Week 3 - The Steadfast Tin Soldier

Hey guys it's Laura,


This week I read the book 'The Steadfast Tin Soldier' by Hans Christian Anderson. I thought the book was to the point with the characters and the storyline and also with the underlining tone of the story. This book was fairly short so the author couldn't go into much detail but he did describe the characters well enough to understand them and their role in the story. the main theme of the story was 'The Quest'. It involves the tin soldier working hard and not giving up so he can reach his goal. The goal of the tin soldier was to reach his love, the ballerina. The particular print that I read did provide pictures to link to the story and I found them to be a great visual aid to picture the characters and the setting.

The story in the beginning started out with only one main character, the steadfast tin soldier, but as the story different characters with different roles were introduced into the story. For a story so short, lots of 'steps' in the story were described but they could only be mentioned briefly.

I thought the author conveyed the thoughts and feelings of the tin soldier well, but kept a faint mystery about the ballerina until the end where she proves her love. Though the characters didn't say much, their actions conveyed their intentions well and I thought overall this was a great story, suitable for a literacy classroom.

Week 3 - The Wolf's Chicken Stew

Hello there!

Ryan here again, this week I have just finished reading The Wolf's Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza. This book was very interesting and could be utilised very well in a teaching situation. It tells the story of a hungy wolf and his craving for chicken stew and after finding a chicken that can satisfy this craving, he tries to fatten her up. He does this by leaving various foods on her front doorstep, each time cooking something different and something bigger. However, at the end it turns out that the chicken has dozens of baby chicks and he has been feeding them instead. The chicks are very appreciative of what he has been doing and all give him hugs, calling him "uncle wolf", with the wolf leaving with a change of heart and wanting to help the chicks eat again. The themes of this story is change and how sometimes doing one thing can lead to another.

By being able to implement this with students and show the values and morals associated with this story, the students would be able to reflect on how to use this example in their own life. It also has an very subtle underlying theme of health and how eating too many bad foods can negatively affect you. This is reinforced with the wolf continuously saying "Let's fatten you up with all these pancakes". There is slight counting involved in the book, especially in the aspect of the wolfs cooking, but it mainly focuses on common literacy and understanding the structure of the story. I would use this again with year 2 - 3 students.

The next book I will be reviewing My Cat Maisie by Pamela Allen, I have never heard of it before and found it in my local library, being attracted by the vibrant colours and well drawn illustrations.

Until next time.

Week 3- Workshop Summary

Hi guys, Julia here,

Just giving a recap of what we discussed today in the English Language and Literacy workshop!

First we talked about what inspired us in the Gamble and Yates reading. We discussed many points which were made about narratives but came to the conclusion that objective points were extremely interesting. An objective point (or dramatic viewpoint) is one where the writer does not enter the minds of any characters. All is revealed through actions. We talked about how the writer expresses actions by adjectives and verbs and thought it was interesting that the actions of someone can determine a viewpoint. I guess it is like someone’s body language!

We then went on to explain story shapes and clarified any confusion we had. When we compared our shapes they were indeed similar. We liked how they broke down the classic way books and movies tell stories (setting, action, climax, resolution, etc).

Next we linked our story shapes to the basic 7 plots. Our books incorporated the plots of

-          Comedy

-          Tragedy

-          The quest

An example of a book using basic plots was The Steadfast Soldier. It incorporated the basic plot of the quest. Around 90% of the book was the quest (the soldier was on the quest). After the climax however the resolution was a tragedy (the soldier dies).

Lastly we talked about narrative techniques. I talked about some techniques that were incorporated by Paul Jennings into his book The Gizmo. Jennings uses imagery well. He used adjectives and verbs to explain character profiles and they often contradicted the illustrations. This technique gave deeper meaning to the book. Jennings also writes in first person so he can get inside the narrators head.  

This week’s readings have helped us analyse the structure of narratives and be aware of the different techniques that can be used by authors.

Week 3- Have You Seen My Cat?

Hi, Julia here,

This week I have read the picture book Have You Seen My Cat? by Eric Carle. The book was very simple but also quite interesting. The entire book had 3 phrases in it!

-          Have you seen my cat?

-          That’s not my cat

-          This is my cat!

However, there was a story to follow and this was because of the books illustrations. Like we learnt in lecture 2, a book can be told once from its text and again from its illustration. This book did this!

It is a book suitable for very young children and they could purely flick through it and still understand what the book was about. It was basically about establishing different types of cats. That is wild ones and pet ones. The book supports Winch’s idea of how illustrations represent a 3 dimension world.

Have You Seen My Cat? was an overall enjoyable book.

Next week I will post about The Gizmo by Paul Jennings which I'm reading as part of my author study!

Week 3 - Dr. Dog.

Hello there!

Ryan here again. I have just finished reading Dr. Dog by Babette Cole. Considering I was read this book as a young boy, it was almost exactly as I remember it. Presenting a very quirky and odd story, saying things like "Never scratch your bum and suck your thumb". Although saying this out of context sounds rather odd, reading it through the story promotes hygiene to young readers in a way that is both entertaining and fun. It also helps overcome the fear held by most children dealing with how doctors can be seen as scary and are most often associated with pain. Considering Dr. Dog is a doctor that makes house calls, also being a very loving beagle, helps to overcome some of these thoughts and notions. The pictures were also very well done, having lots of warm colours surrounding the characters and their environment. The best part in my opinion however, was how the book ended on a fart joke.

Reading this book to young students years 2 - 3 would best suited, allowing them to become familiar with some of the words in the story. As far as individual reading goes this might be good for students 3 - 4. There are some tricky spots that they could find challenging, but with the visual aid of the pictures they would overcome them with little difficulty. The story of this book is also excellent at stimulating the imagination of students, simply due to the wacky idea of a dog being a doctor.

The next book I'm going to read is The Wolf's Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza, which was recommended by my sister who is a teacher of year 3 students! I'm looking forward to reading it.

Until next time.

Week 3 Pinocchio

Hi guys, Julia here,

This week I finished reading Pinocchio. It was an interesting book overall. It started like any other fairy tale (‘once upon a time’) but it actually went on to talk about some very important morals and values. The entire book gives the message of the importance of family to readers. It is through Pinocchio that the reader is able to realize that children can't live without a guardian or parent. The book also shows why not to trust strangers when Mr. Fox and Mr. Cat promised Pinocchio that if he buries gold coins they'll turn into money trees. This obviously did not happen and Pinocchio was left facing the consequences. Funny enough it was through his consequences that the learnt about the consequences of lying. Pinocchio's nose grew whenever he lied!

I could go on and on about the book but the main message I think the author wants to show the readers is that we make our own decisions. We need to learn to not be influenced by others and to take responsibility for our own actions! Basically Pinocchio in the book was not a 'real boy' and he could not grow up because he was unable to make his own decision and not lie.

The text is a great transition from a picture book to novel because although it is still a picture book there is a lot more writing. The book still uses simple language however and the author incorporates many descriptive adjectives making the text enjoyable.

I am now starting to read another picture book called Have You Seen My Cat?

Jordan Rhind

Howdy,

My Name is Jordan Rhind and I am a second year education student at Mawson Lakes. I am specializing in PE and Science. Physical Education is my favourite subject by far but I am also interested in the science of space and the human bodies. When I am not at uni I am usually playing my favourite sport which is hockey.

I found this week’s lecture didn’t really explain the first assignment that well but the work shop made it clear what we have to do. I found this week’s readings quite interesting as it outlined the need for children to be read to.

This week I have read Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone.  I decided that I wanted to read the Harry Potter series after watching the movies. Once I started to read this I found that I couldn’t put it down, I just wanted to read it to find out what was doing to happen next. I found the first book really interesting and it has made me excited to read the second book and the whole series.