Learning task 1: Introduction
Students are asked to remember in as much detail as possible:
- a journey they have taken
- a moment when they made a discovery about something
- an embarrassing or proud moment
- a time when they got into trouble.
Students are asked to note down the key details of this memory.
Variation 1 - a larger thematic unit focusing on journeys:
Writing for Publication could form the final part of a larger unit linked by the theme of "Journeys". In this case the first part of the unit could focus on viewing and close reading of a novel, short stories, films and poems which feature journeys undertaken for different reasons physical, spiritual, economic, family etc-
Poems
* Heemi by Hone Tuwhare
* Bus Journey South Hone Tuwhare
* Maintrunk Country Road Song by Sam Hunt
* The Odyssey Homer
* Ulysses Alfred Lord Tennyson
* The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge
* Rambler Cilla McQueen
* She's Leaving Home Lennon and McCartney
* Approach to a City William Carlos Williams
* Riversong Sam Hunt
* Papa Tu A Nuku Hone Tuwhare
* Going to Sleep With Words in My Head Keith Thorsen
* The Road Barry Mitcalfe
* Night Mail WH Auden
* He Never Once Lost His Way Albert Wendt
Films
* Mark 11
* Stand by Me
Non Fiction
* Roald Dahl's autobiographies, Boy and Going Solo have some wonderful chapters involving journeys.
Short Stories
* The Yellow Brick Road Witi Ihimaera
* Through the Tunnel Doris Lessing
* A Kind of Madness Philip Mincher
* Beans Patricia Grace
* When We Stopped Elizabeth Knox
* Journey Patricia Grace
Novels
* The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier
* The Call of the Wild Jack London
* Walkabout James Vance Marshall
* The Homecoming Cynthia Voigt
* The Old Man and the Sea Earnest Hemmingway
* Water in the Blood Alan Bunn
* Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift
* Among the Cinders Maurice Shadbolt
* The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien
* The Journey John Marsden
* I Heard the Owl Call My Name Margaret Craven
- Variation 2 - Ideas for a variety of other plot structures
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In small groups students tell each other their story providing as much detail as possible about:
- where and when it happened
- the people involved and what they were like
- the details of what happened
- their feelings about what happened.
At this point group members question each other to draw out more details and clarify points.
Variation 3 - Student Directed Theatre:
(1) Listening and Speaking Variation - students could form new groups and relate one of the stories to the new group members who have not heard it. Then groups could be reassembled with the orginal story-teller checking how accurately their story had been re-told.
(2) Presenting Extension - the story-teller becomes the director of a short drama based on their story. S/he casts other group members to adopt key roles, informs them clearly of the sort of person they are to play, provides explicit details of the story and rehearses the group through the drama prior to a sharing with the whole class. For more guidance on managing this approach see Drama and Learning
(P 30) (Learning Media 1990)
