Literacy KS 3 Teaching Ideas
By Carolann McMahon, former Drama Adviser, Dorset LEA
Tasks
- Download HMS Formidable texts **LINK**and re-read.
Write a formal speech in role as Admiral Bayley appearing before a Board of Enquiry, giving an account of the disaster.
Write a letter from Able Seaman Cowan to his family describing the shipwreck.
As a newspaper journalist, looking for a ‘scoop’ to impress his/her editor, write about Lassie’s role in bringing Able Seaman Cowan (miraculously) back to life.
Compare the accounts written by other members of the class. Are there words or phrases particularly appropriate to each context?
Task
- Download from the web site Archive the newspaper article about the Royal Adelaide from the Illustrated London News, or the account written by the officers who survived the wreck of the Halsewell. (**LINKS**)
Pair, group or class shared reading –
Discuss the meaning and identify characteristics of historical texts/writing. Pay particular attention to sentence structure, punctuation, vocabulary and tone.
Choose a couple of sentences to re-write in modern English.
In diagrammatical form compare the styles of writing in the accounts of the Adelaide and the Halsewell.
Task
Comprehension exercise
- Download the story of the Royal Adelaide. **LINK**Re-read the text and answer the questions in full and standard English.
1. What type of ship was the Royal Adelaide?
2. Approximately how many people were on board the ship?
3. How many of these were crew?
4. Where were the passengers going and for what reason?
5. When did the ship begin its journey?
6. What part of England did it sail from and what was the weather like?
7. What happened on 25th November and where did it happen? Describe the scene.
8. Describe what the thoughts and feelings of the onlookers might have been.
9. What did the local people do to try and help?
10. How many people at a time could be rescued?
11. Why was it awkward for the women to climb into the cradle?
12. How many people were rescued before the life-line broke?
13. How did local people respond to the shipwreck?
14. List the type of cargo that was washed ashore from the wreckage.
15. What did the pilferers do? What happened to them?
16. Where were the goods originally destined?
17. Who was blamed for the disaster and what happened to the accused?
18. How many passengers were rescued?
19. Who did not survive?
20. Make a word collage using the thoughts and feelings onlookers might have experienced.
Task
Comprehension exercise
- Download the texts about the Avalanche. **LINK** Re-read the texts and answer the questions in full and standard English.
1. What type of vessels were the Avalanche and the Forest?
2. Which ship was outward bound for New Zealand?
3. Which ship had passengers that were mainly colonists and emigrants?
4. Where did the cargo of goods on the Avalanche come from?
5. What word is used to define sailing without a cargo?
6. What was the visibility like on the night of the collision?
7. Which ship hit the other ship and where did it hit it?
8. Name the ship that sank and how long it took to sink.
9. What happened to the people on board this ship?
10. Describe the fishermen’s rescue operation.
11. How might a) the rescuers, and b) the survivors have felt?
12. Where was the monument built to commemorate those who died?
Tasks
Small groups or whole class
- Devise and present to an audience of your own choice how you visualize / imagine one of the rescue operations. Remember to include how the survivors and rescuers might have felt, their hopes and fears, and what the physical conditions might have been like throughout the operation, e.g. what the weather was like.
- Reflect and evaluate:
the appropriateness and success of the drama techniques used;
your participation in the drama e.g. did you contribute to the development of the drama and a) if your ideas were used were you
pleased with how they developed? b) if your ideas were not used how did you feel?
how you felt about the collaboration and contribution of other members of your group;
how it might be improved.
If you were to do it again what changes would you make?
If you were directing the piece, how you would a) encourage everyone to participate fully? b) deal with contributions of others that you might not agree with?
Tasks
- Choose one of the following:
Make and perform a monody about one of the shipwrecks.
Make and recite a monologue about one of the shipwrecks.
Make a melodrama about one of the shipwrecks.
[Monody; in Greek tragedy an ode which is sung by one person, a poem or lament about someone’s death.
Monologue; a long speech. It is made by one actor, usually when alone, although it can be spoken to other characters on stage, (e.g. in Shakespear’s ‘Julius Caesar’). It may be spoken directly to the audience, e.g. as an epilogue or prologue.
Melodrama; a drama originated in England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Literally it means ‘music drama’ because of the large amount of music used. It relies heavily on sentimentality and sensationalism. Morals were defined and heroes were easily recognisable. Stock characters played their parts with quick action highlighted with music appropriate to their part and action, for example, when the hero rescues the virtuous damsel in distress just in the nick of time, before she is run down by a train! The villain usually comes to a sticky end.
A nautical melodrama; popular in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries associated with shipwreck, smuggling, wrecking and piracy. It was often full of patriotic sentiment. It usually had a hero who was ready to die for king and country. It is said that the hero’s language was full of metaphors of the sea and spontaneously broke into merry ballads or horn pipes!]
Tasks
- Using the information about the Halsewell improvise in small groups;
a farewell scene between Captain Pierce, his two daughters and two nieces who are about to embark on the Halsewell, and his wife and other members of the family who are to remain in Britain.
the conversation between Captain Pierce, his officers and the passengers the moment they knew that nothing could be done to save the ship.
a scene immediately after they were told.
in role write a diary entry for each of the above events using language of the period.
Tasks
- Download the Royal Adelaide story, re-read then;
improvise a conversation or a scene between the emigrants (men, women and children), soon after their arrival in Australia, comparing their new lives to the life they’ve left behind.
in role write a letter home to a relative or friend describing your new life.
(See the web site Archive for further information on emigration e.g. the Rose Family **LINK**from Sturminster Newton was one of the first free families to settle in Australia.)
Tasks
- Download and read the information from the web site Archive on ‘Life as a Passenger on an East Indiaman’. **LINK**
Describe what you think the voyage to China might have been like on board the Earl ofAbergavenny. (You might want to use a world map.) Here are some questions to help you think about what you might include in your writing;
*Would the merchant ship have been crowded?
*Do you think it was like a cruise ship with cabins for all the passengers?
*What sort of food do you think they might have eaten?
*Do you think they might have had sports on board like cruise liners?
*Did they exercise at all?
*Would the trip have been smooth?
*How might the day have been spent/occupied?
*What might the view have been like on the journey to China?
*Where might they have stopped and why?
Write in the style of a captain’s log about the journey and any problems that may have occurred. (Extracts from the log of the Halsewell in the web site Archive**LINK** may help you.)
Download the story of the Earl of Abergavenny **LINK** and re-read. Write about the wrecking of as either a survivor or a rescuer.
Tasks
- Using a flow chart to plan your work, choose one of the following:
Write a poem about a storm.
Describe a) in detail an object you think came from one of the ships.
b) why you think it belonged to this particular ship.