£5.00 (inc. VAT)
KS: Upper KS2
Year Group: Year 5
Literary Theme: Belonging & Acceptance
Author(s): Armin Greder
A welcome guide; description; letter of advice; analysis; comparison; diary entry in role; imagined conversation
Narrative sequel from a different character’s perspective
3 weeks, 15 sessions
In this three-week planning sequence, children begin by being given a range of scenario cards that they are asked to rank from ‘least’ to ‘most’ welcoming. They will then explore the nuances in the language used by Armin Greder as they share the text, The Island. Themes of prejudice and hostility are explored as well as delving into the mindset of the island’s inhabitants. Children will infer different character’s feelings, exploring the character of the fisherman in particular through the technique of teacher in role before receiving a letter asking for advice and writing a reply that uses the subjunctive mood. An analysis of the text is made, followed by a comparison between two groups of people. Then the children will be sent a letter from the man, outlining his experiences and explaining that although he has been mistreated, he is not bitter. He explains what happened once he was pushed away from the island on his raft Two sections of unpublished text are discovered and using these as a stimulus, the children write a narrative sequel from the man’s perspective, focusing in particular on using dialogue to convey the character and advance the action as well as the device of question tags in order to include imagined conversations between the fisherman and the outsider.
When the people of the Island discover a man and a tattered raft on their beach, they are reluctant to take him in. He doesn't look like them. But they cannot send him back to the sea where he will surely perish. Instead, they put him aside but even that doesn't solve their problem.
The Island is an astonishing and powerful picture book about refugees, xenophobia, multiculturalism, social politics and human rights. It tackles big themes in subtle ways with a fable-like text and stunning artwork that will provoke discussion for upper primary and secondary school levels about issues that remain so much a part of our national discourse.
Migration, refugees, asylum, prejudice, acceptance
A Spelling Seed is available for The Island.
This is a three-session spelling seed for the book The Island by Armin Greder. Below is the coverage from Appendix 1 of the National Curriculum 2014.
Spelling Seeds have been designed to complement the Literary Curriculum by providing weekly, contextualised sequences of sessions for the teaching of spelling that include open-ended investigations and opportunities to practise and apply within meaningful and purposeful contexts, linked (where relevant) to other areas of the curriculum and a suggestion of how to extend the investigation into home learning.
Spelling Seeds work alongside the texts within the Literary Curriculum and, as such, will also reflect the suggested number of weeks spent on a text, as well.
accompany, desperate, necessary, persuade, prejudice, privilege, sufficient
Words containing the suffix –ate, –ify, – en
Endings which sound like /ʃəl/
View The Island Spelling Seed
