A Writing Root for A Necklace of Raindrops

Overview and Outcomes:

This is a 15-session Literary Leaf for A Necklace of Raindrops by Joan Aiken in which children begin by identifying the genre before going on to make plausible predictions to support finding a theme. Through the stories the children will be introduced to the skill of summarising and will look at words in context to identify meanings in detail.

Synopsis of Text:

We chose this book for a Literary Leaf as the short stories in this collection are whimsical yet moralistic and have such lovely examples of literary language interwoven with humour that they are, we feel, perfect for the age-group. And as each story is relatively short, this will help children who are less-confident in their reading to feel a sense of achievement as well as supporting comprehension- development and understanding of story- plot and structure. Because Joan Aiken is the sole author of the anthology, this affords us a great opportunity to compare pieces by the same author in terms of style, use of literary devices and themes.

The central most objective developed through this comprehension sequence is around themes with use of language and deriving meaning from context close behind. However, thorough coverage of all relevant National Curriculum objectives has been planned for so that no opportunity is wasted.

The first five short stories- A Necklace of Raindrops, The Cat Sat on the Mat, There’s some Sky in this Pie, The Elves in the Shelves and The Three Travellers  - have been explored in detail. Following these sessions, the children can choose one of the remaining three stories (The Baker’s Cat, A Bed for the Night or The Patchwork Quilt) to read and explore then go on to devise questions for a friend to respond to. The resource is rounded off with a closing session where the collection is discussed as a whole and the work the children have carried out on themes and language for effect in particular is used to compare and contrast the stories in order to support development around the content domain of 2h, which is ‘to make comparisons within the text’.

Links:

Birthdays, magic, short stories