Assessment 1 Spring 2017 English Curriculum

ENGLISH LESSON PLANNING TEMPLATE

Class: Year 8- Lesson 1/3 Time: 60 minutes

Pre-service teacher’s Objectives

My personal objective for this lesson is to engage all students in the introduction to
the study of a textual concept. The greater the extent of student participation and
engagement, the more useful the mind map activity will be as a method of verbal
formative assessment to gauge students’ prior knowledge.

Outcomes
› responds to and composes texts for understanding, interpretation, critical analysis, imaginative
expression and pleasure EN4-1A
o respond to and compose imaginative, informative and persuasive texts for different
audiences, purposes and contexts for understanding, interpretation, critical analysis,
imaginative expression and pleasure

› effectively uses a widening range of processes, skills, strategies and knowledge for responding to
and composing texts in different media and technologies EN4-2A
o reflect on ideas and opinions about characters, settings and events in literary texts,
identifying areas of agreement and difference with others and justifying a point of
view (ACELT1620)

Materials

 ‘Class mind map activity’ worksheet

 ‘Class mind map activity- Teacher resource’ worksheet

 Little Red Cap by Jacob and Wilhem Grimm
 Whiteboard
 Whiteboard markers

Procedures
Time Organisation Teaching/ learning activities
5 Teacher; Teacher; Instruct students to consider the concept of
Distribute mind ‘representation’. Encourage discussion with the student next to
map worksheet them, to generate ideas to be used in the creation of a class mind
and take map on representation.
attendance. Take attendance and distribute mind map worksheet during
student discussion.
Students;
Seated at desks. Students; Think individually, and discuss in pairs the concept of
representation and how it could relate to texts. Generate ideas to
be contributed to the creation of a class mind map on
representation.
10 Teacher; Teacher; Regain attention of the class.

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Use whiteboard at Write ‘Representation’ on the board and ask students to raise
the front of the their hands and contribute their definition of, and ideas about
class. representation.
Use the whiteboard to record student ideas and create a
Students; collaborative class mind map. (A sample completed mind map,
Seated at desks. with possible responses has been included within the lesson
resources for teacher use.)
Instruct students to replicate this process on their mind map
worksheet.

Students; Raise their hands and share their existing knowledge

and understanding of the concept of representation.
The class mind-map generated on the board is replicated by
students on their mind-map worksheets.
5 Teacher; Teacher; Ask students to consider how representation might be
At the front of the used in texts. Facilitate a class discussion, based on texts students
room. have encountered previously.
Prompt students further by asking students, “how understanding
Students; the concept of representation can help to understand texts?”
Seated at desks. (This question, in conjunction with the mind map activity
formatively assesses students’ prior knowledge. Anticipated
responses are included in the teacher resource for this lesson).
Following discussion, ask students to write a few lines, in their
own words, which responds to this question on their mind map
worksheet.
Students; Respond to teacher questions by raising hands and
sharing their ideas. These ideas and the class mind-map are used
by students to help them write a few lines on how understanding
representation can help them to understand texts.
Students add this worksheet to their workbooks.
5 Teacher; Teacher; While handing out copies of the reading, asks students to
Distribute copies read the text individually. (Little Red Cap by Jacob and Wilhem
of Little Red Cap, Grimm, is included in the resources for this lesson).
by Jacob and
Wilhem Grimm. Students; Receive copies of the story and begin to read the text on
their own.
Students;
Seated at desks.
10 Teacher; Teacher; Regain the attention of the class and inform them that
Seated at desk. the class is going to read through the text together.
Model the process of reading aloud to students by reading out the
Students; first paragraph.
Seated at desks. Request student volunteers to read aloud, a paragraph each, while
the whole class follows along.

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Students; Follow along as students read the text aloud, raising

their hands to volunteer to read a portion of the text. This process
of reading and volunteering continues until the text is completed.
15 Teacher; Teacher; Ask students to identify the characters encountered in
Use the the story. Divide the space on the board according to characters
whiteboard at the identified by students.
front of the room. Proceed asking students to describe how these characters are
represented within the story.
Characters and descriptors could include; Little Red Cap- young,
Students; female, gullible, silly, easily fooled.
Seated at desks. Granny- Old, wise, female, sickly.
Wolf- Cunning, curious, hungry.
Hunter- Male, thoughtful, protective.
Record student ideas on the board, prompting students with
suggestions when necessary.

Students; Identify the characters within the story.

Verbally describe how each of these characters was represented.
Replicate the list of characters and representations in their own
workbooks.
10 Teacher; Teacher; Request student responses to the story and how
Utilise the particular characters and genders were represented in the text. Do
whiteboard at the they agree with the representations?
front of the room The purpose of this concluding activity is to encourage students to
to record student verbally articulate their responses to the text. This is a formative
thoughts. exercise which can gauge student engagement throughout the
lesson and can be used to identify any information that may need
Students; to be revisited.
Seated at desks.
Students; Raise their hands to verbally volunteer their thoughts on
representation within the text.
Homework Instruct students to pick one character. This could be a character
they enjoyed, did not like or a character that they would like to
see represented differently within the story. Ask them to imagine
how they would like to see them represented differently.
Ask students to write three sentences to describe them. Do they
look differently? Did they change their behaviour or their
personality? How have they changed them?
Ask students to write another three sentences to justify why they
selected that character and why they changed them the way that
they did.
Ideas that can be suggested to the class to make this activity more
accessible to any students who lack confidence in this type of
exercise could include, making Little Red Cap more suspicious or
curious. The hunter could be more blood-thirsty or the hunter be
changed to a woman. The wolf might be old and frail, young and
inexperienced, or maybe the wolf has a family to feed.

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Evaluation/ Extension
I will be closely observing which students are participating in discussion throughout
the lesson. The concluding activity for this lesson is a class discussion which is
designed as a verbal formative assessment, in which even the most reluctant
students are empowered to respond to the text. Prompting questions can be used to
engage reluctant students to share their thoughts of the representation of
characters and gender within the text. These responses can be used to evaluate
student connection with the lesson outcomes which involve responding to texts.

In retrospect
I believe that while this lesson does not contain resources differentiated for students
of different backgrounds and literacy levels, the high degree of classroom
collaboration, combined with the process of reading the text aloud as a class,
empowers and enables students who may struggle with reading and comprehension
on their own, to engage with the text and the ideas discussed.

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ENGLISH LESSON PLANNING TEMPLATE

Class: Year 8- Lesson 2/3 Time: 60 minutes

Pre-service teacher’s Objectives

Within this lesson there is the need for students to draw on their knowledge of the
textual concept of representation, established in the previous lesson. This will
require explicit instruction to students to draw on this knowledge as well as
prompting students with questions and suggestions.

Outcomes
› identifies and explains connections between and among texts EN4-6C
o identify and explain the links between the ideas, information, perspectives
and points of view presented in a range of different texts
o identify, compare and describe the connection between texts with similar subject
matter, such as a book and its film adaptation

› effectively uses a widening range of processes, skills, strategies and knowledge for responding to
and composing texts in different media and technologies EN4-2A
o reflect on ideas and opinions about characters, settings and events in literary texts,
identifying areas of agreement and difference with others and justifying a point of
view (ACELT1620)

Materials

 Little White Riding Hood by Barbara G. Walker

 Whiteboard
 Whiteboard markers
 Dictionary

Procedures
Time Organisation Teaching/ learning activities
5 Teacher; Teacher; Distribute copies of text Little White Riding Hood by
Distribute Barbara G. Walker to students.
copies of Little Instruct students to read silently, and to highlight any difficult
White Riding words or terms, while attendance is taken.
Hood by
Barbara G. Students; Receive copies of text and complete initial read
Walker. through individually. While reading the text, highlight words or
Take terms that they are not comfortable with.
attendance

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Students;
Seated at
desks
10 Teacher; Teacher; Prompt students to suggest terms to be defined.
Utilise the These terms are then listed on the whiteboard. Once a term is
whiteboard. identified, ask for student volunteers to provide definitions. A
dictionary can be utilised by the class if necessary.
Students;
Seated at Students; Identify terms to be defined, as well as propose
desks. definitions of terms suggested by other students.
For any terms that cannot be defined by the class, the
dictionary can be used to provide definitions.
15 Teacher; Teacher; Instruct students to follow along as the text is re-read
Seated. aloud as a class. Model reading aloud for the class by reading
out the first paragraph.
Students;
Seated at Students; volunteer to read aloud, rotating students each
desks. paragraph while the class follows along.

10 Teacher; Teacher; Orchestrate think, pair, share activity during which

Move students consider and discuss how the traditional tale of Little
throughout the Red Cap by Jacob and Wilhem Grimm, and its characters, are
room represented differently by Barbara. G. Walker.
Move around the room, ensuring students are on task. After a
Students; few minutes, bring students together for a whole class
Seated at discussion of the new text.
desks. Prompting questions could include – What is your opinion of
this version? Which version do you prefer, and why? How are
the representations within the texts different?

Students; Think individually about the different representation

of a traditional story. Share these ideas with a peer before
contributing responses to class discussion.
10 Teacher; Teacher; Lead classroom discussion on character
Record student representation, both within Little White Riding Hood and in
ideas on comparison, with Little Red Cap. Encourage students to reflect
whiteboard. on their discussion of representation within the previous
lesson, to inform their ideas.
Students;
Seated at Students; Identify the central characters within Little White
desks. Riding Hood and discuss how they are represented within the
text. Once this is established students discuss how these
representations are different to those identified last lesson in
Little Red Cap, by drawing on their existing knowledge.

10 Teacher; Teacher; Instruct students to write a paragraph that explains

Seated at desk. how the representation of characters is different between the

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two texts. This should include explicit instruction to describe

Students; how their reaction to the text was different and why.
Seated at Paragraphs are to be collected as an evaluation of student
desks. responses to the concept representation as explored within
the two texts. This exercise will not be graded but used to give
feedback to students and to identify any confusion, or if more
discussion of the concept is needed.

Students; Write and hand in a paragraph which explains the

different representations of character and gender within and
between the two texts, as discussed in class. Students are
encouraged to include their responses to these different
representations.
Homework Students are to select a fairy tale that they are personally
familiar with. Examples could include Three Little Pigs, The
Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel.
Suggest to students that they should select a fairy tale that
they would like to use in an imaginative writing exercise that
focuses on representation. This could involve a fairy tale that
they always liked or that they never enjoyed, or simply one
that they would like to represent differently.
Have students bring in an accessible copy of their selected
fairy tale for use in lesson three, whether printed or accessible
on a device.
For students who are unfamiliar with common fairy tales, they
are encouraged to select a childhood story that is more
culturally relevant. Alternatively, these students, along with
students of low literacy levels, there is the option to utilise one
of the texts read in class.

Evaluation/ Extension
The homework task of selecting a fairy tale style text for use in the next lesson is a
follow up activity which provides students with a tangible connection between the
lessons. Not only has the textual concept remained the focus of these lessons but
the style of texts studied has remained consistent whilst increasing in complexity.
In order to evaluate this lesson it is important to engage with students during their
think pair share activity as you move throughout the room, clarifying ideas and
providing support and suggestions when needed.

In retrospect
The continued practice of reading aloud texts as a class, and modelling this practice
as a teacher, not only practices literacy skills of reading and comprehension but also
eliminates these skills as obstacles to student participation. Furthermore, students of
different cultural backgrounds and low literacy levels are able to utilise the texts
already discussed extensively in class for their homework activity, which is to locate
a fairy tale style text to be used for a creative writing exercise in the next class.

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ENGLISH LESSON PLANNING TEMPLATE

Class: Year 8 Lesson: 3/3 Time: 60

Pre-service teacher’s Objectives

The purpose of this lesson is to encourage students to draw on their existing
knowledge, established in the previous lessons and to use this knowledge in their
creative writing task. Furthermore, this lesson concludes with students submitting an
explanation to explicitly describe how they used their knowledge of representation
as a textual concept to inform their work.

Outcomes
› responds to and composes texts for understanding, interpretation, critical analysis, imaginative
expression and pleasure EN4-1A
o respond to and compose imaginative, informative and persuasive texts for different
audiences, purposes and contexts for understanding, interpretation, critical analysis,
imaginative expression and pleasure

› thinks imaginatively, creatively, interpretively and critically about information, ideas and
arguments to respond to and compose texts EN4-5C
o compose texts using alternative, creative and imaginative ways of expressing ideas,
recognising, valuing and celebrating originality and inventiveness

Materials
 Students selected fairy tale texts
 Little Red Cap by Jacob and Wilhem Grimm
 Little White Riding Hood by Barbara G. Walker
 Whiteboard
 Whiteboard markers

Procedures
Time Organisation Teaching/ learning activities
5 Teacher; Utilise Teacher; Explain to students that the focus of
whiteboard. the lesson is an imaginative exercise which
involves them rewriting their selected fairy tale.
Students; Seated The focus of their re-imagining needs to involve
at desks. an alternative representation of an aspect or
aspects of their story so that the story reflects
their personal experiences of the world.
Suggest and discuss some options for
representation within their writing, based on the
texts for lesson one and two. These could
include;

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 Little White Riding Hood as a teenage

boy
 Replace Grandma with Grandpa
 Substitute the red hood with a hijab
 Introduce White Riding Hood’s siblings
 Perhaps the trip to Grandma’s takes her
down the main street of Campbelltown
Encourage students to be creative and to
explore how the story changes when characters,
genders and settings are represented differently.

Students; Volunteer their own suggestions for

alternative representations within their chosen
fairy tale.
5 Teacher; Seated at Teacher; Take attendance.
desk
Students; Spend five minutes individually
Students; Seated brainstorming and planning for their writing.
at desks
25 Teacher; Move Teacher; Move throughout the room, ensuring
throughout the all students are on task. Take opportunities to
room. answer individual student questions and to
conference with students, checking on progress
Students; Seated and providing feedback.
at desks. Instruct any students who finish ahead of
schedule to reread, correct and edit their work.

Students; Use their learnt knowledge of

representation within texts to imaginatively
rewrite their selected fairy tale. Students use
this exercise to make these stories
representative of their own life experiences and
experiences of the world.
Students may request teacher assistance to
answer questions and provide feedback on their
writing process.
10 Teacher; Move Teacher; Allow students the opportunity to
throughout the share their writing with their peers. Encourage
room students to explain to their neighbour the story
they chose and in what ways they chose to
Students; Seated change it. Ask for student volunteers to share
at desks. their ideas with the class and to read aloud a few
lines that they are particularly proud of.

Students; Share their experiences of imaginative

representation with their peers.

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15 Teacher; Move Teacher; Instruct students to spend the

throughout the remainder of the lesson writing a few
room. paragraphs justifying their imaginative rewritings
of their chosen story. Prompt students to include
Students; Seated an explanation that describes how they changed
at desks. the representations within the text, and to
justify why they changed them in the ways that
they did. This writing exercise should be
concluded with a brief description of how these
changes to representation altered the events of
the story.
Collect these explanations at the conclusion of
the lesson to be used for evaluation of student
learning.

Students; Write an explanation to accompany

their imaginative writing piece. This exercise
gives students the opportunity to explain what
aspects of the story they chose to reimagine and
the reasons for their choices. How these changes
allowed them to represent their own culture,
values, attitudes and experiences within their
text. Students describe how changing aspects of
representation, altered the story.

Evaluation/ Extension
This lessons concluding activity requires students to reflect on their creative re-
imagining of their chosen fairy tale, as it relates to their classroom learning over the
three-lesson sequence. These written reflections will be useful to evaluate student
learning as they allow students to explicitly explain what they have learnt and how
they have utilised this knowledge in their creative writing.

In retrospect
During the student writing exercise, it will be important to conference briefly with
students who may struggle with literacy, to provide support and guidance in their
learning.

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Class mind-map activity

Representation

How could the concept of representation help to inform your

understanding of texts?

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Class mind-map activity

Teacher Resource

Privileges selected
perspectives
Cultural attitudes

Representation is intentional
Perspectives

Choice of Can challenge or reflect

representations existing values

Representation
Characters
How the audience is positioned
to respond

Ways of seeing things

Biased attitudes

Different ways of seeing the

world
Experiences of the world
How people, places and events
are represented in texts

This is not an exhaustive list and responses with be dependent on student responses during
the
Howmindcould
map activity. Possible responses
the concept may include; help to inform your
of representation
 Representation can help to understand how the audience is positioned to respond to a
understanding
text
of texts?
 Emphasise any biases evident within a text
 Can suggest alternate representations, other than those within a selected text
 Provides opportunities for questioning the representation of people, places or events
 Representation can align an audience with, or distance them from a text
 Can reflect the cultural attitudes embodied within a text

NSW Department of Education. (2016). English textual concepts. Retrieved from

http://englishtextualconcepts.nsw.edu.au/content/representation

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Little Red Cap

by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Once upon a time there was a sweet little girl.

Everyone who saw her liked her, but most of all her
grandmother, who did not know what to give the child
next. Once she gave her a little cap made of red velvet.
Because it suited her so well, and she wanted to wear it
all the time, she came to be known as Little Red Cap.
One day her mother said to her, “Come Little Red
Cap. Here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine. Take
them to your grandmother. She is sick and weak, and
they will do her well. Mind your manners and give her
my greetings. Behave yourself on the way, and do not
leave the path, or you might fall down and break the
glass, and then there will be nothing for your sick
grandmother.”
Little Red Cap promised to obey her mother. The
grandmother lived out in the woods, a half hour
from the village. When Little Red Cap entered the
woods a wolf came up to her. She did not know what
a wicked animal he was, and was not afraid of him.
“Good day to you, Little Red Cap.”
“Thank you, wolf.”
“Where are you going so early, Little Red Cap?”
“To grandmother’s.”
“And what are you carrying under your apron?”
“Grandmother is sick and weak, and I am taking her
some cake and wine. We baked yesterday, and they
should give her strength.”
“Little Red Cap, just where does your grandmother
live?”
“Her house is a good quarter hour from here in the
woods, under the three large oak trees. There’s a
hedge of hazel bushes there. You must know the
place,” said Little Red Cap.
The wolf thought to himself, “Now there is a tasty
bite for me. Just how are you going to catch her?” Then
he said, “Listen, Little Red Cap, haven’t you seen the
beautiful flowers that are blossoming in the woods?
Why don’t you go and take a look? And I don’t believe
you can hear how beautifully the birds are singing. You
are walking along as though you were on your way to
school in the village. It is very beautiful in the woods.”
1

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Little Red Cap opened her eyes and saw the sunlight
breaking through the trees and how the ground was
covered with beautiful flowers. She thought, “If a take
a bouquet to grandmother, she will be very pleased.
Anyway, it is still early, and I’ll be home on time.” And
she ran off into the woods looking for flowers. Each
time she picked one she thought that she could see an
even more beautiful one a little way off, and she ran
after it, going further and further into the woods. But
the wolf ran straight to the grandmother’s house and
knocked on the door.
“Who’s there?”
“Little Red Cap. I’m bringing you some cake and
wine. Open the door for me.”
“Just press the latch,” called out the grandmother.
“I’m too weak to get up.” The wolf pressed the latch,
and the door opened. He stepped inside, went straight
to the grandmother’s bed, and ate her up. Then he took
her clothes, put them on, and put her cap on his head.
He got into her bed and pulled the curtains shut.
Little Red Cap had run after flowers, and did not
continue on her way to grandmother’s until she had
gathered all that she could carry. When she arrived,
she found, to her surprise, that the door was open. She
walked into the parlor, and everything looked so
strange that she thought, “Oh, my God, why am I so
afraid? I usually like it at grandmother’s.” Then she
went to the bed and pulled back the curtains.
Grandmother was lying there with her cap pulled down
over her face and looking very strange.
“Oh, grandmother, what big ears you have!”
“All the better to hear you with.”
“Oh, grandmother, what big eyes you have!”
“All the better to see you with.”
“Oh, grandmother, what big hands you have!”
“All the better to grab you with!”
“Oh, grandmother, what a horribly big mouth you
have!”
“All the better to eat you with!” And with that he
jumped out of bed, jumped on top of poor Little Red
Cap, and ate her up. As soon as the wolf had finished
this tasty bite, he climbed back into bed, fell asleep,
and began to snore very loudly.
A huntsman was just passing by. He thought it strange that the old
woman was snoring so loudly, so he decided to take a look. He
stepped inside, and in the bed there lay the wolf that he had been

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hunting for such a long time. “He 2 has eaten the grandmother,
but perhaps she still can be saved. I won’t shoot him,” thought the
huntsman. So he took a pair of scissors and cut open his belly.
He had cut only a few strokes when he saw the red
cap shining through. He cut a little more, and the girl
jumped out and cried, “Oh, I was so frightened! It was
so dark inside the wolf’s body!”
And then the grandmother came out alive as well.
Then Little Red Cap fetched some large heavy stones.
They filled the wolf’s body with them, and when he
woke up and tried to run away, the stones were so
heavy that he fell down dead.
The three of them were happy. The huntsman took
the wolf’s pelt. The grandmother ate the cake and
drank the wine that Little Red Cap had brought. And
Little Red Cap thought to herself, “As long as I live, I will
never leave the path and run off into the woods by
myself if mother tells me not to.”

Little red cap. (n.d). Retrieved August 1 2017 from

http://forms.rsu13.org/LucyCalkins/3/resources/G3B4_ST_RedCap.PDF

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Little White Riding Hood by Barbara G. Walker

Once upon a time there was a little girl called White Riding Hood because she
always wore a snow white hood when she went out riding or walking. She lived with
her mother, Red riding Hood, in a cottage on the edge of the great forest.
White Riding hood’s grandmother (who always wore black) lived in another cottage
deep within the forest, a long way from inhabited and cultivated lands. Nevertheless,
people often travelled the winding forest road to visit White Riding Hood’s
grandmother, because she was known far and wide as a powerful witch who could
cure diseases, set broken bones, deliver babies, give sound advice, and create
charms for love, good luck, abundant crops, and clement weather. She could
communicate with spirits of trees and wild animals. Her cottage was surrounded by
pens where she kept an ever-changing assortment of convalescent forest creatures
whose injuries she healed.
One day White Riding Hood’s mother made up a basket of staples- salt, flour, honey,
cheese, dried lentils, and other foodstuffs- for White Riding Hood to carry to her
grandmother. She could stay for several days, bringing the basket back later with
several herbs and roots that the grandmother gathered. White Riding Hood was
happy to obey, because she loved visiting her grandmother. The forest cottage
offered birds and animals to observe and play with, and it smelled richly of herbal
concoctions that her grandmother brewed. There was always something interesting
going on there. White Riding Hood’s grandmother had taught her many things about
plants, stones, stars, winds and waters. She also her granddaughter to respect the
wild creatures. She was especially fond of the shy forest wolves, whose habits she
had studied by long and patient observation. She insisted that wolves were not
ferocious vermin that some people claimed they were, but highly intelligent, loyal,
noble-hearted dogs, gentle with their own kind and even humans who didn’t
threaten them. The grandmother had cured several wolves of sickness and healed
injuries inflicted on them by hunters or by trappers who set vicious leg-hold traps.
She had learned how to behave nonthreateningly in the presence of the wolf pack,
so she would not be attacked. She taught White Riding Hood the proper attitudes
that the wolves could recognize, and made her recognize that if she behaved
appropriately, she had nothing to fear.
[FILL IN SECTION]
She was too angry to feel afraid, even though she knew her position was dangerous
and if the men chose to fight her, she would inevitably lose.
The weak-minded one giggled again at her words. “Go on, grab her, Will,” he
snuffed.
“Don’t you touch me, or I’ll tell my grandmother on you,” WRH threatened. “She’s
the witch of the Great Forest, and she’ll put a spell on you to make your feet turn
backwards and your ears fall off. You’ll be sorry.”
“I’ve heard about her,” Will sneered. “She’s a devil who can turn herself into a wolf.
If that’s your grandmother, you’ve got evil blood in you, girl.”
“Go on, will, grab her, grab her,” the younger one said again.
Will hesitated, then turned away with a contemptuous gesture. “She’s not worth a
scuffle,” he blustered.
“And we’ve got to get to the rest of the trapline. Forget it, Rollo.”

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“Aw, come on, come on, Will,” Rollo whined. “She’s old enough, isn’t she? Come on,
let’s do it to her.”
“I said no Rollo,” the older hunter snapped, and his companion cowered. They
turned and marched away, leaving White Riding Hood to her own devices. She
dropped her stick, picked up her basket, and ran to get away from the hunters as fast
as possible.
When she arrived at her G’s cottage, she told her G about the two hunters. “I know
that pair,” the G said. “They’re as mean as can be. I know how we can foil them, but
it will have to wait for tomorrow. Right now, we should go out and see if we can find
those orphan cubs before it’s too late.”
So White Riding Hood and her Grandmother went out to check the various wolf
dens the Grandmother knew. Sure enough, in the third one they found four very
hungry infant pups crying for their mother. White Riding Hood wrapped two in her
cloak, and her Grandmother took the other two. They carried the pups back to the
cottage. The Grandmother showed White Riding Hood how to feed them with warm
goat’s milk from small bottles with leather nipples. They seemed to digest it well
enough, and soon they were sleeping contently in a straw-lined box near the hearth.

White Riding Hood was so enchanted with the baby wolves that she didn’t get
around to looking at the other animals until the next morning. This time her
Grandmother had a fawn with a fractured leg, a hawk with a broken wing, and a
raccoon who’d had three toes pulled off by a trap and was recovering from an acute
infection.
After tending to these creatures, the grandmother took tools and set off with White
Riding Hood to visit the hunters; traplines. She carefully sprang each trap and then
broke it, throwing away springs and leaving behind only scattered pieces of metal.
One trap she left intact and carried home. She concealed it and set it at her front
doorstep, saying to White Riding Hood, “Now we’ll see what we catch. I know those
fellows will be coming by here when they find out what happened to their traps.”
Her prediction came true early the next morning, when Will and Rollo showed up,
enraged, at her gate. “Come on out of there, old witch,” Will roared. “I know it was
you who broke our traps. Come on out and take what’s coming to you.”
“Come and get me if you dare,” the grandmother called. She wrapped herself in a
bed sheet and put over her head a grotesque mask carved and painted to look like a
huge wolf with bared teeth. It had long, purplish-red tongue that she could push in
and out between bug teeth by using her own tongue. Holding his gun in readiness to
shoot, Will charged up to the door with Rollo following. He raised his foot to kick the
door open, but at the same time his supporting foot was seized by the trap that
sprang up from under the carpet of leaves. He fell heavily on his side. The gun went
off, blowing some twigs off a maple tree, and flew out of his hands.
The grandmother threw the door open and appeared in her wolf mask, a hatchet in
her hand. Yanking fruitlessly at the trap, Will began to scream. Rollo stuttered, “Wh-
what b-big teeth you have, Grandma!” “The better to eat you with!” the
grandmother shouted, and neatly split Will’s skull with her hatchet. Rollo turned and
ran as if all the devils in hell were after him. He was never seen in the forest again.

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Later the grandmother chopped up the hunter’s body into manageable pieces and
strewed them in the forest for the wolves to eat.
Little White Riding Hood went home the next day. When her mother asked what she
had done at Grandmother’s house, she said, “Well, we helped feed some wolves.”

Little white riding hood by Barbara G. Walker. (n.d.). Year 9 English Fairy Tales. Retrieved
August 1 2017 from
https://year9englishfairytales.wikispaces.com/Little+White+Riding+Hood+by+Barbar
a+G.+Walker

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Rationale
Across the sequence of three lesson plans, the unifying focus is the study of
representation as a textual concept. As defined by English Textual Concepts,
“representation is the depiction of a thing, person or idea in written, visual,
performed or spoken language” (NSW Department of Education, 2016). This
understanding of the concept of representation, is integral to students developing an
understanding of the way meaning is made both within texts, and in response to
them (NSW Department of Education, 2016). The lessons are designed to challenge
students’ understanding and engagement with the concept of representation,
through a series of increasingly complex activities, which incorporate both
collaborative class work and individual student written responses. In this way, the
intention of these lessons is to provide students with a cohesive opportunity to
engage with representation as a textual concept through the medium of short, fairy
tale style texts (Gold & Greene, 2016).
The sequence of learning commences in lesson one, in which students
collaboratively define representation as a textual concept. This activity takes the
form of a collaborative class mind map, which capitalises on the process of
collaboration for learning, whilst formatively assessing existing student knowledge,
and knowledge gaps (Kealley, 2016; Williams, 2016). Furthermore, the purpose of
the collaborative mind map is to provide a frontloading activity, which involves
“scaffolding students’ understanding of a new concept” (van Haren, 2016, p. 42). The
intention of this frontloading, is to encourage students to build connections with
their prior knowledge and experiences, and to show their relevance and value within
the classroom environment (van Haren, 2016). This practice of frontloading a lesson
establishes essential information to encourage student engagement and confidence
in their learning (van Haren, 2016). Meanwhile, the whole class collaboration
involved in this task, makes required knowledge shared and accessible for all
students (Williams, 2016).
Throughout the three-lesson sequence, fairy tale style texts and adaptations are
used to examine how textual representation, can change in response to the
composer and the audience. The focus is on developing conceptual knowledge that

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is transferrable across texts, into students’ own work (Gold & Greene, 2016).
Students use their developing knowledge of representation as a textual concept, to
explore how meaning is created within a text, and how this meaning can be changed.

At regular intervals throughout each of the three lessons, there is class based
collaboration and discussion. The whole-class focus of these activities, is intentional
in that it allows students to share knowledge and ideas, whilst eliminating barriers to
student engagement (Williams, 2016). Furthermore, classroom discussion and
collaboration, facilitates consistent and regular opportunities for clarification of
student ideas (Williams, 2016). This commitment to collaboration and shared
knowledge is reflected in the lesson two activity, where a communal dictionary of
terms is generated as a class (Williams, 2016). This activity empowers low literacy
level students to draw on the knowledge of their peers to promote learning
engagement and success.
The approach taken to teaching textual concepts, across the three-lesson sequence,
incorporates a rhetorical approach to teaching English (Andrews, 2010). This is
exemplified in the emphasis placed on the importance of “dialogue, conversation
and discussion” (Andrews, 2010, p. 40) as the processes by which students
understand, and clarify their knowledge of how meaning is made, and in turn make
meaning for themselves. The strength of this largely collaborative approach to
classroom learning, is the value placed on capturing student responses to texts, and
empowering students to justify their responses through elaboration and discussion,
as embodied by critical literacy theory (Andrews, 2010; Morgan, 2010).
This critical literacy approach to student learning is further demonstrated in a
culminating writing exercise for each lesson (Morgan, 2010). This provides students
with the opportunity to express what they have learnt and clarified within the
lesson, through written reflections and articulation of responses in increasingly
complex ways (Morgan, 2010). Across the lesson plan structure, this rhetorical and
critical literacy approach to secondary English teaching, facilitates student
engagement and learning, through a pedagogical framework which promotes
dialogue, reflection, discussion and student articulation of ideas (Andrews, 2010;
Morgan, 2010). This is achieved through a series of both verbal and written exercises

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which cultivate the increasing complexity of student understanding (Andrews, 2010;

Morgan, 2010).
Writing as a process of creative re-imagination, is an integral aspect of the classroom
lesson activities (Gannon, 2010). Each lesson contains such an activity, through
which students explore and adapt what has been learnt in the classroom, into a
written exercise which empowers students to experience the process of making
meaning for themselves in response to classroom learning (Gannon, 2010). Based
around the notion of “creative-critical” (Gannon, 2010, p. 225) practices in teaching
English, a cyclical approach to reading and writing is implemented throughout the
lessons, whereby those texts studied for the reading and writing processes become
the imaginative foundations for student creativity (Gannon, 2010).
The culminating activity of the three-lesson sequence is focused on experiencing
representation through creation (Gannon, 2010). This activity involves the creative
re-imagination of students’ chosen fairy tales, with a focus on altered
representations of characters, and is intended as the foundation for a “process
approach” (Gannon, 2010) to student writing. While the processes of re-drafting and
editing that are essential to this process approach to writing, were not able to be
explicitly addressed within the scope of three lessons, a following series of lessons,
would certainly have emphasised this approach. None-the-less this intention of
practicing student writing often, and repeatedly, is embodied in the series of short
writing exercises, aimed at students’ expressions of their responses to
representation within the texts studied (Gannon, 2010).
Throughout this sequence of lesson plans, the intention has been to engage students
in the study of representation as a textual concept, through the exploration of fairy
tale style texts and their adaptations. The approach to pedagogy and classroom
learning has been informed by several theoretical approaches to secondary English
teaching, as previously explored, which emphasise the processes of collaboration,
discussion and dialogue, reflection and creative writing, as essential to the way
students understand how meaning is made within texts, and in turn make meaning
for themselves (Gold & Greene, 2016).

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References

Andrews, R. (2010). Towards a rhetorical perspective. In S. Gannon, M. Howie & W. Sawyer

(Eds.), Charged with meaning: Reviewing English: Third Edition (pp. 39-44). Putney,
Australia: Phoenix Education.

Board of Studies NSW. (2012). NSW Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum: English K-10
Syllabus: Vol 2: English Years 7-10. Sydney, Australia: Board of Studies NSW.

Gannon, S. (2010). Creative writing. In S. Gannon, M. Howie & W. Sawyer (Eds.), Charged
with meaning: Reviewing English: Third Edition (pp. 223-230). Putney, Australia:
Phoenix Education.

Gold, E., & Greene, P. (2016). Teaching English through textual concepts. In E. Boas & S.
Gazis (Eds.), The artful English teacher (pp. 1-20). Kensington Gardens, South
Australia: The Australian Association for the Teaching of English.

Kealley, A. (2016). Effective formative assessment. In E. Boas & S. Gazis (Eds.), The artful
English teacher (pp. 130-150). Kensington Gardens, South Australia: The Australian
Association for the Teaching of English.

Little red cap. (n.d). Retrieved August 1 2017 from

http://forms.rsu13.org/LucyCalkins/3/resources/G3B4_ST_RedCap.PDF

Little white riding hood by Barbara G. Walker. (n.d.). Year 9 English Fairy Tales. Retrieved
August 1 2017 from
https://year9englishfairytales.wikispaces.com/Little+White+Riding+Hood+by+Barbar
a+G.+Walker

Morgan, W. (2010). Critical literacy. In S. Gannon, M. Howie & W. Sawyer (Eds.), Charged
with meaning: Reviewing English: Third Edition (pp. 85-96). Putney, Australia:
Phoenix Education.

NSW Department of Education. (2016). English textual concepts. Retrieved from

http://englishtextualconcepts.nsw.edu.au/content/representation

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Van Haren, R. (2016). Learner engagement. In E. Boas & S. Gazis (Eds.), The artful English
teacher (pp. 40-60). Kensington Gardens, South Australia: The Australian Association
for the Teaching of English.

Williams, L. (2016). Fostering collaboration. In E. Boas & S. Gazis (Eds.), The artful English
teacher (pp. 21-39). Kensington Gardens, South Australia: The Australian Association
for the Teaching of English.

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