Session 10

Focus objectives

• To use evidence from the text to collect information about a character and infer their feelings

Key teaching approaches

• Rereading
• Text marking
• Drawing and annotation

Ask the children to talk with a partner about what they have found out about Shrimps. Give them a copy of the extract from Chapter 12 which starts 'One of them was a red haired pokey sort of boy' and ends 'I'll talk to him today I'll find out what he's called that's what'. Ask them to reread this section together and highlight the information they find about Shrimps. Then tell them to draw an outline sketch of Shrimps writing, noting what they have found out about him so far around the edge of their sketch. This could include what he looks like and how he tries to earn money. Then ask them to think about what they know about how Shrimps feels about his mother and his wish for a brother, and write comments on his feelings inside the outline sketch.  Ensure that the children are able to back up their opinion with inferential and deductive evidence from the text.

Read Chapter 13 'The Lily', Chapter 4 'The Waterman's Arms' and Chapter 15 'Josh' before the next session.

Session 11

Focus objectives

• To use drama techniques to explore a character's feelings
• To show their understanding of a character's situation by writing in role

Key teaching approaches

• Freeze-frame
• Thought tracking
• Booktalk
• Writing in role

Talk with the class about what it was like for Jim on board The Lily. Working in pairs, ask the children to freeze-frame a scene from this chapter, perhaps showing Jim shovelling coal. Ask some pairs to voice their thoughts in role. Then write these on thought bubbles. Then ask all the children to write their thoughts in role as Jim on thought bubbles. These could be displayed on the wall or put in a class reading journal.

In an art session, the children could draw charcoal sketches of Jim working for Grimy Nick on board The Lily.

In a history session, the children could find out about child labour. Visit the following website: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRchild.htm.  On these web pages, it is possible to read first-hand accounts and interviews with Victorian working children.

Note: it is important to check the suitability of any extract given to children from this site, because the content is variable.

Before the next session, read on to Chapter 20 'The Green Caravan'.

Session 12

Focus objectives

• To learn to retrieve the main locations and events from a text
• To learn the ways that a story map can help track a character's journey through a narrative

Key teaching approaches

• Story mapping

In shared writing, talk with the class about all the places that Jim has been to during the story. Make a list of these locations and then demonstrate how a character's journey through a book can be depicted with a map of the story. Ask the children to make their own story maps to show Jim's journey from his room in the overcrowded house he shared with his mother and sisters, to the circus.

Before the next session, read on to Chapter 26 'Goodbye Bruvver'.

Session 13

Focus objective

• To show a character's feelings by writing in role

Key teaching approaches

• Discussion
• Modelled, shared and guided writing
• Individual writing

Discuss with the class what Jim would have liked to have told Shrimps about what they could do together in the future to be like 'bruvvers' and what he could tell him that would 'make his ears tingle'. Through modelled, shared and guided writing, write the letter to Shrimps that Jim would have written (if he could write!), showing how he feels about him.

Session 14

Focus objectives

• To tell a story using story maps as notes
• To use drama strategies to explore key moments in a plot

Key teaching approaches

• Storytelling
• Role-play
• Freeze-frame

Ask the children to work in pairs, with one in role as Jim and one as Barney, as Jim tells his story during a shared reading session. The children can use their story maps to help them. Discuss with the children how Barney might feel hearing this story. Then, asking the children to work in groups of five or six, ask them to freeze-frame the scene on the rooftops when Barney sees the street boys for the first time. Ask the children, in role as Barney, to voice their thoughts and make a note of these to refer to in the next session.  Model this process to the children.

Session 15

Focus objectives

• To infer a character's feelings at key points in a text
• To show a character's viewpoint and feelings by writing in role

Key teaching approaches

• Discussion
• Shared and guided writing
• Writing in role

Begin the session by reading the end of the story. Discuss with the children what they know about how Barney feels about hearing Jim's story and seeing the street children, referring to the drama and storytelling in the last session. Ask them to write Doctor Barnardo's diary with a full account of the story he heard from Jim, what he saw on the streets and what he thinks he might do about this situation. This could be done through shared writing and when the children work independently, with you focusing on a guided group.

Session 16

Focus objective

• To use information from an information source and from a fiction text to make a poster

Key teaching approaches

• Shared reading
• Collaborative writing

Read the author's note and show the children information about Doctor Barnardo and his work. Give the children copies of information from the following website page, or encyclopaedias and information books, and ask them to work with a partner to make a poster advertising Doctor Barnardo's homes for destitute boys: 'No destitute child ever turned away' http://www.barnardos.org.uk/who_we_are/history.htm