 4 texts. I used the illustration from the text to narrate what the wolf is like in each texts. This activity was to build our understanding on characterisation and how authors can use vocabulary to develop a character. Using sensory imagery, we created a descriptive piece of text about the scene and used them in order to give emotion into the scene, making the reader think how we would want them to think.

By reflecting on this activity I can understand how to describe a character with more powerful vocabulary words.

LI: to describe a scene from a text we have read.

We have been exploring the ways writers use words to create mood and atmosphere in a text. I have used my knowledge of different langauge features used to  create mood and atmosphere in this text to help me describe a scene from the text that the character found themselves in. 

To complete this activity, I chose a scene from each text I have read. This reading challenge was to allow us to understand more about how the scenes are built and how authors use a variety of vocabulary to influence the way the audience encounters the different scenes, meaning it gives a well painted picture based on the scene. While describing the scene, we also used sensory imagery to support our thinking of the scene, which expresses how it feels in the that particular state.

I found this activity helpful because I learned how to be more familiar with using advanced vocabulary and sensory imagery to make my text more powerful. 

LI: To make an informed opinion.

To complete this activity I compared two texts. One from the perspective of the protagonist and one from the perspective of the antagonist. We used evidence from the text to support our thinking. To show my understanding considered both perspectives and I made an informed opinion. Do you agree with me?

Over the past few weeks our reading group has been looking at the characterisation of wolves and how they are often painted in bad light. For this particular task, we compared two texts that paint the wolf in good light and bad light, as the protagonist and as the antagonist. We used our connections and comparisons to make informed opinions on how the author can influence our ideas about the characterisation of wolves. To prove this with data we carried out a survey to find out people’s perceptions on characters in children’s literature. The text we used to gather our information was the Three Little Pigs. 

Have a look at the graphs we made to see how different people see different characters and our opinions on why they might think this way.

We have included our Google Form because if you are reading this post we would like you to fill in the form and share your thinking so we can find out what a wider audience think about the same text. This will take you about 5 minutes to complete.

LI: To make an informed opinion.

A provocation is an action or speech that triggers strong feelings about a topic. Over the last few weeks we have been learning about the experiences of the men of Te Hokowhitu – a – tu, the first Maori Battalion in WW1. These men had very different experiences to the men who sign up today. Our challenge throughout this unit has been to answer the question: Should the men of the native contingent have had the right to prove their mettle at the front? After completing the tasks and reading a wide variety of texts our group’s response to the provocation was our overall opinions on the activities that were set for us. 

LI: To map the highs and lows in the character’s mood and emotions as the story progresses

We read the texts ‘Home Little Maori, Home’ and ‘Hami Grace’s Diary’ and as a group discussed in our learning conversations the ways the mood and emotions in their experiences in WW1 affected these men. We think this shows how the soldiers must’ve felt in the battle field or before they fought because the emotions are different between the two people since they were at different places at the moment. 

LI: To identify how authors use language features to create mood and atmosphere in a text

We have been exploring the ways writers use words to create mood and atmosphere in a text. Our group used a text we read in class called ‘The Soldier who Never Returned.’ You can see the ways the author used different langauge features to create mood and atmosphere in this text by looking at the examples we have highlighted and explained in our DLO.

My favourite example in the text we read was ‘as it waits for the soldier who never came home’ because the author wrote a personification, which gave the bottle a human-like reference. 

I found this interesting because it allowed me to read and find the language features that were written in the text, and finding the mood and atmosphere in the text.