Place : an Overview of the Resources in This Cluster

‘Modern prose: An overview of the resources in this section

All of the resources in this digital anthology have been written by Teachit contributors. The aim has been to create open, interesting activities which will help students at all levels to explore and engage with the texts and develop their own personal response. There are a lot of activities here! The idea is that you ‘pick and mix’ from them, choosing those that you think will work well with particular groups of students and adapting them as you see fit. All the paper-based resources (as opposed to the whizzy ones) are provided as Word documents, so that you can add to them, cut bits out or tweak the instructions. Although wide-ranging, the resources aren’t meant to be comprehensive – we’re anticipating that in teaching these short stories you’ll also use Wordbox and of course bring in ideas and activities of your own.

What’s in the mix?

A set of activities for each short story

Our contributors had a flexible brief and no two sets of resources are the same. However, within each collection you’ll always find:

This takes you straight to an on-screen version of the A link to the text in Wordbox text, which you can highlight, annotate and use to create your own interactive resources.

Actually two copies! – a PDF file identical to the printed anthology page that you can print from and a A copy of the story Word version that you can manipulate and use for resources of your own.

Some quick-fire ideas for activities. These are the kind of suggestions teachers often pass on to each other – Teaching ideas they don’t need a whole student resource to accompany them. They’re very practical and make great starting points.

One or more activities to get students familiar with the A pre-reading activity context or themes before they encounter the whole text.

1 Some of these are pre-reading activities too. ‘Collapsed text’ simply means a de-sequenced, de- A collapsed text activity contextualised version – so an extract of the story may be placed in alphabetical order, or the lines jumbled up.

A thematic or subject-based Activities to help students get to grip with the story’s resource central ideas.

Resources on language, Two or more resources exploring style, structure and form and structure and the effects of the writers’ choices.

Focus on a key passage, encouraging close attention An extract-based activity to the writer’s techniques.

At least one of the above activities will be interactive, A whizzy activity for use on-screen with projectors and whiteboards.

Biographical information about the writer and some Social and historical context contextual background to the short story.

In addition, you’ll find one or more of these activities:

A resource focusing on Ways of exploring how writers convey character and characterisation motivation.

Activities to help students appreciate the significance A resource exploring setting of place and environment.

Students write a piece of their own in response to the A creative response activity short story and in doing so engage with themes, language and techniques.

Drama/speaking and Suggestions for drama, discussion, reading and role- listening activities play activities which get to the heart of the story.

You’ll also find a video:

Within the resources for ‘Compass and Torch’ is an interview with Elizabeth Baines, in which she An interview with a writer discusses where she gets her ideas, why she likes short stories, and the challenges of writing them.

2 3 Varied approaches

There is a wealth of ideas within the resources in this section. Each set is written by at least two different contributors, and sometimes three or four: the result is an eclectic and inventive mix. It’s impossible to highlight all the types of activity you’ll encounter, but here are a few, with examples.

Word quarries – write a poem or a piece of prose based on a selection of words from ‘Anil’, ‘Compass and Torch’ or ‘Something Old, Something New’.

Sorting activities – rank quotations from ‘Compass and Torch’ according to how well they sum up the story as a whole, or group quotations by character for ‘The Darkness Out There’.

Personal/empathic responses – explore what the correct course of action should be if witnessing a crime for ‘Anil, or consider what defines us as individuals for ‘My Polish Teacher’s Tie’, or discuss the etiquette for finding and reporting a body for ‘When the Wasps Drowned’.

Peer teaching – form expert groups to focus on an aspect of narrative in a key passage from ‘Compass and Torch’, or take a whistle-stop language tour for ‘The Darkness Out There’.

Character profiles – conduct a CSI-style investigation into the character of the narrator of ‘On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl …’, or create character logs and a set of top trumps cards for ‘Anil’.

Weighing up statements – decide whether you agree or disagree with statements about ‘Compass and Torch’ and ‘On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl …’.

Close attention to language – become detail detectives for ‘Something Old, Something New’, convincing others of the significance of crucial elements, focus on the hanging in ‘Anil’, or take a close look at Carla’s speech in ‘My Polish Teacher’s Tie’.

Thought tracking – explore characterisation by speaking a character’s thoughts aloud for ‘Something Old, Something New’ and ‘When the Wasps Drowned’.

Investigating structure – create a log book for ‘Compass and Torch’ or complete a plot diagram for ‘My Polish Teacher’s Tie’.

Exploring images – for ‘Something Old, Something New’, look at images of Khartoum and Edinburgh and imagine visiting one of these cities for the first time.

4 Visual responses – create double-sided masks to explore contrasts in character for ‘The Darkness Out There’.

Games – play a variation on ‘Call My Bluff’ to explore vocabulary from ‘Compass and Torch’.

Flash fiction – produce a piece of flash fiction based on seeing the 100% perfect thing of your choice.

Role play – take part in a post mortem of events in ‘Anil’ (Jerry Springer style), or hot-seat the characters in ‘My Polish Teacher’s Tie’, or role play the speeches that might be given at a wedding reception for ‘Something Old, Something New’, or put Mrs Rutter on trial for ‘The Darkness Out There’.

Adaptability

We’ve included teaching notes with suggestions for differentiation in many resources, and several come with different versions for Higher Tier and Foundation Tier students. Most of the resources lend themselves to adaptation and can easily be tweaked to build in more support or add challenge. Although all the activities have been created with a specific short story in mind, many of them will work just as well with another story, so you really can mix and match.

Approaches to assessment

The digital anthology resources were created primarily with the English Literature exam option in mind. If you’re doing this option, you might like to use some of the resources from other clusters as preparation for the unseen poem (Section B). If you’re teaching poetry for any of the Controlled Assessment Unit 3 options, the resources here should provide a strong starting point for exploring some or all of your chosen texts. You can of course not only pick those resources best suited to the tasks your students are doing, but adapt others to fit the theme or other aspect that they’re focusing on. Finally, several of the activities in this cluster and others provide opportunities for speaking and listening assessment: simply type ‘speaking’ or ‘drama’ into the search engine.

Any questions?

We hope you enjoy using these activities. If you have any questions, comments or feedback on the resources, please get in touch: email [email protected] or call us on 01225 788850.