- Story
- Touchdown, Year 6
- Issue 6, 2019
The Kookaburra's Laugh
Learning resource
Outcomes
Worksheet: Thick and thin questions
Understanding EN3-3A
Conduct a Question Starts visible thinking routine to generate creative questions about what the story could be about. Brainstorm a list of at least twelve questions about the story. Use these question-starts to help students think of interesting questions:
- Why ...?
- How would it be different if ...?
- What are the reasons ...?
- Suppose that ...?
- What if ...?
- What if we knew ...?
- What is the purpose of ...?
- What would change if ...?
Review the brainstormed list and highlight the questions that seem most interesting. Then, select one or more of the highlighted questions to discuss. Students could use this Question Starts Thinking Routine worksheet to support their learning.
Complete a tree chart (representing Clarice) to show student understanding of ‘friendship’ in relation to the text. Chronologically list all the events that finally led to Jackson becoming the lead sentinel. List the events in the branches of this Tree Chart worksheet.
Find three interesting words from the story. For example: sentinel, cacophony, beacon, seething, pact, unanimous. The Touchdown word of the month, ‘oblivious’, could also be included. Research their meanings and use them to increase student vocabulary in this Vocabulary Graphic Organiser worksheet.
Engaging personally EN3-5B & EN3-8D
Conduct a Step Inside visible thinking routine. This routine is designed to help students look at characters and events differently by exploring different viewpoints. Three core questions guide students in this routine:
- What can the person or thing perceive?
- What might the person or thing know about or believe?
- What might the person or thing care about?
Brainstorm perceptions from the story (focus on page 5). For example, Clarice perceiving the worst: ‘Maybe they are right … Maybe I am an ugly, good for nothing nobody.’; Clarice knowing an evil was coming: ‘Jackson, I’m scared. Way down to my deepest roots …’ What does Clarice care about? Alternatively, focus the thinking routine on Jackson’s perceptions. Students could use on one of these Step Inside worksheets to record responses.
Write a paragraph on, or discuss, who has the role of sentinel in each student’s family. Who watches over them? How do they provide ‘protection and nourishment’ (first paragraph, page 4) for their family? What are the perceived dangers or threats to their family? What precautions does the sentinel take to protect the student’s family? Students can share their thoughts using a Think Pair Share worksheet.
Connecting EN3-8D
Text-to-Text connections occur when we make connections between other texts in relation to the text we are reading.
Text-to-Text: How do the ideas in this text remind you of another text (story, book, movie, song, etc.)?
- What I just read reminds me of (story/book/movie/song) because …
- The ideas in this text are similar to the ideas in … because …
- The ideas in this text are different than the ideas in … because …
Students complete the statements using Think Pair Share worksheet or a Connections Text to Text worksheet.
Teaching Strategy explained: Text-to-Text, Text-to-Self, Text-to-World Rationale.
Engaging critically EN3-7B
Intertextuality: Create a persuasive flow chart or infographic using Canva, regarding the importance of protecting Mother Nature, especially in relation to Australia. Scaffold arguments using Persuasion Map Graphic Organiser worksheet to organise thinking and slogan generation. Adapting structure and styles of texts draws on the English Textual Concept ‘Intertextuality’, where texts can be appropriated for audience, purpose, mode or media.
Complete a PMI chart. Encourage students to use their PMI chart to highlight three elements (in three different colours or use coloured post-it notes) within the narrative that are positive, negative and interesting:
- Plus/Positive: Good/Positive experiences, themes, messages, events and happenings in the text.
- Minus/Negative: Events in the text that are negative/bad experiences in the text, things that go wrong etc.
- Interesting: Anything that appeals to the student; questions, feelings and emotions that arise, morals, messages and connections that resonate with the students.
Experimenting EN3-2A & EN3-8C
Identify powerful descriptive language in the text, for example: ‘a seething demon of orange flames’, and outline the significance, purpose and function using this Close Reading: Developing New Understandings worksheet to help students make inferences and develop new understandings.
Design a welcoming inscription for a plaque to honour Clarice or other spotted gums, as safe havens in the Australian bush. Students can select from this Collection of Blank Plaques Cliparts or find other templates in Word.
Create a film strip of ‘The Kookaburra’s Laugh’ using this Story Board worksheet. Option to adapt it into a play or podcast using Audacity.
Create an animation of the story using Vyond.
Write an interesting narrative, recalling a time students have had ‘a feeling in their bones’ (or roots, in Clarice’s case!). Discuss how Clarice knew when she said, ‘Stay close my friends. I have a bad feeling the time is nigh.’ (page 7). Discuss intuition and how sometimes people feel they just know something is going to happen, without any proof. Use a Story Map Graphic Organiser worksheet to help scaffold writing. Option to publish using Storybird or Book Creator.
Remind students that, in order to engage their audience, they need to consider character identification, situations (life struggle) and themes (friendship, pride, danger) to warrant reader interest and build a decent plot. Choosing which ideas will connect with their audience and their language choice, directly influences student writing development.
Reflecting EN3-9E
Conduct an I used to think ... But now I think … routine. This routine helps students to reflect on their thinking about a topic or issue and explore how and why that thinking has changed. It can be useful in consolidating new learning as students identify their new understandings, opinions, and beliefs. Record responses on this I Used to Think … Now I Think … worksheet.
Exit Slips are a formative assessment that can be used to quickly check for understanding. The teacher poses one or two questions in the last couple minutes of class and asks student to fill out an ‘exit slip’ (e.g. on an index card) to ascertain student thinking and understanding. Here are Instructions on filling out an Exit Slip and two Exit Slip worksheets.