Session 6

Focus objectives

• To be able to work collaboratively collecting information from a visual image
• To be able to demonstrate their understanding of a text through drawing and annotation

Key teaching approaches

• Drawing
• Annotation
• Discussion

Have a whole-class discussion about what they have found about Jim's life in the workhouse and note the information they find on a large sheet of paper. Model how to use evidence from across a text to support ideas and retrieve helpful information.

Organise the children into groups of three or four and give each group an illustration showing a scene of life in the workhouse, stuck onto a large sheet of paper. See resources for images of life in the workhouse. Ask the children to talk in their groups about what they can see in the image or how it makes them feel and then ask them to make notes around the image on the paper. Share these as a class. Then ask children to make their own annotated drawing of Jim in the workhouse. Ask them to write a caption for their drawing. Encourage discussion of the finished drawings, focusing on what Jim would have been missing about his life before entering the workhouse. Finish the lesson by asking the children to write on a sticky note one of the things that Jim would be missing about his life before he entered the workhouse. The sticky notes can be collected and stuck into the class reading journal.

In a separate PSHE or philosophy session, you could pose the question 'What is a home?' and encourage the children to explore this idea. In a history session, the children could find out more about life in the workhouse.

Session 7

Focus objective

• To use drama techniques to explore a character or a key moment in a plot

Key teaching approaches

• Conscience alley

Begin the session by reading aloud Chapter 8 'The Carpet Beaters'. During the shared part of the lesson, talk with the class about reasons why Jim should try to escape from the workhouse and reasons why he should stay. Then organise the class into two lines facing each other and, with one child in role as Jim walking along the conscience alley, ask the children to call out from one side reasons why he should escape from the workhouse and, from the other, reasons why he should stay. For example, they might say, 'Stay, you've got a roof over your head!' or 'Go, this is no way to live!' Finish the session by asking the children to write their opinions on sticky notes. Collect the ideas together and keep them in a class journal.

Session 8

Focus objectives

• To recognise the ways that the writer has used language to create atmosphere
• To learn to use the language in a narrative text as a starting point for poetry writing

Key teaching approaches

• Rereading
• Visualisation
• Text marking
• Modelled, shared and guided writing
• Word collections
• Collaborative poetry writing

Reread the last paragraph of Chapter 8 'The Carpet Beaters', which begins 'Jim crept forward', asking the children to close their eyes and visualise the scene while you read. Then ask them which words or phrases helped them picture what was happening. Using an enlarged version of the text displayed on a flipchart or an IWB, highlight these words and phrases as the children identify them. Talk with them about how these word choices help us imagine how Jim is feeling. Ask the children to turn to a partner and think of other words and phrases to add to this list to show what is happening and how Jim is feeling. Note these words and phrases on the flipchart. Model how the words collected can be used to create a list poem, for example:

• Escape
• Invisible
• Gliding
• Weak and panting
• Darting
• Hiding,
• Breath bursting

Use shared techniques to explore ways to improve the order of the words and phrases listed. Then ask the children to work collaboratively and, using the word collection to help them, write list poems about Jim's escape. With response partners, the children could work to improve their poems.  Use guided writing to support groups of children writing and redrafting poems.

In a separate dance session, the children could explore Jim's feelings of fear and relief as he escapes from the workhouse.

Read on to Chapter 11 'The Spitting Crow' before the next session.

Session 9

Focus objectives

• To use hotseating to explore a character's story
• To think about the ways that drama helps you think about complex ideas
• To understand a character's point of view and infer their motivation

Key teaching approaches

• Hotseating
• Writing in role
• Shared and guided writing

Read Chapter 10 'Lame Betsy' and Chapter 11 'The Spitting Crow'. Talk with the children about Rosie's story: what might have happened after the night Jim's mother arrived? Why did Rosie and Judd lose their jobs? Is Rosie telling the truth about what happened to Emily and Lizzie? Why might she lie?

Model thinking and composing questions that they might want to ask Rosie about that night and then ask the children to work with a partner to compose questions. With one child in the 'hotseat' as Rosie, ask individuals to pose their questions. After this, give each child a small paper-folded book to represent Rosie's diary, and use shared and guided writing to support children to write an entry in role as Rosie, describing what happened to her after Jim's family arrived at the Big House: why she lost her job, what happened to Jim's sisters and how she feels about seeing Jim again.

End the session by discussing with the class the ways that the activity helped them to write in role.