Ryan here again and this week I read a classic novel that was used with my year 8 English class called Charlotte's Web written by E.B White. The story depicts a pig named Wilbur and his spider friend called Charlotte who saves him from being slaughtered. Wilbur was a pet for the farmers daughter, Fern, due to it being the runt of the litter and her begging her father not to kill him. After being spared, Wilbur gets sold to Fern's uncle and although Fern sometimes visits him, her visits decrease as she becomes older, making Wilbur lonelier each day. Eventually he meets Charlotte, the grey spider who welcomes him into the community of animals living on the farm.
The students who read this story experience a higher reading level and understanding of the story being presented. They are able to connect to these new themes and plot points, especially the compassion of Charlotte and the friendship her and Wilbur possess. They are able to reflect on concepts such as the spiders life cycle as well as that of pigs and their births.
The way this story is written shows great depth and description in terms of the way E.B White portrays situations. A specific example of this would be the description of swinging on a rope swing at the form, having a certain rhythm and feeling specific to this book. The pace of sentences of this part mimics the motion of the swing. This aspect could be shown to students and allow them to understand this in terms of literacy and the meaning this writing style reflects on the rest of the story.
The next book I'll be reading will be The Waterhole by Graeme Base.
Until next time.
If you did a unit on this text Ryan would you show the movie to your students?
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