Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson

It is 1910. Orphaned when her parents die in a train crash, Maia is given the opportunity to join her distant relatives who run a rubber plant in Brazil. Accompanied by her governess, Miss Minton, who has her own reasons for making the journey, Maia’s finds her new family life in South America is not quite as she expected. And it is not long before she is drawn into high adventure deep in the Amazon. The winner of the Smarties Book Prize Gold Award and shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, Journey to the River Sea is an exciting adventure story with themes of family and class, each individual’s responsibility for their own actions, the importance of embracing new experiences and of choosing your own outlook on life.

Overall aims of this teaching sequence. • To explore a longer, character driven narrative. • To explore complex characterisation. • To read widely and for pleasure. • To develop and articulate opinions on a fictional narrative. • To explore and debate key themes within a narrative.

This teaching sequence is designed for a Year 5 or Year 6 class. Overview of this teaching sequence

This teaching sequence is approximately four weeks long if spread out over 20 sessions. The book supports teachers to explore with children a fast-paced, character driven narrative, which addresses highly relevant issues for discussion and debate, and which offers excellent opportunities as a model for children’s own narrative writing and structures.

National Curriculum objectives covered by this sequence

Reading: (Word reading / Comprehension) Writing: (Transcription / Composition)

. Read and discuss an increasingly wide . Identify the audience for and purpose range of fiction, poetry, plays, non- of the writing, selecting the fiction and reference books or appropriate form and using other textbooks. Read books that are similar writing as models for their own. structured in different ways and . Note and develop initial ideas, drawing reading for a range of purposes. on reading and research where . Increase their familiarity with a wide necessary. range of books, including myths, . Draft and write by describing settings, legends and traditional stories, characters and atmosphere and modern fiction, fiction from our integrating dialogue to convey literary heritage, and books from other character and advance the action. cultures and traditions. . Evaluate and edit by assessing the . Identify and discuss themes and effectiveness of their own and others’ conventions in and across a wide range writing. of writing. . Propose changes to vocabulary,

©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

. Ask questions to improve their grammar and punctuation to enhance understanding. effects and clarify meaning . Draw inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence. . Predict what might happen from details stated and implied. . Participate in discussions about books that are read to them and those they can read for themselves, building on their own and others’ ideas and challenging views courteously. . Explain and discuss their understanding of what they have read, including through formal presentations and debates, maintaining a focus on the topic and using notes where necessary. . Provide reasoned justifications for their views.

Speaking and Listening: . Pupils should be taught to ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge, articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions, give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings, participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debates, and consider and evaluate different viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others.

Cross Curricular Links:

Geography

. Children should understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region of the United Kingdom, a region in a European country, and a region within North or South America. Children should describe and understand key aspects of: physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle. Art and Design . Pupils should be taught to develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.

Music

. Pupils should be taught to improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music

Teaching Approaches Writing Outcomes . Reading Aloud and Rereading . Poetry . ‘Tell Me’ – Booktalk . A note to a friend . Role on the Wall . Diary entries . Reading Journals . Notes for research . Drama and Role Play – Hot Seating/ . Timetables Freeze Frame/ Thought Tracking/ . Annotated maps Conscience Alley . Notes of advice . Dance . Narrative fiction . Visual Approaches - Visualisation/ . Letters Illustration/ Story Mapping . Writing in Role . Shared Writing

Links to other texts:

. The Star of Kazan and The Dragonfly Pool, both by Eva Ibbotson. Two further adventure stories from the author of Journey to the River Sea. . Anthony Horowitz’s Stormbreaker would provide an good comparative text, which has many similarities in terms of its plot of a young person thrown into a new world by circumstances outside their control. The two narratives are similarly character driven (while Journey to the River Sea has a strong female protagonist, Stormbreaker has a strong male lead), and both are gripping adventure stories. . For a comparison text with an equally strong female protagonist, Dead Man’s Cove and Kidnap in the Caribbean, both by Lauren St John, are strong adventure stories, in a contemporary setting. . The story of Little Lord Fauntleroy, by Frances Hodgeson Burnett (1886) is mentioned in the text, and you could investigate this text further for its thematic links to Journey to the River Sea.

Resources . A wide range of information books about the Amazon and the Brazilian rainforest for your children’s research, and for a themed display in your book corner.

Teaching Sessions

Sessions 1 &2: Research The aim of the first two sessions is to ascertain what your children already know about the Amazon and Brazil and what they would like to find out, in advance of reading any of the text.

. Discuss with your children what they already know about the Amazon and the Brazilian rainforest. . Ask your children, in pairs, to note down what they already know, and some of the things they would like to find out, and, following this, create a master list on a flipchart or IWB. . From the list of things the children have indicated they would like to find out, model turning these ideas into research questions, for example, Which species of animals that live along the Amazon are endangered? . Ask your children to work in pairs to formulate their own research question based on the ideas you have gathered as a class, and to prepare a short visual presentation. . Model for your children a range of options for presenting their research to the group, in order to increase the knowledge of the whole class about the setting.

Session 3: Reading aloud, ‘Tell Me’ – Booktalk, Role on the Wall

. Read aloud page 1 to ‘Moreover, they took in children whose parents were abroad and needed somewhere to spend the holidays’. . Use the basic ‘Tell Me’ questions to discuss the opening of the novel. For the special questions, focus on the setting and the time in which the story is set – When do you think the story is set? What evidence for this is there in the text? . Read the rest of Chapter One aloud. . Ask your children to discuss in pairs what they have discovered so far about the characters, in particular the character of Maia. . Create a class role on the wall for the character of Maia, using a single colour to add information gleamed from the text so far about her appearance, her likes and dislikes, and aspects of her character. . Re-read the section ‘Those who think of the Amazon as a Green Hell bring only their own fears and prejudices to this amazing land. For whether a place is a hell or a heaven rests in yourself, and those who go with courage and an open mind may find themselves in Paradise.’ . Discuss as a class what this statement means. Ask the children whether they think this statement is an accurate one, and how different characters might experience the same place in entirely different ways. . Start a class glossary of unfamiliar words that can be added to as the story progresses (you will need to encourage the children to pick out these unfamiliar words as you continue through the story).

Session 4-5: Reading Journals, Reading Aloud, Drama and Role Play – Hot Seating, Shared Writing

. Read Chapter Two aloud. . Following the reading, add to the role on the wall for Maia with any new information we gain about her from the journey to Brazil. . Ask the children to consider what questions they would ask Maia as she disembarked the boat at Manaus. Ask them, in pairs, to formulate their questions. . Ask one of the children to hot seat the character of Maia, and the other children to put to her their questions about how she feels at this key point in the text, when she enters a new phase of her life, and an entirely new setting for her, bearing in mind what the children already know about Maia’s character. What are her hopes and fears for this new place, and what does she expect she will find there? . In Session five, give each of the children a reading journal they can use for the novel (a blank notebook each will be suitable for this). Explain their journal will be written from the perspective of Maia, and will include writing and illustration in a variety of forms. . Shared write the beginning of a diary entry with the children, considering carefully the choice of words for this character. . Ask the children to continue Maia’s diary entry at this point, exploring her fears, her expectations and hopes for this new place and the family she hopes will be waiting for her.

Session 6 & 7: Visualisation, Reading Aloud, Dance

. Re-read page 22 to 28, which describes the journey along the river. . There are many videos on YouTube with sounds of the Amazon rainforest, including: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGEHYY8c8VM . In small groups, make notes on the sounds of the Amazon, words and phrases that come to mind. Ask the children to close their eyes for a couple of minutes, before opening them to make notes on what they can hear. . Watch a primarily visual video, and layer meaning – such as this National Geographic video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qOpPo-onf0 . In small groups, create a dance with scarves based on what Maia and Miss Minton would have been able to see from the deck of the ship. In turns, each group takes it in turn to be passengers on The Cardinal, travelling along the river, while the other groups perform their different dances. . Each group then writes, on a long strip of paper, a short phrase about a particular sight or sound of the Amazon that captures their experience. . Display the lines and, as a class, discuss the way in which we might order them to create a class poem about the sights and sounds of the Amazon. . When you have an order you’re happy with, model editing the poem with the children to help it flow, through reading it aloud and picking out sections that don’t sound quite right.

Session 8: Writing in Role, Reading Aloud, Role Play

. Read to the end of Chapter Three. . Discuss the children’s reactions to Minty’s plan – ask the children how do they think Maia

felt when she heard the plan? . Role play an imaginary conversation between Maia and a character she would like to share her news with (perhaps Clovis) about Miss Minton and her plan. The children should discuss their thoughts about Miss Minton as a character, the plan itself, Maia’s thoughts and feelings about her life in the Carters’ house and what the plan means to her. . Ask the children to individually write a short diary entry for Maia, written the evening after Miss Minton has revealed her plan. . Before the next session read aloud up to the end of Chapter Four, ensuring the children have opportunities to respond to the text as you go along. Ensure you are adding to the class glossary as you go along for words such as manatee, quinine, formalin and dirndl.

Session 9 & 10: Visual Approaches – Illustration, Reading Aloud,

. Read aloud Chapter Five and Chapter Six. . Ask the children to discuss in pairs or groups of three what they have found out about Maia’s life with the Carters. . Discuss this as a class then ask children to work in groups to make a list together of how she spends her time. . Ask the children to create a detailed timetable of Maia’s day or week (which includes the minutia, such as what she eats at the Carters house and what she does during her highly regimented day). You could extent this activity by annotating the timetables with the activities Maia would rather be doing at each point in the day, perhaps in a different colour pen. . In Session Ten, read aloud Chapter Seven and ask the children to discuss in pairs how they think Maia feels about life with the Carters, and what evidence there is for her feelings in the text. Discuss with the children the differences between the life the Carters lead and the life of the people who live around their house. . Give the children an A3 piece of paper with a vertical line down the centre. Ask the children to create an illustration (using charcoal for their depiction of life at the Carters and oil paints for their illustration of life in the huts beyond the Carters’ compound. These pictures could be used as the basis for a class display.

Session 11: Story Mapping

. Ask the children what we know about the story world so far. Ask them to work in small groups to list the different settings (those set within Brazil) – the Carter’s house, Manaus (including the theatre and the museum), the Indian village, the rainforest and The Negro. . Show the children a selection of images of the Amazon rainforest and of Manaus (see http://jorgevismara.net/ce/2008/1005tabest/) . Ask the children to create their own annotated maps of Maia’s world, showing the various areas the children listed earlier. Ask them to further annotate these maps with information about how Maia feels about each of these settings and the emotions she might associate with them.

Session 12: Drama and Role Play, Reading and Rereading

. Re-read the section of Chapter Seven in which Maia is taken to the lagoon. . Ask the children, in pairs, to make notes on the sights and sounds she would have passed on her way to the lagoon, creating a detailed picture of what Maia’s experience would have been. . Ask the children to write a short audio guide for Maia as she is taken along the river. . Split the children into pairs, and ask one to close their eyes while the other reads out their audio description of the journey Maia takes on the way to the lagoon. . Ask the children then to take the role of Maia and to write, in her journal, a short passage on her feelings when she takes off her blindfold.

Session 13: Role on the Wall, Writing in Role

. Discuss as a class the children’s impressions of the characters Mrs Carter, Mr Carter, Miss Minton, the twins, Clovis and Finn. . Divide the class into six groups and allocate each group a character to concentrate on. In their groups, ask the children to create a roll on the wall for their character, drawing on information they have gathered from the text so far. . Give each of the groups a large sheet of paper with the outline of a character drawn onto it and ask the groups to add detail to the character, with their thoughts and feelings on the inside of the shape and their physical attributes on the outside. . Share these character studies with the rest of the class. . Ask the children to write in roll as Maia (using their journals), writing a letter to a friend at The Mayfair Academy, describing their chosen character, her impressions of them so far, the questions she has about them, and what she thinks about them. . Read to the end of Chapter Nine before the next session.

Session 14: Debate and Argument, Conscience Alley,

. Hold a whole class discussion about Sir Aubrey and whether or not he should pursue his nephew. Ask the children to contribute their thoughts, bearing in mind both Sir Aubrey’s wishes and Finn’s. . Re-read the last three pages of Chapter Nine, from ‘In the hut beside the lagoon’. . Ask the children to consider for themselves what Finn should do in this situation. . Create a conscience alley to explore what the children think Finn ought to do – should he go back to Westwood and face the responsibilities Sir Aubrey considers he has, or stay in Brazil? What are the pros and cons of each of these decisions? Choose one child to act as Finn and have him/ her walk down the conscience alley, slowly; listening to the advice the children give the character. . Ask the child role playing Finn what they would do, having been listened to all the advice and what has convinced them to make the choice they have. . Ask each child to write a short note to Finn in their journals, advising him what he should do

and explaining why. . Read to the end of Chapter Thirteen before the next session.

Session 15: Hot Seating and Writing in Role

. Ask the children to work with a partner and imagine what they would like to ask Finn, Clovis or Miss Minton about their experiences and feelings the night Clovis hid in the museum and how Clovis might respond to this situation. . Gather the class together and, with children taking the roles of these characters, ask the other children to pose questions to them (such as, to Miss Minton – ‘How did you feel about these plans going on around you, and that the children were caught up in?’, and to Clovis, ‘How did you feel, hiding in the museum. What were your thoughts and feelings as you were hiding there?’ . Read up to the end of Chapter Seventeen before the next session.

Session 16: Debate and Discussion

. Discuss as a class, their thoughts on Clovis and his impersonation of Finn, as well as the complex decision he must make about whether to remain in role as Finn. . Hold a class debate to discuss whether Clovis should, morally, explain who he really is, or should he continue to impersonate Finn. Split the class into two groups and assign each of the groups one side of the argument. . Ask the children to formulate their arguments based on the information they have both about Sir Aubrey and about Clovis, taking into consideration each character’s motivation for doing what they are doing. . Read up to Chapter Nineteen before the next session.

Session 17: Shared Writing, Writing in Role, Drama and Role Play

. Discuss Mr Carter’s actions on the night of the fire, as well as Miss Minton’s feelings when she realises Maia is missing. Ask the children to make notes on both in their journals. . Discuss what the Manaus newspaper would be likely to say about the fire. As a whole class, formulate the questions they would want to ask and to whom they would want to ask them. . Set up a series of role play situations in which some children act as reporters for the paper, and others act as the different characters involved. . Shared write the opening paragraph of a news report on the fire, and then ask the children to continue this report in their groups, pooling the information they have gathered, and considering how best to display the information (whether for an online news report, a printed report, or as a report to be read by a radio news reporter. . Read Chapter Twenty before the next session.

Sessions 18: Freeze Frame, Thought Tracking and Writing in Role

. Reread Chapter Twenty, and ask the children in small groups to choose a scene from the chapter to freeze frame (for example, when Finn finds Maia, cooking fish on a fire in the bay, tending to Maia’s wounded leg, or collecting medicinal plants). Ask each of the groups to write captions for their freeze frames to sum up what the characters feel at this point, and to sum up what this moment means to them. . Take time to look at all the freeze frames and for time to discuss each of them in turn as a class. . Follow this up by asking the children to write, in their journals, as Maia, about a day spent on The Arabella. . Finish reading the story before the next session.

Sessions 19: ‘Tell Me’ - Booktalk

. Finish the story allowing children to share their responses using the ‘Tell Me’ framework. . Enable the discussion to address important questions such as why Finn wanted to return to the Amazon, and whether Clovis should have agreed to live as Finn at Westwood. Why Miss Minton decided to return with Finn and Maia to the Amazon referring to it as ‘going home’. What does she mean when she says children should live ‘big lives?’ . Read the preface by Eva Ibbotson to the class and discuss her intentions when writing the book. Ask the children if this changes in any way, their reading of the novel and whether it adds anything to the meaning they take from it.

Session 20: Writing in Role, Bookmaking

. Over the final two sessions (or more), ask the children to map out the key events in the story as seen by Miss Minton, who – for most of the story – hides her true intentions and feelings. Discuss with the children why she chose to do this. . Discuss Miss Minton in more depth, her reasons for going to Brazil, her thoughts and feelings about Bernard, about Finn and about Maia, and her outlook on life, which, in many ways, stands in opposition to those around her. Explore the journey she has taken in more detail. . Ask the children to plan, draft, write and edit Miss Minton’s narrative, told in the first person, from the moment she hears about Maia. You could choose to identify a series of key chapters to write from Miss Minton’s perspective as a whole class, or allow the children more independence and autonomy over their choices. . Find opportunities to publish the children’s work, and to share it, both within the class and more broadly, across the school. You could desktop publish the children’s work, and have them create illustrations to go along with theirs, or choose an alternative format in which they could present their work, such as a graphic novel.