Literature-based sequence plan

This sequence of lessons is aimed at grade 6 according to AusVELS. The book that the sequence is based on is called The Dream of the Thylacine, which is
written by Margaret Wild and illustrated by Ron Brooks in 2011.
Links to AusVELS:
Level 6, English, Reading and Viewing, Literature
Identify the relationship between words, sounds, imagery and language
patterns in narratives and poetry such as ballads, limericks and free verse
(ACELT1617)
identifying how language choice and imagery build emotional
connection and engagement with the story or theme
describing how a characters experience expressed through a verse
novel impacts on students personally, how the author controls the
revelation of the experiences and how the verse story builds meaning
to its climax when we understand the whole
Level 6, English, Reading and Viewing, Literacy
Analyse strategies authors use to influence readers (ACELY1801)
identify how authors use language to position the reader and give
reasons
Use comprehension strategies to interpret and analyse information and
ideas, comparing content from a variety of textual sources including media
and digital texts (ACELY1713)
making connections between the text and students own experience or
other texts
making connections between information in print and images
finding specific literal information
using prior knowledge and textual information to make inferences and
predictions
asking and answering questions
finding the main idea of a text
summarising a text or part of a text
Level 6, English, Writing, Literature
Experiment with text structures and language features and their effects in
creating literary texts, for example, using imagery, sentence variation,
metaphor and word choice (ACELT1800)

selecting and using sensory language to convey a vivid picture of

places, feelings and events in a semi-structured verse form

Level 6, English, Writing, Literacy

Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts,
choosing and experimenting with text structures, language features,
images and digital resources appropriate to purpose and audience
(ACELY1714)
creating informative texts for two different audiences, such as a
visiting academic and a Level 3 class, that explore an aspect of
biodiversity
using rhetorical devices, images, surprise techniques and juxtaposition
of people and ideas and modal verbs and modal auxiliaries
to enhance the persuasive nature of a text, recognising
and exploiting audience susceptibilities
Reread and edit students own and others work using agreed criteria
and explaining editing choices (ACELY1715)
editing for coherence, sequence, effective choice of vocabulary,
opening devices, dialogue and description, humour and pathos, as
appropriate to the task and audience
Use a range of software, including word processing programs, learning
new functions as required to create texts (ACELY1717)
selecting and combining software functions as needed to create texts
Level 6, Civics and Citizenship, Standards, Community engagement
They present a point of view on a significant current issues or issues and
include recommendations about the actions that individuals and
governments can take to resolve issues. They demonstrate understanding
that there are different viewpoints on an issues, and contribute to group
and class decision making.

Sequence 1 Frontloading Week 1 and 2

Teaching
Focus
Determine
what the
students
know about
endangered/
extinct
animals

Strategic Questions
What is an extinct
animal?
What is an
endangered animal?
How do animals
become endangered
or extinct?
Do you know of any
animals that are
endangered or
extinct?

Teaching Focus
Determine what
students know
about poetry
Strategic
Questions
What are the
types of poems?
What makes a
poem interesting?
What words can
be used?
How does a poem
tell a story?

Whole Class Activities to

Engage the Students
Create a brainstorm
mind-map to find what
the students already
know about endangered
and extinct animals
Read some information
texts as a class that
explain what extinct and
endangered animals are,
to answer the strategic
questions

Whole Class Activities to Engage the Students

Looking at different poems with the whole
class make a poster on each type of poem.
Styles that can be looked at include ballads,
limericks and free verses. On the poster
include conventions, examples and other
things that make them different from other
types of poems.
Create a poem with the class about
something they are all familiar with, for
example school. This should be done as a
modelling activity, to show students how to
write each poem style shown. Model finding
interesting words by using a thesaurus.

Follow on activities

Assessment

Resources

In pairs: research and

look into different extinct
and endangered animals.
Providing books and
iPads/computers for
students to research.
They will individually
write down some
interesting things they
found, as well as list
some animals that are
endangered and extinct
(see appendix A)

KWL (see appendix B)

Students would complete
the What I know and
What Id like to know
about endangered and
extinct animals.
They would start the what
I know and what Id like
to know columns after the
brainstorm, and theyd
start to complete the what
I know after researching.

Follow on activities
Individually: On a
topic of their choice
(checking
appropriateness of
their topic with the
teacher), they are to
publish their own
poem. They must
choose a poem style
and use the correct
conventions. Also
making sure they use
interesting words by
using a thesaurus.

Assessment
Y chart on poems (See
appendix C). Students fill
out what a poem feels,
sounds and looks like.
Before looking at any
poems the students
complete the Y chart, and
then once finished with
the weeks focus they write
more in their Y chart using
another colour. Here they
would write what they
learnt about what poems
look, sound and feel like.

Piece of large
butchers paper for
mind-map
brainstorm
Information texts
about
endangered/extinct
animals
iPads/computers
Appendix A and B
print offs one copy
per worksheet per
student

Resources
- Examples of poems for
different poem types
- Butchers paper for
each poster for poem
information
- Butchers paper for
class poem
- Computers or coloured
paper to publish their
own poems
- Thesaurus one per
student
- Appendix C print off
one per student

Sequence 2 Explicit Instruction Week 3

Teaching Focus
Whole Class Activities to Engage the Students
Reading the book, Read The Dream of the Thylacine (Wilds & Brooks 2011),
and discussing
and discuss how the book is structured. For example, the first
how the writer
page has the poem/story and then there are three pages of
makers the story
illustrations that relate to a sentence in the poem. Also
interesting. As
discuss the words that are used and how they make the story
well as writing
more interesting (write these on a poster for the book, which
their own poems. can be added to during the lessons where the book is being
looked at)
Strategic
Look at the difference between first, second and third person
Questions
perspective. The teacher would give a definition and example
What kind of
of writing in the three perspectives. The teacher would write
words does the
all the information taught on a poster.
writer use?
What style of
As a class choose an animal, and write a poem about that
poem does the
animal in the structure the book uses. The teacher would be
writer use?
What perspective guiding the discussion and writing the poem on the board. It
is the teachers aim to explain how the poem of The Dream of
is the book
the Thylacine is structured, and giving examples of how it
written in?
can be written using another animal.

Follow on activities
In pairs: read the book together and talk
about what the story is telling them.
Discuss the use of the words and how
the words make them feel.
Using a Y chart (see appendix C), write
how this poem sounds, looks like and
how it makes them feel.
Individually: re-write a page from The
Dream of the Thylacine in third person.
Individually: research an animal about
how it lives. Complete a sheet with their
information (see appendix D) for them
to use later in their poem and project.
Individually: write their own poem of
the animal they researched in whatever
style they choose (refer back to the
posters that were created as a class on
the different styles of poems).

Resource
- The Dream of the
Thylacine book
(Wilds & Brooks
2011)
- Butchers paper for
writing things about
the book
- Butchers paper for
posters of first,
second and third
perspective and
writing the class
poem
- Appendix C and D
one for each student
- Websites for
students to research
animals

Explicit Teaching Session 1 Reading the book and looking at the structure
IntroRead the book The Dream of the Thylacine written by Margaret Wild, and illustrated by Ron Brooks.
duction
Explain that we are going to look at the poetry of the story, and how the writer makes the story interesting.
ElaboTeacher would guide a discussion on the following questions. Providing answers at the end of the discussion.
ration
How does the author structure the book? (Has one page with the poem, and then three pages after that with illustrations related to the
poem).
Why does the author do this? Why affect does it give the reader? Examples of answers the teacher is looking for include that it makes the
reader look at the illustrations more closely if there arent any words on the page.
What are some of the interesting words used in the story? Write these on a poster for the book (this poster can be added to through this
lesson and the lessons to come).
Practice
The students are asked to complete a Y chart (see appendix C) of this poem (similar to what they did at the beginning of the frontloading
sequence on poems). In pairs the students discuss what the poems sound like in this book, what they look like and how the poems make
them feel however, they each write down their ideas on their Y chart individually.

Review
Resources

The students have a chance to share what they discussed with their partner on their Y chart. Allow as many students to share as possible,
without teacher interruption.
- The Dream of the Thylacine book (Wilds & Brooks 2011).
- Butchers paper for writing interesting words in the book
- Appendix C one for each student

Explicit Teaching Session 2 Writing poems

IntroWatch video The Dream of the Thylacine <http://vimeo.com/67108386> from part of Erth Visual & Physical Incs show that was based on
duction
the book.
ElaboExplain that after reading the book in the last lesson and watching that video this lesson. It is time to look at another animal to research.
ration
For the class, the teacher would model researching an animal, and finding the information with provided websites and/or books. As a class
they would then write a poem about the researched animal using the structure that the book uses (as discussed in the last lesson). The
teacher would guide the discussion and model the writing in the same structure that The Dream of the Thylacine uses.
Practice
The students would individually research how an animal lives, filling out the sheet provided (see appendix D) to assist in gathering
relevant information. They would then write a poem (in the style of their choice) of their researched animal. The students would be
reminded to refer back to the posters that they made as a class when choosing the poem style.
Review
The students are to share their poems with a partner, and the partners would give feedback and edit each others work.
Resources - The Dream of the Thylacine book (Wilds & Brooks 2011)
- Butchers paper to write the poem the teacher is modelling
- Books and websites for researching endangered/extinct animals
- Students filled out copies of appendix D
Sequence 3: Developing a multimodal response Week 4
Teaching Focus Whole class activities
Follow on activities
To produce a
The teacher would model a Students will be asked to create a project for their
project on an
project on the Thylacine
endangered or extinct animal. They are told that
endangered or using the poem from the
their project should be aimed at either
extinct animal
book by Margaret Wild and protecting/saving the endangered animal, or how
using a poem
Ron Brooks. The teacher
the extinct animal could have been saved. Their aim
and their
should have started their
is to inform the community on how to save their
choice of
modelled project before the animal, or how the animal could have been saved.
presentation
lesson, and should continue They should be informed that their poem must be
on to show them an
typed on Word. They can choose to do a poster,
example of how they could
PowerPoint presentation, video, or other forms (as
present their work.
long as they check with the teacher first).

Assessment
Students will be
assessed according
to a rubric (see
appendix E). The
assignments
expectations are
based on AusVELS
content descriptors
relevant to the
project.

Resources
- The Dream of the
Thylacine book (Wilds
& Brooks 2011)
- Prepared project based
on the poem in the book
to model to the
students
- Computers/iPads to
create their projects
- Appendix E one for
each student

Appendix A Worksheet: Researching endangered and extinct animals

List of endangered animals

List of extinct animals

Some interesting facts about endangered and extinct animals

Endangered animals

Extinct animals

Appendix B Worksheet: KWL for what students know about endangered and extinct animals
KWL about Endangered and Extinct animals
What I know

(Adapted from myread.org)

What I want to know

What I learned

Appendix C Worksheet: Y chart for poems

What does a poem look like?

What does a
poem feel
like?

What does a
poem sound
like?

Appendix D Worksheet: Researching their animal

Name: _________________________________________
Your chosen animal: ______________________________

Where does your animal sleep?

_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________

Is your animal endangered or extinct? (circle one)

Endangered:
How many of your animal are left in the wild?
_______________________________________________

Where does your animal live?

_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________

How many of your animal are left in captivity?

_______________________________________________

Extinct:
When did it become extinct?

How did your animal become endangered or extinct?

_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________

What does your animal eat?

Herbivore/carnivore/omnivore (circle one)
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________

What are some interesting facts about your animal?

_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________

Appendix E Rubric: Project on endangered/extinct animal

Rubric for endangered/extinct animal project
Student Name: ____________________________________________________ Grade: _____________ Teacher Name: _____________________________
AusVELS/
Expectations
Plan, draft and publish
imaginative, informative and
persuasive texts, choosing and
experimenting with text
structures, language features,
images and digital resources
appropriate to purpose
and audience (ACELY1714)

Above the expected level of

achievement
Work is presented at a high standard
that reflects a well-planned, drafted
and published piece of work. Student
choose a poem style and multimodal
style to present a high quality project,
which is very appropriate for the
audience and purpose.

At the expected level of achievement

Reread and edit students own

and others work using agreed
criteria and explaining editing
choices (ACELY1715)
Use a range of software,
including word processing
programs, learning new
functions as required to create
texts (ACELY1717)

The students work reflects a high

standard and quality of editing with
little/no mistakes.

The students work reflects some

editing with a few mistakes.

The students work reflects no editing

with many mistakes.

The students showed use of word

processing with their poem and other
writing being typed and presented
very neatly.

The students showed their use of

word processing of their poem and
other writing, however at a simple
standard.

The students showed no/poor use of

word processing in their poem and
writing.

Work is presented at an acceptable

standard and reflects planning,
drafting and publishing. Student
choose a poem style and multimodal
style to present a quality project,
which is appropriate for the audience
and purpose.

Below the expected level of

achievement
Work is presented at a low standard
which reflects little/no planning,
drafting and publishing. Students
choice of poem style and multimodal
style is inappropriate for the audience
and purpose.

Teacher comments:
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(Adapted from Marsha Dickins 2014 Assignment Task 2 Template)