Year 5 and 6 students explore the written and visual meanings of 'The Island' by John Heffernan. They examine the features of narratives, including structure and language features, before writing their own allegorical tale.
Allegory, Narrative, Orientation, Complication, Resolution, Coda, Visual Literacy,
Australian Curriculum English
Language
Text structure and organisation
Year 5: Understand how texts vary in purpose, structure and topic as well as the degree of formality (ACELA1504)
Year 6: Understand how authors often innovate on text structures and play with language features to achieve particular aesthetic, humorous and persuasive purposes and effects (ACELA1518)
Expressing and developing ideas
Year 5: Understand how noun groups/phrases andadjective groups/phrases can be expanded in a variety of ways to provide a fuller description of the person, place, thing or idea (ACELA1508)
Year 6: Investigate how complex sentences can be used in a variety of ways to elaborate, extend and explain ideas (ACELA1522)
Year 6: Understand how ideas can be expanded and sharpened through careful choice of verbs, elaborated tenses and a range of adverb groups/phrases (ACELA1523)
Literature
Responding to literature
Year 5: Present a point of view about particular literary texts using appropriate metalanguage, and reflecting on the viewpoints of others (ACELT1609)
Year 5: Use metalanguage to describe the effects of ideas, text structures and language features on particular audiences (ACELT1795)
Year 6: Identify and explain how choices in language, for example modality, emphasis, repetition and metaphor, influence personal response to different texts (ACELT1615)
Examining literature
Year 5: Understand, interpret and experiment with sound devices and imagery, including simile, metaphor and personification, in narratives (ACELT1611)
Year 6: Identify the relationship between words, sounds, imagery and language patterns in narratives (ACELT1617)
Creating literature
Year 5: Create literary texts using realistic and fantasy settings and characters that draw on the worlds represented in texts students have experienced (ACELT1612)
Year 6: 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)
Literacy
Interacting with others
Year 5: Clarify understanding of content as it unfolds in formal and informal situations, connecting ideas to students’ own experiences and present and justify a point of view (ACELY1699)
Year 6: Participate in and contribute to discussions, clarifying and interrogating ideas, developing and supporting arguments, sharing and evaluating information, experiences and opinions (ACELY1709)
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
Year 5: Identify and explain characteristic text structures and language features used in imaginative, informative and persuasive texts to meet the purpose of the text (ACELY1701)
Year 5: Navigate and read texts for specific purposes applying appropriate text processing strategies, for example predicting and confirming, monitoring meaning, skimming and scanning (ACELY1702)
Year 6: Analyse how text structures and language features work together to meet the purpose of a text (ACELY1711)
Creating texts
Year 5: Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive print and multimodal texts, choosing text structures, language features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1704)
Year 6: 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)
Year 5: Re-read and edit student’s own and others’ work using agreed criteria for text structures and language features (ACELY1705)
Year 6: Re-read and edit students’ own and others’ work using agreed criteria and explaining editing choices (ACELY1715)
Year 5: Use a range of software including word processing programs with fluency to construct, edit and publish written text, and select, edit and place visual, print and audio elements (ACELY1707)
Year 6: Use a range of software, including word processing programs, learning new functions as required to create texts (ACELY1717)
Learning Intention: To explore what makes a good story.
Think about the stories that you have read and viewed.
Comment: ‘What makes a good story?’ Read other students' comments and comment on any that you especially liked, explaining why. Start with @Name so the person knows you are commenting on their comment.
This Update aims to get students thinking about the elements that make a story worthwhile, enjoyable or interesting
On an island live a tribe of hardworking, self-absorbed people who do not laugh much. A small, blind child lives by the sea and daily explores the beauty and wonders to found on the island's coast. Nobody pays any attention to him until one day he is seen playing with a great sea monster.
Fearing for his safety, members of the tribe try to rescue him, only to discover in their turn the joy of sharing the sea with such an amazing beast. They laugh for the first time.
This allegorical tale about the driven nature of many human societies questions not only our lifestyle but our definition of happiness. The blind child understands that happiness is the journey, the moments of shared discovery, excitement, love and laughter. The tribe sees happiness as a possession to be earnt and then owned.
The illustrations integrate beautifully with the text. Black and white tribe members live and move in a black and white world of simple, straight lines that contrasts starkly with the tumble of colours, curves and hidden shapes that is the world of the blind child - a wonderfully ironic commentary on the nature of sight versus vision.
The students explore the idea of a good story. Students are encouraged to draw upon their prior knowledge. Elements could include: characters, complications, settings. Students then write a reflection based upon this information.
Learning Intention: To use reading strategies to read and comprehend 'The Island'.
1. Working in pairs, study the front cover and title page, and predict what the story is about.
2. In pairs predict what the story is about using the images.
The 1st student looks at the 1st illustration in the book. Describe it to your partner. Your partner should not be able to see the illustration.
The 2nd Student looks at the next illustration in the book and describes it.
Pause at a certain point in the story and record another prediction.
Continue swapping until you have completed book.
Once completed, share your interpretation of the whole book with your partner.
Discuss how the words add meaning to the pictures, and how the pictures add meaning to the words.
Comment: What you think that the creature symbolises? Why did the people treat the creature the way they did? Why did the author make the urchin blind? Read other students' comments and comment on any responses that you agree with, explaining why.
This Update will engage students in reading the text. Predicting also links to inferring so they will be drawing information from the images in the text.
Prediction: Show the cover and title page of the book 'The Island' to students. In pairs they share a prediction
Provide each pair with the text ‘The Island’. Ask students to stop after the tribe is playing with the creature and record another prediction in their table. Alternatively, students can access the images and a reading by the author, John Heffernan
Reference for Picture Flick activity: Steps Professional Development. (2004). First Steps Reading Resource Book. Melbourne: Rigby Heineman.
Learning Intention: To understand how a narrative is structured.
1. You will be given one part (text component) of a narrative. In order to complete the task you need to form a group that contains all 5 parts. Once your group is formed, read each text component and reconstruct the text in order.
What information does the story provide? (orientation)
Did the main character encounter any problems in the story? (Complication)
How did the characters respond to the problem? (evaluation)
How was the problem resolved? (resolution)
What was the moral/message of the story? (coda)
2. Now draw up this table and complete it.
| The parts | What each part does |
Examples from 'The Island' |
| Orientation | ||
| Complication | ||
| Evaluation | ||
| Resolution | ||
| Coda |
Comment: Watch the YouTube video on narrative structure. Share one thing you learned about narrative structure. Read other students' comments and comment on 1-2, explaining why you thing that was an important idea to share.
The purpose of this Update is to understand narrative structure.
1. Text cut ups
Take 'The Island'. Chop it into pieces at the paragraph level or at the sentence level. Students then have to put it back into the correct sequence. This develops an understanding of narrative structure.
2. Using ‘The Island’ as a model, the students will continue to look at the structure of narrative. This will allow them to evaluate the purpose of each component of the story. Students fill in the table. The example column should be filled using examples from 'The Island'.
Learning Intention: To identify the key features of an effective orientation.
Look at the opening of 'The Island'.
There was once a hardworking tribe that rarely smiled and never laughed. The tribe lived on an island. It was a beautiful island, but the people were too busy to notice. All except one, a blind urchin who slept under the stars.
Find other narratives and look at the openings. Discuss these with your group. What does each orientation tell you?
Complete the table below about the orientations
| Name of Narrative | Who | When | Where | Other |
Comment: Why are these orientations effective? What does the orientation tell you? Respond to other students' comments.
Students look at good openings of narratives and identify the key features that they include. Students can find their own from the library/class library or books online. Some good examples are:
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.
Robert Jordan. The Eye of the World. Book 1 of the Wheel of Time.
This is a story about a man named Eddie and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun. It might seem strange to start a story with an ending. But all endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.
Mitch Albom. The Five People you meet in Heaven.
Once upon a time, at the edge of a wide and dusty desert, there lived an old bilby. His name was Hunwick.
Mem Fox. Hunwick’s Egg
Once upon a time, but not very long ago, deep in the Australian bush lived two possums. Their names were Hush and Grandma Poss.
Mem Fox. Possum Magic
Learning Intention: To understand the importance of writing descriptive scenes in the orientation to engage the reader in the text.
Imagine you are the urchin, but in an urban landscape. Brainstorm how this landscape would look, smell, feel, taste and sound . We will use this information to complete the ‘we say’ column as a class.
Then complete the 'I say' column with your own descriptions of an urban landscape. You can use the Hong Kong image below or find another urban landscape to give you ideas.
Create a visual of your setting - think about colours, textures, size and layout.
| Author said | The sense | We say | I say |
| The urchin heard the sighs of the sea | sound | ||
| Listened to the whispers of the breeze | sound | ||
| He felt the welcome of the sun as it woke the day | touch/feel | ||
| Could smell the scent of a storm | sound | ||
| He felt the air change when the sea birds wheeled | touch | ||
| Heard the fish as they slid through the bay | sound | ||
| And knew better than anyone the tickle of sand between his toes | touch/feel | ||
| look | |||
| taste |
Comment: Why is the setting in the orientation so important? How can you make the setting interesting? Read through other students' comments and choose one that you liked, explaining why.
.jpg?Expires=1715000485&Signature=aCDY3Z4xT0aU2BghrzglZVOQKnZHp6w0FG27c19ctn0v2OFigIU117QBNGi4uJO2~kWNdArCVSR4yXXCIFo8zplAAwkNsNRG56DNxrtGgnCZTd5k0cuGLSrnmZFh82rzeUx8JbAZxtCbrJvxi1wR3UPDSxJUkJanLA7WQSl1Vx8XuPYiAe5LxZ7WqmWnp~9g-x0spgO2P0eoYjGNx2Do7dBVL3lW7KHpgtMT-~nzuFK-pA8FOVvnj222jJlcAQCC-Z4y4LJ9CfuZtdfn~b0xM0qJwoY7AtWoAMyLr0Ax5L6K7Y5Cqzs9LZND6apXCB94Chr69dxrBv8kino3P4KrlA__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJELYXGUCCDL7FUQA)
The purpose of this Update is for students to learn about the importance of writing descriptive scenes to engage the reader in the text.
Read the third page of ‘The Island’. Using 'The Island' as the model, create a class example in the 'we say' column. Students' then write their own setting in the 'I say' column, combining all the sentences into a paragraph, providing an opportunity to write a paragraph.
Students could create their own Update where they post their paragraph and a photo of the image they create. Alternatively, these could be recorded on paper and displayed around the room.
Learning Intention: To understand how the images develop the characterisation of the narrative.
Look through the images in 'The island' again. Look at the gestures of the characters. Gesture refers to the positioning of figures, their focus, body language and facial expression. Identify the places in the story where these aspects change and then describe the change.
| Character | Describe the changes in the character's gestures | What does this tell you |
| urchin | ||
| creature | ||
| people |
Now look at colour.
| Colour | Describe the changes in the characters and environment | What does this tell you |
| Urchin | ||
| Sea Creature | ||
| People of tribe | ||
| Island | ||
Comment: How do the images add meaning to the words of the story? Would the story be as successful without the images? Why/why not. Read other students' comments and comment on one that you like, explaining why you agree with it.
This activity examines the people, urchin and the creature through colour and gesture. This activity encourages students' to make inferences about characters and investigate why the author has chosen particular colours and gestures.
In pairs, students use the text to complete 2 retrieval charts to map the changes in characters and the environment.
Learning Intention: To infer the deeper meaning of "The Island'.
'The island' is an allegory. An allegory is a story, poem, or picture in which the characters and events are symbols that stand for ideas about human life. These can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning that could be the moral of the story.
From a double page spread from the picture book, make some inferences about the characters, setting and themes.
| What I see | What I infer | |
| character/s | ||
| character/s | ||
| setting | ||
| setting | ||
| theme/big idea | ||
| theme/big id | ||
| symbol | ||
| symbol |
Comment: What have you learned from this story? Do you think that 'The Island' is an allegory? Why/why not? Read other students' comments and comment on any that you strongly agree or disagree with. Give reasons for your opinion. Start with @Name so the person knows you are commenting on their comment.
Inferring from images
In this Update students are introduced to the idea of an allegory. It is explored further in Update 10.
The purpose of this Update is for students to go beyond the surface/literal meaning of the text to explore themes about valuing what is important in life such as happiness and using our senses to enjoy what is around us, rather than being too busy to notice.
Complete examples as a whole class and then ask students to work in pairs to find a second example.
| What I see | What I infer | |
| character/s | the urchin is blind but he uses his senses | the urchin can see much more than people with sight |
| character/s | the people of the tribe are not smiling | the people of the tribe do not lead happy lives |
| setting | the island is colourful | people are happy |
| setting | the island is black and white | people are unhappy |
| theme/big idea | the people of the tribe are marching | the people of the tribe are too busy to enjoy life |
| theme/big idea | the sea creature changes colour when he is captured | happiness comes from enjoying life, not buying or owning it |
| symbol | sea creature | happiness |
| symbol | sea | freedom |
Learning Intention: To identify the types of complications within a narrative.
To engage the reader in the sequence of events of a narrative, the author adds a conflict or complication. There are three types of conflicts or complications within narrative texts physical, social and internal. A complication must either highlight, foil, or alter what the character/s wants.
What conflicts exist within ‘The Island’?
Record your examples in the table below.
Then add some examples from real life/books/movies.
| Type of complication | Definition | Example from 'The Island' | Example from real life/ books/movies |
| Physical | a person’s struggle with the physical word. It represents humans versus nature, difficulty and danger. | ||
| Social | the struggle of person against their society. It is a description of struggle between person and person. | ||
| Internal | a conflict which happens inside the person. A person struggles against themself, their conscience, their guilt. |
Comment: Share examples interesting complications based on something that you know/read/viewed. Let's make a long class list. Read other students' examples and keeping adding more until you run out of ideas. You will be able to look back at these when you write your own narrative.
Three types of conflicts
This activity will assist students' to identify types of conflicts and understand that narratives often contain more than one type.
Generating a class list of conflicts will scaffold the Update that follows as well as being a useful resource when students write their own narratives.
Learning Intention: To understand the purpose of a resolution in a narrative.
Read the text without the resolution. Discuss: What is the purpose of a resolution? Why is it important?
With your partner decide on three possible resolutions. Then join another pair and discuss the options. As a group come to a consensus on what the most appropriate resolution for the narrative might be.
Comment: Share an alternative ending for 'The Island'. Read through other students' ideas and comment on any that you like, explaining why.
The purpose of this activity is for students to understand the purpose of a resolution and justify selection of resolutions based on their effectiveness within the story. Students apply their knowledge of resolutions to create alternative endings for the text.
Discuss the qualities of a satisfying ending.
Learning Intention: To understand what a coda is.
Think-Pair-Share: The coda captures the author's purpose through a moral or message. What stories have you read that have a moral or coda? What was the coda? Why do you think codas are included in narratives?
Fable: a short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral. An example is 'The Hare and the Tortoise'.
Allegory: a story, poem, or picture in which the characters and events are symbols that stand for ideas about human life. These can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
Think-Pair-Share:
How are fables and allegories the same? How are they different?
Read 'The Island' again and with a partner, discuss the following:
Who wins and who loses in the narrative?
What is the author's purpose of the narrative?
What is the moral/coda in this narrative?
Comment: Write a sentence that you would add to the end of 'The Island' that describes the coda of the story. Read other students' codas and comment on any that you really like, explaining why.
The purpose of a coda
Using 'The Island' as an example, students look at the idea of a coda or moral. See The Island for more information.
'The Island' is about recognising and treasuring what really matter in life—moments of happiness. John observes that ‘happiness tends to creep up on us. It tickles us when we least expect. Often we aren’t even aware before the moment has passed.’ It is the little things in life that so often bring joy. John says, ‘We need to savour those moments in a society like ours that tends to bombard us with stimuli. Those fleeting moments can be easily drowned out by the static of daily existence.’ As John was consciously writing a story with a message, he wanted it to feel a bit like a traditional morality tale. The characters in the story don’t have names; they stand for all of us. They belong to a ‘tribe’, though this doesn’t mean it has no relevance to a society from the industrial age, rather that it has meaning for the central, human part of us that hasn’t changed through time. We still have the same needs as people living long ago. The language that John uses is gentle. Although the people of the tribe are sour, their attitude doesn’t overwhelm the story. The descriptions of the sea creature and the attitude of the boy fill the text with warmth. John decided to make the main character (the only one who knows happiness) blind because he feels that beauty isn’t only something we see, it is something that we hear, touch, taste and smell as well. The people of the tribe can see, but they aren’t paying attention. They are too busy to see anything. Even when they do experience happiness, they treat it as if they can own it. They don’t see that what they are doing is killing the sea creature. The boy may be blind, but he is sensitive to all of life around him.
Learning Intention: To understand the purpose of using figurative language in narrative writing.
Complete the retrieval chart with your partner. Use a dictionary to write definitions.
| Figurative Device | Definition | Example/s from 'The Island' | What sense do the words make you use (smell, sight, taste, hearing, touch)? | What colours do you imagine? | Effect |
| Simile | |||||
| Metaphor | |||||
| Personification |
Now, in pairs, it is you turn to describe objects, emotions and situations in as detailed a way as possible. Use figurative language and your senses to enhance the imagery in your description.
Here is an example for sadness:
She felt sad. Tears welled up in her eyes and traced their way in ragged streams down her face.
Here are some you could describe (or you could come up with your own):
Remember: Show...don't tell! Show your audience what you are seeing. Really good descriptive writing uses lots of detail and all of the senses.
Comment: Share one of your descriptions. Read other students' and comment on ones you liked, explaining why you think it is effective. Start with @Name so they know you are commenting on their description.
Descriptive Tools in Writing
The purpose of this Update is to understand how authors use tools such as similes and personification to help the reader visualize what is happening in the story.
Examples from 'The Island'.
Simile (touch, sight)
He knew that the life of the creature was trickling away like sand through his fingers.
Metaphor (hearing, sight)
Soon they were playing together in the waves, and a strange sound tumbled from their lips.
Personification (sight)
As the sun lifted itself from the sea, they drifted away.
Students are then asked to describe certain objects, emotions and situations in as detailed a way as possible focusing upon the principle of show...don't tell through the use of figurative devices. Remind them that really good descriptive writing uses figurative language and all of the senses.
Learning Intention: To understand how to write complex sentences using adjectives and adjectival phrases to describe 'participants' and adverbs and adverbial phrases to describe circumstances.
1. Take the sentence: In the afternoon he squatted on the pavement. Draw up a table and record the parts of the sentence into the table. We will discuss each one as a class.
What adverb could you add to the sentence?
Now add other sentences in "The Island" to the table.
With a partner, discuss:
How do they describe 'circumstances'?
How are adverbs and adverbial phrases different? How are they the same?
What do adverbs and adverbial phrases do in sentences? Does the text make sense without them?
Why do you think the author has included them? Do they help to make your writing more descriptive?
|
When? Adverbial Phrase |
Who? Subject of the verb |
What? Verb |
How? Adverb |
Where Adverbial Phrase |
| In the afternoon | he | squatted | on the pavement | |
2. Now repeat the process with another sentence that is made up of adjectives and adjectival phrases to describe the 'participants' in the sentence.
Draw up a table and record the parts of the sentence into the table. We will discuss each one as a class.
How do they describe the 'participants'?
What adjective of quantity could you add to the sentence? What needs to be added to the rest of the sentence for it to make sense?
Now add other sentences in "The Island" to the table.
With a partner, discuss:
How are adjectives and adjectival phrases different? How are they the same?
What do adjectives and adjectival phrases do in sentences? Does the text make sense without them?
Why do you think the author has included them? Do they help to make your writing more descriptive?
| Article (the/a/an) |
Adjective Quantity |
Adjective Opinion |
Adjective Fact |
Noun | Adjectival Phrase | Rest of sentence |
| The | warm |
wet colourful |
creature | at the water's edge | ||
Comment: Create your own complex sentence and share it. Read other students' sentences and comment on ones you like, explaining why you think they are effective. Start with @Name so they know you are commenting on their sentence.
The purpose of this Update is to understand how to write complex sentences through adverbs, adjectives, adverbial phrases and adjectival phrases.
Understanding adverbial phrases
A transformation lesson is used so students are able to deconstruct particular language features of a text.
Select a sentence from 'The Island' that contains adverbs and adverbial phrases that describe when, where, why, how or for how long things occur.
Cut the text into sections to allow manipulation of features. Remove the adverbs and adverbial phrase and discuss the purpose of each one. Place the parts of the sentence into the table.
Understanding adjectival phrases
LI: To identify the purpose and use adjectival phrases.
A transformation lesson is designed to allow students to deconstruct particular language features of a text.
Select a sentece out of 'The Island' that contains adjectives and adjectival phrases that describe when, where, why, how or for how long things occur.
Cut the text into sections to allow manipulation of features. Remove the adjectives and adjectival phrase and discuss the purpose of each one. Place the parts of the sentence into the table.
LI: To identify and create complex sentences.
Look at simple, compound and complex sentences and how they are constructed. Highlight an example of each in the modelled text ‘The Island’
Identify the parts of a complex setence and Model how to create a complex sentence using a complex sentence pyramid.
Learning Intention: To apply what you have learned about narratives and allegories to your own narrative.
Write a narrative that has an orientation, complication, resolution and coda. Make your narrative an allegory about an important issue such as world peace, looking after the environment, bullying/cyber-bullying, or racism. Or it could be about an idea such as friendship, happiness, sadness, courage, right/wrong, fame, greed, rules, grief, forgiveness, love, honesty, fear, trust, respect and freedom.
To start your project in Scholar, check your Notifications for a "Work Request". Click on the "Work Request". This will take you into Creator where you can start the first draft of your work. Use the Structure Tool in "About this Work" to create a plan/outline of your work. Then include dotpoints under each heading.
Comment: If you have a question about your narrative writing project and/or Scholar, ask it here. If you can answer someone's question, do it!
Extension: Illustrate your narrative or create a picture book that is a visual allegory. You can also create a new narrative. Follow narrative structure and use visual features (colour, size, angle, perspective and layout), to communicate your allegory.
Students apply what they have learned about writing an allegory by creating their own narrative that is an allegory.
Rubric
Extension activity: visual allegory. Revise visual features such as colour, size, angle, perspective and layout.
The original version of this learning module was developed by Anne Dunn. It was revised by: Prue Gill, Anne Dunn, David Tilley, Emily Howland and Rita van Haren.
Title: (Source); Fig. 1: Circle (Source); Fig. 2: The Island (Source); Fig. 3: (Source); Fig. 4: Once upon a time (Source); Fig. 5: Hong Kong by Winhunter, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Source); Fig. 6: bears (Source); Fig. 7: Magnifying glass (Source); Fig. 8: Teddy bear and trash (Source); Fig. 9: Question marks (Source); Fig. 10: Hare and Tortoise (Source); Fig. 11: Sadness (Source); Fig. 12: Water's edge (Source); Fig. 13: (Source).