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.

Lesson 5 Information Retrieval AF2 (p15 – 37)

FOR A DEVELOPING READER
Pupil target: Finding and using textual references
Features to explore when reading:
• Focus on details about Sam’s Dad, looking at the difference between facts, which can be proved with quotations
from the text, and inferences, which can’t.
Activity:
Ask pupils to work in pairs and to reread Mum and Dad (p19 – 20). They then have to decide which of the following
seven statements about Dad are true. They should find a quotation to support their judgements.
• He comes from a large family.
• He does not like any fuss.
• He cannot accept that Sam is ill.
• He helps around the house.
• He is a kind man.
• He has a good relationship with his wife and children.
• He does not have a good relationship with his own mother, brother and sisters.
Using these notes, pupils should write a paragraph about Dad.

FOR A COMPETENT READER
Pupil target: Find the main ideas in a text and support them with evidence
Features to explore when reading:
• Focus on the details about Sam’s mother and father.
Activity:
Ask pupils to reread pages 19 - 20 and 29 - 32. They should then make notes on the differences between Mum and
Dad’s attitudes to:
• Visitors • Sam going back to school • Sam’s long term illness
• Going to church • Sam’s sudden nosebleed • Each other
Using these notes, they should either script or improvise a video-diary entry which Mum and Dad make individually after
Sam has gone to bed. They must be completely truthful!

FOR AN ACTIVE READER
Pupil target: Use short, well-chosen quotations within sentences to show I can refer closely to a text
Features to explore when reading:
• Focus on Sam and his family.
Activity:
Working in a group of four using the information in this section, ask pupils to hot-seat the four members of the family in
turn.
Pupils then need to write a Point – Evidence – Exploration paragraph about each character.
Pupils can be given a model, for example:
Ella sometimes goes to church with her mother, not because she is religious ‘but only because everyone fusses
over her’. This may mean that she likes being the centre of attention because people know that her brother has
a terminal illness. She also stands up for herself. Mum always hates buying things with her because ‘They
always fight’. Perhaps she resents all the attention that is given to Sam and wants some of it for herself.

Lesson 4 If I grow up, I’m going to be a scientist

Focus on first conditional

Lesson 3 Character Tracking

Lesson 2 Who Wants to Live Forever?

‘ways to live forever’ persuasive writing