nf5413: well i thought before we actually start on today's programme i just wanted to remind you of the next directed time test which isn't er due er till seminar nine so this is a kind of early er an early warning really and just as now you're doing a medium term plan what we'd like you to do is work in twos or threes it can be the same group you've worked in to do the medium term plan is to do a lesson plan based on a single text or a variety of texts of your choice you don't need to write this down because it is in your handbook but again there are a series of criteria that your er lesson plan should show age group the objectives very important again reference to the national curriculum as well as the national literacy strategy opportunities to read and write in a variety of ways plans for differentiated learning and assessment opportunities so that's again i'm going to do you a lead lecture on that er next week and i'll bring you some paper and some O-H-Ts again if you would like to use those to make your presentation on i'll also be bringing you er the copy of the university lesson plan which you have in your handbook you can follow that if you wish it's not set in stablets tablets of stone you don't need to follow that exactly but what you must make sure is that all the objectives are covered in more detail obviously than you would if you were a teacher because we we it's part of reaching the standards that you you actually meet all those objectives within your lesson plan so that's an early reminder if you have something in your head with your group and you want to get on with it now before er before the lecture by all means go ahead er if if you would like to do that okay are there any questions about about this no-one has okay right well let's make a start then with with this this week's what we're going to do today is have a look at some stories in a book of short stories called No More School this is this is it No More School edited by Valerie Bearman and it's a book of short stories by different writers er about school okay so it has a theme and what we're going to do is to discuss some of these stories in order to find out more about how they are constructed those grammatical elements in them that make them stand as short stories in their own right and then to explore ways of using these stories with more experienced readers and because of the nature of what we're doing we're really talking key stage two probably upper key stage two although i haven't put a year and a term on this because er i think you should be free to use it flexibly and we've already discussed directed time test okay so that's that's a little bit about the objectives that we're going to do some time ago i went to a conference in York the National Association for the Teaching of English and we listened to a session by Jan Mark who you may have heard of Jan Mark is er a children's writer who writes both novels and short stories and she said when in her talk when i've finished a children's novel i feel exhausted but when i've finished writing a children's short story i feel clever and it all called us up short a little bit when she said that and i think it's rather significant in terms of what we're going to look at today and in your small groups could you just talk for a minute or two about what she might have meant by that what did she mean and then we'll draw some of your comments together nf5413: okay let's er let's try let's try and pick this up why do you think she kind of says that writing this short story left her feeling clever sf5415: you find it quite difficult to think up a story a short story er has like cut short whereas a novel is somewhat longer and more more drawn out and lasts a lot longer which gives you more time really to remember the character and your parts and all that whereas the short story is more structured nf5413: yeah that structure and as as you say it's this because it's short its got er it has to have a different structure a different form from the novel and so you haven't got much time to play around with character or setting or plot you've got to really telescope all those ideas into a few a few pages how might that affect the kind of language that you use do you think sf5415: you've got to be more direct about it because you can't just nf5413: that's right you've got to be more direct you can't er waste words it's a bit like writing a poem i think you've got to be absolutely precise and i-, it really sort of weigh every word is this word valuable in the context of this story is it going to take the ideas forward so direct use of language anything else about the language sf5416: it's got to be really interesting reasonably interesting ish nf5413: yeah yeah immediately interesting it's got to engage you hasn't it right from the first right that immediacy at the beginning which says something about your first even your first even your first sentence even just your first paragraph your first sentence it's got it's got to pop you in there you anything else sf5417: has it got to be plausible the child has got to believe that the story's real if they don't believe that it's real they're not going to enjoy the story nf5413: right it's got to it's got to have a sort of integrity right the child's got to be-, believe that it it's real that it can happen even though it's only happening on a few pages of the book it's still got to have that sort of inner that inner integrity to it that that holds you and makes you believe in the characters and believe in the story er so you've got to create characters who are believable as well as a storyline that's believable it's no good having sort of cardboard cut out characters they've got to be they've got to stand out as real people in in this and going back to what you were saying about the structure you need to think about the ending right how is it going to end a lot of short stories have a sort of twist in the tail don't they they have a a little unexpected er plot turn at the end that the author's been leading up to and it makes you want to turn the pages to find out what's what's happening so that's sometimes that sort of twist at the end are any of you short story readers sf5417: how short is a short story nf5413: well there's a good question how short is a short story what do you think sf5417: well children's books you could say they're all short stories can't you the new Harry Potter nf5413: Harry Potter er nf5413: is a short novel the same as a short story ss: no nf5413: no i hear why not sf5418: it usually needs more than one sitting to read a novel whereas a short story very often everyone's sitting reading in one sitting nf5413: you can read it in one sitting and it perhaps goes back to what you said right at the beginning about the form of it the structure er so that we we can sort of pick that up what what makes the short story that's what we want to do today think of ways of discussing that very same thing with er children in years five or years six and have a read of some yourself we are going to read some this afternoon but er think about short stories Somerset Maugham is a good short story writer Roald Dahl writes good short stories for adults you know his tales of mystery and murder and suspense you know a lovely twist in the tale there's a real art in writing the short story and something else i think to think about although it makes demands on the writer and here's Jan Mark saying she's feeling clever a short story i think also makes demands on the reader so whether you're er a ten year old or a forty year old or a ninety year old short stories make the reader feel clever i think in reading them as well as the writer in writing them can you think why that might be sf5415: well it's nice to finish a good long novel and you think yeah i've done that that was a good story it's the same with a short story isn't it the feeling of completion nf5413: that feeling of completion satisfaction as Sheila says you feel that there is a sense of closure there and i think because of what you said about the structure the language the developed character you in a way have to fill in quite a lot of narrative gaps you know it requires you to make sense of what the writer's saying in just a short time so you're having to do quite a lot of work in putting the events of the story together and probably in anticipating what might happen at the end so it it makes demands and these sort of demands are are what we could look at in terms of the children as well who are going to be doing the reading okay i'm going to read you a little story then i'm going to give you a copy of it and we're going to er look at this story and it's from the English Book of Fairy Tales edited by Joseph Jacobs if you don't own this do get one because all the well known tales are in here beautifully and economically told and they'll give you a real fund of stories that you can use in drama or in the literacy hour as well and i want you to think how this story i'm going to read you works from in relation to we've said already right are you sitting comfortably it's called the Golden Arm it's very short there was once a man who travelled all over the land in search of a wife he saw young and old rich and poor pretty and plain and he could not meet one who took his mind at last he found a woman young fair and rich who possessed a right arm of solid gold he married her at once and thought no man so fortunate as he they lived happily together but though he wished people to think otherwise he was fonder of the golden arm than all the wife's gifts besides at last she died the husband put on the blackest black and pulled the longest face at the funeral but for all that he got up in the middle of the night and dug up the body and cut off the golden arm he hurried home to hide his treasure and thought that noone would know the following night he put the golden arm under his pillow and was just falling asleep when the ghost of his dead wife glided into the room stalking up to the bedside she drew the curtain and looked at him reproachfully pretending not to be afraid he spoke to the ghost and said what has thou done with thy cheeks so red all withered and wasted away replied the ghost in a hollow tone what hast thy thou done with thy red rosy lips all withered and wasted away what has thou done with thy golden hair all withered and wasted away what has thou done with thy golden arm thou hast it that's it that's the end of the story [laughter] i'm going to give you i'm going to give you your own copy of this and i just want you to spend a few minutes talking together about how the sort of things we've said so far about the way it works as a story about the use of language sf5419: what a long intro for such a short story i thought sf5421: i thought a short story was like sf5419: yeah there are different types though isn't there i mean the Yellow Wallpaper was really long sm5414: i suppose you you don't find out it leaves a lot to the reader it would be good if you were it would be good if you were getting the kids to write on from that wouldn't it so that they really get scared but they get scared and about the arm will he keep it or whatever ss: yeah [laughter] sm5414: if you turned it's like when he gets to that night he went to bed he turns the whole lights out if you filled in no i'm being serious if you did it slowly if you build up to it like added your own into it more description like rather than just the ghost walked up to the side of the bed and then you've got a five-year-old pi-, kind of pissing themselves sm5414: what if you changed one bit sf5422: like not have it sm5414: yeah would that make it more scary make it so that we know he's afraid leaving out bit choose two or three nf5413: okay first of all any any sort of general comments on the story general any sort of general reaction su: we didn't like it sf5419: you didn't like it right by the way it was first published in eighteen- ninety-eight so we're talking just over a hundred years ago it's a real er real sort of Victorian ghost tale you know part of a of a genre that you know you couldn't possibly tell the children at bedtime these days but there you are it was collected by Jo-, Joseph Jacobs when he went around the country collecting traditional tales it's unauthored any more reactions sf5420: i felt quite cheated by it but then having looked at it again i think it's quite amusing because the bottom bit reminds me of Red Riding Hood and the wolf in grandma's bed nf5413: oh right that sort of repetition at the end yeah what big ears you've got what big eyes you've got that's the function of the folk tale this table talked about that as well the repetition there is something you often find in folk fairy tales to to er what is it for why is that why is that repetition there do you think su: is it to help with the memory nf5413: i think so its that's yes because don't forget these these were er oral tales repetition is part of of helping your memory along and maybe the listeners joined in at that point whenever i've done this with children before all withered and wasted away all joined in and i think probably the original er audience would have joined in there so it's got a function of helping helping memory there sf5423: it also makes th-, thou hast it makes it more surprising because you're expecting it to be all withered and wasted away nf5413: right so that's the kind of that's the twist in the end if you like er which you see in in different ways in modern short stories as well sm5414: we thought er you could make it a bit better by like if you bulked it out somewhat added a bit more description of your own into it rather than just she walked in looked at the side of the bed if you added more like scary descriptions and then we thought i don't know wif anyone else knows the Hairy Big Toe nobody's heard of it ss: no su: it's similar to the end bit it builds up throughout the thing and then someone finds this big hairy toe and then all the way through it says who's got my big then i think it's all down to you've got it so scary [laughter] so if you added more stuff like that you could er nf5413: er and also i've heard this done translated into a context for the present and you might think how you might want to do that but that it's possible to take the sort of the format of the folk fairy tale and translate it which is something you could ask children to do and as you say as well to to er make them more full to make more more of it and in fact if you wanted children to write their own version that's er an extremely good activity you could do with them either in individual groups or as a shared activity together if it's the first time they'll be doing it you'll notice that there's no use of names and a lot of these folk tales don't use names at all characters are a kind of function of the plot and that's something you might want to point out no names no proper nouns are are used in these stories how does this anonymous writer convey the settings of this story er how wha-, does the language work to do that sf5424: it begins like a fairy story nf5413: sorry sf5424: it's starts like a fairy story nf5413: there once was there was once yes there's this traditional yeah that you might want to talk about to children there was once a man a very common opening so it's set in the that sort of inter-, inter-, indeterminate past isn't it past tense but we don't know when it was and that again is something we have in folk tales i don't quite know its a bit shadowy when all this happened but it happened once anything else about the setting there the language that's used to enable you to know more about where it happened anything that comes to mind sf5415: was it a small village i think it's a small English village ages and ages ago because nf5413: what makes you feel it's a small village sf5415: because he sounds like he has talked about it's said that he has to put the longest face on so nf5413: oh that's right so it's it's as though he is play acting to somebody to some people with his blackest black and he's obviously got people looking at him so it sounds as though it's a small village mentality really and maybe he settled there after this travelling the lands look so he's been far and wide and then he comes back sf5418: i suppose you can talk about the oral tradition as well there the fact that in er old England there were more villages smaller towns nf5413: yes yes it could take you into looking at history the historical context of of living social conditions how do you get to know about him did you like him ss: no nf5413: and even before he chopped her arm off what was it that made you not like him where is the language that tells you that you don't like this guy sf5417: at last he found a woman nf5413: at last he found a woman okay it doesn't mince its words this does it at last he found a woman though this is part of what you were saying about the directness of the language of the short story anything else sf5425: there's the thing in the second paragraph at les-, last she died nf5413: at last she died another at last as if he'd been waiting for this to happen at last it makes you wonder if he did it doesn't it sf5425: nf5413: sorry sf5425: it says he was fonder of the golden arm nf5413: he was fonder of the golden arm always mind speaks beside and how economical with language to actually er give you that information there in just that second part of the sentence sf5416: if it was a novel it wouldn't be written that way would it it would be written in such a way that you would have to work that one out yourself nf5413: quite possible yes yes and it would last over a much longer period sf5416: you'd get more information wouldn't you about how nf5413: yes yes that's right look how economically it's done there and you notice how the events that c-, are often conveyed through the verbs he hurried home er he dug up he put on he got up he cut off he put right so all these events the one thing after the other you you get delivered to you through through er the the verbs of the sentences one after the other it comes at you how is the problem introduced because all of this looks as if it's going very well for him how does this anonymous writer introduce er a spanner in the works excuse me su: and the ghost of his dead wife glided into the room nf5413: yes that's right and again look just a sentence when the ghost of his dead wife glided into the room in fact not even a sentence just that er that clause you notice you don't waste time with description in these things not not the descriptive adjectives that you might find in the novel or the descriptive adjectives that you might find in the novel or the descriptive adverbs it's straight on with the story all the time stalking up to the bedside she drew the curtain no messing about there and then of course the resolution at the end thou hast it and if you were showing the children they'd notice that was written for extra emphasis in capital letters yeah which of course you don't get when you're telling it except you could put some emphasis into it but you can use this also to talk about the use of punctuation for for emphasis and for effect like that i think with children you might not want to use this story but you can use a kind of a short story that's similar for er identifying the features of short stories that you might want to discuss with them okay here's another one now here's one from the book that we're going to use and i'm just going to show you the first bit of it first it's one of the stories called The Night We Looked For Charlie by Alexander McColl Smith yeah and i'm just going to show you the opening sentence have you ever heard about Charlie my friend Nick whispered to me one night what do you know about this story just just by showing you the title and the first sentence what do you know sf5419: it's set at nightime nf5413: sorry sf5419: it's set at nightime nf5413: it's set at nightime okay you've got night there and night here su: it's two friends talking about Charlie nf5413: it's two friends because you've got my friend and they're talking about Charlie so we in a way we've got a little bit of a setting sf5416: they have to be quiet as well don't they because its whispered nf5413: right the word whispered not Nick said to me Nick whispered to me sm5414: it's kind of kind of like a legend or a myth or something nf5413: right because it's a sort of legend or a myth er so it's introducing a kind of an atmosphere of of er well it's nighttime and they're whispering so there's a secret this could be a bit secretive something not generally known about this this guy Charlie okay er it's also look we've got a first person narrator whoever is telling this story is Nick's friend we don't know who he is yet but it's written in the first person er and we know they're together at night and this is a bit of this is a bit of gossip okay er let's have a look at a little bit more of it then let's have a read of this paragraph here it was dark in the dormitory and everybody else was asleep Nick's bed was next to mine so we could talk about people at home sometimes at night particularly in the hot season when it was difficult to get to sleep we would talk late into the night although it was against the rules it was that sort of school i suppose there were all sorts of rules which did not seem to have much point but which nobody would ever dream of changing boarding schools used to be rather like that particularly this rather old fashioned boarding school on the edge of those great dry plains of Africa okay so we've got a little bit more now about the story just talk in your groups for a minute or two about the kind of er structure that is developing the kind of language that Alexander McColl Smith is using to get further into the story and any questions that are sort of forming in your head about it okay just for a couple of minutes nf5413: okay okay any more any more information what what can you tell us about what the author is doing about his use of the language about these two characters in the group about Charlie sf5418: well now it's caught your attention it's starting to give you a little more detail about where they are what they're doing the setting nf5413: the boarding school we know this suggests that he knows Nicholas well doesn't it Nick who is his friend we've got Nick they've got their beds next to each other so they're obviously good friends chums and we know something of where they are in Africa at a boarding school anything else about the narrator that you've learned from this sf5426: he's not writing it in the present he's remembering er perhaps when he was younger and at school nf5413: how do you know that Jane sf5426: because it says boarding schools used to be very much like that nf5413: right okay boarding schools used to be so it's not going on now it may still be but it was that sort of school there we-, there were all sorts of rules boarding schools used to be so he they're very much he's looking back at this from another time at least we know he doesn't die at the end don't we you can't have a first person narrator who dies and incidentally this might be a time to talk to children again about the writer and the narrator not being the same er voice if you like Alexander McColl Smith er isn't the person who is talking in the story or if he is that's a coincidence because he actually he's taking on the narrative voice of a boy who is Nick's friend in the story okay let's just look at the remainder of the page then i said nothing for a moment outside the building there was the sound of cicadas a shrill sound of screeching insects that would continue until dawn i asked Nick who Charlie was Charlie's a miner he said rather Charlie was a miner a long time ago okay i'm going to give you i'm going to give you a copy of this now and i want you to just look at it that page and see how the writer is building up tension use of dialogue su: the students are like at boarding school rules and stuff su: yeah but you find out the reference su: yeah su: it's very colloquial where it says it was that sort of school i suppose it's sort of you know nf5413: okay i'm sorry to stop you but obviously if you are doing this with children you could take more time and write questions down for them but obviously we are in a hurry to do this tension how is he building tension with this page altogether do you think sf5427: well we know it's nightime we've got insects nf5413: because we've got kids right we've got insects we've got whispering the insects are screeching what about that last sentence there sf5417: it makes you wonder what's happened to Charlie nf5413: that's right sf5417: you know he died but you want to know why nf5413: yes so it's holding your interest it's making you think ahead and i think Nanaki said he's a ghost isn't he so there's that element of mystery do do any of the other tables think he's a ghost sm5414: it leads it does it leads you false because for all we know the next line could be saying Charlie was a miner a long time but then he quit and became a baker [laughter] it lead it does intentionally it kind of leads you in the direction you are expected to go nf5413: we should find out we should try and find out okay is there anything kind of in the dialogue to do that you've got the opening opening er dialogue questions that sort of sets the suspense and you've got dialogue here so you've got here a writer whose using dialogue to move that to move the story forward move the mystery forward er by giving little facts like this and the sentence structure's rather interesting look at this i said nothing for a moment a short sentence outside the building there was the sound of cicadas a shrill sound of shrieking insects that would continue until dawn look at this right long complex sentence and then i asked Nick who Charlie was so you've got i said nothing for a moment i asked Nick who Charlie was so all that description there is framed with this thought that's going on in his head and that's a that's a rather nice juxtapositioning there i think that's done deliberately so you could talk to children about and see if they want to use in their own writing okay i'm going to read you a bit of the story then and then i'm going to stop just before the end and see if you can do some of your own writing tell me about him i asked i was far from sleepy and Nick's question aroused my curiosity i lay still as Nick told the story his voice quiet in the darkness if you try listening to somebody talking in the dark you'll find that it is very easy to listen there's nothing to distract you from what's been said there's just the voice Nick explained that in the hills that lay to the north of the school there were numerous old mineworkings these were tunnels which had been dug in the days when gold had been mined there then the gold had run out and the miners had left but they'd done nothing about the shafts that went deep in the ground one or two of them had rusted old fences around them and some had collapsed or filled with water many of them were still there though and this was the reason why we were forbidden to go into the hills Charlie had been a miner years ago who'd come across a very rich vein of gold the vein of rock in which this gold was found rose briefly to the surface and then dipped deep into the heart of the hills Charlie soon recovered a great deal of gold from the shallower part but after his lucky strike he had to dig deeper and deeper he didn't have to use very much equipment Nick said all that he used to go down into the depths of the shack was an old bucket lowered by a winch one of his men turned the handle and down he went in the bucket at the end of the rope he must have been brave i whispered they all were my grandfather new some of them he told me they never got scared no matter how deep they went Nick paused Charlie was very brave he went on but it didn't save him there was a rock fall in the tunnel and he dug and he never came up again they called some of the other miners to come and help rescue him and they dug through the rock fall to the tunnel beyond but they never found him but what happened i asked where had he gone nobody knows said Nick there were a whole lot of tunnels down there maybe he wondered into another tunnel and got lost maybe he fell down the shaft no-one ever saw him again i was silent for a few moments Nick said nothing more then he finished his story but he's still there he answered my brother knew someone who knew him a few years ago or saw this ghost rather it was him it was definitely Charlie i felt a cold chill i didn't believe in ghosts or did i i suppose i wasn't sure when i asked when did whoever he was see him he went up beyond the top games fieldhe went up with one or two others for a dare one night they were looking into one of the mine tunnels when suddenly they felt there was someone there they turned round and he was standing not far away holding the shovel then he seemed to fade away right before their eyes they ran all the way back non stop i found it difficult to get to sleep after Nick had told his story and throughout the next day the tale kept going round my mind as i sat in the classroom my gaze wandered out of the window there were the gum trees and there was the top games field and then just beyond the field the hills started with their dry boulder strewn flanks and their tunnels and Charlie i decided to find whether any of the others had heard of Charlie and it turned out that they had everyone seemed to know somebody who knew somebody who'd seen him stories about ghosts and strange happenings were always a bit like that you never meet anyone who's actually seen anything himself it's always someone else slowly i learned a bit more about Charlie it seemed that what Nick had said was true he always carried shovel and that he had a miners cough old miners coughed badly because of all the dust and you often heard Charlie before you saw him or so they say i wondered if Charlie was still around most of the stories about him seemed to be rather old and i thought that he might have given up his appearances by now perhaps ghosts retired after a while once they became bored with wandering about it couldn't have been much fun walking about the school grounds carrying a shovel and coughing then one day somebody saw Charlie and this time i heard the story directly from Gordon the boy who saw him Gordon was a year or so younger than i was he'd only been at the school for a couple of terms but even in that short time he'd made a reputation for himself he was very good at sports but he was also an open honest person not the sort to make something up and that's why i chose to believe him when he told me what had happened it was a Saturday evening i belonged to the chess club which sometimes met on saturday evening in one of the classroom blocks this was some distance away from the hostels and was surrounded by a stand of giant gum trees which had been planted many years before these trees made a strange sound when the wind blew through their branches it was a hushing sound rather like the sound ma-, made by waves in the sea there were four chess games being played that night and i had drawn Gordon as opponent our game was taking a long time to finish and i wondered if it would end in stalemate the others had packed up and gone back to the hostels but the master in charge of the club told us that we could finish our game then we were to turn off the lights and go back to the dormitory it was my move i couldn't think what to do and i sat there with my head in my hands studying the board Gordon sighed this is taking ages he said i'm going to stretch my legs he got up from teh table and walked towards the open door outside there was nothing but the blackness of the African night he stood in the dorrway for a few moments and then i heard him gasp i looked up he was stil standing with his back to me but i knew immediately that something was wrong what's going on i said rising to my feet he turned round his expression was frozen his skin drained of colour i i saw his voice faltered i saw it seemed as if it was impossible for him to finish what he wanted to say i saw Charlie i couldn't think of anything to say i dashed over to where he's been standing and looked out into the night there was no moon so i could see very little but i did feel something that i had never felt before a terror so real and overwhelming that it made my heart thump like a hammer within me without a word we packed up our chess board and the pieces and turned out the light then came the hardest part which was to close the door behind us and run back through the trees to our dormitory we looked neither side of us nor behind us our eyes fixed on the distant friendly lights of the dormitory Gordon didn't say anything more that night but the next day he came up to me after breakfast and told me mor about what he's seen its definitely him he said he was right there in front of me looking at me or rather looking through me and suddenly he wasn't there anymore i thought about Charlie a lot after that and a few weeks later when Nick and i were watching a cricket match and nothing much was happening on the Saturday afternoon i told him what was on my mind i want to see if Charlie really exists i said Gordon surely saw him and i believe him i think we should look for him Nick turned and stared at me what do you mean he said i lowered my voice although there was really no one about to hear what we were saying i think we should go out one night i said we could go to the mine workings and see if he appears Nick's eyes were wide ouselves he stuttered a-, at night i nodded i must have seemed very brave to him but i didn't feel brave inside but i'd made the suggestion now and i felt i had to stick to it well you're not scared are you Nick swallowed not if you aren't he said quietly and with that the plan was hatched and it only remained for us to decide what we were going to do i think we should go tonight i said after a few moments there was a full moon last night so we should be able to see quite well Nick nodded he was scared and so was i though neither of us was prepared to admit it not yet Mr Anderson our house master was early that night he called out lights three minutes before he should have done there was a mad scramble as everyone made their final preparations for bed and then there was darkness i tucked myself into bed shivering with anticipation Nick and i planned to wait an hour before we set off an had our clothes all ready under our beds the minutes dragged by my watch had luminous dial and i could see the position of the minute hand at twenty past eight i decided i could wait no longer and and whispered across to Nick who answered me immediately time to go i suppose if you still want to course i do i whispered back and he slipped out of bed and began dressing in the dark we were both ready within a minute or so then still in stockinged feet for silence we crept out of the dormitory and into the long corridor outside the doors were always kept unlocked in case there was a fire and soon we were out of the building and standing in the strange half darkness of the moonlit night neither of us said anything as we began the walk up towards the top playing field the school grounds looked so different at night everything was bigger and more threatening the gum trees seemed to tower impossibly high above us the buildings were squat black shapes like stranded whales everything which was so comfortable and familiar by day was sinister and unknown at night we skirted round the first of the classroom blocks there was a light on in one of the rooms and we didn't want to be seen no official would have been around at that hour because the teachers would long since have gone home to their bungalows people left lights on though and i and i thought that's what must have happened we crossed over the road that led to the bungalows we were now not far from the very edge of the school grounds and we could already make out the dark tangle of the undergrowth that marked the limits of the top playing field i was surprised at how much light there was not enough to see very far but certainly enough to make out individual bushes and holes in the ground we stopped at the edge of the field do you know where to go Nick asked i've never been further than this i shook my head no i confessed but as long as we go slowly it will be alright what about the mine shafts Nick said his voice quiet beside me lots of them are still open we have to be careful not to fall in i knew he was right this was the reason why we were forbidden to go there it would have been much more sensible to turn back then and to give up the whole ridiculous idea of seeing Charlie but i was determined not to appear cowardly in front of Nick walk right behind me i said i'll look out we started into the bush as we made our way i felt my heart thumping with fear inside me somewhere within a voice was saying quietly turn back turn back i ignored it suddenly Nick touched my arm i heard something he whispered i strained to listen there were the usual sounds of the African night the faint screeching of insects from somewhere but nothing else Nick had left his hand touched my arm and i felt it trembling are you frightened i asked i can feel your arm shaking yes he said i am i swallowed hard so am i i said then i don't think it's such a good i-, idea to look for Charlie after all nothing more was said we just turned around and began to make our way back slowly and carefully conquering the terrible temptation to rush headlong home away from the dark hills and the secrets we were much less frightened by the time we reached the playing fields and when Nick grabbed me by the arm again i thought he was just fooling around look lets get down get down i obeyed him instinctively dropping to the ground beside him then i looked round and saw what was disturbing him and coming directly towards us along the road that led to the bungalows was this solitary fing-, figure now i wonder in your groups if you could just try and finish that story i'm just going to give you ten minutes to do this i realise that you might not all finish but but we'll see how you kind of get on sf5428: and he's been seen lots of times hasn't it so it must be like very angry sf5417: and it's just something he can do over and over again sf5428: and he is Charlie sf5417: so far in this brainstorm we've got the caretaker seeing the kids go out the kids think the caretaker is Charlie the caretaker is er either digging for his gold or he's burying his cat sf5429: or he's working on his vegetable patch sf5417: or he's working on his vegetable patch sf5429: at night sf5427: i know but that's the whole point of the story that Charlie was a goldminer and Charlie found a big thing of gold and the school was next to the gold mine sf5417: so in the so so in the end of the story when the children find out that the caretaker's not in sf5428: he used to go down with them and fill it up with gold and it was whilst he was down there getting the gold that the mine sf5429: the story's beginning to come back isn't it sf5428: slowly seeping back sf5417: are we going to have the ending where the children discover that the caretaker's not Charlie but the caretaker sf5429: yeah sf5417: could we not have sf5429: and he's very innocent like sf5430: he's digging for Charlie's gold sf5428: he's been a naughty boy sf5430: he's digging for Charlie's gold sf5428: he hates children sf5430: yeah one of those he's one of those yeah sf5417: could you not have a could you not have a you know his ring fell off and he didn't have time to go out and have a look sf5429: in the middle of the night su: yeah but it still has to be su: isn't he digging the tunnel sf5430: i want i want the caretaker to be Charlie su: do you sf5428: its a disused mine isn't it sf5431: yeah cause it is a disused mine isn't it su: i do too sf5417: so the caretaker could be Charlie or he could be charlie's su: he could be charlie's sf5432: is it Charlie so what are we saying sf5433: i think he should actually be Charlie sf5434: he feigned his own death and sf5432: maybe Charlie is the grandad nf5413: okay now i realise you didn't have a chance to get very far and again this is just a kind of er rehearsal of what you do in the classroom but nevertheless lets lets just hear very briefly what each of you have done and lets see how we might sort of take this on if you were using this with year five or six er lets start with your group sf5432: er ours isn't very nice nf5413: go on su: its the alternative one sf5432: Charlie er it is Charlie but er there's a big story behind it because Charlie didn't like his wife as she used to beat him with the golden arm [laughter] so er therefore he feigned his own death ran away and er subsequently has no money and kind of he so he relies on the boys smuggling food from the school canteen nf5413: aha right right that's an interesting twist a bit of intertextuality there [laughter] right what about Ha-, Hannah's group here read out what you've got sf5422: we've written an actual paragraph and then Steve's going to tell the ending sm5414: no sf5422: ab-, above the noise of the insects we could just make out a rasping coughing sound me and Nick looked at each other we scrambled frantically into the undergrowth that lay by the side of the path the figure drew nearer looking around searching knowing somebody was watching him he beckoned inviting us to follow him into the darkness of the night nf5413: see how they've picked up picked up the language of the story Steve can you finish it for us su: well we wanted the ending to be sm5414: well they get rather than following they get eaten by a lion su: a baby lion sm5414: oh oh or they follow him into the mine and he turns round and he's not got a face at all nf5413: well there's the er the sort of genre there of the horror genre thank you thank you your table your sf5435: shall i read out what we've got nf5413: yeah you read out what you've got sf5435: the figure was coming from the shadow the moonlight beyond the wooden he's coming nearer said Nick the hair stood up on the back of their necks and they shivered in fear a voice spoke from the gloom what are you doing here sf5436: it doesn't make sense nf5413: yes yes er and again they've got lots of ideas and they've been doing some drafting for it but just at one point let's all just get our ideas down because they were spending time talking so that process of thinking and planning is is very very important there what about your your table at the back sf5437: i'll do it yeah su: yeah sf5437: he carried a long handled implement that glinted in the moonlight illuminating the darting movement of his eyes he glided effortl-, effortlessly towards us we stood frozen desperate to run but too curious to move the only noise we could hear was the pounding of our hearts echoing in our ears suddenly he was upon us as his face appeared from out of the shadows we realised who it was nf5413: lovely and again it's picking up that that nice at-, atmosphere of the language your table su: the figure moved over the ground the shovel glinting in the moonlight Charlie's brother was at last going to find his brother's body and be able to lay him to rest su: that's nice nf5413: tell us how you got got to there with your planning [laughter] sf5417: well we started off by thinking that the caretaker saw the children go out and went out to find out what they were doing and then decided that it wasn't ata ll what we wanted then we decided that er the caretaker could be er not Charlie at all but the children would think he's Charlie so then we think maybe he the caretaker was going out just to find some gold or he was burying his cat or he was working on his vegetable patch and then we decided that that wasn't a very good idea so then we decided that maybe he could be Charlie and we didn't like that either so then we decided it was Charlie's brother and that he was looking for his brother nf5413: you see what sort of planning went into that they did a sort of a bubble diagram didn't you of all your ideas so lots and lots of speaking and listening er from different groups went into those ideas if you did this with children you would have to think if and when you wanted to finish the actual story with them whether you wanted to do that as a class or whether you gave it them to read at home what you wouldn't want to do is make them think that their ending was in any way inferior to the one that's been published in fact it might be better so you have to be quite careful i'll read it to you before the end of the afternoon there's only a page left so we'll come we'll come back to that what i want you to do now is to do a group activity and because of time i'm going to ask you to just er for you to be group one and i'll bring you the stuff in a minute you to be group two group three and you can be group five su: nf5413: alright this is one of the stories this is Sam's Duck and it was also published as a picture story book so that that makes sense with what i actually want you to do if i can have those back at the end sf5422: shall we have a look at the picture book first sf5421: yeah do you want to read it out sf5422: it's a long story isn't it its not a short story su: not really sm5414: we could read a couple of if we read a few pages each a page each or something that's six pages nf5413: come on then this is one of the stories the son's death and we've also published as a picture story book so that makes sense of what i actually want to do if i could have those back at the end sf5419: lovely teacher my feet hurt miss my back aches miss and it's cold miss all week she never stopped moaning Tuesday was market day it was the first day in the auction room there was a red-face man who twisted sm5414: this man was going to kill him was he now well we can't have that can we i've got some sandwiches in my shed and milk will that do so they fed him together it's a drake said the gardener we'll call him Francis shall we you know like the famous sailor Francis Drake no-one knows i've got him said Sam i won't say a word said the old gardener tapping his nose sf5419: don't stop su: for the rest of the week the children worked hard on the farm and nobody guessed that Sam had a secret on the last night there was a crackling bonfire and everyone sang songs and ate too many sausages Sam crept away to be with Francis and the old gardener what they what are you going to do with him he asked Sam but Sam had worked it all out i'll give him as a present to my granddad he'll be seventy tomorrow same age as me said the gardener he's a lucky man to have a grandson like you ss: ah sf5436: suddenly suddenly sf5436: its not really a story though is it sf5438: no no it says though write part of a play based on the story so it could be something completely different imagine the kids doing the next step it doesn't have to be use the story take one page of it because it just says to write and perform part of a play based on it so you're doing a little mini-play so you can so you can confuse the idea of the story su: so shall we do two rival gangs sf5438: dialogue between the two ginger thingy's gang and su: shall we do the dance as well su: i feel pretty i feel pretty shall we do that i feel pretty sf5429: so shall we do two sf5417: so we'll have two gangs we've got to have a bit of banter sf5438: let's just just you do that again sf5417: well you could have one gang in the shelter while the other gang tries to get them out because they want it as their base su: why would they want it as their base sf5429: mm because they haven't got one and they want one sf5431: we don't need as caretaker su: no we don't need a caretaker su: do you need a narrator su: yes unless you want to learn a big pile of lines you need someone to set the scene su: you're not listening to my point of view su: i think you need a narrator you need a scene setter you don't want to be there learning lines su: who wants to be the narrator su: i don't mind being the narrator su: what's she going to say more importantly su: setting the scene of two rival gangs like Romeo and Juliet su: will we have dialogue su: right so can we say that again so i can copy it su: Sheila's obviously a gang leader su: so so who who who's in Ginger's gang su: Ginger Ninger and Whacko Jacko are laying are each laying their stakes for the su: are they in a team together or are they su: no no su: are each laying their stakes are each laying their stakes for the territory of the of the of the hideout su: call it a den su: so do we have dialogue su: so are you going to be in the den and i'm trying to take it over su: yeah su: or am i in the den and you're trying to take it over su: we're supposed to su: we're in our den right me and Smurf su: go on Sheila write it down su: you'll have to start the conversation by saying right what are you doing down there su: maybe you can say kind of go away go away nf5413: alright i'm going to very reluctantly stop you there now i've given you five activities and er one of those as you can see is directly related to the S- A-Ts because this one of the stories NO More School in fact the lead story is set as one of the S-A-T questions at key stage two so we're hearing from this table about the kinds of things that were asked of that so as you can see they put it as a book for ten eleven year olds er the kind of activities though i hope are generic and the sort of ones that you could use er with with er children year five year six as as appropriate would you like to just start and give us the sort of gist of what you did and the kind of things you you found sf5436: er okay we were looking at er opening sentences so we looked through them and decided which one we though was the most engaging and which one we felt that we would most want to read er then we got to the Sam stuff the sentence Sam is a person of very few words so when he said it was all brilliant we knew he really meant it er we thought that is it going to be a mystery what was he talking about what was brilliant er so and we were looking at that okay so the style of writing is the first person narrative so you get your class to discuss this get them to tell you parts of it and get them to tell you how its written who who's telling the story and then how they would tell their own story if they were using the same technique in telling the first person or would they be an like an omniscient narrator then er we looked at the grammar and we looked at er what tense it was written in what does this tell us about the story about what's happening when it's happened and then er looked at the plot how it engages the reader so does the sentence er make you want to read the rest of it er and then they could use it as a model to get them to write their own opening sentence maybe with a mystery in it as well get them to try and use the same idea and then the characters because obviously you've got the person in there and you've got the narrator so talk about that and how in their own story they could introduce characters differently and then do you think it is effective and why so basically do they like it nf5413: that's a super analysis there well done that table er the things you could do with the children you might actually make a poster of those opening sentences and put it up in your writing area so they could see them and have them as sort of story starters that they could use themselves very good thank you which leads us nicely on to Sandra you chose Sam's Duck as your favourite opening this table looked at the language differences between the version of Sam's Duck in this book and the picture story book version er and they spent quite a bit of time reading the picture story version they decided they wanted to do that first so they read it together what did you do then su: we sort of skimmed through the proper b-, short story book which was went into much more detail er and we thought the picture book we could probably use with year two to year three su: yeah as young as year two su: but also but that er the short story was probably more year five ss: five su: and it would be quite interesting for the older children to do a comparison between the two because the picture book is quite long it's quite meaty really but er we though we could do it over a week with year two and er nf5413: yes mm su: we felt like doing things like reading up to a certain point in this one and then with the er year fours and year fives i mean and then reading up to the same point in the longer version and seeing if you find out anything more what what else do you find out from reading the longer version what does the description tell you and also the value of the pictures in Sam's Duck even though the writing even though the writing's abridged do you get more from the pictures do you learn just as much nf5413: that's an interesting one and i this short story doesn't actually does does it give you a description of Sam do you know he's a black boy ss: no i don't think so no there's not enough no nf5413: interrupts: i don't think you do so it's looking at choices made by illustrators as well so don't you know i've told you before you know picture story books are not just for key stage one there's some as you say that one is meaty and there's some interesting work on comparisons you can do there do you prefer one to the other su: i think the pictures are just gorgeous really su: its a really nice book su: we read that one properly though but we didn't read this one properly to be fair but nf5413: and we'll make sure that we order six copies of that for the library the story book as well as the other one so that they are there for you if you want to borrow it on placement thankyou very much the S-A-T-S table su: okay er we were looking er at S-A-T-S papers for No More School er and we'll short of give a short presentation on S-A-T-S procedure the types of questions that children are asked and the reading knowledge that they need for it and er then generally our views so the first one procedure sorry er the procedure er they really need to read er the texts in the booklet and then answer the questions in the booklet er and they are allowed to refer back and they get forty-five minutes to do so er or they get fifteen minutes to read the book first and then they get forty-five minutes to answer it but they are allowed to refer back to the books and the questions er in the book actually tells some of the children where to find it what page to look on so it's not like they've always got to read the whole thing through again er it'll says things like er see page six and things like that er the type of questions they have to answer in several ways because they've got short answers several line answer questions long answers and multiple choice answers er and it it's illustrated in the book which answers they are required to give er by the amount of space they are given so if they're given a few lines they are obviously meant to fill those lines and if they're they've got the multiple choice they just like circle whichever one's the right answer er the skills or the knowledge that they need from the book er they are tested on their comprehension whether they know the plot and they can describe the character analysis why do you think this why do you think that can they give reasons for answer to back up the text opinion er again can they drawn on evidence to give their own opinions er and their general knowledge they are asked at the end if they were to rename the book what sort of book they would call it er and again they would have to give an explanation as to why they think the book should be called that er going on to our views er er yeah we were asked about er this kind of reading task for assessing children's reading er we said it was quite a er big comprehension task really it's asking for an analysis of the text all the time er so you'd probably need to work on comprehension and drawing on knowledge from texts with the children er it shows progression from understanding and their reading about texts so it slowly it builds up from being multiple choice questions er to the last few questions where they are asked to give their own opinion and to draw results from that it tests their own ability to formulate their own opinion which could be quite challenging for some children er and also we think that its quite a short time allowed for children to read the book i mean it's quite a few pages er there's two bits to it the first bit is one two three four five six seven eight pages long which is probably qui-, plus the extra bit that's quite a lot for them to read in fifteen minutes er so you'd probably need to teach them cause obviously you can't change the exam book you'd need to teach them skim reading skills and how to draw information from the task or from a piece of text in a short period of time nf5413: thank you very much we'll be looking at the testing arrangements in year three in a lot more detail but that's a very good analysis thank you of the kinds of er complex information that is required and the the questions asked and indeed you need to ensure these children are are are really taught well in order to be able to do this successfully when you go into school on placement next term do ask about the testing arrangements and if you have a chance of working with the teacher doing any assessment do do take advantage and and do that thank you very much now the table who looked at the cloze procedure questions can you tell us a little but about how you did that what i did for you was to choose a paragraph and i omitted words different kinds of words sometimes nouns sometimes verbs sometimes prepositions er a range of words er and asked them to go ahead and put them back in so how did you get on sf5435: er well i'll talk to you and Amy and Becky were doing it and er the way that they did it was one of them would suggest something and the other one would either argue or agree and most of the time most of the time er they knew that there had to be a verb in there er so if it was like the past tense they knew that there had to be a past tense very nf5413: yes sf5435: such as began to wish nf5413: using their syntactic knowledge then you see sf5435: yeah they knew that when it said Kevin blank a first year in his local blank they knew that er the the thing of the story was school so they knew how to be related to school but then it was suggested that maybe it was a particular school because er if it was the first year he's got to be quite an old first year to be in in this sort of context of this story so we just left it as school er there was words such as enjoyed that were added in but that could have been used for anything it could have been enjoyed or liked or something like that but they chose the most interesting one er there was one bit where it wasn't very clear there was a bit of a disagreement about what it meant because the first second paragraph says it started one day before Easter and they both someone suggested day so it started one day before Easter but one of them thought it meant one day as in Easter Saturday before Easter and everyone thought it just meant one day as in one day in a period before this time so there was discussion over that er a lot of the time they read ahead and then went back to see what would fit in and they left one of the ones at the end of the first paragraph to the end of the second paragraph right and that's about it yeah nf5413: right okay so we've said its er its you've definitely used your knowledge of syntax your knowledge of semantics you know the meaning of the story er strategies reading ahead er any other particular strategies Jane sf5437: well i was just listening to the other two and what was quite uncanny is that they did it er purely by reaction er that when we if there was any discussion they didn't say something like it has to be a verb because but they both knew that it needed to be a verb so it was sort of instinctive nf5413: implic-, just that sort of implicit knowledge sf5437: it was instinctive yes and the other strange thing is that er although they got a lot of it by instinct once they went back and and read through and then started to think about it more on one occasion they actually changed something which was correct to a word which was incorrect the first time they got it right on instinct but the second time when they were thinking about it they thought about it a bit too much it would have been better to go with the instinct but in school er it must be a fantastic assessment tool to see how well children read because you you can't do it if you're not well read can you nf5413: yes yes absolutely this is one of the values of using closed i think especially if you've got the teacher there you can use it as a sort of a guided activity and you can make notes on these kinds of things you you learn so much about how the children read er it's very very useful to do that and you can if you like omit all the same typw of words you can omit all the verbs or all the adverbs if you feel it's going to test their reading in different ways er or make them read ahead or read back so i do i do think it its a use-, very useful activity to think about er in terms of formative assessment and in terms of getting the children to talk about their reading and discuss the strategies they use thank you very much that group er now the final group had another short story called The Ballet quite a short one and you can see why i asked you to do i don't know how far you got because it's quite a demanding thing i asked of you but just tell us how far you got so far and what sort of things you did sf5429: well we started off by er looking at the passage and then we decided which part we'd actually like to focus upon and we all found a bit where we could all be involved so that was the the er whatever can't think of the word yeah so we chose a part which was interesting and that we could explore as well and then we assigned characters because we knew what pe-, each of them were like and we looked at the thing again and we decided on having a narrator who could set the scene because we needed to have an opening and then we didn't get very far unfortunately nf5413: no sf5429: but we decided that this was what we were going to do sf5428: write the opening sf5429: yeah but the opening was brilliant because there were so many opportunities and possibilities for this sort of activity we were looking at you know sort of the literacy hour you know it could either be an opening activity something that the children would enjoy and then it could go on and be extended to a certain child and er do all sorts of other things with it sf5417: we could use we could use the themes that were brought up in the story to er open discussions within the classroom er like William er you see we've got two rival gangs and so you could discuss gangs and er we also thought you could bring in history into the second one su: because it happens in a football field sf5417: you could you could ask the children to become certain characters and try and think about how that character would have felt at that time er so we thought er you could use it in lots of different ways and that's wy we didn't get too far because one thing that's very hard to control sf5430: because they were sort of trying to play out their own war scenes so that's why the games would help nf5413: and all that sort of discussion and getting into the heads of those characters would be a very valued activity in history in English in drama in the literacy hour sf5417: and they'd enjoy performing something that they'd written at the end or the end of the week depending on how much time they had nf5413: yes indeed sf5417: it would give them a sense of achievement as well nf5413: it would and if you've got a video camera in the classroom you could video them i mean you were all videoed a little bit doing your did did you find that it changed the nature of what you were doing or might have done if you'd been making a presentatioin yeah i think i think it does so when you get into the classroom you may well have a video camera use it use it make use of it we're about we're right on time but i just wonder if if you could spare one minute and since Jamie's got a copy of the book i'm going to pick on her and ask her if she'd open page seventy about a third of the way down we just have time to finish reading you the last little bit of the story so you know what happens with Charlie sf5438: so there coming directly towards us along the road that led to the bungalows was the solitary figure Charlie i whispered it must be Charlie Nick said nothing we were both paralysed with fear and couldn't move the figure was now a bit closer i strained my eyes trying to make out more details of the ghost where was the shovel and why had we not heard the cough then the answer came it's Mr Anderson Nick hissed and he's going to see us it is possible that the housemaster heard Nick for he suddenly stopped and looked about him we had dropped down at the edge of an irrigation ditch and this is probably what saved the day for us he saw us all right but i think that he only saw half of us or perhaps even only half of one of us and at that very moment that he gave a start and peered in our direction fumbling to switch on his torch Nick deliberately gave a cough it was the cough that did it Mr Anderson's arm shot up in the air and the torch fell to the ground with a thud then uttering the most extraordinary cry of alarm the terrified housemaster ran as fast as he could up towards the bungalows and safety Nick and i stayed where we were for a few moments he thought you were i began Charlie finished Nick and then we laughed and our muffled laughter continued all the way back to the boarding house Mr Anderson always had breakfast with us and Nick and i studied him closely the next morning as he sat at the head of one of the refectory tables he seemed thoughtful and Nick and i exchanged glances later that day Mr Anderson took us for a geography lesson and afterwards as we were packing up our books Nick went up to his desk and spoke to him do you er believe in ghosts sir i watched Mr Anderson's expression very closely and knew that the question had surprised him ghosts he said too jovially of course i don't are you sure sir Nick went on it's just that people say there's an old mine around here they call him Charlie Mr Anderson rose to his feet come come Nick don't you worry about this Charlie he's quite harmless i'm sure so you do believe in him after all then crowed Nick he added you haven't seen him have you Sir Mr Anderson was silent i thought he looked a little bit pale well he faltered and then Nick produced Mr Anderson's torch i think this is yours sir you dropped it after you saw Charlie the housemaster's jaw sagged then very slowly he took the torch and slipped it into his pocket i knew then that he understood what had happened and i waited anxiously to see what he could do we could get into serious trouble for having been out at night but then if we were punished people would know that Mr Anderson had run away from a ghost let's just forget all about it said Mr Anderson smiling you agree not to go out when you shouldn't and i'll agree to being a bit braver if i ever see the real Charlie agreed said Nick nf5413: thank you Jamie well read thank you very much thank you everyone very much if you leave your books over there