primary tutor english workbook - action tutoring · tutor, you will primarily be focusing on...

Primary

Tutor

English

Workbook

This pupil workbook and its contents are copyright of Action Tutoring – © Action Tutoring 2019. All rights reserved. The reproduction or transmission of all or part of the work,

whether by photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means or otherwise, without the written permission of Action Tutoring or other third party owners, is prohibited.

Contents

Themes

Text Type

Exploring Africa Page number

Tick when

complete F The Fastest Boy in the World – Elizabeth Laird.………... 30 NF The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind – William

Kamkwamba ……………………………………………….. 35

NF Facing Extinction: The Northern White Rhino…….......... 39

Text type

Fire! Fire! Page number Tick when

complete F How To Train your Dragon – Cressida Cowell….………. 44 F The Great Fire Dogs – Megan Rix……..….……………… 49 NF Great Fire of London Fact File……………………………. 54

Key: F = Fiction NF = Non-fiction P = Poetry

Introductory Skill Sessions Page number

Tick when

complete Retrieve................................................................................................... 1 Vocabulary / Define............................................................................... 5 Summarise............................................................................................ 10 Infer........................................................................................................ 15 Predict.................................................................................................... 20 Explore………………………………………............................................. 25 Relate / Compare………………………………………............................. 27

A guide to the workbook Page

number

tutor

Background information on SATs i

How is the workbook set out? iii

Session plan iv

Reading for pleasure v

How do I read the extracts with my pupils? vi

How can I help pupils find the answers quickly? vii

Building vocabulary viii

How can I support a less fluent reader? xi

How can I support a ‘more able’ reader? xiv

Text type

Journeys Page number Tick when

complete F A Story Like the Wind – Gill Lewis………………………. 60 P The Owl and the Pussycat – Edward Lear…….….......... 66 NF Who Was Ernest Shackleton? – James Buckley…......... 70

Text type

Adventures in Outer Space Page number

Tick when

complete F Fortunately, the Milk – Neil Gaiman…………………... 76 NF Newspaper Report on Tim Peake – Amanda Kelper…... 81 P The Star – Sara Teasdale.………………………………... 85

Text type

Secrets and Spies Page number

Tick when

complete P The Highwayman – Alfred Noyes ……………………….. 89 F The Manor…………………………………………………... 95 P The Listeners – Walter de la Mare….………………….… 99

Text type

Three-Mark Question Exam Practice Page number

Tick when

complete F In the Company of a Thief………………………..………. 103 F Wild Cat…………………………………………………...... 109 F Dodge and the Tornado…………………………………... 116

Key: F = Fiction NF = Non-fiction P = Poetry

i © Action Tutoring 2019

Background information on SATs

This workbook is to be used with pupils preparing for the reading paper of their SATs. In their SATs, Year 6 pupils will sit one reading paper, one grammar and punctuation question paper and one spelling paper. This workbook focuses on building skills to help pupils in the reading paper specifically. In Year 5 and 6, most children will have learnt to recognise word structures and will have developed phonological strategies for decoding words. Therefore, as a tutor, you will primarily be focusing on language comprehension (shown here).

How is reading assessed in the SATs?

The KS2 Reading Content Domains set out the relevant elements from the national curriculum programme of study (2014) that are assessed in the English reading test.

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The tests will, over time, sample from each area of the content domain. However, not all domains are given the same number of questions in the reading test but broadly follow the weighting below:

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How is the workbook set out?

Introductory sessions The first six sessions are designed to give both tutors and pupils a better understanding of the different reading skills (content domains) that are assessed within the SATs reading paper, as well as the different format, wording and question stems associated with these skills. Each section gives a brief explanation of the reading skill being focused on that week and some examples of previous questions that have appeared on the SATs. Discuss this overview briefly with your pupils and ask how they would rate their understanding and confidence when tackling these types of questions. Following this is an extract and a selection of questions based only on this specific reading skill. Spend some time reading the extract together – allow the pupil to hear you read aloud first and give them some time to read it again at their own pace. Following this, work together with your pupils to answer the first few questions, using the skills ladder on the first page to help scaffold their learning and model the steps needed to find the information they need. If you are working with a pair, allow pupils to answer the next few questions together and then encourage them to try one or two completely independently. This gradual withdrawing of your support will allow you to observe their learning and assess if they have mastered the skill and could confidently answer these questions independently, or whether they need more practice. If they are struggling, step in and continue working alongside the pupils, using the skills ladders to prompt them. At the end of the session, ask pupils to self-assess their understanding again – this will give you an insight into their learning over the course of the session and how confident they would feel trying these types of questions independently in the SATs. After this skills section, the workbook is divided into five themes that contain different extracts (either a fiction, non-fiction or poetry text). The content domains covered in the comprehension questions build up incrementally, focusing on the most commonly tested domains first (Vocabulary, Retrieval, Summarising and Inference), before moving on to include the remaining, less frequently assessed skills. By the second half of the workbook, pupils should be tackling comprehension questions that cover the full range of content domains on each extract. As such, we strongly recommend you follow this book chronologically, rather than allowing pupils to pick a different extract or theme each week. In the run up to the SATs, the final few sessions focus on three-mark questions, which pupils typically find the hardest to answer. These sessions explore the question types and strategies to structure answers.

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Example

timings

Lesson Plan for a typical one-hour Primary English Tutoring session:

3.00pm–

3.10pm

10 mins A ‘Reading for pleasure’ activity with your pupils.

Look at the section in the guidance below for ideas on how to incorporate

this into your session.

3.10pm–

3.20pm

5-10

minutes

Read the next extract in the workbook with your pupils.

This will be the subsequent text in the workbook, as questions and extracts

increase in difficulty throughout the book and are designed to be tackled

consecutively.

Try to vary the way you and your pupils share the extract so the structure of

each tutoring session isn’t too repetitive. Ideas on different ways to read

extracts are discussed further in the ‘How do I read the extracts with my pupils?’ section below.

3.20pm–

3.40pm

20

minutes

Work through the comprehension questions with your pupils.

Wherever possible, ensure a scaffolded approach to your tutoring by

working together on the first few questions and encouraging lots of

discussion and justification of answers from your pupils, before gradually

allowing your pupils to try in a pair and then independently. This will allow

you to get a sense of how confidently your pupils can answer the questions

without your help, which in turn, will help you plan for the following session.

Alongside practising the different reading skills, it is also important to

incorporate strategies from the ‘How can I help pupils find answers quickly?’ section (e.g. skimming and scanning) so that opportunities to work on finding answers at speed (a key exam skill) are embedded into

each session.

If your pupil is finding a particular skill e.g. inference difficult, refer back to

the ladders in the relevant initial skill section for a step-by-step approach on

tackling each type of question.

3.40pm–3.50pm

10

minutes

Challenge activity

Allow time for pupils to complete the challenge activity to promote and

encourage the enjoyment of reading.

3.50pm–

4.00pm

10

minutes

Activities for the end of a session

If time remains, encourage your pupil to identify one or two words that were

challenging in the extract, and ask them to draw a vocabulary diagram and

to add to their word bank in the back of their workbook (discussed further in

the ‘Building vocabulary’ section below.)

Pre-read the next extract for the following week, so children have had some

exposure to the language / layout / content in preparation for the following

week’s session. Please do not continue onto the questions as it is

unlikely there will be sufficient time to complete them all and it will be

difficult for pupils to pick up from this point in the next session.

Session plan

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Reading for pleasure

Research has shown how developing a love of reading is central for children’s life chances. According to an OECD report in 2002, “Finding ways to engage pupils in reading may be one of the most effective ways to leverage social change,” as reading enjoyment or ‘reading for pleasure’ is even more predictive of a child’s educational success than familial socio-economic status. Reading for pleasure is critical for ensuring that the practice needed to become fluent becomes part of the learners’ everyday life, and is not just seen as a classroom-based activity. In light of this, it is important that opportunities to engage in reading for pleasure are built into your tutoring session, alongside the use of this workbook. During each tutoring session, you should allocate around ten minutes to reading solely ‘for fun’ with your pupils. This time is purely about reading together in a relaxed and positive way, with no learning outcomes or comprehension questions attached. Begin this process by asking pupils what they would like to read, or suggesting they bring a book from home that they would like to share with you. Pupil can share any genre or text types e.g. short stories, jokes, comics, poetry, lyrics, plays and script, reference books, newspapers, magazines, websites. As you get to know your pupil better, you could bring along texts that you think might interest them, e.g. a comic or clipping from a newspaper. If your pupil doesn’t bring a book, use the school library or book corner to select a book that interests them – perhaps a picture book or a reference book that can be shared together. Alternatively, children often have school reading books, so perhaps you could ask your pupils about this, or read a few pages aloud to them. It is important to see yourself as part of this process as well – tutors can promote reading for pleasure simply by having a copy of a book or magazine they are reading out on the desk and by being ready to discuss it with the children if they ask what you are reading. The key message is that you use this time to allow pupils to read about what they are interested in and in a method of their choice.

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How do I read the extracts with my pupils?

There is a variety of ways to share the extracts with your pupils, and the method you choose will depend on how confident your child is at reading, the length and difficulty of the extract or simply how you want to vary the structure of your tutoring sessions. One method is to read the extract aloud to your pupils first, perhaps even the week before you are covering it. In the next session, children read it independently to themselves. This gives your pupils a scaffold in their reading, as they are aware of the plot and have heard any unfamiliar or tricky words being read aloud already. Alternatively, you can begin by reading the opening paragraph or two and then let pupils read the remainder independently. Another method of reading the extracts is ‘paired reading’ which is a great strategy if one of your pupils is less fluent in reading than the other. In this strategy, students read aloud to each other, taking it in turns to read alternate sentences or paragraphs, or to re-read what the other had just read. If both your pupils are fluent readers, rather than read the text aloud to them or have them listen to each other, stretch their skills by adding a timed element to their independent reading, e.g. how far through the extract did they get in one minute? Did they get further than the previous week? Most of the lost marks on the reading test are a result of pupils not finishing in the allocated time, so any practice around the skill of speed reading will always be beneficial.

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How can I help pupils find answers quickly?

During your sessions, it is important to practise and encourage skimming and scanning techniques with your pupils. Skimming is useful when you want to get a general idea of what a text is about. When skimming, encourage pupils to ignore details and look for the main ideas. Steps for successful skimming:

Read the title.

Read the introduction.

Read the first line of each paragraph.

Look for important information such as names, dates or technical words.

Read headings and subheadings.

Read the conclusion or summary.

Do not read every word. To encourage this skill, copy the text, blocking out everything but the title, pictures, first lines of each paragraph, and the last paragraph. From this information, get your pupils to identify the main idea and why the author is writing this story. Have a discussion about what they already know about the text and what they think they will learn in the details. The skill of scanning is used when we need to rapidly cover a great deal of material in order to locate a specific name, date, statistic or fact, without reading or re-reading an entire text. To scan a piece of text:

Keep the word or piece of information you are looking for in mind at all times during your search.

Let your eyes run quickly over the text.

Use a finger to run along the lines of text to keep your place.

Once you have scanned from top to bottom, scan from the bottom up to look for information you may have missed.

An activity to practice this skill is a “find the word” race where you write down a word that only occurs once in the text and pupils’ race to underline or highlight the word first. A more challenging alternative is to only say the word aloud without writing it down. This is a good way to pre-teach vocabulary by drawing pupils’ attention to these words and discussing the meaning of these words. This activity also works as a way to preview the text as it can lead to a discussion of what the pupils believe the story will be about based on the words you select from the text.

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Building vocabulary

Though the whole act of reading is complex, the degree of difficulty of the vocabulary within a text goes a long way to determining the comprehension demand. In 2017, the SATs non-fiction text on swimming the English Channel included vocabulary such as ‘hardships’, ‘pioneering’, ‘venture’, ‘feat’ and ‘well regulated’. For many of our pupils, especially those who do not read widely or who speak English as an additional language, they simply don’t have the breadth of vocabulary to access the challenging reading in the Key Stage 2 assessments. However, identifying vocabulary to teach explicitly can help address this challenge. Here are some practical approaches for putting vocabulary at the heart of your tutoring:

1) Explain a new word, going beyond reciting its definition (tap into prior knowledge of pupils, use imagery).

2) Ask pupils to restate or explain the new word in their own words (verbally and/or in writing).

3) Ask pupils to create a non-linguistic representation of the word (a picture, or symbolic representation).

4) Ask pupils to engage in activities to deepen their knowledge of the new word (compare words, classify terms, write their own analogies and metaphors).

5) Ask pupils to discuss the new word (pair-share, elbow partners). 6) Go over the words in the following sessions to make sure that the pupils are able to

remember them.

What doesn’t work:

Asking, “Does anybody know what X means?” Copying the same word several times.

Having pupils “look it up” in a dictionary without understanding how to apply it. Activities that do not require deep processing (word searches, fill-in-the-blank).

Rote memorization without context.

Asking pupils to guess the meaning of the word.

Two approaches for choosing which words to teach

1) When pre-reading the text for your next session, pick out no more than three words that you think your pupil will not have come across before. For example, in the sentence: ‘It was such a noble country, and so wide stretching for mile upon mile to brown horizons at the very edge of Africa’, at primary level, your pupil probably won’t have heard the words ‘noble’ or ‘horizons’ previously. Therefore, focus on these and use an activity from the pick ‘n’ mix section to teach them the words explicitly.

2) Get your pupils to read through the text with you in the session. Make a note of the words that they struggled to decode and the words that they didn’t know the meanings of in the first few questions. Choose three words from the observations you have made.

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At the start of each session

Go over words that pupils learned last week and have written in their ‘word journal’. Get your pupils to:

1) Use their new words in their own sentences. 2) Explain the word meanings in context. 3) Give examples of what the words are not (antonyms), for example the word ‘furious’

is the opposite of ‘happy’.

The word journal

This section of the workbook (the back pages of the Pupil book) is very much a free, creative space for your pupil to write their new words, draw pictures of the meanings, write sentences and practice using their new vocabulary. Encourage your pupil to build a ‘word bank’ in this space and refer to it throughout sessions and in their writing in English lessons.

Vocabulary activities 1) Word diagrams:

These are simple to set up and easy to use. You might only be able to do one word diagram per session as they are an in-depth activity. You can use a white board or a separate piece of paper to draw these out. 2) Mind maps

Tell pupils they need to think of words they can use to describe the weather. Write ‘weather’ at the centre of a blackboard or whiteboard and circle it. Write every word supplied by pupils as ‘rays’ that shoot out from this circle. They should reply with previously taught words, like ‘chilly’, ‘scorching’, or ‘mild’. You may even have sub-circles shooting off to the side for winter, summer, etc. This works well for vocabulary review lessons.

x © Action Tutoring 2019

3) I Spy

Give pupils a list of words to search for in a text or ask them to find unfamiliar words. You can award points for the words based on different criteria (longest new word, word with most consonants, etc.). Do this as a pre-reading activity.

4) Making choices

Ask pupils to show their understanding of vocabulary by saying the word when it applies, or remaining silent when it doesn’t. For example: “Say radiant if any of these things would make someone look radiant.”

Winning a million dollars.

Earning a gold medal.

Walking to the post office.

Cleaning your room.

5) Sorting hat

Use a Harry Potter theme to have pupils sort words into categories. They can pull them out of a hat. If you give them the categories, this is called a ‘closed sort.’ If they come up with their own categories, this is called an ‘open sort.’ For example, you could have ‘feelings’ and ‘actions’ as categories. When children choose to put words in certain categories, get them to explain why they have chosen to do so. A further challenge is to use the words in a sentence.

6) Word pairs

Give pupils words in pairs and have them evaluate if the words are synonyms, antonyms, or unrelated. This is similar to the previous activity, ‘sorting hat’. As discussed before, when children choose to put words into certain categories, get them to explain why they have chosen to do so. A further challenge is to use the words in a sentence.

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How can I support a less fluent reader?

A pupil who could be defined as a ‘struggling reader’ in Year 5 and 6 may display the following behaviours: 1) Unable to read at a reasonable speed (a slightly slower speed than you would use in a

normal conversation). For example, pupils may speak in a monotone voice and pause after each word. A pupil may lose complete track of their thoughts or the sentence structure in these cases.

2) Inaccurate pronunciation: mispronouncing words and missing word beginnings or endings. For example, pupils may pronounce ‘these’ as ‘this’, or pronounce ‘quickly’ as ‘quick’.

3) Lack of prosody (intonation, stress and pauses). For example, pupils may speak in a monotone voice and not notice the function of the punctuation in the sentence. For example, a pupil may read the sentence “Harry – come quickly!” without a brief pause after Harry and without an upward intonation for the word quickly due to the exclamation mark.

Seven strategies to help pupils read fluently

Use these strategies to supplement what you are already doing in sessions. Use them as starters or main activities. Remember, if children are not yet fluent, then comprehension is impossible. Don’t feel worried about not completing questions in response to the text. Often pupils enjoy going back to a text they struggled to read a few weeks ago and answering comprehension questions – it shows them how much they have improved!

1) Model excellent reading. By reading the text to the pupils at a slower than normal pace, and then asking pupils to circle or underline words they don’t understand, you can help to identify what you need to go through with them before you answer any of the questions in the workbook. By using the steps above, you are enabling your pupils to see what great reading looks like.

2) Listen to pupils reading aloud on their own. If certain sound/letter combinations or words are causing problems, tutors will benefit from listening to the pupil reading out loud.

3) Ask them to read the same text several times. When you’re trying to improve fluency, it helps if pupils see the same text multiple times. Each reading becomes easier and motivation goes up as pupils experience enhanced fluency thanks to repeated exposure to words and phrases. It can also help when it comes to developing comprehension skills as pupils have more opportunities to notice contextual cues.

4) Drill high-frequency words. Some words are more common than others and pupils who have a hard time with fluency will find it is much easier to read when they are familiar with 90% of the vocabulary in a text. Around 50% of all books and classroom-based materials for young readers are composed of words from the high frequency word list. A list of these words is on page xiii. Point to the words and see if the pupils can read them by sight, rather than sounding them out. You can do this as a starter activity (see list at the end of this section).

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5) Create a stress-free environment. When pupils are enjoying a text, anxiety and stress are reduced and fluency is enhanced. It’s possible to foster a relaxing environment by just focusing on reading for reading’s sake.

6) Guide pupils to help them to establish a steady pace. One of the hallmarks of fluent reading is establishing a consistent rhythm and pace that guides pupils through a text. This doesn’t need to be fast, and in the beginning new readers should have the option to start slowly and increase their pace as they become more comfortable.

xiii © Action Tutoring 2019

High frequency words A better dragon friends he's liked N pulled some thought went

about birds door from him little narrator put something three what

across boat down for home live need Q soon through when

after book duck found horse lived never queen still time which

again box E fox house long new R stop told white

air boy each G I look next rabbit stopped took who

along C eat garden I’ll looked night really suddenly town why

animals called eggs gave I'm looking O right sun tree will

another came even giant inside looks old river T trees wind

any can't ever girl into M once room take two window

are children every going I've made one round tea U wish

around clothes everyone gone J magic only S tell under with

asked cold eyes good jumped make other said than use work

away come F grandad just many our saw that useful would

B coming fast great K may out say that's V Y

baby could feet green keep miss over school them very you

back couldn't fell grow key more P sea then W Monday

bear cried find H king morning park see these want Tuesday

because D first hard know most people she they wanted Wednesday

been dark fish have L mother place shouted thing was Thursday

before didn't floppy head last mouse plants sleep things water Friday

began different fly help laughed much play small think way Saturday

best don't food here like must please snow this well Sunday

© Action Tutoring 2019

xiv

How can I support a ‘more able’ reader?

How do you know your pupil is a ‘more able’ reader?

1) Excellent levels of fluency (speed, accuracy, and prosody). 2) A wide-ranging vocabulary that ‘stands out’ from peers. 3) They are able to answer all questions reasonably easily. 4) A depth of understanding of the text based on minimal reading.

As a tutor, make sure that these pupils are always stretched further in their learning. Do this using the following strategies: Strategies to embed within the materials already provided

1) Set a time limit to answer comprehension questions. Can they answer them in less than 20

minutes for example? Can they beat their score from last week?

2) Give minimal input. Ask questions and see how much they can come up with by themselves; this will promote independence as much as possible. For example, say “this week I’m not going to say anything unless you need some help, I want to see how much you can do by yourselves today.”

3) Ensure all answers are written to a high standard and show independent thought. When

pupils respond to the questions in the workbook, make sure they respond with accuracy and justify their answers clearly. Could they give further examples of what they mean?

4) Develop vocabulary further. Ensure that more able pupils clearly understand, define and use

in their own sentences new words that they have learnt from the text. For example, if they learn the word ‘arid’, can they then define it accurately and write their own sentence using the word.

Open-ended discussions. Look closely at the question stems provided and have open-ended discussions with your pupils. By doing so, you are encouraging them to think deeply about their reading. Make sure that everything they claim is related to their reading and is evidenced in the text. This shifts your discussions from something generally philosophical to specifically reading comprehension focused.


1

Introductory Skills Sessions

Examples of retrieval question stems:

Which…? What…? How…? Where…? When…? Why…? Identify how… Give two reasons why… Identify which statements are true or false Which words and/or phrases…? What happened at…? Describe… Find a word or phrase that tell us that…

How do you feel about retrieval questions?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

I find this difficult I’m getting there I’m good at this

Retrieve This week you will be focusing on how to go into a text and retrieve the facts and key details. This type of question appears quite often in the SATs paper.

2b Retrieve and record information /identify key details from fiction and non-fiction.

Following these steps in the right order will help

you:

Read question.

Identify the question type

(when, where, why etc.)

Indentify main words in question.

Indentify how the question relates to

the text.

Find the part of the text the

question relates to (scan).

Retrieve the information.

Answer the question.

Check you have answered the

question.

Examples of retrieval questions from SATs papers:


2

Let’s try some retrieval questions: Boy in the Tower by Polly Ho-Yen

How tall do you think the tower block is? What time of day is it? Ade is just an ordinary boy with an ordinary life. He loves living at the top of a tower block. From his window,

he feels like he can see the whole world stretching out beneath him. But one day, other tower blocks on the estate start falling down around them and strange, menacing plants (Bluchers) begin to appear. Now their tower isn’t safe anymore. Ade and his mum are trapped and there’s no way out…

When you wish that a Saturday was actually a Monday, you know there is something seriously

wrong.

I look at the ceiling. At the spot of flaky paint and the stain that looks like a wobbly circle,

and the swaying, wispy spiders web, and I think of all those cold, grey Mondays when I had to

make myself get up for school. I would force my legs off the mattress and I’d dress in a daze,

unwilling to believe it was time to be upright again.

I wish I could wake up to another Monday like that.

Those days are gone how the Bluchers are here.

When they first arrived, they came quietly and stealthily, as if they tiptoed silently into the

world when we were all looking the other way.

I guess I was one of the first people to see them. It’s not something I am proud of. When you know the kind of terrible destruction that just one clump of Bluchers can cause, you wouldn't

have wanted to be there first either.

I think the reason I knew about them before most other people was because I used to spend

a lot of my time sitting on my windowsill, looking down over the world. I could see everything from

there: the miniature-looking roads, the roofs of the buildings, the broccoli-tops of the trees. And

then, of course, the Bluchers themselves and the devastation that followed in their path.

The view has changed so much now that sometimes I wonder if I just made up everything

that came before. I have to make myself remember what I used to see: the shops and the bustle,

the cars and the people, the red-brick walls of my school and the grey patch of the playground.

Some people say you shouldn't live in the past. But I can’t stop putting things into two boxes

in my head: Before and After. And it’s much easier to think about the Before things. Before, if there was a day when I didn't go into school because I was ill or Mum wasn't well, I

used to watch the children coming out at playtime. Everyone would rush out of the tiny black door

so fast that I wouldn't be able to tell one little coloured ant from another.

I could always recognise Gaia in the crowd though. She wore a bright pink coat that stood

out a mile. I would see her walking along the edge of the playground. Never in the middle, never in

a group. Always walking round and round by herself. Walking in circles.

But like I said, this was before.

I don’t see other children anymore. I don’t know where Gaia is.


3

Work with your tutor to answer these questions:

1) Name three things that Ade used to see when he looked down from his windowsill.

Miniature-looking roads, the roofs of the buildings, the broccoli tops of trees, the Bluchers themselves, children out to play. (1)

2) What did Gaia wear that made her easy to recognise in a crowd?

A bright pink coat. (1)

3) Circle the correct option. The spot of paint on the ceiling looks like:

a wiggly line a wobbly circle a wavy ring (1)

Work with your partner to answer these questions:

4) Give two reasons Ade sometimes missed a day of school. I was ill or Mum wasn't well (1)

5) Put a tick in the correct box to show whether a statement is true or false. (1)

True False

Ade was pleased the Bluchers arrived. ✓

The Bluchers are a type of animal. ✓

Gaia liked walking in circles. ✓

Work independently to answer these questions:

6) What follows ‘in the path’ of the Bluchers? Devastation. (1)

7) This story is told from the perspective of: Ade Gaia Mum (1)

8) When Ade’s in the tower, what do the children at playtime look like? Like little coloured ants. (1)


4

9) Write your own retrieval question for your tutor or partner to answer!

Encourage pupils to use the question stems on the previous page. If time allows, write your own questions for the pupils too. Use a different extract if you prefer.

Ask for pupils’ feelings about retrieval questions. Do they feel confident answering this type of question? Would they like more practice?

How do you feel about retrieval questions?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7



5

Examples of ‘vocabulary’ and ‘defining’ question stems:

What does this word tell us about the character/setting/atmosphere?

Look at that sentence/passage and circle a word/phrase that means the same as…

Why did the author use this word to describe…?

Can you find an example of a word that means the same as…?

What does this word/phrase/sentence tell you about…?

Which of these words could be used to give a similar meaning in the sentence?

Find and copy a word/two words/a phrase/a sentence that shows…

How do you feel about vocabulary / defining questions?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Define This week you will be focusing on working out the meaning of words or vocabulary you don’t know. You can to do this by looking at the words or phrases you’re unsure of in context. This means using the story so far, the sentences around them and what you already know about the plot to figure out what the words must mean.

Here are some examples from previous SATs papers:

2a Give/explain the meaning of words in context.

Following these steps in the right order will

help you:

Identify word.

Read word (use strategies to

help).

Read word in sentence.

Read sentence before and

after/paragraph.

Think about text as a whole.

Make inference based on what

you know.

Answer question.

Check answer.

Examples of vocabulary questions from SATs papers:


6

Let’s try some vocabulary / defining questions: The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell

Where is the story set?

Do you know of any other stories set in snowy

woods?

Has anything made you want to read on?

Would you like to be a ‘wolf wilder’? Feodora and her mother live in the snowbound woods of

Russia. Ten minutes away, in a ruined chapel, lives a pack of

wolves. Feodora’s mother is a wolf wilder, and Feo is a wolf wilder in training. A wolf wilder is the opposite of an animal

tamer: it is a person who teaches tamed animals to fend for

themselves, and to fight and to run, and to be wary of humans.

When the Russian Army threatens her very existence, Feo is

left with no option but to go on the run.

Once upon a time, a hundred years ago, there was a dark and stormy girl. The girl was Russian,

and although her hair and eyes and finger nails were dark all of the time, she was stormy only

when she thought it absolutely necessary. Which was fairly often.

Her name was Feodora.

She lived in a wooden house made of timber from the surrounding forest. The walls were

layered with sheep’s wool to keep out the Russian winter, and the inside was lit with hurricane lamps. Feo had painted the lamps every colour in her box of paints, so the house cast out light into

the forest in reds and greens and yellows. Her mother had cut and sanded the door herself, and

the wood was eight inches thick. Feo had painted it snow blue. The wolves had added claw marks

over the years, which helped dissuade unwelcome visitors.

It all began – all of it – with someone knocking on that snow-blue door.

Although ‘knocking’ was not the right word for this particular noise. It sounded as though someone was trying to dig a hole in the wood with his knuckles. But any knocking at all was

unusual.

Nobody knocked: it was just her and her mother and the wolves. Wolves do not knock. If

they want to come in, they come in through the window, whether it is open or not. Feo put down

the skis she was oiling and listened. It was early, and she was still wearing her night dress. She

had no dressing gown, but she pulled on the jumper her mother had knitted, which came down to

the scar on her knee, and ran to the front door.

Her mother was wrapped in a bearskin housecoat, looking up from the fire she had been

lighting in the sitting room.

“I’ll do it!” Feo tugged at the door. It was stiff; ice had sealed the hinges.

Her mother grabbed at her – “Wait! Feo!” But Feo had already pulled the door open, and before she could jump back it slapped

inwards, catching the side of her head.

The man had a face made of right angles: a jutting nose and wrinkles in angry places, deep

enough to cast shadows in the dark.

“Where is Marina Petrovich?” He marched down the hall, leaving a trail of snow.

Feo got to her knees – and then lurched back, as two more men in grey coats and black


7

boots stamped past her, missing her fingers by inches.

“Move, girl.” They carried between them, slung by its legs, the body of a young elk. It was

dead, and dripping blood. Feo ran after them. She readied her elbows and knees to fight.

The man spoke to her mother. “Marina Petrovich? I am General Rakov.” “What do you want?” Marina’s back was against the wall. “I am here because your wolves did this,” he said. He kicked at the elk. Blood spread

across his brightly polished shoe.

“My wolves?” Her mother’s face was steady, “I do not own any wolves.” “You bring them here,” said Rakov. His eyes had a coldness in them you do not expect to

see in a living thing. “That makes them your responsibility.” “Neither of those things are true,” said Feo’s mother. “Other people send the wolves here

when they tire of them: the aristocrats, the rich. We untame them, that’s all. Wolves cannot be owned.” “You are mistaken,” said Rakov, “if you imagine I wish to hear excuses.” His voice was

growing less official: louder, ragged-edged. “I have been sent to collect compensation for the Tsar.

Do not play games with me. You owe the Tsar a hundred roubles.” “I do not have a hundred roubles.” Rakov slammed his fist against the wall. He was surprisingly strong for so old and shrivelled

a man, and the wooden walls shuddered.

“Woman! I have no interest in your protests. I have been sent to wrest obedience and order

from this godforsaken place.” Feo let out a hiss of horror.

“You!” The General crossed the room to her, leaning down until his face, veined and

papery, was inches from hers. “If I had a child with a stare as insolent as yours, she would be

banished. Sit there and keep out of my sight.”


8


1) ‘The wolves had added claw marks over the years, which helped dissuade unwelcome visitors...’ Which of these words is closest in meaning to dissuade? Circle one.

persuade prevent invite terrify (1)

2) ‘She readied her elbows and knees to fight…’ What word could the author have used instead of ‘readied’ in this sentence? Tick one. (1) clenched

prepared

✓

punched

3) ‘Feo got to her knees – and then lurched back, as two more men in grey coats and black boots stamped past her…’ What does the word lurched tell us about how Feo moved out of the way?

That she moved suddenly or quickly. She wasn't expecting the men. (1)


4) Find and copy a word or phrase that shows that General Rakov had a pointy face.

The man had a face made of right angles or a ‘jutting’ nose. (1)

5) ‘His eyes had a coldness in them you do not expect to see in a living thing.’ Tick one phrase that best matches the above description. (1) His eyes were blue like ice

He had an unusually cruel and cold-hearted stare ✓

His eyes looked like they belonged to a dead man


6) Find and copy a group of words that tells the reader how General Rakov’s voice got angrier as he spoke to Marina. ‘Louder’, ‘more ragged-edged’ – extend pupils’ answers by encouraging them to work out what this unusual description might mean. Focus on ‘ragged’ and how this suggests rough/uneven. Use other clues in the paragraph to discuss how his voice might be changing as he is losing his patience. (1)


9

7) Find and copy one word in the final paragraph that means the same as rude.

Insolent (1) 8) Which word most closely matches the meaning of compensation?

apology payment punishment (1)

9) Write your own vocabulary question on this text or the previous one for your tutor or partner to answer! Use the question stems to help you.

Ask for pupils’ feelings about ‘define’ questions. Do they feel confident in answering this type of question? Would they like more practice?

How do you feel about vocabularly / defining questions?

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10

Examples of ‘summarising’ questions and question stems:

What is the main message of the text?

Number the sentences to show the order they happened in.

Which of these events happened first?

Which of these events happened last?

What’s the main point in this paragraph? Can you sum up what happens in…?

Which part of the story do you think is the most important?

How do you feel about summarising questions?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Summarise In the next text, you will be focusing on ‘summarising’. This is when you sum up what you’ve read. You can do this by reading the text, picking out the key points that are important and giving a quick overview of the text’s main ideas. This type of question can appear once or twice in the SATs paper. Here are some examples from recent papers:

2c Summarise main ideas from more than one paragraph


help you:

Read question.

Identify what you are summarising.


question relates to (scan).

Read section again.

Make notes of key points (if needed).

Briefly retell key points in own

words (summarise).


question.

Examples of summarising questions from SATs papers:


11

Let’s try some summarising questions: A Galaxy of Her Own by Libby Jackson

What type of text might this be? How do you know?

Do you know any female scientists?

Would you like to go into space?

From small steps to giant leaps, A Galaxy of Her Own tells stories

of inspirational women who have been fundamental to the story of

humans in space, from scientists to astronauts to some surprising

roles in between. A Galaxy of Her Own reveals extraordinary

stories, champions unsung heroes and celebrates remarkable

achievements from around the world.

Mary Jackson

Mary Jackson lived in Virginia, USA, at a time when there were unjust

racial segregation laws. Mary spent her life fighting this inequality and

helping others to see that they could do so as well.

She grew up in Virginia, America. She loved science and maths and was

very bright. She pushed herself through school and university to get top

marks and a degree in maths and physics. Jackson used her degree to start teaching before she

joined NASA's Langley Research Centre in 1951. Her job was to be a human 'computer', who had

to solve complex mathematical problems by hand.

In 1953, she was asked to work on mathematical calculations for the Supersonic Wind

Tunnel, a machine that blasted models of aeroplanes and spacecraft with air moving at nearly

twice the speed of sound, so that engineers could test their designs at high speeds, like those in

space. Her boss saw that she was a talented engineer and asked her to complete more training so

that she could do a much more complicated job. At that time, black and white students were

segregated (separated) so Mary needed special permission to work alongside her white peers at

the University of Virginia. She persisted and was allowed to take the course.

She was eventually promoted to the role of aerospace engineer, and in doing so, became

NASA’s first black female engineer. Jackson then worked as an aerospace engineer for 20 years and in 1979 she left engineering and became manager of the women’s program at NASA. In that

post, she sought to improve the opportunities for all women at the organization. She retired in

1985.

Peggy Whitson

Peggy Whitson is one of the greatest astronauts in history. Throughout

her life people told her it wasn't sensible to follow her dreams of flying to

space—but she ended up proving them very wrong.

https://www.britannica.com/technology/engineering


12

She grew up on a farm, deep in the American countryside. When she was nine, she was inspired

by Neil Armstrong and the men who walked on the moon. But it wasn't until she saw the first

female astronauts that she thought she might give it a go too. She sold the chickens that she

reared on the farm at a local market and saved up the money for flying lessons.

When she was at university, Peggy shared her dream of flying to space with a famous scientist

and he told her that he thought astronauts weren't important and that it wasn't a very good

profession for a female. But this didn't stop her, and she never lost sight of her ambitions. After

years of study, her commitment and enthusiasm shone through and she was selected as in

astronaut in 1996.

Peggy has flown in space three times. Each time she spent approximately six months on

board the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS is an amazing feat of engineering, the

biggest object ever constructed in space. It has about the same amount of living area for the

astronauts as a five-bedroom house and is roughly the same size as a football pitch. It took 12

years to construct, with each component part brought to the station by a rocket or Space Shuttle.

These were built all over the world, designed by different engineers, and joined together for the

first time in space by a robotic arm. The different ‘rooms’ are called modules and a huge ‘spine’ runs across it to hold the eight giant solar panels that power the station.

During her second stay on the ISS, Peggy was in charge, the first women to be selected for

the role of ISS commander. It was a very busy mission, with three new modules arriving and two

solar panels being moved to a new home. There was a problem when one of the solar panels got

torn during the move, but with Peggy’s leadership skills and teamwork, the panel was repaired, and the station assembly continued.

As well as being vital to the building and running of the ISS over the years, Peggy also

completed a record ten spacewalks and, in 2017, she broke the record for the longest time spent

in space by any American astronaut, woman or man. Peggy is honoured by the records, but she is

prouder of being part of the brilliant team of people that work to explore and learn about space.


13


1) Below are summaries of different paragraphs from the text.

Number them 1–4 to show the order they appear in the text. (1)

What is the ISS? 3

The greatest achievements of Peggy Whitson. 4

Mary’s early career. 1

Becoming a role model for women at Nasa. 2


2) Can you write a four- or five-word summary that could be used as the title for the text? This question asks for phrases which could be titles for the text. Based on your pupils’ understanding of the key points, encourage them to suggest a new title for the text. Accept any responses that focus specifically on women and their role in the space mission or in science, e.g. ‘Women who helped space travel’ or ‘Important female scientists at NASA’. (1)


3) What is the main message of the text? Tick one. (1)

Americans have always been the best astronauts.

For many years, women have been successful scientists and engineers. ✓

Everybody should study maths in school.

4) Using information from the text, tick a box in each row to show whether each statement is true or false. (1)

True False

Peggy Whitson designed and built the ISS. ✓

Mary Jackson was the very first female to work in Nasa. ✓

Teamwork is important in helping people achieve their dreams. ✓


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5) Use a different text from this book, or a fiction book you know well, and describe what happened in only three sentences or write a new blurb for this story using 20 words or less. Make this a fun and flexible activity – you can use a whiteboard if you’d like to encourage editing. Alternatively, try summarising a text in only five sentences using a whiteboard pen as a ‘microphone’.

Ask for pupils’ feelings about ‘summarise’ questions. Do they feel confident in answering this type of question? Would they like more practice? If time, pre-read text for next week. How many words? ________________

How do you feel about summarising questions?

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15

Examples of ‘inference’ question stems:

Explain how…?

Why did…?

Explain why…?

Why do you think…? How do you know…? When do you think…? How can you tell that…?

True or false…?

What makes you think that…?

Which words give you the impression that…?

Can you explain why…?

Which word tells you that…?

How do you feel about inference questions?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Infer This week you and your tutor will be working on the skill of ‘inference’. This is where you have to work out something from evidence, rather than being told directly – you need to read the text as if you are a detective! You’re not looking for what is there – you’re looking for what is meant by it. For example, if the text says ‘Danny’s face was red – he gritted his teeth and clenched his fist’, what could you infer about how he is feeling? This kind of question is worth a lot of marks on SATs papers.

2d Make inferences from the text. Explain and justify inferences with evidence from the text.


help you:

Read question.

Identify the question type (when, where,

why etc.)

Identify main words in question.

Identify how the question relates

to the text.

Read between the lines (work out

the answer).

Find part of the text to explain why you think this (quote).

Answer question.


question.

Examples of questions from SATs papers:


16

Let’s try some inference questions: The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Where do you think the story is set?

Who are the characters we might meet?

Do you know of any other stories where

animals are the main characters?

In this tale, we follow Mole, who ventures from his

underground home to the outside world where he

meets Ratty. Mole and Ratty’s relationship blossoms into a heart-warming friendship, as they

embark on adventures and meet other characters

such as Badger and Toad.

Chapter 1

The River Bank

The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with

brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a bucket of

white paint. He had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of white paint all over his black fur,

and an aching back and tired arms. Spring was in the air above and in the earth below and even

in his dark and simple little house. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly threw down his

brush on the floor, said, “bother!” and “o blow!” and ran out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was calling him and he made for the steep little tunnel that

would take him nearer to the sun and air. So, he scraped and scratched and scrabbled, and then

he scrabbled and scratched and scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to

himself, “up we go! Up we go!” until at last, pop! His snout came out into the sunlight and he

found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow.

“This is fine!” he said to himself. “This is better than painting!” The sunshine felt hot on his fur, soft breezes stroked his heated brow, and after the loneliness of the cellar he had lived in so

long, the song of happy birds fell on his ears almost like a shout. Jumping off all his four legs at

once, in the joy of living, he chased his way across the meadow until he reached the hedge on

the other side.

It all seemed too good to be true. Here and there, through the meadows, he rambled busily along

the hedgerows, across the woods, finding everywhere birds building, flowers budding, leaves

thrusting—everything happy, and busy, and occupied. And instead of having an uneasy

conscience pricking him and whispering, “white paint!” he somehow could only feel how jolly it was to be the only lazy animal among all these busy ones.


17

He thought his happiness was complete when, as he strolled aimlessly along, suddenly he stood

by the edge of a river. Never in his life had he seen a river before—this sleek, winding animal,

chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself

on fresh playmates that shook themselves free, and were caught and held again. All was a-

shake and a-shiver—glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and swirl, chatter and babble. The

Mole was bewitched, entranced and fascinated. By the side of the river, he trotted and when tired

at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, babbling the best stories in the

world.

As he sat on the grass and looked across the river, a dark hole in the bank opposite, just above

the water’s edge, caught his eye. As he gazed, something bright and small seemed to twinkle

down in the heart of it, vanished, then twinkled once more like a tiny star. But it could hardly be a

star in such an unlikely situation; and it was too glittering and small for a glow-worm. Then, as he

looked, it winked at him, and so declared itself to be an eye; a small face began gradually to

grow up round it, like a frame round a picture.

A brown little face, with whiskers. A grave, round face, with the same twinkle in its eye that had

first attracted his notice. Small, neat ears and thick, silky hair.

It was the Water Rat! Then the two animals stood and regarded each other cautiously.

“Hello, Mole!” said the Water Rat. “Hello, Rat!” said the Mole.


18


1) Does Mole like spring cleaning?

Yes No ✓

How can you tell? Use one piece of evidence from the text to support your answer.

The Mole became fed up with spring cleaning because he says ‘bother’ and throws down his brush before rushing out. If he was enjoying it, he might have finished his painting job before going outside. Award mark for answer and appropriate justification. (2)

2) Why did Mole have ‘an aching back and weary arms’?

Accept any reference to Mole cleaning and painting for a long time, as this would have made his back and arms ache through the effort. (1)

3) How does the author tell us that Mole lives underground? Find and copy two clues from the text. Accept any of the following references:

He made for the steep little tunnel, ‘nearer to the sun and air.’ He describes that there is ‘something up above’ or ‘spring in the air above.’ He says, “Up we go! Up we go!” as he emerges into the sun. (2)


4) How does the description of the grass and the sun help to tell you the time of day?

Daytime or afternoon because the grass is described as ‘warm’ and the ‘sunshine felt hot’, so it must be quite late in the morning for a spring day to be so warm. (1)

5) Why might Mole have never seen a river before?

Mole had never seen a river before because he spends most of his time underground. (1)


19


6) The author says the river ‘chattered’ and ‘babbled’. What impressions of the river do you get from this description? Discuss how the word ‘chattered’ tells the reader that it sounds friendly and easy to get along with. If appropriate, mention the idea of personification: the author has given the river pleasant human qualities making it sound like a good friend. Also accept reference to the idea that it is moving fairly quickly and noisily. (1)

7) ‘…while the river still chattered on to him, babbling the best stories in the world.’ How could the river tell the best stories in the world if it only ever stayed in one place?

Tick one

People from all over the world might travel on that river and tell it stories.

Rivers have existed for a long time, so have heard many different stories.

Although the riverbed and bank will stay in one place, the water in it will flow out to

the sea and around the world in the oceans, before perhaps returning someday. ✓

"Character Designs for THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS" by Baruch Inbar is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

How do you feel about inference questions?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Write three of your own inference questions about this character for your partner to answer:

Who… Why… How… Keep as an open-ended activity! If children cannot come up with ideas, start them off with a few, e.g. Who is this? What kind of character is he? How do you think he speaks? Demonstrate his voice. Why did you do it like that? Do you think this character is wealthy or poor? Why? What is his job? Would you trust him? Where is he? Why is he there?


20

Examples of ‘predicting’ questions:

Based on what you’ve read, what do you think might happen next?

Do you think that this character will change their behaviour in future? Why?

What clues does the front cover give us about the contents of this book?

If there was a sequel, what might happen? Why do you think this?

How do you think this story might end?

How do you feel about predicting questions?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Predict This week you will be focusing on making logical and reasonable guesses about what could happen next. You can do this by looking at what has already happened, what the characters may have hinted is coming up or what has been implied by the author’s use of language.

2e Predict what might happen from details stated and implied.


you:

Think about what you know already.

Think about what will happen next.

Link back to what you already know.

Explain (or think about why you

predict this.

Answer question.

Check answer relates to question.


This question wants you to look closely at what has already happened in a text and use that to help you to predict what might happen next


21

Let’s try some predicting questions: Julius Zebra by Gary Northfield

What clues does the title give about the story? Is this a fiction or non-fiction text? Do you know any books that are similar? What ‘tone’ does the book have? Will it be serious?

Humorous? Scary?

Demi-god Hercules promises Julius and his chums a great reward if they can help him to find the lost Golden Apple. On this whacky adventure, our unlikely heroes will confront the Minotaur in the Labyrinth, trick a one hundred-headed dragon at the Garden of Hesperides and a dramatic visit to King Midas leads to a daring rescue attempt in the depths of the Underworld. But what will the ever-watchful gods on Mount Olympus have to say about their antics?

Chapter One

Adventure Time!

“I am HERCULES, son of ZEUS,” exclaimed the muscle-bound man, “and I seek the champion

named JULIUS ZEBRA and his friends for an exciting adventure!” “Listen, Hairy Keith, son of Zoots,” retorted Julius, “I’m not looking for any more adventures!” Hercules seemed taken aback, and he bent over to have a good look at Julius. A big grin crept

across his face and he gave a huge belly laugh.

“YOU?!” he exclaimed scornfully, and he took another close look at Julius, prodding him in his tummy and examining Julius’s scrawny limbs. “You don’t look like much of a champion!” Hercules suddenly felt a kick to his shins and he spun round to find a crocodile looking at him

furiously.

“You take that back, you big bully!” Lucia fumed. “Julius IS a champion, so you’d BETTER say

sorry! I don’t care WHO you are!” Hercules laughed as he paraded up and down in front of the animals, chuckling to himself.

“What strange and lively creatures you are!” He turned directly to the animals. “My father and ruler of all the gods, ZEUS, demands that I

complete one final task if am to take my rightful place beside him on Mount Olympus. I seek great

champions to aid me on this quest, yet all I find are puny beasts CLAIMING to be the heroes!” He turned to face them and placed his giant hands on his hips in a dramatic pose. “So, you

leave me with little choice. You must PROVE your greatness to me!” Cornelius had heard enough. “We don’t have to prove ANYTHING to you!” squeaked the little warthog, wagging his trotter. “In fact, how do we know YOU are who you say you are, eh?” Hercules strode towards a rocky outcrop where two wildebeest stood minding their own

business. He crouched down and threw his two big arms around the boulder.

“If you have heard of me,” Hercules declared, “then you know I am the STRONGEST BEING

that has EVER lived!” Then, with a great roar, he began LIFTING the enormous rock in the air, his face going a deep red as the veins in his forehead looked ready to pop.


22

A ripple of applause rose from the entranced animals.

“Bravo!” cried Felix. “I’m TOTALLY convinced!” Hercules performed a small bow, before hurling the boulder towards the lake.

Julius was furious. “Can you PLEASE stop chucking animals about!!” he yelled. Hercules laughed as he flexed his muscles.

“Calm down, zebra. Have I not just proved that I am indeed the mightiest in all the lands?” He placed a dusty hand on Julius’s shoulder. “And now, you must prove who YOU are!” “WE TOLD YOU! We’re not looking for any more adventures, so PUSH OFF! Besides, why

should we listen to you anyway? What’s in it for us?” Hercules let out another of his deep guffaws. “What’s in it for YOU?!” he laughed. “IMMORTALITY!” “Immortality!” parroted Julius. “We don’t need your ‘immortality’, sunshine! Now sling yer hook!” Julius turned to Cornelius. “What’s ‘immortality’?” he whispered. “Immortality is where you get to live for ever and ever,” replied Cornelius. “A bit like a god.” Julius raised an eyebrow. “So what – you just don’t ever die?” “Not usually,” said Cornelius. Julius ran after Hercules, who had begun slowly striding away. “WAIT!” he called out. Hercules turned around with a smug smile. “Yes, Julius?”


23


1) Based on the opening chapter, what do you think this book will be about?

Discuss the idea of adventure and excitement, also mishaps or arguments between characters. (1) 2) Would you help Hercules on his quest?

Yes

No

Explain your choice, using two pieces of evidence from the text to support your answer.

If pupil answers yes, possible justifications could be:

It sounds exciting and adventurous.

It would be good to help out a god.

Immorality is a good reward. If pupil answers no, possible justifications could be:

Hercules is arrogant or bossy.

It might be dangerous or deadly.

He might not keep his promise of a reward. Accept any other reasonable responses as long as they can be justified by evidence in the text. (2)


3) What do you predict will happen if the animals refuse to help Hercules complete his task?

Hercules might continue to offer more extravagant rewards to persuade them.

He might become angry and use his strength or powers to make them help. (1)


4) What does the last paragraph suggest about what Julius will say next?

Julius might agree to help Hercules or ask for more information about immortality.

Why do you think this? Accept any reasonable response including:

Julius ‘ran’ after him and told him to wait, so he must’ve changed his mind or wanted more information.

Julius ‘rasied an eyebrow’ when Cornelius explained, which suggests he’s intested in becoming immortal.

Hercules had a ‘smug’ smile, which tells us he knew Julius would agree. (2)


24

5) Use your predicting skills to talk about this picture with your tutor and partner.

What’s on the other side of the door? What is the girl holding in her hand? Why? How did she get to the forest? Who hung the lanterns in the trees? Where does the stream lead? Will the girl go back through the door or stay in the forest? What will happen next?


25

Examples of ‘exploring’ questions and question stems:

What does… tell you about…?

Find and copy words from the paragraph that show it was…

The writer uses words like… to describe…. What does this tell you about…?

What other words or phrases could the author have used?

Why did the author…? Why has the author used this word/phrase/sentence?

How does the author create this mood/atmosphere?

How do you feel about exploring questions?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Explore This week you will be focusing on examples of ambitious vocabulary and figurative language within the text. When you find them, you need to think about why the author made those vocabulary choices and how they give a certain meaning to the text. For example, an author could say that the water in a lake was ‘still and reflective’. However, for effect, they could describe the water as ‘like a sheet of glass’. This type of question is not very common in SATs papers but does require a lot of thought!

2g Identify and explain how meaning is enhanced through choice of words and phrases


you:

Identify word.

Read word within the

sentence/paragraph.

Think about the impact/effect that

the word has on the meaning.

Answer question.

Check answer.



26

Let’s try some exploring questions:


‘Once upon a time, a hundred years ago, there was a dark and stormy girl. The girl was Russian,

and although her hair and eyes and finger nails were dark all of the time, she was stormy only when

she thought it absolutely necessary. Which was fairly often.’ 1) What do you think the author was trying to tell us when they described this character as ‘stormy’? Accept any responses that focus on the writer wanting us to know that her personality is moody, wild, fierce or unpredictable.

(1)


‘…and I think of all those cold, grey Mondays when I had to make myself get up for school. I would force my legs off the mattress and I’d dress in a daze, unwilling to believe it was time to be upright again.’ 2) Find and copy two words or phrases that help create the impression that this character doesn’t like Mondays. Accept any of the following:

‘make myself get up’. ‘force’ my legs. ‘dress in a daze’. ‘cold, grey’ Mondays.

(2)


‘It was an intensely hot July day; not a cloud appeared in the high blue vault of the sky. The trees, flowers and grass were all motionless for not even the gentlest breeze lingered in the air. The world had lapsed into a drowsy warm slumber; even the birds has ceased singing and nestled their way into the most shaded of branches of the great forest trees.’ 3) Find and copy three words or phrases that tell the reader the setting is sleepy and calm? Accept any three of the following:

‘All was motionless, not even the gentlest breeze lingered’. ‘The world had lapsed into a drowsy, warm slumber’. ‘Birds had ceased singing’.

(3)

How do you feel about exploring questions now?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7



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Examples of ‘relating’ and ‘comparing’ questions:

How does the character’s mood change throughout the text?

What words would you use to describe the main character at the start and end of the text?

Compare your book to another on the same topic. Which do you prefer and why?

Does this story have a moral or a message? Explain how you know using the text.

What caused the characters to change their actions?

Would you like to read more books by this author? Explain your reasons.

How do you feel about comparing and relating questions?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Relate These types of question do two things: Explain how parts of a text change an overall message or meaning. Say how characters or events within the story are similar to or different from each other or how a single character changes over the course of a story. There have only been three questions of these types in the past three SATs papers.

Compare

2f Identify/explain how information/ narrative content

is related and contributes to the

meaning as a whole.

2h Make comparisons within

the text.

Following these steps in

the right order will help you:

Read question.

Identify the question type (when, where,

why etc.)

Identify main words in question.


question relates to

(scan).

Think about how it relates to the whole

text.

Think about why it relates

to the text.

Answer the question.

Check you have answred the question.



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Let’s try some relating and comparing questions:

White sharks are the dread of sailors in all hot climates as

they constantly stalk our vessels in the expectation of

anything being thrown overboard. Some sharks have been

known to travel alongside one particular ship for hundreds of

kilometres. One can only think about the poor sailors who

have happened to fall overboard with these sea monsters

present.

Some species of shark grow to an enormous size, often

weighing hundreds of kilograms each. White sharks are the sailor’s worst enemy: they have five

rows of razor-sharp teeth which are jagged like a saw. When the animal is at rest, the teeth lie flat

in its mouth, but when they are about to seize their prey, the teeth are pushed up by a set of

muscles. The white shark’s mouth is located under its jaw, meaning it must turn itself onto one side before it can grab anything with these enormous jaws.

Work with your tutor to answer this question:

1) This description of sharks was written in 1852. Why might our understanding of sharks be different today? Leave this as a fairly open-ended response, discussing why we might know more about sharks now, e.g. better scientific equipment to observe them with, or more people have filmed them or swum with them.

(2) Work with your partner to answer these questions:

2) How does the white shark compare with another deadly creature you know? Allow any animal as long as pupil can compare its dangerous characteristics with the shark, e.g. a crocodile, as both have razor-sharp teeth.

(1) 3) Who do you think the author wrote this text for? People who wanted to know what it was like to be a sailor in 1800s – not many people would have spent time at sea so would like to hear about it. To share his experiences with others.

(1)


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4) Find and copy a phrase where the shark is portrayed to the reader as dangerous. ‘Teeth that are jagged like a saw’, ‘sailor’s worse enemy’, ‘enormous jaws’, ‘sea monsters’. (1) Why is this effective in portraying danger? Allow any reasonable justification which links to the phrase they have chosen, e.g. I know that a saw is very sharp and could hurt a human, so the simile makes the sharks’ teeth sound even scarier.

(1)

Henry slept well until a rosy light, flitering through the leaves, fell upon his face. Then he sprang up, folded the blanket once more upon his back and looked around. Nothing had come in the night to disturb him, no enemy was near and the morning sun was bright and beautiful. He no longer felt exhasuted and weary from his travels so far, as he had the previous evening. He resumed his journey, walking with long, swift strides that carried him at great speed. He knew exactly where he was heading – he coud picture it well, although the rest of the wilderness was strange and alien to him. The countryside here was rougher than usual and, as he advanced, it became yet more broken: range after range of steep, stony hills with narrow valleys between. He went on without hesitation for at least two hours and then stopped behind the great trunk of an old beech tree. He smiled. There it was, just ahead.

6) Draw lines to match each part of the extract with the correct quotation from the text. (1)

Setting …exhausted and weary from his travels so far…

Past events …range after range of steep, stony hills with narrow valleys between…

Action Nothing had come in the night to disturb him…

Character description

…walking with long, swift strides that carried him at great speed…

How do you feel about relating and comparing questions now?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7



30

Exploring Africa

Fiction: The Fastest Boy in the World, by Elizabeth Laird

Where do you think the story might be set? Why is the child running? Where might they be going? Eleven-year-old Solomon loves to run! The great athletes

of the Ethiopian national team are his heroes and he dreams he will be a gold-medal-winning athlete like them. When his grandfather announces that he's going to take him to Addis Ababa, Solomon cannot believe his ears. A trip to the capital? As Solomon follows him through the big, overwhelming streets, his grandfather collapses. Solomon knows that getting help from his village is up to him. It's a twenty-mile run back home, and Grandfather's life hangs in the balance. Can the small, bare-footed runner with the big heart do it?

In my dreams I’m always running. Sometimes my feet fly over the ground and I’m sure that if I

could just go a little bit faster, I’d take off and fly like an eagle. Sometimes my legs feel as heavy

as tree trunks, but I know that I must go on and reach the finishing line whatever it costs.

I’ve been running almost since I was a toddler. As soon as I could toddle, I’d stagger after my

father as fast as my little legs would take me when he set out for the market on our donkey.

“Solomon! Come back!” my mother would shout. I wouldn’t listen, so she’d have to run after

me, snatch me up and laugh with me all the way home.

That was how my childhood began. And I can remember, as clearly as anything, the night

when everything changed.

I was eleven years old. At least, I think I was eleven. In the countryside in Ethiopia, nobody

takes much notice of how old you are. It was the end of the day, and the door of our house was

firmly shut. It always made me shiver to think of the night outside. Not just because it was dark

and cold, but because there might be a hyena or two, lurking in the darkness.

I’ll have to explain what our family home was like in case you have never been to Ethiopia. It was round, like most other people’s houses up there in our cool highlands, and it had a thatched roof that went up to a point. There was only one room, with the fire burning away in the middle. It

got a bit smoky, but it kept us warm and gave a glowing light. There was a screen at one end, and

our animals lived behind it – at night, that is. In the daytime, of course, they were out grazing.

Anyway, that evening Ma was stirring the pot of stew that was cooking over the fire. The smell

was so good it was making me feel very hungry.

“How old am I, Ma?” I said suddenly. I don’t know what put the idea into my head. “Let me see,” she said vaguely, dropping another pinch of red-hot pepper into the pot. I could

tell she wasn’t listening.


31

Abba (that’s what we called my father) was listening, though. He had just come in from his work

out on our farm. He sat down on a little stool beside the fire, and I could see he was as hungry as I

was.

“You were born the year the harvest was so bad, and we had to borrow all that money from

your uncle,” he said.

Ma looked reproachfully at him.

Abba blinked, and looked a bit guilty.

“I wasn’t thinking,” he said quietly. “It was Hailu who was born that year.” Hailu was my older brother, but he died when he was little. Ma always sighs when anyone

reminds her of him. Abba shot her an understanding look, then he scratched his head.

“Oh no, I remember now,” he said. “You were born the year the magician came and turned my

stick into a wand of gold.” I loved it when Abba was in his teasing mood. Konjit, my little sister, had been picking up the

unburnt ends of twigs and throwing them on to the fire. Now, though, she stopped for a whole long

minute.

“Oh!” she said, her big brown eyes as round as the buttons on Grandfather’s cotton jacket. “A

gold wand? Where is it?” I nudged her, just to show that I knew she was being silly, then had to pull her upright in case

she toppled over into the fire.

“It turned back into a stick again, just like that,” Abba said, giving me a sly look. “Anyway, it

wasn’t that year. You were born just at the time when Twisty Horn had twins, only they didn’t turn out to be calves but a couple of chickens. You should have seen them! They went flapping about

all over the place.” Everyone laughed, and even Grandfather, who had been sitting on the clay bench that ran right

round the wall of the house, made a sort of rusty, wheezing sound that meant that he was

laughing too, but Konjit didn’t even smile. She looked quite shocked. “Cows can’t have chickens for babies, Abba,” she said seriously. “Everyone knows that.” She

falls for it every time.

“You’re quite right, darling. Cows only have calves,” said Abba, pulling Konjit sideways so that

she could lean against his arm. I could tell his teasing mood was over. He was too tired for much

when the evening came. He’d been out working all day on the farm.

“Supper’s ready,” Ma said at last. She fetched out the big enamel tray and laid a huge round

piece of pancake bread on it. (Our bread is called injera, and it’s soft and thin and delicious.) Then she scooped spoonfuls of stew from the pot and set them out in front of each of our places.

Grandfather stood up and walked over to join us by the fire. He sat down on the little stool that

Abba had pulled up for him.

“Solomon’s eleven,” he said.

I’d forgotten by now that I’d asked about my age. It was my job to take the bowl and the little

jug of water round so that everyone could wash their hands before they ate, yet I was too hungry

to think about anything but food.

No one said much while we were eating, but when we’d had enough Grandfather sat back on

his stool and said again, more thoughtfully this time, “Solomon’s eleven.” I thought his mind was wandering, but it wasn’t. He suddenly squared his shoulders, pulled the


32

end of his thick white shawl away from his neck, as if he was too hot, and said, for the third time,

“Eleven. Quite old enough. We’ll go tomorrow.” My parents went quiet. Ma froze with her hand halfway up to her mouth. Abba had pulled his

little tooth-cleaning stick from his inside pocket. He froze too.

“Go where?” whispered Konjit. She didn’t dare speak up in front of Grandfather. I knew she was burning to add, “Wherever it is, can I come too?” but she would never have been so disrespectful.

I was glad she’d asked the question, though, because I was burning to ask it too.

“To Addis Ababa,” said Grandfather.


33

Define Retrieve These questions focus on two of the reading skills.

Can you remember what ‘define’ and ‘retrieve’ mean?

What strategies can we use to find information quickly without reading the whole text again?




1) When did Solomon first begin running? Ask pupils where they think this information will be in the text. Encourage them to ‘skim’ read the first few paragraphs.

Since he was a toddler. (1)

2) How did Solomon’s father travel to the market? Ask pupils to scan and highlight the word ‘market’ and to place their fingers round the word. When they’ve found it, ask them to re-read the whole sentence that contains the word to

find the information they need. On a donkey. (1)

3) ‘Ma looked reproachfully at him…’ Which word is closest in meaning to reproachfully? Tick one. Highlight the word in the text first. It is unlikely that pupils will have come across this word

before, so encourage them to deduce it from clues e.g. Abba looked guilty. Ma always sighs. Then put each word into the sentence instead and see which would fit best. Do not use a dictionary as this option won’t be available to children in the SATs.

disapprovingly

✓

happily

calmly

respectfully


4) ‘… because there might be a hyena or two, lurking in the darkness. Explain two things that the phrase ‘lurking in the darkness’ suggests about the way

hyenas catch their prey. Encourage responses that mention that hyenas must like to hunt at night. Draw out that the

writer’s use of the verb ‘lurking’ suggests the animals wait quietly or secretly in places where they cannot be seen in order to surprise their prey. (2)


34

5) Write down two details you are told about Solomon’s home.

Ask children to scan and highlight ‘family home’ and read around the phrase to locate the information quickly.

It is round.

It’s up in the cool highlands. Has a thatched roof that ends in a point.

Only one room, with the fire burning away in the middle.

A screen at one end which animals lived behind. (2)

6) Find and copy a group of words that show that Konjit was excited by Abba’s story about the golden wand.

Ask children to scan for and highlight ‘wand’ and read around the phrase to locate the information quickly.

• She stopped for a whole long minute.

• Her big brown eyes as round as the buttons on Grandfather’s cotton jacket. (1)


7) What was Solomon’s job each dinner time?

Scan for the word ‘job’ and highlight it. To take the bowl and the little jug of water round so that everyone could wash their hands before they ate.

(1)

8) ‘I was glad she’d asked the question, because I was burning to ask it too.’ Give the meaning of the word burning in this sentence.

Discuss the different meanings of the adjective ‘burning’:

To describe something that is extremely hot, on fire or very bright.

Something of great interest or importance.

Which do they feel fits better in this context? Can they use it in a different sentence? (1)

Can you draw what you imagine Solomon’s house looks like? Use details you’ve retrieved from the text to help you!

Ask children to label their drawings with information they have retrieved. Do all your pupils’ drawings look similar? Draw out similaries and differences with their own homes.


35

Non-Fiction: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba

What type of non-fiction text could this be? Why might someone want to ‘harness’ the wind? When a terrible drought struck William Kamkwamba's

tiny village in Malawi, his family lost all of the season's crops, leaving them with nothing to eat and nothing to sell. William began to explore science books in his village library, looking for a solution. There, he came up with the idea that would change his family's life forever: he could build a windmill. Made out of scrap metal and old bicycle parts, William's windmill brought electricity to his home and helped his family pump the water they needed to farm the land. This exciting memoir shows how, even in a desperate situation, one boy's brilliant idea can light up the world.

In a small village in Malawi, where people had no money for lights, nightfall came quickly and

hurried poor farmers to bed. But for William, the darkness was best for dreaming.

He dreamed of building things and taking them apart, like the trucks with bottle-cap wheels parked

under his bed and pieces of radio that he would crack open and wonder, if I can hear the music,

then where is the band?

At dawn in the fields, William went to work in the maize fields, asking himself, as the huge

trucks rumbled past, how does its engine make it go?

“Pay attention where you throw that hoe!” his father shouted. “You’ll cut off your foot!” However, all his dreaming could not bring the rain. Without water, the sun rose angry each

morning and scorched the fields, turning the maize into dust. Without food, Malawi began to

starve. Soon William’s father gathered the children and said,

“From now on, we must eat only one meal per day. Make it last.” In the evenings, they sat around the lantern and ate their handful of food, watching hungry

people pass like spirits along the roads. Like food, money also disappeared with the rain.

“Pepani,” his father said, “I am sorry. You will have to drop out of school. There is no more money

to pay the fees.” Now William stood on the road and watched the lucky students pass, alone with the monster in

his belly and the lump in his throat.

For weeks he sulked under the mango tree, until he remembered the library down the road. He

found science books filled with brilliant pictures and, with his English dictionary close by, he began

to understand how engines moved those big trucks and how radios pulled their music from the

sky. But the greatest picture of all was a machine taller than the tallest tree, with blades like a giant

fan. A giant pinwheel? Something to catch magic? Slowly, the read the sentence aloud:

“Windmills can produce electricity and pump water.” He closed his eyes and saw a windmill outside his home pulling electricity from the breeze and

bringing light to the dark valley. He saw the machine drawing cool water from the ground, sending

it gushing through the thirsty fields, turning the maize tall and green, even when farmers’ prayers for rain when unanswered. This windmill was more than a machine; it was a weapon to fight

hunger.


36

“That’s it…I will build electric wind,” he whispered. In the junk yard, pieces appeared like rusted treasures in the tall grass. A tractor fan, some

pipe and nuts and bolts that required every muscle to remove. But as William dragged his metals

home, people called out to him,

“Only crazy people play with trash.” After many weeks, William arranged his pieces in the dirt: A broken bicycle, rusted bottle caps

and a plastic pipe. Even a small generator that powered a headlight on a bike. For three days he

bolted, banged and tinkered, while chickens squawked, dogs barked and neighbours shook their

heads and asked, “What’s that crazy boy doing now?” His cousin Geoffrey and his best friend Gilbert soon appeared.

“Can we help with electric wind?” they asked.

“Grab your panga knife and follow me!” William said, and he took them into the forest where

they swung their sharp blades into the trunks of the blue gum trees and they hammered them

together to make the tower. Standing atop the tower, William shouted down to the boys, “Bring it

up!” While the boys tugged and heaved, a crowd gathered below and gazed at the strange machine

that now leaned and wobbled like a crazy giraffe. Some giggled, others teased, but William waited

for the wind. Like always, it came. First a breeze and then a gusting gale. The tower swayed and

the blades spun around and with sore hands, once slowed by hunger and darkness, William

connected wires to a small bulb. The light flickered at first and then surged as bright as the sun.

The crowd gasped and shuddered. The children pushed for a better look.

"It's true!" someone said.

"Yes," said another. "The boy has done it."

“Tonga!” William shouted. “I have made electric wind!” As the doubters clapped and cheered, William knew he had only just begun. Light could not fill

empty stomachs, but another windmill could soak the dry earth, creating food where once there

was none.

Electric wind will feed my country, William thought, and that is the strongest magic of all.


37

Define Retrieve These questions focus on two of the reading skills.

Can you remember what ‘define’ and ‘retrieve’ mean?

What strategies can we use to find information quickly without reading the whole text again?




1) Why do farmers in Malawi have to go to bed when the sun sets? Scan for the word ‘bed’ and highlight. Read around the sentence to find the information that the people who live in the village cannot afford lights.

(1)

2) Write down two pieces of technology that interested William when he was a child.

Radios and trucks. (1)

3) Look at the paragraph beginning ‘…However, all his dreaming could not bring the rain.’ Find and copy two words that show how dry the land had become.

Scorched and dust (1)


4) Find and copy a group of words that show William felt upset when he watched the children going to school without him.

Lump in his throat. (1)

5) When did William first come up with the idea of building a windmill?

When he read a science book in the local library. (2)

6) ‘For three days he bolted, banged and tinkered...’ What does ‘tinkered’ mean in this sentence?

Accept any responses that draw on the idea of fiddling, making small changes or repairing the parts he’d collected in an attempt to create and/or improve his invention.

(1)


38


7) Who helps William to build the tower in the forest?

His cousin Geoffrey and his best friend Gilbert. (1)

8) ‘While the boys tugged and heaved…’ What do the words ‘tugged’ and ‘heaved’ suggest about the size of the windmill?

It was large, heavy or awkward in shape.

(1)

Inside the outline of William, write words that describe him as a person. This includes

things about his personality, feelings and emotions. Outside the outline, write adjectives to describe what he looks like, what he has done, and about how others might see him.

Use this activity as a stimulus for discussion about the character of William, and what they have learnt from the story about the kind of person he might be.


39

Non-Fiction: Facing Extinction: The Northern White Rhino

Planet Earth is home to five incredible species of rhinoceros, namely the white rhino and the black

rhino, which live in Africa, and the Sumatran rhino, Javan rhino and Indian (commonly known as

the greater one-horned) rhino, which all live within the tropical rainforests and swamps of Asia.

About the Species

These magnificent herbivores are the second-largest land mammal in the world after the elephant.

They are known to weigh up to 2,500 kg, which is the same as thirty adult humans. They are

named after the great horns which stick out from their snouts, as the word ‘rhinoceros’ literally

translates from Greek as ‘nose-horned’. Despite their names, both black and white rhinoceroses are grey. Their difference is not their

colour – it is the shape of their lip. The black rhino has a pointed upper lip suited to eating leaves

and berries from trees, whilst the white rhino has a squared lip which helps it to graze.

Rhinoceroses once roamed freely across Europe, Africa and Asia and there were estimated to

be 500,000 of them alive at the beginning of the 20th century. However, this number has dwindled

to approximately 30,000 globally, with very few surviving outside of national parks and protected

reserves.

Conservation Status

All known animals worldwide are grouped according to their conservation status. This indicates

means the number of them which still exist and their likelihood of becoming extinct in the near

future. The different groups of conservation status are:


40

At first, it may appear that the white

rhino is the least endangered species

of rhinoceros but this is not completely

true. Within the white rhino species are

two different types: the southern white

rhino and the northern white rhino.

Although they are very similar in name

and appearance, the conservation

status of these two groups could not be

further apart:

Threats to White Rhinos

Although they were once thought to be extinct, southern white rhinos now live happily in protected

sanctuaries across Africa. However, the northern white rhino is thought to be entirely extinct in the

wild, with the only two known rhinos living in captivity.

The number of northern white rhinos has reduced because of two significant factors:

• Habitat destruction. The natural home of rhinos in Africa

and Asia is being destroyed so that

towns and cities can be built.

• Poaching. Hundreds of rhinos are killed by

poachers every year so that their

horns can be sold.

Northern White Rhinos

Until recently, the last three northern white

rhinos were kept at the Ol Pejeta

Conservancy in Kenya. They were looked

after by a specialist team of vets and

protected from poachers by armed

security guards.

Unfortunately, on 19th March 2018, the last male of the group, Sudan, became poorly. He had to

be put to sleep to end his suffering. With no male northern white rhinos alive worldwide, there is

little chance of any new off-spring. This means that the northern white rhinoceros could become

extinct entirely before the year 2050. Although scientists are working hard to find a way of creating

a future generation of northern white rhinos, time could be running out for one of the most majestic

and extraordinary creatures on our planet.


41

Define Retrieve Summarise Predict 2a Give/explain the meaning of words in context.


2c Summarise main ideas from more than one paragraph.



1) Which of these is not a species of rhinoceros? Tick one. (1)

Javan rhino

The greater one-horned rhino

The grey rhino ✓ The white rhino

2) Draw a line to match the northern white rhino to its age. (1)

Fatu

28

Najin

18

Sudan

45

3) How many Javan rhinos are left in the world?

Approximately 67. (1)


4) Number the sentences from 1 to 5 to show the order they appear in the text. The first one has been done for you.

3 The Sumatran rhino is a critically endangered species.

1 Rhinoceroses can weigh up to the equivalent of thirty adult humans.

5 Fatu, a female northern white rhino, was born in captivity.

2 The number of rhinoceroses globally has dwindled to approximately 30,000.

4 The destruction of their natural habitat has caused a steep decline in the number of northern white rhinos.


42

5) Explain the difference between the black rhino and the white rhino.

The black rhino has a pointed upper lip suited to eating leaves and berries from trees, whilst the

white rhino has a squared lip which helps it to graze. (1)

6) ‘….time could be running out for one of the most majestic and extraordinary creatures on our planet.’ Tick the word closest in meaning to ‘majestic’ in this sentence. (1)

magnificent ✓ friendly

strong gigantic


7) Explain two causes of the decline in the global rhino population.

The destruction of their habitat, so that towns and cities can be built.

Poaching. (2)

8) Based on what you have read, do you think that northern white rhinos will become extinct?

Yes No

Explain your answer.

Accept pupils’ own responses, as long as they can be justified by evidence in the text. Example: Yes, because there is little chance of creating any new northern white rhinos after the death of Sudan, so the species is likely to die out. (2)


43

Write three questions, using the sentence starters above, for your tutor and partner to answer on the topic of rhinos.

Keep this activity fun, rather than a continuation of the reading comprehension. You could team up with another English tutor and create a ‘quiz’ with different teams.


44

Fire! Fire!

Fiction: How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell

Have you heard of this book before? What do you already know about the characters and the plot? Do you know of any other stories that have dragons as main characters?

Can Hiccup save the tribe – and become a hero? In the first How to Train Your Dragon book, Hiccup must lead ten novices in their initiation into the Hairy Hooligan Tribe. They have to train their dragons or be BANISHED from the tribe FOR EVER! But what if Hiccup's dragon resembles an ickle brown bunny with wings? And has NO TEETH? The Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus is stirring and wants to devour every Viking on the Isle of Berk...

Long ago, on the wild and windy isle of Berk, a smallish Viking

with a longish name stood up to his ankles in snow.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, the Hope and Heir to

the Tribe of the Hairy Hooligans, had been feeling slightly sick

ever since he woke up that morning.

Ten boys, including Hiccup, were hoping to become full members of the Tribe by passing the

Dragon Initiation Programme. They were standing on a bleak little beach at the bleakest spot on

the whole bleak island. A heavy snow was falling.

“PAY ATTENTION!” screamed Gobber the Belch, the soldier in charge of teaching Initiation.

“This will be your first military operation, and Hiccup will be commanding the team.” “Oh, not Hic-cup,” groaned Dogsbreath the Duhbrain and most of the other boys. “You can’t put Hiccup in charge, sir, he’s USELESS.” Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, the Hope and Heir to the Tribe of the Hairy Hooligans,

wiped his nose miserably on his sleeve. He sank a little deeper into the snow.

“ANYBODY would be better than Hiccup,” sneered Snotface Snotlout. “Even Fishlegs would be

better than Hiccup.” Fishlegs had a squint that made him as blind as a jellyfish, and an allergy to reptiles.

“SILENCE!” roared Gobber the Belch. “The next boy to speak has limpets for lunch for the next

THREE WEEKS!” There was absolute silence immediately. Limpets are a bit like worms and a bit like snot and a

lot less tasty than either.

“Hiccup will be in charge and that is an order!” screamed Gobber, who didn’t do noises quieter than screaming. He was a seven-foot giant with a mad glint in his one working eye and a beard

like exploding fireworks. Despite the freezing cold he was wearing hairy shorts and a teeny-weeny


45

deerskin vest that showed off his lobster-red skin and bulging muscles. He was holding a flaming

torch in one gigantic fist.

“Hiccup will be leading you, although he is, admittedly, completely useless, because Hiccup is

the son of the CHIEF, and that’s the way things go with us Vikings. Anyway, that is the least of your problems today. You are here to prove yourself as a Viking Hero. And it is an ancient tradition

of the Hooligan Tribe that you should…” – Gobber paused dramatically –

“…FIRST CATCH YOUR DRAGON!” Ohhhhhh suffering scallops, thought Hiccup.

“Our dragons are what set us apart!” bellowed Gobber. “Lesser humans train hawks to hunt for

them, horses to carry them. It is only the VIKING HEROES who dare to tame the wildest, most

dangerous creatures on earth.” Gobber spat solemnly into the snow. “There are three parts to the Dragon Initiation Test. The

first and most dangerous part is a test of your courage and skill at burglary. If you wish to enter the

Hairy Hooligan Tribe, you must first catch your dragon. And that is WHY,” continued Gobber, at full

volume, “I have brought you to this scenic spot. Take a look at Wild Dragon Cliff itself.” The ten boys tipped their heads backwards. The cliff loomed dizzyingly high above them, black

and sinister. In summer you could barely even see the cliff as dragons of all shapes and sizes

swarmed over it, snapping and biting and sending up a cacophony of sounds that could be heard

all over Berk.

But in winter the dragons were hibernating and the cliff fell silent, except for the ominous, low

rumble of their snores. Hiccup could feel the vibrations through his sandals.

“Now,” said Gobber, “do you notice those four caves about halfway up the cliff, grouped roughly

in the shape of a skull?” The boys nodded.

“Inside the cave that would be the right eye of the skull is the Dragon Nursery, where there are,

AT THIS VERY MOMENT, three thousand young dragons having their last few weeks of winter

sleep.” “OOOOOOOH,” muttered the boys excitedly. Hiccup swallowed hard. He happened to know

considerably more about dragons than anybody else there. Ever since he was a small boy, he’d been fascinated by the creatures. He’d spent hour after long hour dragon-watching in secret.

(Dragon-spotters were thought to be geeks and nerds, hence the need for secrecy.) And what

Hiccup had learnt about dragons told him that walking into a cave with three thousand dragons in

it was an act of madness.

No one else seemed too concerned, however.

“In a few minutes I want you to take one of these baskets and start climbing the cliff,” commanded Gobber the Belch. “Once you are at the cave entrance, you are on your own. I am too

large to squeeze my way into the tunnels that lead to the Dragon Nursery. You will enter the cave

QUIETLY– and that means you too, Wartihog, unless you want to become the first spring meal for

three thousand hungry dragons, HA HA HA HA!” Gobber laughed heartily at his little joke, then continued. “Dragons this size are normally fairly

harmless to man, but in these numbers they will set upon you like piranhas. There’d be nothing left of you – just a pile of bones and your helmet. HA HA HA HA! So… you will walk QUIETLY through the cave and each boy will steal ONE sleeping dragon. Lift the dragon GENTLY from the rock and

place it in your basket. Any questions so far?” Nobody had any questions.


46

quietly

enthusiastically feebly

kindly

softly

loudly

Define Retrieve Infer 2a Give/explain the meaning of words in context.




1) What is the name of the island where the story is set?

The Isle of Berk. (1)

2) Find and copy two reasons why Gobber was feared by the young vikings.

Accept any of the following:

He’s loud and shouty. He was a seven-foot giant.

He has a mad glint in his one working eye.

He doesn’t feel the cold.

He has buldging muscles. (2)

3) Find and copy a word in the text that tells you the island was a cold and miserable

place.

Bleak. (1)


4) ‘Gobber laughed heartily at his little joke..’. Circle the two adverbs that could replace heartily in the description above. (2)

5) How can you tell that Hiccup had not been looking forward to the initiation

cermony?

Hiccup had been feeling slightly sick ever since he woke up that morning. (1)

6) Find and copy a word or phrase that shows that Wild Dragon Cliff was an

unpleasantly loud and noisy place in the summer.

Cacophony of sounds. (1)


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True False

Dragons hibernate in winter

✓

Limpets are a tasty snack

✓

The tunnels that lead to the Dragon

Nursery are narrow ✓

A single dragon can eat a human

✓

(1)

8) Why did Hiccup choose not tell the others about his dragon-watching hobby?

Dragon-spotters were thought to be geeks and nerds, so he had kept it a secret. (1)

9) ‘The first and most dangerous part is a test of your courage and skill at burglary…’ What does this description tell you about the Vikings?

To award both marks, children should draw out that:

Vikings want to be seen as fearless and brave and not scared of danger.

They do not see stealing as wrong, but are instead encouraged and trained to take what does not belong to them. (2)


48

Can you invent your own fire-breathing mythical animal?

My Mythical Animal

This is a...............................................................................................................................................

It is ................................................................................. and .............................................................

It has got....................................................................................................................................wings

It has got..............................................................................................................................................

It eats...................................................................................................................................................

It lives in .............................................................................................................................................


49

Historical Fiction: The Great Fire Dogs by Megan Rix

Where do you think it is set? Who might the main character be? Does this remind you of any other stories you know?

Woofer is a loveable stray who works in the palace kitchen and Tiger Lily is the pampered pet spaniel of King Charles II. They come from very different worlds but this hasn't stopped them becoming the best of friends and looking out for each other. When Woofer finds himself in trouble, he has to escape the palace grounds and Tiger Lily isn't far behind him. It's not long before a new danger emerges – a great fire is sweeping across London destroying everything in its path. Can these two brave dogs survive the blazing fire and make their way to safety?

February 1666 On the snow-covered side of the River Thames, a red-faced man wearing a patched, woollen green coat and a grubby, rust-coloured waistcoat stood next to a wicker basket. Squashed inside the basket were six puppies. “Pups for sale!” the man shouted into the icy-cold air. He blew on his fingers. Next to him, a man was roasting chestnuts on a fire but the

dog seller couldn’t afford to buy any until he’d sold a puppy. He pulled the lid of the wicker basket beside him, reached into it and grabbed the first puppy by the scruff of its neck. “These little dogs were born to work in the kitchen,” he called out to the passing people as the cream-coated puppy tried to wriggle free. “Born to turn the cooking wheel.” In the wicker basket, one of the puppies popped his head out to look at the winter scene. The snow had come down hard overnight and London had woken covered in a thick white coat. There were stalls all along the white banks of the river, many of them selling food. Hot pies and roast meat as well as chestnuts and gingerbread. The puppy sniffed at the smells in the air and gave a whine. “My dog got out during the plague last year and that was the last I saw of him,” a woman with an apron over her long skirt told the puppy seller. “Caught by one of those awful dog catchers, no doubt.” The puppy seller nodded. There used to be lots of dogs and cats in London’s streets, most of them strays, but not nowadays. They were thought to carry the plague and people had been paid good money to catch and kill them. While they were talking, the puppy that had been looking out of the top of the basket scrambled free and headed off on his short legs towards the frozen water’s edge. On the other side of the river, across the long bridge full of houses and shops, twelve-year-old George, palace kitchen apprentice, looked over at the skaters on the wide expanse of frozen water. Their sharp, iron-bladed skates made swishing sounds as they cut through the ice. He watched in admiration as they weaved in and out of the arches under London Bridge. In places the ice was more than five feet thick and perfect for skating. George wished he could skate.


50

Some winters, when the vast Thames froze even harder than this, they held Frost Fairs on the river. Stalls were set up on the ice and people walked about on the river as if it were a street, but it wasn’t frozen enough for that yet. The small cream-coated puppy headed further out onto the ice. It was very cold beneath his tender paws and he whimpered every now and again but he didn’t turn back. “How old is it?” the woman asked, nodding at the puppy the dog seller was holding. “Ten weeks,” the man told her. The woman looked doubtful. “Bit small for ten weeks old, isn’t it?” “But strong as an ox,” the man said quickly. He didn’t want to lose his first potential customer. “There’s more in the basket if you don’t want this one.” He glanced to the side of him and saw that the rest of the puppies had tipped the basket over and were making a speedy escape. “Quick! Stop them!” the dog seller cried. He gave the puppy he was holding to the woman wearing the apron as he ran after the escaping pups. People laughed and bumped into each other as they tried to help him scoop up the puppies and return them to the basket. “Oh, look at that one,” a small girl said as a puppy ran past her. “Don’t touch it – dogs carry the plague!” replied her mother. “The plague’s over,” a man told the girl’s mother. “It must be if the king’s come home.” The bells had tolled throughout the city on the first of February for the return of the king. “The streets are crowded with people returning to London now that he’s back,” said another man. “There should be five of them!” the puppy seller said, looking about him frantically. But only four could be found and put back in the basket. The woman holding the first puppy decided to buy him and handed over a few coins to the dog seller. From the snowy riverbank George saw something moving about in the middle of the icy river. He shielded his eyes against the bright winter sun and squinted. It looked like some sort of small animal... but it couldn’t be, could it? What would an animal be doing out there? Its coat was too light for a fox. As the puppy came closer across the ice George realized what it was and sprinted across the ice before it was too late. “It’s all right. I’ve got you, you’re safe now,” he said, picking up the soft, furry bundle into his arms. The little puppy’s heart was beating very fast. His dark brown eyes looked at George and then he licked his new friend’s face as the boy laughed. “Where did you come from?” George asked the puppy. He looked around him but no one seemed to be searching for a puppy along the icy riverbank. “Looks like you’re coming with me,” George told the puppy. They came off the frozen river and headed down the narrow cobblestoned streets to pay a visit to his friend. Although it wasn’t far, it took longer than usual because there were so many people coming back to the city now that the plague had gone. So many carts and wagons were trying to get down the narrow streets that they were causing traffic jams. George carried the puppy up Fish Street Hill where the oyster sellers were walking up and down with their baskets of shellfish. He wriggled in the boy’s arms until George set him down on the ground. As he followed George, he did his best to avoid the leather boots and high-heeled, buckle-toed shoes that headed towards him, as well as the ornamental walking sticks that the men waved about as they strode forward. “This way,” George said, as they turned into a street of tumbledown Tudor buildings that was too narrow for a carriage to get down. Several of the houses had a red cross painted on the door. These were the houses where plague victims had been shut in during the last year. “Hello there!” a voice shouted, and when George and the puppy looked up, they saw thirteen-year-old Annie Farriner hanging out of an upstairs window of the bakery, doing her best to clean the sign. “I’m just making sure my father’s sign is nice and clean, especially the bit where it says he’s the king’s baker,” Annie told George when she came down. She was very proud of her father.


51

Define Retrieve Infer Summarise 2a Give/explain the meaning of words in context.





1) Why could the puppy seller not afford to buy the chesnuts?

He couldn’t afford to buy any until he’d sold a puppy. (1)

2) Find and copy a word that shows George was still training to become a cook.

A palace kitchen apprentice. (1)

3) Name two reasons why Londoners might have visited the Thames in February

1666.

Encourage children to justify responses using evidence from the text.

To shop at the market.

To ice skate. (1)

4) “There should be five of them!” the puppy seller said, looking about him

frantically…’ Which adverb could the author have used instead of frantically? Tick two (2)

desperately ✓ quietly

irritatingly anxiously ✓


5) ‘… as well as the ornamental walking sticks that the men waved about as they strode forward.’

What does the word ‘ornamental’ suggest about the walking sticks used by the men? Encourage responses that refer to the walking sticks being for ‘show’ or part of the fashion at that time. Support pupils by focusing in on why the men were ‘waving them about’ and what this might tell us about whether they actually needed them to help them walk. Discuss the verb ‘strode’ and whether this sounds like something an old, frail man might do or someone who could walk without

the help of a stick.

(1)

6) ‘George wished he could skate.’ Why doesn’t George learn to skate?

Accept any reasonable responses that can be justified by evidence in the text. For

example, he doesn’t have much money as he works as a kitchen apprentice. He can’t have much free time to learn as he works even though he’s 12 years old. He has no friends or family to teach him how. (1)


52

6) Find and copy a word or phrase from the text that shows the Tudor houses were

old and run-down?

Tumbledown. (1)


8) Number the following events to show the order in which they

happened.

George and the puppy get stuck behind the lines of carts and

wagons in the street.

4

George admires the ice skaters on the river.

3

The puppy escapes from the wicker basket.

2

Annie is cleaning the sign for her father’s bakery.

5

A man is selling dogs to work in the kitchen. 1

(1)

9) Why had the King had to leave London?

To escape the plague. (1)

10) What does this extract tell you about George’s character? Explain one feature,

using evidence from the text to support your answer.

George is_____________________________________________________________________

The evidence that supports my view is Accept any reasonable response that can be justified, e.g.

Kind, because he rescued the puppy.

Brave, because he ran across the ice to save it.

Animal lover, because he keeps the dog. (2)


53

Create a comic strip to show events in the story so far.


54

Historical Non-Fiction: Great Fire of London Fact File

What do you already know about the Great Fire of London? What questions do you have about it? What would you like to know?

Around six years before the fire, the English monarchy had been in turmoil. In 1660, Charles II

was finally crowned King Charles II. His brother, James, was the Duke of York.

In some ways a huge fire was expected in the city. In fact, in 1559, a man named Daniel Baker

predicted London’s destruction by “a consuming fire.”

Why was a fire expected?

Houses were built very close together.

Buildings were made from timber.

It had been a long hot summer so water reserves were low

and everything was very dry.

Important people like the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Thomas

Bloodworth, took no notice of any predictions or concerns. The city

already had the plague to deal with and in the previous two years

before the fire, around 68,000 people had died from the disease.

The plague was a disease passed on through the bite of an infected flea from a rat.

Sunday 2nd September 1666

The Great Fire began in a bakery on Pudding Lane. The bakery belonged

to Thomas Farriner, who was the King’s baker. The bakery was near London Bridge, which was the only bridge across the River Thames in

London.

The bakery workmen woke to the smell of smoke at 2 o’clock in the

morning. They woke the rest of the household, who all escaped from their

bedroom windows and across the rooftops. All except a maid, who was too shocked to move.


55

Unfortunately, she died in the fire.

The fire took hold very quickly, and spread very fast.

Here are some of the reasons why the fire spread so quickly:

• buildings were too close together.

• buildings were made from timber and tar.

• everything was dry after the hot summer.

• there was a strong wind that made the fire spread more quickly.

Within the hour, the Lord Mayor of London was woken and told about the fire. He was not

impressed and promptly went back to sleep! When he did get up and realised he needed to do

something, he was very indecisive and this caused delays in dealing with the problem.

Samuel Pepys, a man famous for writing newspaper articles and diaries, lived near the Tower of

London. He saw the fire heading west and went to see King Charles to warn him of the dangers.

What could be done?

Charles ordered the Mayor to destroy as many houses as possible before the fire got there. He

also put his brother James, Duke of York, in charge of the situation.

They decided to create firebreaks. This meant pulling down buildings before the fire got to them so

that there would be less for the fire to burn. It would eventually ‘burn itself out’ if there was nothing

to fuel it. This would mean there would be a gap in the path of the fire.

Panic in the streets of London!

By the Monday morning, people began to panic! The fire didn’t seem to be stopping. The Duke ordered the army in nearby

counties to help. By evening, the streets were jammed with people

trying to escape with their belongings and families in carts pulled

by horses.

St Paul’s Cathedral

St Paul’s Cathedral was thought to be a place of refuge, so people stored important things there.

However, the outside of the cathedral was covered in wooden scaffolding as it was being

improved. The timber caught fire and the lead on the roof melted down the road. The building was

completely destroyed.

Samuel Pepys packed his bag. He also dug a pit in his garden and

buried a parmesan cheese, some wine and other important goods.

Then he and his wife went to The Anchor pub and waited to see

what would happen. The fire was finally declared over on Thursday

6th September 1666.


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Who was to blame?

Over the next few days, people wanted to blame someone. Many citizens suspected the French or

the Dutch had set the fire and there were a number of violent attacks carried out in the streets.

Charles travelled to Moorfields where there were 100,000 people now homeless because of the

fire. He declared that no one was to blame and that the fire had been ‘an act of God’.

It was decided the Catholics were to blame and for 150 years this was commonly believed in

England. However, it is now decided that even though Thomas Farriner was so definite he had

dampened down his stove fires in his bakery, the fire more than likely started in Pudding Lane

after all.

A lesson learned?

After the fire, things changed. As a result of the fire, insurance companies, volunteer groups and

parish authorities all trained people to be firefighters to avoid such a catastrophe happening again.

A memorial monument stands at the junction of Monument Street and Fish Street Hill in the City of

London. It was built between 1671 and 1677 to commemorate the Great Fire of London and to

celebrate the rebuilding of the city.


57

Define Retrieve Infer Summarise






1) Why was a fire expected in London during the 1600s?

Accept any reasonable response, which could include: houses were built very close

together, buildings were made from timber and sometimes thatch, it had been a long, hot

summer so water reserves were low and everything was very dry. (1)

7) Why did important people, like the Mayor, take no notice of the fire to begin with?

Discuss pupils’ ideas for why this might have happened. Accept responses that focus on: thinking the fire would be put out promptly and would be over soon, the important and rich

people living far away from where the fire began, assuming someone else would deal with the

problem.

(1)

8) Find and copy a word that tells you that the Mayor was unable to make choices

quickly.

Indecisive. (1)

9) Why did the King order the Mayor to destroy houses that were not already on

fire?

To create ‘fire breaks’ so there would be less for the fire to burn and it would eventually ‘burn itself out’ if there was nothing to fuel it. (1)

10) Explain two things that the word ‘panic’ suggests about how the people in London were behaving?

Accept any reasonable response, e.g. people would be rushing around, they would be shouting

and screaming, trying to rescue people or items. It would be loud and chaotic and people wouldn’t be thinking very clearly. (2)


11) Why did Samuel Pepys bury things in his garden?

Samuel Pepys buried things in his garden to prevent them getting burnt and protect them

from anyone who might try and steal them in the hope he could collect them later after the fire had

ended. (1)


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12) The text states: ‘St Paul’s Cathedral was thought to be a place of refuge.’ Which of these statements most closely matches the meaning of ‘refuge’? Tick one. (1).

A well-known location, so it was a good place to meet people.

A place that is large and has lots of space for storage.

A place that offers protection and safety. ✓


8)

Below are some summaries of different paragraphs from this text. Number

them 1–4 to show the order in which they appear in the text. Deciding who was responsible for the tragedy. 3

A fire would probably occur in London in the 1660s. 1

Ensuring a fire of that size did not happen again. 4

How the fire began. 2

(1)

9) Why was a monument built after the fire?

To ensure people remembered the fire and those who died and also to celebrate the

rebuilding of the city afterwards. (1)

10) ‘Over the next few days, people wanted to blame someone.’ What does this tell us about how Londoners were feeling? Give two reasons why they might have felt this way.

Accept pupils’ own responses, e.g. they were angry that they had lost their homes and possessions, they wanted someone to pay for the damage and rebuild their homes, they couldn’t believe such a huge tragedy had happened by accident. (2)


59

Map of London 1666

Mark the parts of London in the Great Fire of London.

Use this symbol Name of area Grid reference

Pudding lane G4 (small vertifcal road in left

corner)

Seething Lane (home of Samuel

Pepys).

H4

London Bridge F3 to G2

Spitalfields H7

Moorfields F7

Tower of London I3

Colour the following squares in to show where the fire spread: B4, B5, C4, C5, D4, D5, D6, E4,

E5, E6, F3, F4, F5, G3, G4, H3.


60

Journeys

Fiction: A Story Like the Wind by Gill Lewis

Who might be travelling on this journey? Where do you think they might be going? Why is the boat sailing during the night?

A fourteen-year-old boy Rami is adrift in a boat full of strangers from his homeland; his only possession is his precious violin. The small boat carries the promise of a new life away from the destruction of war but the engine has died and they are all alone in a treacherous sea. The travellers begin to tell each other their names and share their food but Rami feels he cannot accept their hospitality as he has nothing to offer in return. But when he opens his violin case everyone begs him to play. His music has the ability to cross barriers of race and language and bring joy where there is darkness.

He glances at his fellow travellers, their faces ghosted by the moon. They sit in a circle, their

knees cramped up to their chins, clutching the remains of their lives in small bags of belongings.

A man and his wife sit together, their arms wrapped around their two young children. Beside

them, an old man carrying a small white dog and two boys, with the dark shadow of manhood on

their faces.

They are all strangers to him, strangers who by their leaving have joined him too. They are

bound together, floating across time and space, to the promise of a safe harbour in a different

world.

The outboard engine gave up some time ago. It spluttered its death rattle. A last cough. A last

breath. Then silence. Leaving them without maps, without oars, spinning slowly beneath the stars.

A small boat. With a small hope. In a rising wind, on a rising sea.

The wind and the waves begin to dance, kicking up the cold salt-spray. The boy runs his fingers

along the goose bumps that rise on his bare arms. He is real. He is here. Here is now. I am alive,

he thinks. He tilts his head back and speaks to the stars. “My name is Rami and I am still alive.” Another voice speaks into the night.

“You look cold, Rami.” The young mother has spoken. She offers her knitted shawl.

“Here, wrap this around you.” Rami pulls his red scarf tighter around his neck and shakes his

head. “Thank you, but I am warm enough.” The women’s eyes rest on Rami. “My name is Nor,” she says,

“and this is my husband Mustafa.” Mustafa lifts his head from his hands and manages a weak smile. He has been sea sick ever

since they left the land.


61

“This is my son, Bashar. He is six. And my daughter, Amani, who is four.” Bashar’s eyes are wide and round. His eyebrows jump as each wave thumps against the boat. Amani is curled beside him, escaped in sleep. Both children are wrapped in thick coats and

blankets. They are the only ones with life jackets in this boat, which is not even really a boat. It is a

toy, a plaything for beaches and swimming pools. Two layers of plastic and air are all that lie

between its passengers and the bottom of the sea. A belt buckle or loose hairclip could tear it

apart. But a ride on this rubber dingy is as expensive as a cabin on a cruise ship. A one-way ticket,

a thousand dollars each.

“My name is Mohammed,” says an old man. He strokes the ears of a shivering dog tucked

inside his coat. “And this is Bini. It is a long time since she was a puppy, and even longer since I

was a boy, but we still have each other.” “My name is Youssef,” says the older of two boys. “And this is my brother Hassan. We have

been travelling for many days now.” He looks across at Rami. “We are also still alive.” The words tumble from the passengers’ lips, keen to etch names and places into each other’s

minds. Remember me. Remember my name.

Mohammed pulls a flatbread from his bag. It is wrapped in paper, like a gift. Rami cannot help but

stare. Saliva forms, thick and sticky in his mouth.

“Here,” says Mohammed, tearing strips of bread and passing them around to each passenger

in the boat. “Eat. It is a long time until dawn.” Rami shakes his head, “Thank you, but I am not hungry.” He watches the others chew the

bread, while his own stomach cries out for food.

The waves rise and fall and the boat tilts and slides. Mustafa groans and sinks deeper into the

boat. His feet belong to the land, not to sea.

Youssef holds up a plastic bottle. “Have some lemonade. Our mother made it for us when we

left. It is made from lemons that grew on a tree in our back garden.” He passed it to Mustafa.

“Take a sip and pass it around, Mama said lemons were good for sickness.” When the bottle reaches Rami, he does not drink, but passes it on to

Mohammed. “Thank you, but I am not thirsty.” Youssef looks at him. “What is it, Rami? Why don’t you share our food and drink? Why do you refuse to wrap Nor’s shawl around you when we can all see you are cold?” Rami’s hands grip the slim case against his chest. “I have nothing to give

in return. This is all I have left.” Bashar’s eyes open wide. “What’s inside?”

Rami unclips the lid and opens the case. “This,” he says.

A violin lies sleeping in a bed of dark velvet, with a bow resting alongside. It looks out of place

here. Too fragile. Too intricate. Too beautiful.

Rami lifts it with two hands as carefully as if it were a newborn child. “I had to leave quickly,” he

says. “I took the only thing I could not leave behind.” Bashar wriggles across to Rami for a closer look. He reaches out to touch the curled scroll and

pegs holding the taut strings in place, and traces his finger along the slender neck and the smooth

wooden curves of the violin’s body. Youssef looks into the empty case and frowns. “This is all you have? You have nothing to eat?” Hassan shakes his head. “What use is it to you now? You could have sold it for food, or water,

or even a life jacket.”


62

Rami shakes his head. “No. You see, this is everything to me.” Mohammed leaned forward. “Please show us, Rami. Show us what this means to you.” Rami lifts the violin to his chin and pulls out the bow from the case. “You see, it remembers

many stories.” He draws the bow along the strings and a deep melody fills the night. “It remembers

the time before the war, when the morning sun rose over my father’s wheat fields, lifting the mist and turning everything to gold. It remembers the warm nights and music played in our village after

harvest, and the smell of coffee and sweet roasting almonds.” Bashar reaches into the air as if he’s trying to catch the music, but the notes slip and slide

away on the wind.

Nor puts a hand on Rami’s arm. “Maybe you could play for us and tell us one of your stories?

We would like to hear one. The night is long and it will help keep the darkness away.” “I would not know which one to tell.” The sea writhes beneath them, folding and bending their boat. The plastic seems to pucker and

creak.

Nor’s hand tightens on his arm. “Tell us a story to see us through the night,” she whispers, her

eyes bright with tears. “Please tell us a story that will carry us into dawn.” “I do have a story, but it is a dangerous one. It was told to me on the day the soldiers came.

The day we were forbidden to play any more music. The day the conductor gave me money and

told me to run and not to return home. Perhaps they knew its power. Perhaps they knew what it

could do.” “Then you must tell it to us,” says Mohammed.


63

Define Retrieve Infer Summarise Predict 2a Give/explain the meaning of words in context.






1) What evidence is there in the first paragraph that the passengers do not have

much space in the boat?

Their knees are cramped to their chins. Ensure pupils only retrieve information from the

first paragraph, rather than details learnt later (i.e. that it’s a dingy). (1)

2) ‘The engine gave up some time ago. It spluttered its death rattle. A last cough. A

last breath. Leaving them spinning slowly beneath the stars. A small boat. With a

small hope. In a rising wind, on a rising sea.’

Choose the best words to match the description above. Circle both of your choices:

The boat was

along on the

(1)

chugging smoking racing drifting

bubbling

ripples

smooth

waters

rocking

tide

calm sea

3) Match the information to the character it describes. (1)

Amani

His mother makes lemonade

Mustafa

Wearing a thick coat and a life jacket

Youssef

Feeling nauseous from moving on the waves

4) ‘The plastic seems to pucker and creak.’

Which adjective is closest in meaning to pucker? Tick one. (1)

tear stretch

crumple ✓

groan


64


5) Write down two reasons Rami gives for only bringing his violin on the journey.

Both pieces of evidence are on the final page. Accept responses that refer to Rami ‘leaving quickly’ and ‘not having a chance to return home’ when the soldiers came. Also accept that the violin ‘is everything’ to him so he had to bring it.

(1)

6) Why does Rami refuse the bread even though ‘his stomach cries out for food’?

Encourage answers that refer to Rami feeling like he has nothing to give back in return /

nothing he can share with the others. (1)

‘The sea writhes beneath them.’ 7 a) Give the meaning of the word writhes in this sentence.

Twisting or thrashing movement. (1)

b) What does this suggest about the sea around them?

That the sea is rough and there are large waves. (1)


8) Number the following events to show the order in which they

happened.

Rami is offered bread. 2

Rami is introduced to the dog on board the boat.

3

The boat brakes down.

1

Nor pleads with Rami to play a story. 5

Rami shares memories of his village. 4

9) Find and copy a group of words on the final page that give the impression that the

violin is very precious to Rami.

‘Lifts it as carefully as if it were a newborn child’ or ‘this is everything to me’ or ‘I took the only thing I could not leave behind.’ (1)


65

10) ‘Nor’s hand tightens on his arm. “Tell us a story to see us through the night,” she

whispers, her eyes bright with tears.’ What does this description tell you about how

Nor is feeling at this point in the story?

Accept any responses that refer to her being afraid, scared or worried about what will happen to her and her family during the night at sea. (1)

11) Based on what you have read, do you think that Rami’s music will make the journey better for the passengers?

Yes No Maybe

Explain your choice using evdience from the text to help.

I ticked__________________because I think that ____________________________________

The evidence in the story that supports my idea is___________________________________

This is an open-ended question, but pupils must use justification to support their idea. For

example:

Yes – because I think they will enjoy it.

The evidence that supports my idea is that they are all asking Rami to play them a song, so they

will be disappointed if he doesn’t.

No – because it won’t fix the boat. The evidence that supports my idea is that the boat is broken and they cannot get to satety, and

Rami’s music won’t help them to get the boat working again.

Rami’s violin was his most precious item. What items are precious to you? Can

you draw three items that are important to you and write a sentence explaining why you

have chosen them?

Complete the activity alongside the children to find out a bit more about your pupils.


66

Classic Poetry: The Owl and the Pussy-cat by Edward Lear

Have you heard this poem before? Where? Why do you think it might be called a ‘nonsense’

poem?

This beloved nonsense poem by Edward Lear, takes the reader on the delightful voyage of the Owl and the Pussy-cat as they sail across the sea and travel into lush jungles, all by the light of the moon.

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea

In a beautiful pea green boat, They took some honey, and plenty of money,

Wrapped up in a five-pound note. The Owl looked up to the stars above,

And sang to a small guitar, “O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,

What a beautiful Pussy you are, You are, You are!

What a beautiful Pussy you are!”

Pussy said to the Owl, “You elegant fowl! How charmingly sweet you sing!

O let us be married! too long we have tarried: But what shall we do for a ring?”

They sailed away, for a year and a day, To the land where the Bong-tree grows And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood

With a ring at the end of his nose, His nose, His nose,

With a ring at the end of his nose.

“Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling Your ring?” Said the Piggy, “I will.”

So they took it away, and were married next day By the Turkey who lives on the hill.

They dined on mince, and slices of quince, Which they ate with a runcible spoon;

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, They danced by the light of the moon,

The moon, The moon,

They danced by the light of the moon.


67

Define Retrieve Infer Explore Relate 2a Give/explain the meaning of words in context.



2g Identify and explain how meaning is enhanced through choice of words and phrases.

2f Identify/explain how information/ narrative content is related and contributes to the meaning as a whole.


1) Where was the honey kept?

Wrapped up in a five-pound note. (1)

2) Find and copy a word or phrase that tells you the boat was attractive.

Beautiful. (2)

3) Find a word or phrase in the first verse that shows how the Owl feels about the

Pussy-cat?

Accept any reference to the Owl calling the Pussy-cat ‘lovely’ or ‘my love’. (1)

4) ‘Pussy said to the Owl, “You elegant fowl!”’ What does the word ‘fowl’ mean in this sentence?

dress lady

nasty

bird ✓


5) Why does the Pussy-cat need a ring? Answers that refer to the fact that the Owl and the Pussy-cat are to be married. (1)

6) ‘To the land where the Bong-tree grows’ What does this description suggest about the place they are sailing to?

That the place is magical / exotic / mysterious. (1)


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7) The poem is often referred to as a ‘nonsense’ poem. Do you agree?

Yes No

Give two pieces of evidence from the text that support your answer.

(2)

Draw out that the poem references made-up places and things, e.g. the Bong-tree, and unrealistic characters or events.

8) Complete the rhyming pair for each of the words below:

(2)

9) What is the tone of the poem?

Happy ✓ Sad

What gives you that impression? Give two reasons to support your answer.

Award two marks for any of the answers indicated here. Award one mark for any one of the answers indicated:

• Beauty – pea-green boat. • Adventure – boat, travelling to a mysterious land. • Singing. • Love – between the Owl and the Pussy-cat, all of the animal friends, the marriage.

• Dancing.

(2)

10) At what time of day is the poem set? How do you know?

It is night-time. We know because the poet talks about the Owl looking up at the stars, and

the Owl and the Pussy-cat dancing by the light of the moon.

(1)

boat

married

sing

mince

note

tarried

ring

quince


69

Can you find these words from the poem?

P U T G U I T A R T P

Y U S E A R H O M H I

Q I S C G I O B I U G

U F S S A N O R N N G

I M R E Y G A T C D Y

N I O A E C P Q E E W

C S V O T F A I I O I

E B U H N E S T N W G

L E S Y E N O M G L E

H O N E Y A C D N A S

H B R D E I R R A M D

Owl

Pussycat

Guitar

Married

Ring

Mince

Quince

Moon

Piggy-Wig

Honey

Money

Sea


70

Non-Fiction: Who was Ernest Shackleton? By James Buckley

"Shackleton – The Voyage of the James Caird" by David Butler, Alice Coleman is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Have you heard of Ernest Shackleton before? Where do you predict he might have travelled to? How might he have made this journey? When do you think he travelled?

As a boy he preferred reading sea stories to doing homework and, at age 16, became an apprentice seaman. Subsequently, Ernest Shackleton’s incredible journeys to the South Pole in the early 1900s made him one of the most famous explorers of modern times. His courage in the face of dangerous conditions and unforeseeable tragedies revealed the great leader that he was.

One of the greatest adventures of all time comes to life in this biography of the great English/Irish explorer, Ernest Shackleton.

Ernest Shackleton was a renowned polar explorer, who participated in three expeditions to the

Antarctic and made many important scientific discoveries.

Early Life

On 15th February 1874, Ernest Henry Shackleton was born in Ireland. He was the second of ten

children born to Henry Shackleton, a landowner at the time, and Henrietta Gavan. Ernest’s father began training to become a doctor when Ernest was six years old and four years later, the family

moved to Sydenham, London, in search of better jobs for his father – now a doctor.

Ernest was schooled by a governess at home until he was 11 when he began at Fir Lodge

Preparatory School in Dulwich, in southeast London. At the age of 13, he attended Dulwich

College. During his childhood, Ernest was a keen reader. He particularly enjoyed reading about

fictional adventures, which made him want to go on escapades himself. Although Ernest was very

clever, he found school boring and did not enjoy learning about the world by reading about it.

Ernest wanted to experience everything for himself.

The Merchant Navy

In order to explore the world, Ernest left school at the age of 16 and joined the merchant navy. He

became an apprentice on a ship and spent four years learning how to sail before becoming a

Second Mate. Four years later, in 1898, Ernest achieved the title of Master Mariner. This meant

that he was able to sail a British ship anywhere in the world. Although Ernest travelled to places

around the world, he never saw the Antarctic – something he was eager to do.

Expeditions

Ernest knew the son of one of the main organisers of the National Antarctic Expedition, so he

managed to obtain an interview and his enthusiasm gained him a job as third officer to the

expedition’s ship, ‘Discovery’. This was to be a voyage of scientific and geographical discovery


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led by Robert Falcon Scott and would be Ernest’s first, much awaited, expedition to the Antarctic.

The team set sail on 31st July 1901, arriving at the Antarctic Coast over five months later on 8th

January 1902.

With Scott and one other team member, Ernest trekked towards the South

Pole in extremely difficult conditions, getting closer to the Pole than

anyone had come before). Unfortunately, the team experienced many

hardships during the expedition, including snow blindness, frostbite and

scurvy (a disease caused by a lack of vitamin C). Due to becoming very

poorly, Ernest was sent home early on 4th January 1903, never having

reached the South Pole.

Back in Britain, Ernest spent some time as a journalist before he attempted

his second Antarctic expedition and set sail aboard a ship named ‘Nimrod’ on 1st January 1908.

On this expedition, Ernest and his team discovered the Beardmore

Glacier, climbed Mount Erebus – the second highest volcano in Antarctica – and came even

closer to the South Pole than they had before (reaching a point only 180 km from the Pole). Their

return journey was a race against time and they arrived at Hut Point just in time to catch the ship.

On Ernest’s return home, he received an award from King Edward VII and a few months later, the

King made him a knight – so he became Sir Ernest Shackleton.

Determined to go on another expedition, Ernest put an advertisement in the newspaper asking for

men to join him; more than 5,000 people applied and in 1914, Ernest selected a crew of 56 men,

who were split between two ships named ‘Endurance’ and ‘Aurora’, which set sail on 8th August.

Conditions in the Weddell Sea were slow and hazardous and on 19th

January 1915, the ship ‘Endurance’ became stuck in a large ice floe (a sheet of floating ice). Ernest and his crew abandoned the ship, which

eventually sank ten months later after being slowly crushed by the ice.

Almost a thousand miles from human contact and with no way to call for

help or rescue, Shackleton and his crew were forced to live on top of the

Antarctic ice for almost two years. Over the next six months they would

defy all odds to survive. Under Shackleton’s leadership, the men battled cold, hunger, ice wind and loneliness. Almost six months later, in April

1916, Ernest took five crew members to find help. They spent 16 days

crossing 1,300 km of ocean in a small boat to reach the island of

South Georgia, where they trekked to a whaling station for help. The

remaining crew were finally rescued on 30th August 1916.

Ernest planned a fourth expedition in which he aimed to circumnavigate (travel all the way

around) the Antarctic continent. Sadly, on 5th January 1922, Ernest died of a heart attack off

South Georgia; he was buried on the island.

"File:Shackleton.jpg" by Hohum is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

‘Shackleton – The Voyage of the James Caird" by David Butler, Alice Coleman is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6331172

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Hohum

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/?ref=ccsearch&atype=rich


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Define Retrieve Summarise Infer Explore Compare 2a Give/explain the meaning of words in context.





2h Make comparisons within the text.


1) How old was Ernest when his family moved to Sydenham?

Ernest’s father began training to become a doctor when Ernest was six years old and four years later, the family moved to Sydenham. Children will have to add six and four to retrieve the

correct answer of ten. (1)

2) ‘Unfortunately, the team experienced many hardships during the expedition…’ What does hardships mean? Circle one.

3) Number the following events to show the order in which

they happened.

Ernest’s ship ‘Endurance’ became stuck in a large ice floe. 5

Ernest joined the merchant navy. 1

Ernest set sail aboard a ship named ‘Nimrod’. 4

Ernest achieved the title of Master Mariner. 2

Ernest was appointed as third office to the National Antarctic Expedition's ship ‘Discovery’. 3

4) Match the event to the date it occurred.

Ernest was born 31st July 1901

The ship ‘Endurance’ became stuck in ice. 19th January 1915

The ship ‘Discovery’ set sail.

15th February 1874

total ease

complete

success

minor difficulties

complete success

complete

success

severe suffering

complete

success


73

5) ‘… and would be Ernest’s first, much awaited, expedition to the Antarctic.’

What does this tell you about Ernest’s feelings towards the trip?

‘Much awaited’ gives the impression of something that Ernest has waited a long time

for – he always wanted to visit Antarctica and had been planning his adventure since he

was a child. (1)


6) Name three illnesses sailors could suffer from during long expeditions to the Antarctic.

Snow blindness, frostbite and scurvy. (1)

7) Why do you think that the King made Ernest a knight?

Ernest had completed something that many people never do, so he deserved the title for

his hard work.

(1)

8) Match each of these words with their definition:

apprentice

A sheet of floating ice.

governess The ships which transport

produce to and from a country.

ice floe A beginner who is learning a

trade.

merchant navy A woman employed to teach

children in their homes.


74


9) How do you think Ernest felt when he first visited Antarctica? Explain your

answer.

Pupils’ own responses, such as: Ernest would have been so pleased to have finally

realised his dreams of visiting the Antarctic; he would have felt ecstatic. (2)

10) ‘Determined to go on another expedition, Ernest put an advertisement in the newspaper asking for men to join him.’ Why was Ernest was determined to go on another expedition?

Ernest had still not reached the South Pole, something he was keen to do, so he wanted to go

on another expedition to attempt to complete his adventure. Accept responses that refer to him

being determined to reach his goal or not wanting to give up. (1)

11) Put a tick in the correct box to show whether each of the following statements

is a fact or an opinion.

Fact Opinion

Exploring the world by ship is brave and exciting. ✓

Shackleton was born in Ireland. ✓

It took many months to travel to Antarctica from the UK.

✓

Shackleton is one of the greatest adventurers of all time.

✓

12) Does Shackleton remind you of any other famous explorers?

Discuss any other explorers or adventurers the children might know e.g. Columbus,

Scott, Cabot.

(1)


75

T

Imagine you are one of the crew on Shackleton’s final trip. What might you have seen during the six months you spent in the Antarctic?


76

Adventures in Outer Space

Fiction: Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman. Illustrated by Chris Riddell.

Have you read any stories by the author? What other books has Chris Riddell illustrated? Do you think the story will be serious or humorous? How do you know? Which type of fiction story do you

prefer?

You know what it's like when your mum goes away on a business trip and Dad's in charge. She leaves a really, really long list of what he's got to do. And the most important thing is DON'T FORGET TO GET THE MILK. Unfortunately, Dad forgets. So the next morning, before breakfast, he has to go to the corner shop, and this is the story of why it takes him a very, very long time to get back.

“How long has he been?” asked my sister. “Ages,” I said. We drank the orange juice. My sister practised her violin. I suggested that she stop playing her violin, and she made faces at me. “How long has it been now?” she asked. “Ages and ages,” I told her. “What if she never comes back?” she asked. “I expect he just ran into one of his friends at the corner shop,” I said, “and he lost track of time.” There was a thump and a bang at the front door, and my father came in. “Where have you been all this time?” asked my sister. “Ah,” said my father. “Um. Yes. Well, funny you should ask me that.” “I bought the milk,” said my father. “And I did indeed say a brief hello to Mr Ronson from over the road, who was buying a paper. I walked out of the corner shop, and heard something odd

that seemed to be coming from above me. It was a noise like this: thummm-thumm. I looked up and saw a huge silver disc hovering in the air above Marshall Road. ‘Hullo,’ I said to myself. ‘That’s not something you see every day.’ And then something very odd happened.” “That wasn’t odd?” I asked. “Well, something odder,” said my father. “The odd thing was the beam of light that came out of the disc – a glittery, shimmery beam of light that was visible even in daylight. And the next thing I knew, I was being sucked up into the disc. Fortunately, I had put the milk safely into my coat pocket. The deck of the disk was metal. It was as big as a playing field, or bigger.


77

EMERGENCY

EXIT DO NOT OPEN FOR ANY REASON.

THIS MEANS YOU.

‘We have come to your planet from a world very far away,’ said the people in the disc. I call them ‘people’, but they were a bit green and rather globby and they looked very grumpy indeed. ‘Now, as a representative of your species, we demand that you give us ownership of the whole planet. We are going to remodel it.’ ‘I jolly well won’t,’ I said. ‘In that case,’ one of them said, ‘we will bring all your enemies here and get then to make you miserable until you agree to sign that planet over to us.’ I was going to point out to them that I didn’t actually have any enemies when I noticed a large metal door that said: I opened the door. ‘Don’t do that,’ said a green globby person. ‘You’ll let the space-time continuum in.’ But it was too late – I had already opened the door. I jumped. I was falling. Fortunately, I had kept tight hold of the milk, so when I splashed into the sea, I didn’t lose it. ‘What was that?’ said a woman’s voice. ‘A big fish? A mermaid? Or was it a spy?’ I wanted to say that I wasn’t actually any of those things, but my mouth was full of seawater. I felt myself being hauled up on to the deck of a little ship. There were a number of men and a woman on the deck, and they all looked very cross. ‘Who be ye, landlubber?’ asked the woman, who had a big hat on her head and a parrot on her shoulder. ‘He’s a spy! A walrus in a coat! A new kind of mermaid with legs!’ said the men. ‘What are you doing here?’ asked the woman. ‘Well,’ I said. ‘I’d just been to the corner shop for some milk for my children’s breakfast and for my tea, and the next thing I knew –’ ‘He’s lying, Your Majesty!’ She pulled out her cutlass. ‘You dare lie to the Queen of the Pirates?’ Fortunately, I had kept tight hold of the milk, and now I pointed to it. ‘If I did not go to the corner shop to fetch the milk,’ I asked them, ‘then where did this milk come from?’ At this, the pirates were completely speechless. ‘Now,’ I said, ‘if you could let me off somewhere near to my destination, I would be much obliged to you.’ ‘And where would that happen to be?’ said the Queen of the Pirates. ‘At the corner of Marshall Road and Fletcher Lane,’ I said. ‘My children are waiting there for their breakfast.’ ‘You’re on a pirate ship now, my fine bucko,’ said the Pirate Queen. ‘And you don’t get dropped off anywhere. There are only two choices – you can join my pirate crew, or refuse to join and we will slit your cowardly throat and you will go to the bottom of the sea, where you will feed the fishes.’ ‘What about walking the plank?’ I asked. ‘Never heard of it!’ said the pirates. ‘Walking the plank!’ I said. ‘It’s what proper pirates do! Look, I’ll show you. Do you have a plank anywhere?’ It took some looking, but we found a plank, and I showed the pirates where to put it. We discussed nailing it down, but the Pirate Queen decided it was safer just to get the two fattest pirates to sit on the end of it. ‘Why exactly do you want to walk the plank?’ asked the Pirate Queen. I edged out onto the plank. The blue Caribbean water splashed gently beneath me.


78

Predict Compare Summarise Infer Define Retrieve 2e Predict what might happen from details stated and implied.







1) Why do the children think Dad is taking so long at the shops?

He ran into one of his friends at the corner shop and lost track of time. (1)

2) Where does Mr Ronson live?

Over the road. (1)

3) ‘I felt myself being hauled up onto the deck of a little ship.’ What does the word ‘hauled’ tell you about how Dad got onto the pirate ship?

(1)

4) Number the following events to show the order in which

they happened.

There is a thump and a bang at the door. 1

Dad puts the milk in his coat pocket. 2

Dad is floating on the Caribbean Sea. 4

The Emergency Exit door is opened. 3

5) ‘I edged out onto the plank’ What does this description tell you about how Dad moved?

Accept reponses that focus on Dad moving slowly, draw out that he was feeling hesitant or

uncertain. (1)

lifted gently

complete

success

fell accidently climbed quickly

complete

success

dragged roughly

complete success


79


6) Which of these drawings best represents what Dad saw in the sky on his way

back from the shop? Circle one.

7) Circle the correct option for the sentence:

The characters on board the spaceship looked tall / solid / lumpy and were

unfriendly / welcoming / peaceful.

(2)


8) What impression do you get of the pirates in this story? Give two pieces of

evidence to support your answer.

Pupils’ responses should focus on the pirate crew being unfriendly, mean and aggressive

(threatening to slit Dad’s throat, pulling out a cutlass). Encourage children to contrast this with the idea that they are slightly foolish and incompetent (not knowing what walking the plank is, or

what Dad’s plan might be). (2)

9) Do you know of any other films or stories with pirate characters? How are they

the same as the characters here? In what ways are they different?

Take pupils’ own responses. Use ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, ‘Hook’ or ‘Bluebeard’ as a talking point if pupils struggle to come up with any ideas of their own.

Possible similarities might be the ships, the crew or a parrot. Differences could include having a

woman in charge and not knowing about walking the plank. (2)

10) Based on what you have read, what does the last paragraph suggest might

happen to Dad next? Use evidence from this paragraph to support your prediction.

Discuss whether pupils think Dad will make his way home from the sea or meet another

character on his journey home. Refer back to the door he opened with the label ‘space-time

continuum’, and use this to discuss if Dad is in the present day or the past and how he might make it back home if so.

(2)


80

Space time

Space-time continuum maze Dad has popped out to get some milk. Can you help him get home to his children in time for breakfast?


81

Non-Fiction: Newspaper Report

Back to Earth with a bump! Reported by Amanda Kelper, Media Correspondent, London

Last week, British astronaut Tim Peake returned home from an incredible six-month stay aboard

the International Space Station (ISS), alongside his crewmates Yuri Malenchenko and Timothy Kopra. He is the first British astronaut to have lived on the ISS.

The men were launched into space on 15th December 2015 and in the months before take- off, they trained intensively for their trip. Training involved learning to speak Russian, spending 12 days under the sea and a winter survival expedition.

During their space mission, the astronauts conducted experiments, tested out new technology and inspired the next generation of space travellers. Peake told reporters that the highlight of his trip was a spacewalk where he had to make a repair on the space station. Whilst he was 400 km away from his home, Tim also ran the equivalent of the London Marathon on his treadmill.

Having circled the planet nearly 3,000 times in 186 days, the crew returned home to Earth via a Soyuz capsule, which reached speeds of up to 28,000 kilometres per hour (25 times the speed of sound). The touchdown was bumpy due to high winds, however the astronauts landed safely near the town of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. They all returned in good health.

Having arrived back on solid ground, the astronauts were pulled out of the capsule and carried as their leg muscles were too weak to walk. Whilst sitting in their space suits, the men were checked over by medical staff. During these checks, Peake was asked how it felt to be home. “The smells of Earth are so strong and it’s wonderful to be back in the fresh air.”

Tim later flew from Kazakhstan to the headquarters of the European Space Agency in Cologne, Germany where he is recovering and adjusting to life back on Earth. Scientists are carrying out tests to see how his body has been affected by his time in space.

In a recent press conference, Peake commented on how he’d missed family and friends, and even the rain. Tim expressed how much he was now looking forward to spending some quality time with his family. When asked if he’d return to space in the future, he replied, “…in a heartbeat.”

His service to science has earned him an honour from the Queen. Peake was made a CMG, or companion of the order of St Michael and St George. In response, Tim said, “I am only one privileged person in a complex team of technicians, scientists, engineers, educators, trainers and flight directors, all working in pursuit of one of the greatest scientific and technical challenges of our time – exploring our solar system for the benefit of people on Earth. This award is for them.”

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/


82

Define Retrieve Summarise Infer Explore 2a Give/explain the meaning of words in context.






1) How long had Peake been living on the ISS?

Tim Peake had been living on the ISS for six months. (1)

2) Find and copy a word in the second paragraph that tells you the training was very

demanding.

They trained ‘intensively’. (1)

3) Below are some summaries of different paragraphs from this text.

Number them 1–6 to show the order in which they appear in the text.

The first one has been done for you.

Jobs to do on the ISS. 2

The journey back home. 3

Life back on Earth. 4

The training required for a space mission. 1

Recognising Tim’s achievements. 5

4) Why do you think Peake needed to learn Russian before he went?

He needed to learn Russian as one of the other astronauts was Russian. He needed to be

able to communicate with him. (1)

5) Why were the astronauts carried out of the capsule?

They were carried as their leg muscles were too weak to walk. (1)


83

educated

complete

success

important

complete

success

fortunate

complete

success

6) Match the numbers with the information from the text:

The times the crew circled the planet during their mission.

400km

The distance of the ISS from Britain.

28,000 km per

hour

The year Tim and his crew were launched into space.

6

The speed of the capsule they travelled in. 3,000

Number of months Tim spent on board the ISS. 2015


7) Write down three things Tim had to do whilst on board the ISS.

He conducted experiments, tested out new technology and did necessary repairs on the ISS.

(2)

8) ‘When asked if he’d return to space in the future, he replied, “…in a heartbeat.”’ What does this tell you about Tim’s feelings on space travel?

The fact Tim says he would definitely to return to the ISS ‘in a heartbeat’ shows how much he enjoyed the experience and how little time he would need to decide whether to return.

Draw out from pupils the idea that Tim wouldn’t want to return to the ISS if he hadn’t enjoyed it or he had found it too challenging. (1)

9) ‘In response, Tim said, “I am only one privileged person in a complex team...”’ What does privileged mean in this sentence?

(1)


84


10) Why do you think Tim dedicated his special honour to the entire team?

Accept pupil responses that include reference to his space travel mission being a team effort

– each person is needed for the mission to be a success, not just the astronaut. (1)

11) Give two reasons why you think space travel is important.

Encourage pupils to suggest their own answers, which may include to make new

discoveries, to find out if there’s life in other parts of the solar system, to conduct important experiments in space. (1)

Can you think of some reasons FOR and AGAINST becoming

an astronaught like Tim Peake?

Pros Cons


85

Poetry: The Star, by Sara Teasdale (1883–1933)

The Star A white star born in the evening glow

Looked to the round green world below,

And saw a pool in a wooded place

That held like a jewel her mirrored face.

She said to the pool: "Oh, wondrous deep,

I love you, I give you my light to keep.

Oh, more profound than the moving sea

That never has shown myself to me!

Oh, fathomless as the sky is far,

Hold forever your tremulous star!"

But out of the woods as night grew cool

A brown pig came to the little pool;

It grunted and splashed and waded in

And the deepest place but reached its chin.

The water gurgled with tender glee

And the mud churned up in it turbidly.

The star grew pale and hid her face

In a bit of floating cloud like lace.


86

Define Retrieve Summarise Explore Compare Infer 2a Give/explain the meaning of words in context.







1) What time of day is it in the poem?

Night-time

(1)

2) Find and copy two things the star saw when she looked down.

A pool, a brown pig.

(2)

3) What did the star give to the pool to keep? Circle one.

(1)

4) Look at line four. Why is the star’s face described as ‘mirrored’?

Accept any answers stating that the star is reflected in the surface of the pool. (1)


5) Find and copy the line which shows us that the pig disturbs the peaceful setting.

It grunted and splashed and waded in. (1)

6) . ‘A brown pig came to the little pool; It grunted and splashed and waded in And the deepest place but reached its chin.’

What do these lines tell us about the depth of the pool?

Answers stating that the pool is as deep as the legs and body of the pig and referring to the pool

only reaching the chin of the pig. (2)

her light the moving sea

complete

success

a jewel

complete

success


87

the moving water didn’t reflect the star any more

the star didn’t like the pig so it hid itself

7) How did the actions of the pig affect the star? Circle one.

(1)


8) ‘The star grew pale and hid her face’ In this line, the word ‘pale’ is closest in meaning to… (Tick one)

twinkling

colourless

✓

sparkling

bright

9) ‘“Oh, more profound than the moving sea, That never has shown myself to me!”’ Why does the star say the sea has never ‘shown myself to me’?

Accept any responses that refer to the sea not showing the star her reflection because it is

constantly moving and not still like the pond. (1)

10) Halfway through the poem is the line ‘But out of the woods as night grew cool’. Using evidence from the text, give two ways in which the second half of the poem differs from the first half.

The first half of the poem is peaceful and still (water is flat, star is reflected). In the second half of the poem the arrival of the pig disturbs the peace with noise and movement (line 13). In the second half of the poem the pool no longer reflects the face of the star because the water is disturbed and moving (‘churned’, ‘gurgled’, ‘splashed’, ‘mud’). The time has moved from ‘evening glow’ (line 1) to ‘as night grew cool’ (line 11). The temperature ‘grew cool’.

(2)


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Dot to Dot Star Constellations Challenge

Can you join the stars together using straight lines to form a constellation? Use the numbers to help

you.

Can you circle the correct constellation?

The Plough Canis Major

Cassiopeia Orion

Can you write the name of the constellation in the box provided?

Can you read the name of that constellation?

Can you join the stars together using straight lines to form a constellation? Use the numbers to help

you. Can you circle the correct

constellation?

The Plough Canis Major

Cassiopeia Orion

Can you write the name of the constellation in the box provided?

Can you read the name of that constellation?


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Secrets and Spies

Classic Poetry: The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes

Have you heard this poem before? Where? What is a ‘highwayman’? What does this tell you about when the poem might be set?

Alfred Noyes's famous narrative poem, set in 18th-century England, tells the story of an unnamed highwayman and his doomed love for Bess, the landlord's black-eyed daughter.

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees. The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas. The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, And the highwayman came riding— Riding—riding— The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door. He’d a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin, A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin. They fitted with never a wrinkle. His boots were up to the thigh. And he rode with a jewelled twinkle, His pistol butts a-twinkle, His weapon hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky. Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard. He tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred. He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there But the landlord’s black-eyed daughter, Bess, the landlord’s daughter, Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair. And dark in the dark old inn-yard, a stable-wicket creaked Where Tim the ostler listened. His face was white and peaked. His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay, But he loved the landlord’s daughter, The landlord’s red-lipped daughter. Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say— “One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I’m after a prize to-night, But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light; Yet, if they press me sharply, and bother me through the day, Then look for me by moonlight,


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Watch for me by moonlight, I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way.” He did not come in the dawning. He did not come at noon; And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise of the moon, When the road was a gypsy’s ribbon, looping the purple moor, A red-coat troop came marching— Marching—marching— King George’s men came marching, up to the old inn-door. They said no word to the landlord. They drank his ale instead. But they gagged his daughter, and bound her, to the foot of her narrow bed. Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side! There was death at every window; And hell at one dark window; For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride. She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good! She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood! They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years Till, now, on the stroke of midnight, Cold, on the stroke of midnight, The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at last was hers!


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Define Retrieve Predict Explore Relate Infer 2a Give/explain the meaning of words in context.




2f Identify/explain how information/ narrative content is related and contributes to the meaning as a whole.



1) What time of day did the Highwayman ride to meet Bess? Use one piece of evidence

from the text to support your answer.

The weather was________________________________________________________________

The evidence to support this is: ____________________________________________________(2)

Award one mark for inferring it was night and another mark for justification e.g. ‘torrent of darkness’ or the ‘moon’ being in the sky or the road being a ‘ribbon of moonlight’.

2) Find and copy three things the Highwayman was wearing:

Award two marks for any of the following:

• A French cocked-hat on his forehead.

• A bunch of lace at his chin.

• A coat of the claret velvet.

• Breeches of brown doe-skin.

• Boots up to the thigh.

• A pistol. (2)

3) Why might the inn have been ‘all was locked and barred’ when the Highwayman arrived?

Draw out that it was very late at night so the inn was closed for the evening / everyone was in bed.

(1)

4) In the metaphor ‘The moon was a ghostly galleon, tossed upon cloudy seas’, which

of the words below could be used as an alternative to ‘galleon’? Tick one. (1)

ship ✓

waves

star

witch


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A gypsy’s ribbon

a prize yellow gold


5) Where was Tim hiding?

In the stable / inn-yard. (1)

6) ‘His face was white and peaked. His eyes were hollows of madness’. What does this description tell us about Tim’s feelings on what he is seeing? Use

evidence to support your answer.

Tim is feeling ________________________________________________________________

I know this because___________________________________________________________ (2)

Accept any responses that infer Tim feels jealousy, rage or anger because he loves Bess and

doesn't want her to run away the Highwayman. Encourage justification using a direct quote from the

text.

7) How can you tell Bess was not alarmed by the Highwayman’s arrival?

Accept any of the following:

She knew his tune when he whistled.

She was plaiting her hair with a ‘love knot’. She didn't scream or cry out in surprise. (1)

8) What does the Highwayman promise to bring back? (1)


9) In stanza six, we read ‘…out of the tawny sunset, before the rise of the moon.’ Give the meaning of ‘tawny’ in this sentence.

Accept responses that refer to the colour of the sunset e.g. of an orange or yellowish-brown

colour.

(1)

10) ‘When the road was a gypsy’s ribbon, looping the purple moor, A red-coat troop

came marching...’ Explain how King George’s men knew to find the Highwayman at

the inn.

Tim had told the King’s men what he had heard at the window the night before. (1)


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11) In stanza six, it says: ‘There was death at every window’. What does this description tell you? (1)

Tick one

The windows were open wide, so it was easy for someone to fall from them.

Each window had a soldier at it, so there was no escape for Bess. ✓

The sunset had caused a blood-red sky that could be seen from the windows.

12) Draw lines to match each stanza with its explanation. (2)

Stanza four The Highwayman asks Bess for a kiss, he tells her he is going to make some money but that he will be back tomorrow. He says that if he is being chased in the day, he will come back during the night instead.

Stanza one The Highwayman’s clothes are described. He is well-presented and appears to twinkle in the moonlight as he rides along.

Stanza five A wild-looking man called Tim, who looks after the horses, is listening to the conversation between Bess and the Highwayman. He is hiding, so they don’t see him and he also loves Bess.

Stanza two It is night and the moon is reflecting off the road over the moor. It is a windy night when the Highwayman rides over the road towards the inn.

13) Based on what you have read, what do you think will happen to the Highwayman? Use evidence from the text to support your answer. (2)

I think______________________________________________________________________ because____________________________________________________________________ Accept pupil responses that predict the Highwayman will be captured or arrested when he comes to visit Bess.

Design a wanted poster for the highway man. Include details about his appearance, why he is wanted and where he might be found.


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WANTED

Name:______________________________________________

Description:

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

Wanted for:

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

Last seen:

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

REWARD:__________________


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The Manor: SATs-style fiction text Todd stared at the house from the car window. How was it even still standing? Crooked black beams spanned the whitewashed walls. The first floor was overhanging the ground floor by a good half-metre or so. The mossy, tiled roof was crowned with crumbling brick chimneys that twisted towards the sky. This was not his world. Centuries of snobbery seemed to seep out of the ancient walls, making him wonder how his dad had fallen so far from grace if this were his great-grandfather’s house. Nevertheless, he had been given strict instructions to behave himself in front of his elderly relatives. No one ever told him what was going on, but Todd strongly suspected that his parents were hoping to benefit in some way. As they crunched across the gravel towards the house, the wooden door creaked open. A surprisingly kind-faced man, who looked about six hundred and forty, beamed at them while Todd’s mum and dad put on a sickeningly jolly act. With a subtle wink at Todd, great-grandfather invited them into the dark, musty-smelling mansion. Todd sat stiffly on an uncomfortable sofa, determinedly following his instructions not to interrupt. After all, there was a new game in it for him if today went well. “You must be bored stiff, young Todd,” wheezed the old man. “Why not go off and explore the house? It has many treasures far more interesting than grown-up conversation.” Todd jumped on the opportunity to escape, just remembering to say “thank you” before he scuttled out of the room. He found himself in a long, wood-panelled corridor lined with severe portraits. Keen to escape their gaze, he opened a door on his right and stepped into what appeared to be a dining room. Running down the length of the room was a grand dining table covered with a red table cloth. At the nearest end, four places were set for lunch and there was a vase of fresh flowers in the middle. On a sideboard between the two wide windows was a collection of silver bowls and other things whose function Todd could only guess at. He went to investigate further but, just as he was opening the drawer, he heard voices in the corridor. Panic-stricken in case they thought he was about to steal something, he dived under the table and hardly dared breathe. “Shall I call for Todd?” he heard Mum’s voice say. “Oh, let him be,” replied his great-grandfather. “We can always keep his warm for him. Anyway, I always hated formal mealtimes when I was his age.” Dinner was brought in by Mrs Something-or-other – presumably the long-serving housekeeper – and the conversation droned on. Todd lay on his back, knowing he would have a long wait before he was able to move. Straight away, his eye was caught by a curious circular carving on the underside of the table, right in the middle. He sat up to take a closer look. It was about the size of a saucer with strange markings around the edge. There were also five shallow dimples – four quite close to each other with the fifth slightly off to the right. He reached up and found that they exactly matched the position of his right hand’s fingers and thumb. The moment he fitted his fingertips into the holes, he felt a slight tingle run up his arm. Then a faint glow outlined the edge of the disc, suggesting that it wasn’t firmly attached to the rest of the table. Intrigued, he gave a little twist clockwise, but it didn’t budge, so he tried again, anticlockwise. This time it moved. After about a quarter turn, there was a quiet click. Worried that he had been heard, he snatched his hand away and threw a guilty look upwards. Looking back at the void left behind the disc, his eyes widened in disbelief…


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Define Retrieve Predict Summarise Infer 2a Give/explain the meaning of words in context.



2c Summarise main ideas from more than one paragraph



1) Look at the first paragraph. What suggests that the house was old? Give three

examples.

Award one mark for reference to each of the following up to three marks:

• Crooked black beams.

• Mossy tiled roof.

• Crumbling brick chimneys.

Also accept reference to:

• How was it even still standing.

• White-washed walls. (3)

2) Look at the second paragraph. Which phrase tells you that Todd

felt uncomfortable about being here as he arrived?

‘This was not his world.’ Also accept reference to snobbery and Todd not being a snob. (1)

3) Look at the paragraph beginning: ‘This was not his world…’ How can you tell that Todd’s mum and dad hoped to get something out of the visit?

Award one mark for: his parents were hoping to benefit in some way.

Also accept reference to his parents giving Todd strict instructions to behave. (1)

4) What would Todd’s reward be if he followed his parents’ instructions?

Award one mark for: a new game (there was a new game in it for him if today went well).

(1)

5) Look at the paragraph beginning: ‘He found himself…’ Which sentence below best describes the portraits? Tick one. (1)

The people in them were very happy.

They were all of Todd’s family.

They had been there for a very long time.

. They were very serious looking. ✓


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6) Look at the paragraph beginning: ‘You must be bored stiff, young Todd…’ How can you tell that Todd was relieved when his great-grandfather said he could

explore the house?

Award one mark for reference to: He jumped on the opportunity to escape.

Also accept reference to him saying ‘thank you’ as he left. Also accept answers that refer to the fact that he moved quickly (scuttled). (1)

7) How do you know that Todd did not like the portraits?

He was keen to escape their gaze. (1)

8) ‘Running down the length of the room was a grand dining table…’ What does the word grand mean in this sentence? Circle one.

9) Look at the paragraph beginning: ‘Dinner was brought in…’ Find and copy two groups of words which show the adults’ conversation is taking a

long time. Award one mark for each of the following up to two marks:

• The conversation droned on.

• He would have a long wait before he was able to move. (2)


10) The housekeeper is described as ‘long-serving’. This means (tick one): (1)

She doesn’t belong in that house.

She takes a very long time to do anything.

She seems to belong in the past.

She has been with the family for a very long time.

✓

expensive frightening ancient impressive


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11) What two things did Todd have to do to the disc to make it move?

Award one mark for each action, up to two marks:

• Put his finger tips in the holes.

• Twist or turn it. (2)

12) Think about what you have read so far. How can you tell that Todd is a curious character? Give two examples. Award one mark for each acceptable point, up to a maximum of two marks:

• He wants to explore the house. • He opens a drawer (in the dining room) to find out what is inside. • He wants to find out about the disc and puts his hand into it and turns it. Also accept any other evidence from the text that illustrates Todd’s curiosity.

(2) 13) Predict the reasons that Todd might give for liking his great-grandfather after their first meeting. Give two possible reasons, using evidence from the text. Award one mark for each acceptable point to support their answer up to two marks:

• He smiles at them when they arrive. • He winks at Todd. • He lets him go and explore the house. • He understands him and knows he is bored. • He tells his parents to let him be at dinner time because he used to hate formal meal-times, and stops his parents from making him come to dinner. Do not accept answers that are not based on evidence from the text (e.g. he seems nice/friendly).

(2)

14) Number the following events 1–5 to show the order in which they happened. The first one has been done for you. (1)

Todd conceals himself under the table.

4

Todd first sets eyes on his great-grandfather.

1

Todd is worried that people might think he is stealing.

3

Something curious catches Todd’s eye.

5

Todd explores his great-grandfather’s house.

2


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Classic Poetry: The Listeners – Walter de la Mare

“Is there anybody there?” said the Traveller,

Knocking on the moonlit door;

And his horse in the silence champed the grasses

Of the forest’s ferny floor: And a bird flew up out of the turret,

Above the Traveller’s head: And he smote upon the door again a second time;

“Is there anybody there?” he said.

But no one descended to the Traveller;

No head from the leaf-fringed sill

Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,

Where he stood perplexed and still.

But only a host of phantom listeners

That dwelt in the lone house then

Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight

To that voice from the world of men:

Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,

That goes down to the empty hall,

Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken

By the lonely Traveller’s call. And he felt in his heart their strangeness,

Their stillness answering his cry,

While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,

’Neath the starred and leafy sky; For he suddenly smote on the door, even

Louder, and lifted his head:—

“Tell them I came, and no one answered,

That I kept my word,” he said.

Never the least stir made the listeners,

Though every word he spoke

Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house

From the one man left awake:

Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,

And the sound of iron on stone,

And how the silence surged softly backward,

When the plunging hoofs were gone.


100

Define Retrieve Summarise Infer Predict 2a Give/explain the meaning of words in context.





Answer these defining questions:

1) Find and copy one word meaning ‘chewed’. Champed. (1) 2) ‘Where he stood perplexed and still’ Which word most closely matches the meaning of the word ‘perplexed’? Circle one. peculiar / confused / motionless / excited (1) 3) Find and copy one word/group of words that tells you there is greenery growing around the window. The leaf-fringed sill. (1) 4) What does the word ‘thronging’ suggest about the Listeners? There are lots of them / they are in a crowd. (1) 5) Give the meaning of the word ‘smote’ in the context of this poem. Knocked. (1)

Answer these retrieval questions about the poem:

6) Using information from the text, indicate whether the following statements are true or false: True False

The Traveller only knocked on the door twice. ✓

The house was in a town. ✓

The events of the poem take place at night time. ✓

(1)


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7) According to the text, what is disturbed by the Traveller’s first knock on the door? A bird. (1) 8) How do the Listeners respond to the Traveller? They didn’t respond. They don’t do anything. (1)

Answer these summarising questions about the poem.

9) Using information from the whole text, who do you think the Listeners are?

Ghosts, or people who used to live in the house. (1)

Answer these inference questions about the poem.

10) How can you tell that the Traveller was expecting to meet somebody at the house? Pupils’ answers could include reference to: • He says, ‘Tell them I came.’ • He says, ‘Tell them I kept my word.’ (1) 11) How do you think the Traveller feels at the end of the poem? Explain why. Award a mark for any of the following points: • Confused or annoyed – he expected to meet someone there but no one answered. • Scared or worried – he felt their ‘strangeness’, he house was empty and spooky. • Lonely – he was on his own, no one answered, and everything was still.

(2) 12) What evidence is there that the Traveller knows the Listeners are there? Give two examples from the text. Pupil answers could include reference to: • He felt their strangeness. • He spoke to them (‘tell them I came…’) • He felt their stillness answering him. (2) 13) How can you tell that this poem might have been written a long time ago? • It uses old-fashioned language like ‘smote’. • The man travels on horseback. (1) __________________________________________________________________


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Answer this prediction question about the poem.

14) If the Traveller were to return, do you think the Listeners would answer? Use evidence in the text to explain your answer. No because: • They do not talk this time. • It says they are phantom listeners so they are not real. • They are called ‘the Listeners’ so maybe they cannot talk. • It says only the traveller is awake. Yes because: • He was told to go there and he expected someone to answer. (2)


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Three-mark question exam

practice

SATs Practice Questions

To be successful at answering three-mark questions you need to use inference –

working things out from information already given. When we do this, it is important for us

to provide evidence from the text to justify our reasons.

A useful tool for this is:

In the Company of a Thief: a SATs-style fiction text Well, you’re a rarity. Not many choose to spend any time in my company. Which, as it happens, suits me just fine. Normally, I operate on my own. A loner. A free agent. And to tell the truth, that’s just how I like it – no offence. After an hour or so with me, you too will probably wish you hadn’t bothered. Still, now you’re here, we might as well make the best of it. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you. For some reason, people don’t seem to like me. We get called every name under the sun: filth, animals, vermin … See what I mean? Not nice, is it? Still, sticks and stones will break my bones, as they say. The trouble is, I get the sticks and stones as well. Of course, I do understand, to a certain extent, given my line of work. Thief – it’s not a pleasant word is it? But these are hard times. I just do what I have to do to survive. I don’t even take what I don’t need – just enough to get by; to keep me from going hungry. Luckily, there’s quite a lot you can pick up, if you know where to look. After all, this is a big city. Huge ships sail right up the river from all around the world. Along with fine fabrics and strange, bitter leaves, they bring barrels of wine and bulging crates packed with exotic fruit, vegetables and even spices, if you like that kind of thing. That’s why the dockside is my favourite patch. There are always plenty of shadows and dark corners in which you can lurk unseen, waiting, watching. Usually, I can get all I want from the rich pickings just lying around.

Infer 2d Make inferences from the text. Explain and justify inferences with evidence from the text.

Using evidence to support your opinion

P Make your point.

E Give evidence from the text.

E Explain.


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Sometimes I have to cut into a sack or work my way into crate, but, as often as not, I don’t have to break in to anything.

When I was younger and had a taste for the finer things in life, I used to sneak on board the ships when they were moored on the dockside. In those days, I was much more agile, and perhaps more daring, but certainly a lot less wise. You see, I’ve always been a good climber, so I would scurry up the ropes that secured the boats to the quay. If I could find my way to the hold, then it would feel like I’d hit the jackpot. The trouble was, I usually discovered that the stash was jealously guarded by the ones who lived on board. I got into some terrible scraps and, once or twice, was lucky to escape with my life. So now I tend to stay land-side where there’s less choice, but it’s much safer.

I make the night my own. Of course, I could come out by day, but in my ‘profession’, it’s better to stay out of sight. Fortunately, my night vision is very good – I think I was just born that way. In any case, I suspect many people prefer not to know what hides in dingy corners; they seem frightened of what might be there, so they avoid looking too closely. I also try to keep off the streets. Well, who wouldn’t? Folks call me dirty, but you should see the state of the roads: mud and slime everywhere. Then there’s the stench! Not only are there regular piles of horse droppings, but also people add their own waste too, usually slinging it out of an upper story without a second thought as to whether I might be down below, just minding my own business. Sometimes, just when I think I’ve got used to it, we get a warm summer day and the pong is so powerful it nearly chokes you.

Anyway, now you’re here, you might as well come along and see me in action. Follow me through this derelict cottage. I don’t know what happened to the people who lived here. Probably wiped out by the plague last year. Maybe that was just as well before the house fell in on them anyway. Look how the walls are crumbling already. In the other room, they’re in such a state that the plaster has crumbled away to reveal the sticks and mud that hold it together. You can even see the dead cat they put into the wall when they first built it. I believe they used to do that for luck. Not very lucky for the cat of course, but to be honest, I prefer cats that way.

Where are we going? I thought I’d take you to a little bakery I know. They’ll be preparing a batch for the morning, so we might be able to swipe a roll while it’s still fresh and warm. Keep up. This way, across this courtyard. Wait a moment – I’ve got to scratch. Can’t bear all this itching. I’m sure it’s getting worse, like a hundred little jaws biting into my skin. There, that’s better. It drives me mad though.

Just through here. That’s odd – it’s not usually this hot. What’s that funny smell? Bother this itching.

Someone’s coming! Quick, under this cart. I wonder what they’re running from in such a panic. And what a racket! All that shouting – don’t they realise people are trying to sleep? Here we are. They call it Pudding Lane. Choking Lane more like. I can hardly breathe. Why have they turned the ovens up so high? Oh spare me this itching! I can’t bear it.

What’s going on? Orange light, flickering. Screaming and crackling. Fire! Quick, we’d better get out of here. This way. Oh no! Dog tied up, blocking our escape. Quiet, you stupid mutt! I’m warning you: stop barking or I’ll bite. I mean it. Right, you asked for it …

Oh my tail and whiskers, I wish he’d stop whimpering. Look, there’s nothing I can do for him now. There’s no way I can gnaw through his rope in time. Sorry, but I’m off. Not my fault he decided to ally himself to humans. Give me a rat’s freedom over a dog’s life any day of the week.

As for you, I’m afraid the tour’s over. I’m going to squeeze down this crack and head for the river. You’ll just have to fend for yourself. Like I said at the beginning, don’t say I didn’t warn you.


105

‘After an hour or so with me, you too will probably wish you hadn’t bothered’.

What was the narrator trying to warn the reader about in this statement?

Use evidence from the text to support your answer. [3 marks]

Discuss with your tutor:

How would you go about answering this question?

Step One Read the question carefully.

Summarise it back to yourself so you are clear of what you are being asked.

Step Two Underline/highlight key words in the question.

So, I will scan the text for details about objects, places or events which

wouldn’t be enjoyable. I will read the text around them (the context) and identify

what the narrator was warning us about.

So, the statement suggests that the reader won’t have a good time with the narrator. That means I must be looking

for unpleasant things or events.

Step Three Read the text and make two or three bullet point notes (on the text or on your answer paper) of evidence to help you answer the question.

Step Four Now you have some notes

(or highlighting) you can turn them into a full answer

using the PEE model.

Point: the places visited were dirty Evidence: ‘mud and slime everywhere’

Point: horrible sights Evidence: ‘the dead cat in the wall.’


106

How will my answer be marked?

Example One

The narrator is warning us about the dirty places they visit and the bad smells.

How many marks would you give this answer?

Example Two

The narrator is warning us about the dirty places they visit. For example, they describe the places

where they lurk as ‘dingy corners’ and use the phrase ‘folks call me dirty’. Both phrases suggest that the narrator, and the places they visit, are dirty and therefore the reader would not want to spend

time with them.

How many marks would you give this answer?

Acceptable points □ The streets were dirty

□ Fear of what lurks in dark corners

□ Horrible smells

□ People throwing out personal waste onto the

streets

□ The noise

□ Witnessing the narrator scratching

□ The fire

Award 1 mark for one acceptable point.

Award 2 marks for either two acceptable point, or one

acceptable point supported with evidence.

Award 3 marks for two acceptable points, with at least one supported with evidence.

2

2


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How do I get three marks?

Work with your partner to answer this three-mark question:

How does the ‘thief’ try to make sure they aren’t caught? Use evidence

from the text to support your answer. [3 marks]

Point: The thief_________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

Checklist □ Read the question carefully and summarise it to

yourself.

□ Underline/highlight key words or phrases in the

question to help you find the information.

□ Decide what the clues tell you.

□ Make a few notes of relevant points.

□ Use quotes from the text as evidence to support

your inference.

□ Explain why the evidence supports your

viewpoint.


P Make your point.


E Explain.

Award 3 marks for two acceptable points, with at least one supported with evidence.

Using evidence to support your

opinion

P Make your point.

E Give evidence

from the text.

E Explain.

P He is warning us about the dirty places they visit.

E For example, he describes the places where he lurks as ‘dingy

corners’ and uses the phrase ‘folks call me dirty’.

E Both phrases suggest that the narrator, and the places he

visits are dirty and therefore the reader would not want to spend time with him. In addition, the horrible smells (from animal and human waste) make it an event more unpleasant experience. (One acceptable point + evidence then an additional acceptable point = 3 marks).


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Evidence: For example,___________________________________________________________

‘which implies that’

‘’which suggests that’

‘this gives the impression that’

‘this creates the

effect of’ ‘this helps the

reader understand’

‘which supports the idea that’

Explain:________________________________________________________________________

Additional point:

______________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

Award one mark for one acceptable point from the following:

• Stays land-side rather than on the ships.

• Lurks in dark, shady places.

• Avoids the busy streets.

• Hunts at night time.

• Stays in places where people are unlikely to go or look.

Award two marks for either two acceptable points, or one acceptable point supported with evidence.

e.g. Lurks in dark, shady places and avoiding the streets. (two acceptable points = two marks)

e.g. He tends to stay in dark, quiet places where people are unlikely to go. For example, he says,

‘they seem frightened of what might be there, so they avoid looking too closely’. This suggests that the places he chooses are so unpleasant that people don’t want to look at them, let alone go there. This keeps him from being caught. (one acceptable point + evidence = two marks)

Award three marks for two acceptable points, with at least one supported by evidence.

e.g. He tends to stay in dark, quiet places where people are unlikely to go. For example, he says,

‘they seem frightened of what might be there, so they avoid looking too closely’. This suggests that the places he chooses are so unpleasant that people don’t want to look at them, let alone go there.

This keeps him from being caught. Furthermore, he stays on land, rather than going on the ships,

which reduces the chances of being caught. (two acceptable points + one supported by evidence =

three marks)

Below are some useful phrases to use after we have given the evidence and

need to explain it.

Useful words and phrases to make

an additional point

Furthermore, ...... In addition, ......

Another point is.... As well as....


109


To be successful at answering three-mark questions you need to use inference –

working things out from information already given. When we do this, it is important for us

to provide evidence from the text to justify our reason.

Wild Cat – Fiction “He doesn’t say much, does he?” ‘He’ was watching the news. ‘He’ was getting annoyed. ‘He’ was trying to listen to what the

presenters were saying: something about a dangerous animal that had escaped from a private

zoo.

‘He’ was Jed. But ‘He’ could have been his actual name as far as Mum’s latest boyfriend, Ashley, was concerned. That or ‘Mate’. Jed never seemed to get called anything else.

Since Dad had abandoned them, Jed had seen a succession of boyfriends come and go.

Some made more of an effort to bond with him than others, but they all bolted sooner or later.

From some of the angry words exchanged in the final shouting matches, Jed wondered whether

he might be part of the problem, but Mum never blamed him.

Jed knew that he should be better at keeping his temper. Sometimes he saw the signs

early enough to remove himself from tricky situations, as Mum had suggested. Slipping out of the

back gate for a walk on the hillside was his favourite escape route. Too often, however, he felt

cornered and lashed out. He knew it was wrong to scratch and hiss and spit, but for some reason,

he only remembered that too late.

“The creature is thought to be an ocelot…” “Shall I phone for a pizza?” said Ashley.

“…rain forests of South America,” continued the reporter over some footage of a leopard-

spotted cat.

“No offence, but you ain’t no cook,” said Ashley to Jed’s mum. “Ain’t that the truth, Mate?” he added with a sneering smile and a wink at Jed. He said nothing, but toyed with his beans on

toast. Mum’s cooking was just fine by him and always would be.

“Really?” said Mum. “I’m not sure we can afford it again so soon.” “… people living in the Boxbury Beacons area have been advised not to approach anything

resembling a large cat,” added the reporter.

“Hey, Mum!” cried Jed, “The Boxbury Beacons. That’s here…” “Oi, Mate,” snarled Ashley, “your mum and I are talking.”

Infer 2d Make inferences from the text. Explain and justify inferences with evidence from the text.


P Make your point.


E Explain.


110

Jed’s chair scraped across the floor as he jumped to his feet, ready to pounce, but Mum had already stepped between him and Ashley, signalling with a slight shake of her head for him to

leave. With anger prickling his eyes, Jed darted out of the room. Slamming the back door behind

him, he sprinted down the short garden path, through the gate and out onto the hillside.

It was a good couple of minutes before he slowed down. By this time, he was deep into the

dense tangle of ferns that covered the Beacons, following one of the many narrow sheep trails

that pushed through the undergrowth. Although shoulder-height to an average grown-up, the ferns

were taller than him, so Jed knew he was well hidden. Best of all, very few people ever ventured

far from the paths and tracks that led hikers around these popular, picturesque hills, so he knew

that he would be blissfully alone.

By the time he had reached his secret den in the small, grassy clearing, his breathing had

calmed down to a normal rate and his heart had stopped thumping against his ribs. He dropped to

his knees and crawled into the rough shelter he had built the previous week out of sturdy

branches, interwoven with leafy twigs.

Why did Mum always attract such idiots? Was it something about her, or did all boys grow

up to be selfish know-it-alls, he thought to himself as he began to practise the deep breathing that

Mum had taught him to do whenever he was feeling stressed. As he listened to his breath filling

his lungs then flowing out again, he relaxed so much he thought he could hear himself purring.

Suddenly, it hit him: he could hear purring. Not the soft rasp of a house-moggy, but a

deeper, harsher purr. Fear turned his spine to ice. Tiny jewels of sweat broke out across his

forehead. Slowly, slowly, he pulled himself up into a sitting position and turned around, fully

expecting his last sight on this Earth to be the massive jaws of a tiger bearing down on him.

Instead, he saw nothing. Not at first, anyway. Then, as his eyes adjusted to the gloom at

the back of his den, he found that he could just make out the shape of a cat, perhaps twice as big

as a family pet, but certainly not a ‘big’ cat. Two bright eyes watched him steadily and Jed

marvelled at how magically that cat’s spotted coat blended in with the dappled light. He didn’t really know why, but he started to talk, quietly and rhythmically, like a verbal purr

of his own. “It’s alright, it’s alright. Easy, easy, it’s alright. Good here, isn’t it? Quiet and peaceful;

secret and safe. Have you escaped too? I ought to tell, but is that what you want? Sometimes I

think I’ll run away too. I couldn’t survive, not on my own. But you … perhaps you could. You wouldn’t hurt anyone, would you? I ought to tell, but should I tell? What do you want me to do?”

The ocelot licked its paw. Jed reversed out of the den.

Back in his kitchen, Jed was greeted with a desperate hug from Mum, followed by a rapid-

fire interrogation. Was he alright? Did he realise there was a wild animal on the loose? Did he

know how worried she had been? There were police marksmen searching the hills right now. He

could have been shot. Had he seen anything?

Jed thought of the wild cat, alone in a strange environment. He thought of the armed

policemen. Should he tell? He weighed the options, then made his decision. He knew what was

the right thing to do.


111

How do you know that Ashley and Jed don’t get on very well? Explain, giving evidence from the text to support your answer.

[3 marks]

Discuss with your tutor:

How would you go about answering this question?

Step One Read the question carefully.

Summarise it back to yourself so you are clear of what you are being asked.

Step Two Underline/highlight key words in the question.

So, I will scan the text for the names Jed and Ashley and read the text around it

(the context). I am looking for evidence of them disliking each other. Focus on

actions and speech.

So, I need to find evidence about their relationship. The text doesn’t actually tell me. I need to search for clues – perhaps

how they behave or what is said?

Step Three Read the text and make two or three bullet point notes (on the text or on your answer paper) of evidence to help you answer the question.

Step Four Now you have some notes

(or highlighting) you can turn them into a full answer

using the PEE model.

Point: Jed doesn’t respect Ashley. Evidence: ‘Why does Mum always

attract such idiots?’ Point: almost had a fight – Mum stepped

between them. Evidence: ‘as he jumped to his feet,

ready to pounce’.


112

Work with your tutor to answer the question:

Point: The two characters_________________________________________________________

Evidence: I know this because______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________


‘which suggests that’


‘this creates the




Explain:This implies that__________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

Additional point:

Furthermore_______________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

How many marks was your answer?


need to explain it.


an additional point




yourself.






your inference.


viewpoint.


P Make your point.


E Explain.


113


• Ashley doesn’t use Jed’s name – calls him ‘he/mate’. • Ashley spoke to Jed unpleasantly (‘snarled’). • They seem to argue or fight regularly.

• Jed thinks Ashley is an idiot.

Award two marks for either two acceptable points, or one acceptable point supported by evidence.

e.g. I know they don’t get on very well because Ashley speaks unkindly to Jed and at one point they jump up as if to argue or fight. (two acceptable points = two marks)

e.g. I know they don’t get on very well by the way that Ashley speaks to Jed. For instance, the text says, ‘“Oi mate,” snarled Ashley, “your Mum and I are talking”’. What he says and how he says it (snarling) suggests that he doesn’t like or respect Jed. (one acceptable point + evidence = two marks)


e.g.

P The two characters do not get on very well.

E I know from how they speak to each other and from their comments. For example, Jed says ‘Why did Mum always attract such idiots?’ E This implies that Jed doesn’t think very highly of Ashley. Furthermore, the fact that the Mum stepped in between them when they were angry with each other, suggests that this may often

happen (as she seemed to be ready for it). (one acceptable point + evidence then an additional

acceptable point = three marks).


114

Work with your partner to answer this question:

There are some similarities between Jed and the ocelot, and the situation they

find themselves in. Give two similarities, using evidence from the text to

support your answer. [3 marks]

Point: Both Jed and the ocelot_____________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

Evidence: In the text is says______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________




‘this creates the effect of’

‘this helps the reader

understand’


Explain:This suggests that__________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________


need to explain it.


yourself.






your inference.


viewpoint.


P Make your point.


E Explain.


115

Additional point: In addition, __________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________


• Both ‘escaped’ from somewhere. • Both hiding.

• Both calm and peaceful (purring/talking quietly).

• Both alone in a strange environment.


e.g. Both Jed and the ocelot have escaped from somewhere and they are both calm. (two

acceptable points = two marks)

e.g Both Jed and the ocelot have escaped from somewhere. In the text Jed says, ‘Have you escaped too?’ which implies that he feels they are in a similar situation, as Jed feels he has escaped from a difficult situation at home while the ocelot has escaped from the zoo. (one

acceptable point + evidence = two marks)


e.g.

P Both Jed and the ocelot have escaped from somewhere.

E In the text Jed says, ‘Have you escaped too?’ E This suggests that he feels they are in a similar situation, as Jed feels he has escaped from a

difficult situation at home while the ocelot has escaped from the zoo. Furthermore, they are both

calm (the ocelot is purring and Jed is talking quietly ‘like a verbal purr’). (one acceptable point + evidence then an additional acceptable point = three marks)


an additional point




116


Dodge and the Tornado – Fiction Dodge tilted his head to the wind and sniffed the air. It smelt dry and dusty like it always did just

before it rained. He listened. A strange roar rumbled in the distance, like a heavy train thundering

down the track. He tilted his head again, trying to get a better view but the buildings were in his

way. He looked along the street towards the park, then back towards the underpass where he had

sheltered for the night. Strange, he thought. No humans. That was never a good sign.

The roar was getting louder. He scampered up the hill to get a better view. Raising his front

paws against an old bin, Dodge stared over the buildings towards the vast plains of the American

Midwest. There, in the near-distance, tearing up everything in its path and reaching high into the

sky like a giant spinning-top, was a raging mass of swirling wind. He’d seen something like this

before – the humans called them tornadoes – but this one was the biggest yet, and it was headed

straight for the town. Dodge made a little whimpering noise and sprinted towards the underpass.

The wind was getting stronger. Leaves, rubbish and old plastic bags danced in circles in the

air as Dodge darted between them. Trees bent unnaturally on the street-side and tiles torn from

roofs landed like missiles on the road. Dodge focused on the underpass. It was a strong-looking

bridge made to carry heavy lorries. If he could make it there, he would be safe. The roar of the

tornado was louder than ever now; the sound of ripping metal adding to the deafening noise as

the wind whipped at his fur. He weaved through a mist of dust and rubble and with a huge leap

dived into the underpass. He nuzzled under his blanket, clenching it with his teeth. With his eyes

tightly shut and with the tornado raging around him, he wondered where Banjo was.


P Make your point.


E Explain.


117

Work with your partner to answer the question:

Using evidence from the text, give two examples of how the author builds

a sense of danger surrounding the impending storm. [3 marks]

This question is about unpicking the author’s description of the storm and examining how they have

made the storm sound dangerous. To earn all three marks, you need to give two examples of how a

sense of danger is created in the text and give evidence from the text about at least one of them.

Point: A sense of danger is created__________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

Evidence: For example, ___________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________




‘this creates the




Explain: This implies that_____________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________


need to explain it.


yourself.






your inference.


viewpoint.


P Make your point.


E Explain.


118

Additional point:

Furthermore________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

How many marks was your answer?


• The author uses powerful verbs when talking about the storm’s movements. • The author implies that the storm turns everyday items into dangerous weapons.

• The author shows the main character’s fear towards the impending storm. • The author implies that the main character is already being hurt by the storm.


e.g. The author builds a sense of danger by using powerful verbs and we know that Dodge is scared

by the storm. (two acceptable points = two marks)

e.g The author builds a sense of danger by using powerful verbs such as ‘thundering’ and ‘tearing’. (one acceptable point + evidence = two marks)


e.g.

P The author builds a sense of danger by using powerful verbs...

E … such as ‘thundering’ and ‘tearing’. E This suggests that the storm is different from ordinary bad weather and is more violent and scary.

Furthermore, the author shows that Dodge is already scared of the storm.

(one acceptable point + evidence then an additional acceptable point = three marks)

P The author makes the storm sound dangerous because they imply that it has turned everyday

items into weapons.

E They do this by saying that the roof tiles land ‘like missiles’. P Also, Dodge is already being hurt by the storm because it is ‘whipping at his fur’. (one acceptable point + evidence then an additional acceptable point = three marks)


an additional point



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