Party Pandemonium

Learning intention

I am learning to analyse how vocabulary enables readers to make predictions and to experiment with this.

Success criteria

I can:

• identify vocabulary that enables readers to make predictions
• reflect on how changes to vocabulary impacts readers’ impressions of events
• locate vocabulary that supports readers’ inferences
• compose a poem
• include vocabulary that creates the impression I am striving for

Essential knowledge

Use the English K-10 Syllabus Glossaryungroup to ensure students are familiar with key terms including ‘inference’ and ‘predict’.

Introduction

Display the following adapted version of the poem:

I’d blown the birthday candles out

and sliced up all the cake

and then I did a truly brilliant thing

the best idea I could ever make.

I chose to do a clever trick

I’d seen performed before,

my trick stunned my party guests,

and dazzled them, for sure.

Discuss students’ predictions about what happens next in the poem. Most likely students will infer that something impressive happens and the narrator performs a special trick that amazes the party guests. Discuss vocabulary that enables students to make that prediction. Guide students to identifying words such as:

• truly brilliant thing
• best idea
• clever trick
• stunned my party guests
• dazzled them 

Teacher modelling – 10 minutes

Read aloud the first stanza of the poem in the magazine, ensuring students cannot view the pages from the magazine for now. Emphasise that this version leads readers to making a very different prediction; that the trick did not go well. Draw students' attention to any vocabulary that provides insight into the trick not going as planned. For example:

• did a silly thing
• made a grave mistake (ensure students understand that ‘grave’ when used in this context means very serious) 

Read the second and third stanza of the poem to students. Use a think-aloud to draw students' attention to any vocabulary that enables readers to make a prediction about what might happen next. Emphasise vocabulary such as:

• clever trick
• to stun
• to dazzle
• I grabbed the tablecloth and yanked
• anticipating gasps of awe
• pure delight

Use the think-aloud strategy to emphasise that you can now infer that the trick is to whip away the tablecloth and that the narrator assumed the guests would be impressed. Draw students' attention to the fact that these two stanzas do not include vocabulary that helps readers predict the outcome of the trick, however the first stanza has already set up the expectation that the trick will fail. 

Guided practice – 15 minutes

Place students in pairs/small groups. Provide them with copies of the magazine and instruct them to read the remainder of the poem before identifying vocabulary that enables them to make predictions about the outcome of the trick. Students can underline the vocabulary on a photocopy of the pages or record it in their workbooks. Discuss responses. For example:

• sadly
• crashing to the ground
• hurtling
• through the air
• landed
• instant star
• blown my chance
• if only
• practise

Emphasise that this poem sets up the tone from the beginning, allowing readers to predict what will happen. Inform students that they will be composing a poem, where the vocabulary they choose enables readers to predict what will happen, right from the beginning of the poem. Inform students that first you will be identifying vocabulary for the students to use. Discuss vocabulary that helps readers to predict a positive or negative outcome. Provide examples such as:

Positive

• happiest
• impressive
• success
• incredible

Negative

• dreadful
• shocking
• mistake
• awful
• regret

Provide students with thesauruses and instruct them to work with their partner/in their small groups to identify further examples of vocabulary. Instruct them to record their ideas in their workbooks. Once students have completed this task, share responses and add the vocabulary students identify to the lists on the board.

Inform students that they will be collaboratively planning ideas for their poems. Discuss magic tricks students are familiar with. If possible, select volunteers to perform tricks. A simple one to perform is to turn three cups upside down. Under one cup, place a scrunched-up piece of paper. Tell students to follow the cups while you rapidly change their position. Instruct students to select the cup they believe is hiding the piece of scrunched up paper. Discuss how this trick might go wrong. Sample responses include: a student is performing this trick in the school talent show when they drop the cups and reveal the paper to the audience. Discuss how this trick might go well, for example, a student is nervous to perform the trick to their class but when the trick goes well, they feel elated and their confidence soars.

Inform students that the outcome of the trick will depend on the vocabulary they choose to include. Collaboratively compose an example, where the choice of vocabulary allows readers to predict how the trick will turn out. Refer back to Party Pandemonium to identify the rhyming sequence (ABCB). Encourage students to use the same rhyme scheme. A sample response is:

I can’t believe I pulled it off,

The most amazing trick.

I’d sweated over it for weeks,

So nervous I’d felt sick.

But on that very special day,

My classmates watching on,

The trick was a roaring success,

The paper, it had gone!

My friends all watched on agog,

They were so very impressed,

Me the fabulous magician,

Who would ever have guessed?

Independent activity – 15 minutes

Instruct students to work in the same pairs/small groups as previous and instruct them to complete the following steps to compose their poem:

• Identify a magic trick (it can be the one performed in class or a different one)
• Consider whether the magic trick will be a success or not
• Identify vocabulary to use in the poem
• Construct a poem that reveals the outcome of the trick early in the poem
• Edit the poem to make it follow the same rhyme scheme as Party Pandemonium

Differentiation

Direct students who require support with identifying vocabulary using a thesaurus to a specific page where they will locate synonyms for one of the key words identified, for example: mistake. Provide students requiring support with their poem, with the following scaffold to assist with planning:

• The trick I have chosen is:
• The trick is successful/not successful (circle one option)
• Vocabulary I can use to show this is:

Instruct students to compose the first stanza of their poem, using the ideas from their plan. Instruct students who require extension to revisit their poem and try to include subtle hints rather than explicit statements, that allow readers to infer what will happen. Provide examples such as editing:

I can’t believe I pulled it off,

The most amazing trick.

I’d sweated over it for weeks,

So nervous I’d felt sick.

But on that very special day,

My classmates watching on,

The trick was a roaring success,

The paper, it had gone!

To:

I wasn’t sure I’d pull it off,

The most amazing trick.

I’d sweated over it for weeks,

So nervous I’d felt sick.

But on that exceptional Monday,

My classmates watching on,

The trick went all as planned,

The paper, it had gone!

Assessment

Instruct students to swap poems with another pair/group. Tell students to use a coloured pencil to circle examples of vocabulary that enabled readers to predict how the trick would turn out. Once students have identified the vocabulary, tell them to write any suggestions of further vocabulary the pair/group may use in their poems. Instruct students to respond to the following question in their workbooks as an exit-ticket:

• How does vocabulary enable readers to make predictions?