In Contact

Learning intention:

I am learning to interpret and respond to the viewpoints in literary texts so that I can convey ideas through different viewpoints.

Success criteria:

• I can describe how different viewpoints in a text allow the audience to access different information.
• I can explain how ideas may be represented symbolically.
• I can recreate a text using a new viewpoint from a different character.

Essential knowledge:

• Information about point of view can be found in the English Textual Concepts video Point of Viewungroup.
• More information about representation can be found in the English Textual Concepts video Representationungroup.

Focus question: How can ideas be represented symbolically?

Prior to reading the text, ask students to define a narrative viewpoint. Students should identify that:

• the narrative viewpoint is the person or entity through whom the audience experiences the story
• viewpoints can be written in first, second or third point of view

Explain that different information will be given to the reader depending on whose point of view the story is told from. As an example, tell students that a rabbit is eating grass in a field, a fox is stalking the rabbit from the bushes and a magpie is flying overhead. Ask students what information would be given from each point of view. (Answers: the rabbit doesn’t see anything but the grass, the fox will only see the rabbit and the magpie will see both the fox and the rabbit.)

Tell students to keep track of the narrative viewpoint as they read the story In Contact as a class.

After reading, put students in groups of three or four to complete a question quadrantungroup as below:

Whose point of view is the story told from?

                                              How did the aliens find their missing scout?

How would the story change if there was no alien point of view?

What two things did the dog whistle do in this story?

How does a dog’s senses make it experience things differently to a human?

What does the dog whistle represent?

Answers:

Closed, Textual Questions

Whose point of view is the story told from?

Students should recognise that the main narrative was told from the girls’ point of view, but it was interspersed with an alien’s point of view, signalled to the reader by italics. Some students might note that the alien’s point of view starts as a narrator’s voice describing the creature before shifting closer into the alien’s thoughts and finishing with its companions in the spaceship.

How did the aliens find their missing scout?

Students should be able to explain that the dog whistle was creating a similar signal to the alien’s broken device and attracted the attention of its companions.

Open, Textual Questions

How would the story change if there was no alien point of view?

Students should recognise that there would be no tension in the narrative, as it would just be the girls talking, the dogs barking and them finding a strange device. Having the sinister viewpoint of what looked like a monster stalking the girls raised the stakes of the story and kept the reader captivated.

Closed, Intellectual Questions

What two things did the dog whistle do in this story?

Called back the dogs and signalled to the aliens in the spaceship.

How does a dog’s senses make it experience things differently to a human?

Vision of black and white, very strong sense of smell, keen hearing – can hear high pitched sounds that humans can’t.

Open, Intellectual Questions

What does the dog whistle represent?

Students might recognise that the dog whistle represents bringing together family or friends, or finding your home.

Once the question quadrant is complete, explain that students will be rewriting the story from one of the dogs’ points of view. Prompt them into thinking more deeply about the viewpoints by asking:

• Who is the older dog? (Jess)
• What might differ between the older dog and younger dog? (Experience)
• What would it be like for a dog to live on a farm? (Fun, happy, hard work, fresh air, lots of exercise)
• What might the dog whistle represent to a dog? (Family is calling, must obey, fun is over, time for home)

Encourage students to use the dog whistle in their story and to think about how it would be represented from a dog’s viewpoint. Students should also use their answer to the question “How does a dog’s senses make it experience things differently to a human?” when planning their story.

Assessment as/of learning:

Give students time to write their story. The School Magazine’s Imaginative Texts Marking Rubricungroup can be used for planning and assessment.