Teaching Notes
1
There’s a Sea in My Bedroom by Margaret Wild
Audience:
These notes are intended for use with students in years 1 or 2.
Selected Passage:
Page 1 has been selected for explicit teaching throughout the sequence because of the descriptive action language. The passage reads:
David was frightened of the sea.
It was a huge, wet monster that gobbled him up,
Knocked him over, turned him upside down.
Purpose:
The purpose/s you select for students to learn from the book should drive how you teach it.
Author’s Purpose:
o Develop descriptive action sequence.
o Show how fear is overcome through imagination.
Teaching purpose:
o Reading and writing complex sentences
o Writing descriptive action sequences with adjectives and expressive verbs
o Visual literacy: the effect of audience viewpoint, long shot, medium shot, close up
Syllabus outcomes
The students will:
Talking and Listening: TL1.1, 1.3, 1.4
· engage in literate discussion about the text being studied using the literate language of the text
· develop detailed oral recounts of the text
Reading: RS1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8
· read the HOBO text/s fluently and with understanding (Many students to read the whole text)
· read complex sentences and descriptive action sequences
· identify and discuss actions and reactions of main character (physical actions, thoughts and feelings)
· identify and use descriptive words (adjectives and expressive verbs)
· discuss how the author created the intended meaning through structure, word choices and word order.
Spelling & handwriting: WS1.11, WS1.12
· learn a process for spelling using word chunks
· spell the selected words from the text correctly
· use the selected words to explore other forms of spelling knowledge
· use HOBO text as a model for handwriting
Writing: WS1.9, 1.10, 1.13, 1.14
· understand author’s choices for writing and use these in own writing
· compose own text based on modelled text (jointly or independently constructed)
· write complex sentences using descriptive language
· understand how writers create descriptive action sequences
· write a descriptive action sequence
Background Information: (ideas and other activities)
The sea:
o Develop understandings about how the sea works – wave action, tides, and rips – and how it can be a danger to people. eg. Watch Surf Life Saving videos, ‘Bush to Beach’ surf life saving program
o How do people feel about the sea and what do they do there – eg. Ask students, teachers, parents, etc.
o What is the sea like? ie. The salty water, sand – eg. Conduct an excursion to the beach, create a beach diorama
o Look at, and create, pictures of the sea and beach – eg. in artworks
o Find resources in your Library and on the Internet about the sea
o Create a classroom display
Shells:
o Have a conch shell available for students to listen to.
o Display a collection of shells, label and find out what animals live in them. Especially have: conches, periwinkles, fan shells, clams, muscles, oysters, and others drawn in the book.
o In talking and listening, ask the students to describe the shells, eg. size, colour, shape, texture, and sort them.
Teaching Sequence: Low Order Book Orientation (LOBO):
Here is an order for approaching the LOBO over a number of sessions using different angles to discuss the text. Note: It may take a number of sessions to complete one of the approaches below satisfactorily.
1. Illustrations and storyline using notes below.
Low Order Book Orientation (LOBO) – Illustration and storyline notes
Cover
This story is called there’s a Sea in my Bedroom. It is written by Margaret Wild and illustrated by Jane Tanner. It’s a story about a little boy David, who’s afraid of the sea. If we have a look at this picture, we can see David in his bedroom. But there’s something strange about his bedroom – instead of where the floor should be, it’s covered with water. This is because David is pretending that there is a sea in his room. He’s been to the beach with his mum and dad and he found a special shell there. The shell is a conch shell. Do you remember we listened to a conch shell and it sounded like the sea? Well David takes this shell home and puts it in his bedroom. He then imagines that the sea comes out of the shell and fills his room up with water and other things that you find at the sea. Lets look at the other pictures in the story to see what happens.
Pages 1 – 2
In this first picture we can see David at the beach. He’s running away from the waves because he’s scared of them. Look at the water. It’s not nice and calm. We can see the white tips of the waves and the water spraying up which means the sea is rough. We can also see where the waves are breaking on the sand and where the water’s going back. David’s running away because he thinks the sea is a huge monster. He must have been in the sea once and was knocked over and turned upside down by the waves. He now thinks that it wants to gobble him – or eat him - up. That’s why he doesn’t like the sea, not one bit.
Pages 3 – 4
Now in this picture we can see David does like to do some things at the beach. He likes collecting shells to take home. We can see him picking up shells from the sand and having a look at them. The ones he likes he puts in his bucket. Lets look at them. There’s a pink fan shaped shell, there are two yellow and one grey trumpet shaped shells, a pink and yellow shell that has curves that look like animal teeth, and even a small purple shell.
Pages 5 –6
Then one day David found a conch shell on the beach. We can see him holding the shell in his hands. It was quite big and shaped like a pear. It was brown on the outside and we can see on the inside that it’s orange. David’s dad must be near him, maybe standing behind him looking over his shoulder [point out angle of picture]. He tells David that it’s a special shell because you can hear the sea inside.
Pages 7 – 8
Now David thinks it’s a bit strange that the sea would be in the shell. He wonders how such a big sea could fit inside a shell that is so small compared to the size of the sea. In this picture we can see Dad next to David. David is putting the shell up to his ear and listening to see if he can hear the sea like his dad said. He could hear it but it wasn’t loud and angry, it was soft and friendly and growly. Margaret Wild doesn’t mean growly like ‘cranky’ growly, she means growly like the noise when your radio is out of tune. Look at David’s face. He doesn’t look scared.
Page 9 - 10
In this picture David has taken the shell home and placed it on a chair next to his bed. Look at the pillow and the end of his bed [p.9] next to the chair. We can see David lying in bed looking at his shell. He thinks that there is really a sea trapped inside the shell and he feels sorry for it. He wonders what it would be like to let it out, just for a little while, a short while. Remember he thinks that it is a friendly, soft and growly sea.
Pages 11 – 12
This is the part of the story, which David pretends is happening. He tells the sea to come out so it’s not trapped anymore. He then imagines that the sea rushed out with a swish-swish sound. See how the water is swirling out like the same shape as the shell. Remember, this isn’t really happening, it’s just what David’s imagining.
Pages 13 –14
Have a look at the shell in this picture. We can see the water from the sea spurting out of the shell onto his toes. There’s more water falling down the chair like a waterfall and filling up the floor of his bedroom. The water’s moving and curling around his toes with a white foam beginning to go up his legs. At the moment the water’s only low, just reaching up to the edge of the blanket on his bed, beating it gently. Look at the difference to the water near the waterfall. See how it’s all rough and foamy but as the water moves away, it becomes more still and calm.
Pages 15 – 16
Now on this page, the water’s getting higher but we can still see that it’s in David’s room. We can see the end of David’s bed but if you look closely at the blanket you can see that it’s changing. There is grass on the top and the sides look like a cliff at the seaside, with waves crashing against them. We also know that it’s still in David’s room because there are some of his toys. It says in the story that he rowed in his toy-box, maybe across the sea, and perhaps his toys all fell out. They’re now bobbing in the water. We can see his red tug-boat, his yellow wooden duck and his blue-striped seaplane.
We can also see David lying down in the water, kicking his legs, splashing and having a good time. See how happy he looks. He’s probably making a lot of noise.
Pages 17 – 18
David’s having a lot of fun on this page. He’s picking up handfuls of foam from the sea and watching the bubbles disappear in his hands. David laughed, and laughed and laughed. He must of made so much noise because his mother and father could hear him and called out to ask him what he was up to.
Pages 19 – 20
In this picture we can see that the water is much deeper. Look, it’s over David’s knees and is nearly up to the handles on his wardrobe. It’s deep enough now that there are waves in the sea. Have a look at them. David has been jumping into the waves. Look at how wet he is and how happy he is.
Now look at David’s bed. It’s an island! But we still know it’s a bed because we can see the ends of his bed. We also know that it’s in David’s room because we can see the chair and a book bobbing in the water, and his toys moving around.
David’s so excited and having so much fun that he shouts out to his mum and dad that there’s a sea in his bedroom. He tells them that he’s jumping in the waves and getting wet.
Pages 21 – 22
Mum and dad must have been wondering what David was doing. We can see that they’ve opened his door and are looking at David. They didn’t see the sea or any water. See, there’s no water in the picture. They just saw David on the floor pretending to swim with all of his toys around him. So now we know that it was all pretend. That David was just imagining the sea was there.
Pages 23 – 24
Now we can see David is checking to see if it was real. He touches his trousers, shirt and his hair to see if he’s wet. See, he’s touching his hair to see if it was wet. But his hair is dry. He tells his parents that there was a sea in his room but it’s gone back into the shell. [NB: the shell is still upright on the chair in the bottom right hand corner.]
David’s father tells him that it’s not a real sea, it’s just a noise in the shell that sounds like the sea.
Pages 25 – 26
We find out in this part that David doesn’t believe his father. He finds a small pile of sand underneath his chair and makes him really think there was a sea. He decides to put the sand in a jar and keep it always.
Pages 27 – 28
His father has asked him if he would like to go to the beach tomorrow. Here we can see David getting things ready to go to the beach. Look at the things he’s taking. He’s got his kick-board and snorkel and his bucket and spade. Remember at the beginning he was really scared of going in the sea. Well now he’s not frightened anymore. Not one bit.
Page 29
In the last picture it must be the next day and we can see David swimming in the sea. He doesn’t look frightened. Look at the way he’s smiling. He looks very happy. He doesn’t look scared at all like he was at the start of the story.
Let’s read it!
LOBO 2: Illustrations and storyline using notes but with preformulation, questioning and reconceptualisation cycle. Here is an example for page 1.
(P=Preformulation, Q= Question, A= Answer R=Reconceptualisation)
P: Remember the story started with David at the beach. He was frightened of the sea. You can see him running away from the waves.
Q: How did David feel?
A: Frightened.
R: That’s right, he was frightened of the sea because he may have been knocked over by the waves one time.
P: Now let’s look at the picture of the waves. We can tell it is rough because of the white water spray coming up into the air. That happens when it is windy and water is rough.
Q: How do we know the waves are rough?
A: The white water in the air.
R: Yes, you’re right! The water spray is white and we can also see it in the air and on the sand.
P: The other thing we can see about the water is that it is very, very big. Margaret Wild says that it is huge.
Q: How big is the sea?
A: Huge.
R: Well done. The picture shows us that the sea is very big and dark up in the top corner, which also means it is quite deep there as well. David seems so small next to the huge sea.
P: The water looks very scary to David. He thinks it looks like a monster.
Q: What does David think the sea looks like?
A: A monster.
R: Great! He does think it’s a monster, a wet monster because water is wet. He also thinks that it will gobble him up, which means it will eat him.