Poodlum Hoodlum

Experiment with language to invent comical character names in the style of Margaret Mahy. 

Read the story aloud to students so that they can hear the wordplay used by Margaret Mahy. 

After reading, ask students:  

• What is the purpose of this text? (To entertain) 
• What genre is this text? (Comedy/humour) 

Explain that Mahy uses a range of language techniques to create comical character names. This helps to turn ordinary events into a funny story.  

Next, explain to students that Mahy uses three language techniques to add humour: alliteration, rhyme, and repetition. You may wish to consult the NSW syllabus glossaryungroup for definitions of these terms. 

Compile a class list of the concrete nouns that use one or more of the techniques listed above (Sandwich Street, Wuffy, Scruffy, pompom-poodlum, hum-hum hoodlum, Pumfrey). Students sort these words into common or proper nouns. Then they classify them based on the techniques that Mahy uses in a table (example below). Some of the nouns may appear more than once:  

Alliteration:

Sandwich Street

Pumfrey the pompom-poodlum

Hum-hum hoodlum

Rhyme:

Wuffy

Scruffy

Repetition:

Pompom

Hum-hum

Provide students with an overview of their independent task: they will draft a story plan (suggested resource: the Digital Learning Selector’s Writing Scaffoldsungroup) Or complete a story map. The narrative does not need to be extraordinary or particularly exciting. They will then add a range of humorous names using alliteration, rhyme, and repetition.  

Once students have planned their stories, ask them to identify the following details:  

• The name of the setting or settings 
• The name of the main character (protagonist) 
• The name of the villain (antagonist) 

• The name of secondary characters 
• Any important common nouns, such as the breed of an animal or a type of plant 

For each of these details, students should choose a name that incorporates at least one of the three techniques (alliteration, rhyme, repetition).  

For example: In Sweaty Street, Hotterdam Heights, Riley Wiley is trying to find a cool place to read a book. Unfortunately, due to the unexpected heatwave, all the Frond-frond ferns have wilted and died.  

Teacher explicitly models the use of the story plan to compose an innovation of the mentor text. Gradually transition from modelled writing to joint construction whereby the teacher shares the pen with students or students in pairs jointly construct their own innovation.