- Poem
- Touchdown, Year 6
- Issue 7, 2019
The Green Eye of the Yellow God
Learning resource
Outcomes
Worksheet: Experiment with rhyme schemes
Understanding EN3-3A
Story map ‘The Green Eye of the Yellow God’. Students could use one of these Story Map worksheets to record their responses.
Adapt the narrative story map (above) into an ‘action’ script for a play to perform as a mime.
Find three interesting words from the text. For example, colonel, jestingly, tunic, bade, upbraided, barrack, vengeance and Touchdown word of the month, frisson. Research their meaning and use them to increase student vocabulary in this Vocabulary Graphic Organiser worksheet.
Engaging personally EN3-2A, EN3-5B & EN3-8D
Write a mini monologue to perform in front of the class. Encourage students to use concise, succinct writing that is emotionally charged and written in first person narrative. Download TES Mini Monologue lesson plan and resources. For more detailed monologue writing ideas read Hobby Lark’s How to Create a Monologue (Easy and Simple).
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.)? Complete one of the following statements:
- 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 one of these Making Connections worksheets.
Teaching Strategy explained: Text-to-Text, Text-to-Self, Text-to-World Rationale.
Engaging critically EN3-7B
Analyse and discuss this quote by the author/actor J Milton Hayes: ‘I wrote “The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God” in five hours, but I had it all planned out. It isn’t poetry and it does not pretend to be, but it does what it sets out to do.’
Is it poetry or not? Can a monologue be poetry? Can writing pretend? What is the purpose of the text? What did J Milton Hayes set out to do when he wrote ‘The Green Eye of the Yellow God?’
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
Connotation, Imagery and Symbol: Choose textual imagery from the poem and draw depictions of each stanza. Have students work in pairs to produce a class mural of ‘The Green Eye of the Yellow God’. Discuss in depth how sustained images run as a thread of meaning in the text, guiding interpretation and indicating thematic elements. Which words signify more than what they denote? More than their literal meaning? What or where is the figurative language within the text? Does it extend the meaning of the text? Consider the culturally specific content of the poem and how that influences student understanding. Explore further the English Textual Concept ‘Connotation, Imagery and Symbol’.
Perform ‘The Green Eye of the Yellow God’ as a reader’s theatre. Students work in groups to practise the performance of a script. Multiple readings of the text, through rehearsal, offers opportunities to address fluency, phrasing, intonation and voice production.
Write a poem that comes full circle. Use elements from ‘The Green Eye of the Yellow God’ and this quote to inspire student writing: ‘Then that final ending where you began. It carries people back. You’ve got a compact whole. A broken-hearted woman tends the grave of Mad Carew. They’ll weave a whole story round that woman’s life. Every man’s a novelist at heart. We all tell ourselves stories. That’s what you’ve got to play on.’ (J Milton Hayes)
Write a biography poem about J Milton Hayes, using this Write a Biography Poem worksheet.
Create a film strip of ‘The Green Eye of the Yellow God’, using this Story Board worksheet and adapt it into a play. Option to record as a podcast, using Audacity.
Create an animation of the text using Vyond.
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.