others. Once they have planned what they are going to say, discuss what the mystery of The Missing Dinosaur Bone could be about and whether there were any clues in Voices 1, 2 and 3 that something was wrong with the dinosaur. Learners don’t have to write the entire story so they can be as creative as they like with the flashback idea and what Voice 4 might have remembered as he thinks back to those moments in the museum and meeting Jax who knows everything about the dinosaur. • Remind learners that they are writing in the first person and encourage them to include details and a speaking style that would match an 11–12 year old boy, including colloquialisms, slang or informal text/ punctuation features. If you are using the PCMs, you could use PCM 15 Voice 4 at the museum at this point. • Learners should read their drafts to a partner once or twice to get feedback on the speaking style, whether the content matches the other voices, whether he remembers a ‘clue’ that could help him in his new adventure. Tell them it is like he is talking to himself – asking himself questions (as Jax did) – even if they end up being rhetorical questions without an answer. Allow learners time to edit their drafts, maybe incorporating feedback and proofreading for errors, refer to PCM 6 Check, check and check again! Differentiation: • Ask some learners to role play what the other characters might have said about Voice 4 if they were asked to remember him specifically from the day at the museum. • Encourage some learners to write the entire story of The Missing Dinosaur Bone. It can be an ongoing task for extension. They can type it up and illustrate it by hand or using ICT and produce it as a short novel, possibly dividing it into chapters.
28
Unit 1 Different voices – different times
Assessment opportunities • Assess learners’ ability to role play and adapt their speaking style to reflect their character. • Assess how well they maintain a consistent narrative voice in their first person narrative flashback. • Negotiate appropriate success criteria with the learners. Here are some suggestions: We must write Voice 4’s version of events at the museum We must write in first person narrative. The content must fit in with the other voices’ versions of events The ‘voice’ must suit the style and personality of a young boy through the language and written style. It must be a flashback and contain at least one clue that would fit The Missing Dinosaur Bone story. Activity Book A Learners may have learned about perspective in art classes. Talk about seeing an object from different angles, for example drawing an object from a bird’seye view and from different sides. Explore and display optical illusions associated with perspective; examples are easily found online. B Learners rewrite the narrative from Shahid’s perspective using first person narrative pronouns such as I and we. They can add to and take away from the text as necessary, e.g. to imagine his response to what Zahra is saying. Choose whether learners must edit their work to presentation standard, or whether for some learners the content is more important to ensure that they have understood how to write from a different perspective about the same set of events. Answers: A–B Learners’ own answers.