Sassy

Learning Intention:

I am learning how to gather information from a fictional story and the experiences of my classmates so I can write an article using my research.

Success Criteria:

• I can engage in class discussions, listening to peers and contributing ideas
• I can read a text closely, focusing on key ideas and emotions
• I can compose an article using correct text type features

Oral language and communication

Engage the class in a discussion about pets. Use the following questions:

• Do you have a pet?
• What kind of pet do you have? (Possibility of conducting a tally for dog/cat/rabbit/guinea pig/chickens/fish)
• Why do people have pets?
• What do pets give people in return for the time and money that people put into them?
• Who benefits the most from having pets?
• What kind of problems can pets cause? Or what kind of problems do pets experience? ( For example, damaging house and garden, being noisy)

Understanding text:

Read the story as a class, or listen to the audio file.

Organise the class into 6 groups. Assign each class one of the extracts below:

Extract 1: SASSY was the best dog I ever had. Don’t ask me what breed she was. Just a very mixed-up mixture. If I had to describe her, I’d say she was a small to-medium-sized, black-and-white mutt. A chasing-the-tail kind of dog. Loyal and kind forever.

Extract 2: She was good at sitting, rolling over and shaking hands, and she could chase a ball all day long. Her only real weakness was ‘stay’. She was too curious to stay anywhere for more than a minute. Dad always said that one day her disobedience would get her into trouble.

Extract 3: Never in a million years would we have gone down that cliff, except for Sassy. She’d been ours since she was a pup. She’d always slept at the foot of our beds. As I struggled down the cliff face, I thought of all those nights with her.

Extract 4: Her eyes were open. All the years and the memories between us were stored within those glazed, but still trusting eyes. We had to keep going.

Extract 5: She was gone, but what we’d shared with her was still alive, and always would be. She was still our Sassy.

Extract 6: Mum and Dad said she’d probably been dreaming about Sassy, the same as I’d been when I saw her. It didn’t matter how or why it had happened; all we knew for sure was that our Sassy had come back again, and this time she’d saved us all.

Each group is to read their extract and discuss the following questions:

• What does this extract tell us about the relationship between owners and their dogs?
• What does this extract tell us about the effect that pets have on people?
• Describe the tone of the extract. What makes you choose those words?
• Describe the emotion present in the extract. Can you identify any ‘emotive’ words (emotive words are words that hep show an emotion).
• Does anyone in the group have a pet that shares Sassy’s characteristics? Share a story about your pet.

Creating text:

Tell students they are to imagine they are going to compose a feature article to be published in The School Magazine about pets. Explain that the article will have a focus on a particular aspect of pet ownership. Prior to students beginning their planning of the article, engage the class in a whole class brainstorm in which students suggest pet related topic ideas for the article. Have a scribe write these on the board.

Suggestions include:

• Emotional support pets
• The bond between owners and pets
• The health benefits of pets
• How to look after a pet
• How do you know if you are ready for a pet
• The benefits of pet ownership for children/elderly/people with a disability
• Why everyone should have a pet

Have students turn to ‘Beyond the Summit: The Secrets of Mount Lico’ on page 23 of this issue of Orbit. Ask students to locate the following features of an article:

• Images
• Headings
• Subheadings
• Rhetorical questions
• Inclusive language

Have students work in pairs to choose a topic, conduct research and plan their article. Encourage students to also include ideas about pets from the story.

When writing their article, students should use the features they explored when they looked closely at the article ‘Beyond the Summit: The Secrets of Mount Lico’ on page 23.

Assessment for/as learning:

Have pairs swap their articles with another pair. Complete a peer assessment using the following checklist:

• Catchy headline
• Subheadings
• Formal language
• Factual information
• Reference to the story, ‘Sassy’
• An opinion or idea about pets is clear