Dragonfly's Surprise

Worksheet: Comprehending 'Dragonfly's Surprise'ungroup

Examine and reflect on how descriptive language can be used to position readers.

Read the story up to ‘He took a deep breath and flew towards them’ on page 6. Students highlight the sentences in the first section of the story which give a description of the dragon.

Answers:

• ‘the wretched dragon has wings of blistering speed. My feathers soon felt the singe of its sizzling breath.’
• ‘the creature has claws like knives.’
• ‘The dragon scorches and slashes whenever we come near. Is anyone brave enough to face such a demon?’

Students are to draw a scientific illustration of the dragon from the story. Discourage students from looking at the illustrations in the school magazine. The scientific drawing should be labeled using the words from the story, for example one label could be ‘wings of blistering speed’ while another could say ‘claws like knives.’  Scientific illustration: What is it?ungroup provides further information and samples you may like to use.

Sample scientific drawings include:

Collection 27: Drawings of birds chiefly from Australia, 1791-1792ungroup

Dragons1640 by Ulysses Aldrovandiungroup

After students have created their scientific illustration of the dragon, volunteers are to share their scientific illustration with the class. Explaining how they represented each feature, and if they added more details and why.

Discuss the following:

• How do the descriptions from the Eagle, Elephant and Lion make you feel about the dragon?
• Why do you feel that way? (Hint – look at the words and phrases and techniques used in the descriptions).
• What do you think will happen to the dragonfly when they meet the dragon? Make a list of the predictions.

Finish reading the story. Then discuss the following:

• What surprised you about the dragon?

Students highlight the descriptions of the dragon from the second part of the story.

Answers:

• Scales shimmered in the sunlight
• Glittering diamonds studded the dragon’s cheeks.
• eyes crinkled and he almost smiled, before another tear slid down his cheek.

The word of the month is ‘alteration.’ How did your perspective of the dragon change and why? Write a reflection on how your views changed using the following prompts:

• I thought…
• Then I discovered…
• Now I think…

Students can be extended by referring to the descriptions in the story and the language used to position the readers.

Sample answer:

I thought that the dragon was a terrible beast who was violent and evil. I felt this way because the animals described the dragon using words like ‘wretched’ and ‘demon’ to talk about the dragon and they described the wings, claws and breath as weapons.

Then I discovered that the dragon was actually a lonely creature who wanted to make friends with the animals but had accidentally hurt them in the process of trying to communicate with them.

Now I think that the dragon was just a lonely creature, desperate for company and unaware of its own strength. The animals and the readers judged the dragon before they knew the truth.