Implementation of Lpus

Objectives: R4 Versatile reading, R5 Trace developments, R10 Development of key ideas, R12 Independent reading, R13 Interpret a text, S&L3 Formal presentation,S&L16 Collaborate presentation

Key Stage 3NATE© Crown copyright 2003Group reading at Key Stage 3
National Strategy

Bretevski StreetLin Coghlan

Lesson 1Group card BS1

Objectives:R4 Versatile reading
R12 Independent reading

Resources:A3 paper, pens, sticky notes

As a whole group we have:

established the ground rules for group and guided reading;

looked at effective strategies for reading (starter activity and Strategy check-card).

Now you are going to:

read and think about two extracts from the play.

Group reading

Read from ‘We ate mice in the war…’ (p.18) to ‘Rejoice in it’ (p.20). Also, ‘We’ve still got apacket of seeds from last year, look’ (p.31) to ‘machine gun fire answered by sniper shots’ (p.34).

Group task

1.Discuss the extracts you have just read. What sort of play is this? Where do you think it is set? What do you think the issues are going to be? What clues do you have?

2.Place one sheet of plain paper in front of the group and draw a line down the middle to represent the garden fence separating the two families. Identify which characters belong to which family and write their names on the sheet either side of the fence.
Now put the two headings ‘Samacs’ and ‘Bretevs’ on the top of the sheet, one either side of the line.

3.Place two more sheets of large plain paper in front of the group. On one sheet write ‘Samacs’ and the other ‘Bretevs’. Using sticky notes, write on each sticky note one word that describes something you have discovered about either the Bretevs or the Samacs from the extracts you have read and stick them on the appropriate sheet of paper. Each person in the group should do this and explain their choice of words to the rest of the group. Keep this carefully – you will refer back to it in lesson 5.

4.Discuss the deliberate clues that the writer has given you in these extracts. Why are the stage instructions important in providing additional clues?

Bretevski StreetLin Coghlan

Lesson 2Group card BS2

Objectives:R4 Versatile reading

R12 Independent reading

Resources:None

Group reading

Read the beginning of the play from ‘The set is two allotments, the back gardens …’ (p.1),

to ‘Isobel goes, and Cormac follows her. Pierre and Vas exit off to their house’ (p.14).

Group task

1.Discuss the hooks and clues the writer has used to introduce the reader to the text.

2.Divide yourselves into two groups.

Group 1 – explore the opening to the play and identify the differences between Isobel and Hortense. What clues does the writer give you to how the characters of Isobel and Hortense might see things differently? Why do you think the writer wants to establish these differences at the beginning of the play? What might this suggest about what could happen later? Do the stage instructions add to the techniques the writer uses?

Group 2 – reread the extract when Cormac and Vas are talking on top of the shed (pp.11–14). How does their conversation differ from the adults? What is the subtext, or the hidden conversation in what they are saying? What ‘truths’ are hidden behind this conversation? How might the writer have used the children throughout the play in a way that she cannot use what the adult characters might be given to say?

3.Share your findings with the whole group using evidence you have found in the script.

‘It’s easy for the young to forget’. Discuss the significance of this line from the play in relation to what you have found out during the above activities.

Homework

Thinking about the two extracts you read last lesson and the opening of the play, sketch a diagram to show what the stage might look like. Think about particular items that would need to be seen by the audience. Why is the fence important?

Bretevski StreetLin Coghlan

Lesson 3Group card BS3

Objectives:R4 Versatile reading

R13 Interpret a text

Resources:None

Group reading

Read from ‘It is four weeks later’ (p.15) to ‘Vas exits leaving Pierre alone in the garden’ (p.25). This includes one of the extracts read during lesson 1.

Group task

In two groups of three:

1.Discuss the way in which the writer presents the relationship between Isobel and Pierre. Why do they ask questions? What tone of voice would the actors speak in? Why do you think this relationship might be important?

There then follows a conversation between Hortense and Pierre (p.19). How does this differ from the conversation he had with Isobel? How does the writer make these differences clear? Why did the writer choose to structure the scene in this way?

2.Discuss the pretend fight scene between Vas and Cormac. Why does the writer include this? Remind yourselves of the earlier discussion about the role of the children in the play. How does this fit with those ideas?

When Vas is asked about the knitting, he says, ‘I wish you’d do it inside the house where no one can see you’. Why does the writer include this?

3.Imagine that Vas asks again why he can’t join the brigade. In your two groups imagine that half the group represent Vas and the other half Pierre. Continue the conversation that might take place after Vas asks the question.

Homework

Reread pages 1–25 and make notes on what you think is effective about the play so far.

Bretevski StreetLin Coghlan

Lesson 4Group card BS4

Objectives:S&L16 Collaborate presentation

Resources:Enlarged version of song

Group reading

Read from ‘It is a week later’ (p.25) to ‘The song stops abruptly’ (p.27).

Group task

In two groups of three:

1.Discuss the extract you have just read. How is the child’s view of the situation presented? What dramatic techniques are used? To answer this you will need to look at the particular words used, the stage instructions and the structure of the scene.

2.Using the enlarged version of the song on a sheet of A4, analyse it in detail. Annotate the song, analysing the words used and the effect of the images and structure of the song. What sort of song is this? What do you think is its significance?

3.When Pierre interrupts, his speech is in capital letters. Why is this? What dramatic technique is the writer using here and what effect does she want to create? What does this tell us about the difference between Pierre and Vas?

4.Imagine you are directing this extract. Think about how you would want the actors to present this scene – movement, facial expressions, tone of voice, etc. Write the director’s notes for the extract, thinking carefully about what you want the audience to think and feel throughout. To help you do this, you might want to action read this extract as a group, thinking about where all the characters would be when Pierre interrupts, etc.

Homework

Complete the director’s notes for these two pages, thinking carefully about what the writer wants the audience to think and feel during this extract.

Bretevski StreetLin Coghlan

Lesson 5Group card BS5

Objectives:R5 Trace developments

Resources:Cardboard box, pieces of blank paper

Group reading

Read from ‘The policeman said they would have bread soon …’ (page 28), to ‘Machine gunfire answered by sniper shots’ (p.34). This includes one of the extracts read during lesson 1.

Group task

1.Return to the ‘Samacs’ and ‘Bretevs’ sheets and sticky notes you prepared as a group in lesson 1. Discuss whether you would wish to change or swap any of the sticky notes. Add any new words you now feel are appropriate and explain your decisions to the group.

2.Discuss the burying of the box. What is this symbolic of? What is the writer trying to achieve?

Have a small cardboard box on the table. Each member of the group should write on a piece of paper an item that they think would be found in the box. Fold the pieces of paper and place them in the box. Nominate one person to take them out one by one as each person explains their choice of item. Try to use your previous knowledge of the play when choosing which item to select. Discuss why the writer does not tell us at this stage what is in the box.

3.‘Things are different now’
‘You never worried about that before’
‘After the war’
References to time (then and now) are made throughout the play. See if you can find any other examples and discuss why the writer chooses words and statements to do with the past and present.

4.On a large sheet of paper draw two columns headed ‘Then’ and ‘Now’. Write down what you know about the past in the play and what you know about the present under these headings. Use evidence from the script.

Homework

Imagine a piece of text that you think could have been placed in Vas’s mother’s box (a letter, invitation, diary entry, extract from a book) and produce the first draft of this text.

Bretevski StreetLin Coghlan

Lesson 6Group card BS6

Objectives:R5 Trace developments

Resources:None

Group reading

Read from ‘Hortense, Cormac and Isobel enter and light a candle in front of the statue’ (p.34) to ‘Vas and Pierre exit as the bombs continue to rumble’ (p.41).

Group task

1.References to religion are made throughout the play. Find particular words that support this and discuss why they are used. Are there other ‘families’ of words that are used (words to do with war, time, families, etc.)? What effect do they have?

2.Discuss and explore the structure of this extract and the writer’s techniques. Why is the song heard in the distance? What is the significance of Pierre listening to the anthem? How is the background of war emphasised? ‘To keep this holy street for usalone’. Why is this repeated?

3.Discuss why Pierre corrects Vas for saying Sam instead of Samac. Think of an equivalent to this in your own lives. What does this tell us about the importance of words?

4.At this stage in the play, the reader/audience probably knows more than the characters appear to. How has the writer achieved this? Find particular lines from this extract that are significant because of what we have worked out. How do we read/watch this scene knowing what we think we know about Pierre?

5.‘We won’t build a better world by murdering each other’. This could be an example of the voice of the writer speaking through one of the characters. Discuss why. Can you find any other examples? What is the effect of having these statements in the same scene as Hortense saying, ‘We all have to be soldiers’?

Homework

Reread the extract and identify what techniques the writer uses to create tension.

Bretevski StreetLin Coghlan

Lesson 7Group card BS7

Objectives:R5 Trace developments

Resources:2 sheets of A3 paper

Group reading

Read from ‘The next day’ (p.42) to ‘The two boys sit and pet the cat’ (p.54).

Group task

1.Tension is created throughout this extract. As a group, draw a ‘Tension graph’ on a large sheet of paper, mapping when the tension is at its highest and when it drops. Mark the words and writer’s techniques that are found at these different points.

2.‘We are not animals to fight over’ (Hortense). How does this statement contrast with what she has said earlier? Does Hortense see Pierre as a friend? What is the significance of this to the play as a whole?

3.Discuss why the reader’s/audience’s prior knowledge makes this scene more effective.

4.Stealing the potatoes – was Isobel right or wrong? List arguments for both sides. Would the arguments be different if she knew the truth about Pierre? Why?

5.When Pierre damages the seeds, does our sympathy for him change? Discuss the techniques the writer uses here.

6.Vas and Cormac comment on events at the end of this scene. Does the writer’s use of the children in the play remain the same as before?

Homework

Look back at the stage instructions/sound effects in the last two extracts. Why are they an important part of reading the script? What visual aspects of the reconciliation between Isobel and Pierre are important? Why? How and why does the writer use sound effects?

Bretevski StreetLin Coghlan

Lesson 8Group card BS8

Objectives:S&L10 Hypothesis and speculation

Resources:None

Group reading

Read from ‘The next day. Morning. A cock crows’ (p.55) to ‘You go on, I’ll be there in aminute’ (Isobel) (p.63).

Group task

1.Humour is used throughout the play. Identify the use of humour in the above extract and discuss the effect of using humour after the seriousness of the last scene. Discuss why the writer mixes humour with serious events throughout the play. Find evidence to support your comments.

2.Discuss the situation when Cormac is trying to remove Vas’ shirt. What is the significance of this event? Why does the writer include particular words? Does this mark a change in the play? Why?

1. Placing the writer in the text.

1. Return to the previous extract and remind yourselves of what happens on page 53. Read the first lines said by Pierre.
2. Choose two people from the group to be Pierre and Isobel and freeze in the positions you think these two characters would be at this stage.
3. Choose another person to be the writer. Where would you place the writer in this picture? One member of the group decides, places the person in the picture and justifies their choice. It might be according to whose eyes the writer sees through, which character the writer is closest to, etc. The other members of the group may disagree and reposition the writer, explaining the change that they have made and the reasons for it.
4. Now choose a member of the group to be the audience. Where would they be positioned in the picture? Why?
5. Read on in the scene and freeze again. Does the position of the reader and/or writer change? What techniques are used by the writer to create sympathy, empathy, etc.?
6. Return to the extract above. Choose a point in the scene and repeat the positioning of the writer and the audience. Does the position of the writer and the audience alter in this extract? Discuss why.

Bretevski StreetLin Coghlan