Lesson 1 Before you Read

Listen to the information about leukaemia and complete the tasks.

word families:

abnormal
flood
crowd
role
interfere
defective

Now test your understanding by seeing if you can get 10/10 below:

 

Exploration of title - what do you think it'll be about?

Assessment Tasks p174 – 182

Information retrieval (AF2):
Describe Sam’s death. You should try to include his feelings as well as the factual information given.
You will gain marks for details which are taken from the text.


Inference (AF3):
Reread Spring (p174 – 175)
What can you infer about the feelings of:
• Mum and Dad
• Mrs Willis
• Ella
• Sam
Why do you think Sam’s last contact is with his father rather than his mother?
Reread List No.11 Things I Want To Happen After I Am Dead (p182)
Write an imaginative account of his funeral based on how you think the characters in the book would behave.
Use of structure (AF4):
Compare the two ways in which his death is presented. You will gain marks if you use details taken from the text.
Why do you think there is a final list? What is the effect of this list on the reader?
Use of language (AF5):
There were no angels (p 178) How does Sam describe his own death?
Think about:
• Light and dark • Inside and outside the room • Dreaming and waking
• Colours • Movement and stillness • The use of repetition

Awareness of author's viewpoint and purpose (AF6):
In Question and Answer with Sally at the end of the book, the writer explains that she is a Quaker and that
‘Quakers don’t tell you what to believe – like Sam they think you have to work out your own answersto the big questions’. How do you think she would answer these Questions Nobody Answers:
• Does it hurt to die?
• Why do people have to die anyway?
• Where do you go after you die?
• Why does God make kids ill?
How would you answer these questions?

Lesson 10 Focus on Social Context AF7 p149 – 173)

Lesson 9 Focus on Authorial Purpose and Viewpoint AF6 p124 – 148

Lesson 8 Focus on Use of Language AF5 p88-123

Lesson 7 Focus on Use of Structure (AF4) p64-87

Lesson 6 Focus on Inference (AF3) 38-63

FOR A DEVELOPING READER
Pupil target: Use empathy to make judgements
Features to explore when reading:
• Focus on using empathy to make judgements.
Activity:
Ask pupils to reread The Story of Grandfather’s Footsteps (p61 – 63).
Then ask pupils to write a sentence about:
• What scientists think about ghosts
• What Granny thinks about ghosts
• What Sam thinks about ghosts
• The relationship between Granny and Grandad
• What Granny feels about Sam’s illness – both now and in the past.
FOR A COMPETENT READER
Pupil target: To use inference and deduction when reading a text
Features to explore when reading:
• Focus on inference and deduction
Activity:
• Ask pupils to reread Why Does God Make Kids Get Ill? (p36 – 41)
• Working with a partner, pupils are to rate each of the seven reasons from the points of view of Felix and Sam.
(1 = Definitely True; 2 = Possibly True; 3 = Don’t know; 4 = Possibly Untrue; 5 = Definitely Untrue).
• Based on these decisions, pupils should write one paragraph on Sam and his beliefs and one on Felix and his
beliefs – or lack of them.
FOR AN ACTIVE READER
Pupil target: Interpreting layers of meaning
Features to explore when reading:
• Focus on how characters’ thoughts are expressed in their speech
Activity:
Working with a partner, pupils are to decide what characters are really thinking:
Mrs Willis let us play Top Trumps instead of school. She said if anybody asked, it was Maths. (p38)
‘She gets cured,’ she said. ‘End of story. Now go and blow up some aliens or something’’ (p46)
‘We’ve enough real things to worry about without making up more for ourselves’ (p47)
‘Let’s wait and see,’ they said. Or, ‘Fingers crossed.’ (p49)
‘You’re not writing a weepy book full of poems and pictures of rainbows, are you?’ (p51)
‘It’s quicker if you use the other ones, dear,’ she said. (p56)
Using these as examples, pupils should write a short exploration of the statement:
In this book characters sometimes do not say what they really mean.