Keeper by Mal Peet. Introduction. Resources for Keeper:

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1 by Mal Peet Introduction New Windmills titles are supported with student and teaching resource sheets to engage students with the novel and to help you with your planning. Each set of resources includes a series of self-contained lessons with photocopiable worksheets, teaching notes and suggestions for guided reading. Each activity is mapped against the Framework for teaching English to help you with your planning. There are also suggestions for further study areas including speaking and listening, writing, and reading activities. If your students have enjoyed studying this novel there are suggestions of other New Windmills titles they may like to read for pleasure. Resources for Keeper: Synopsis Activate prior learning Activities Research working in the rainforests Newspaper article about El Gato El Gato s point of view Guided reading Inferential reading Identifying stylistic conventions of newspaper reporting Empathetic reading Further study areas Reading for pleasure Activities by Alan Pearce The following pages can be downloaded and printed out as required. This material may be freely copied for institutional use. However, this material is copyright and under no circumstances can copies be offered for sale. The publishers gratefully acknowledge permission to reproduce copyright material.

2 Synopsis Paul Faustino, a sports journalist for La Nación, has the task of interviewing El Gato, the greatest goalkeeper to have ever come out of South America. The interview follows the South American country s success in the World Cup. Gato comes from a very poor family who lives in a forest that is being logged. As a young teenager, Gato enjoys walking alone through the forest. There, he comes across a mysterious man known as the Keeper, who trains him to be an excellent goalkeeper. However, living hundreds of miles away from the nearest town, and with a mother who dreams of her son going to university, it seems unlikely that Gato will ever play football. In fact, Gato inevitably follows his father into working for the logging company. Gato proves his ability during a football match between the Loggers and the men who work in the Camp. He impresses his boss so much that the manager of Deportivo San Juan is invited to watch Gato play. Immediately, Gato is offered a contract. Gato is extremely successful at Deportivo, but each time he returns home he visits the Keeper in the forest and receives additional training. However, the Keeper becomes increasingly impatient, and it becomes clear that Gato has been chosen to achieve something more than footballing success. After winning the World Cup, Gato returns to the forest to visit the Keeper. It transpires that the Keeper was a member of the national football team that crashed in the jungle in The team was the favourite to win the 1950 World Cup, in Rio de Janeiro, and after their mysterious crash they became known as the Lost Ones. When Gato presents the Keeper with the World Cup, the whole ghost squad from 1950 materialises from the forest. They then fade away, able to rest now that the World Cup has been brought home. Activate prior learning Elicit from students what they know about South America. A range of general questions could be asked, such as naming a country in South America, naming the language spoken, and well known cities or events, e.g. the Rio carnival. Specific questions should then be directed to determine knowledge of ecological problems such as logging in the forests, and football, being careful to direct answers towards the international game rather than domestic football leagues and matches. General observations of the rules/number of players/positions would still be useful, however. 2 Teacher s Notes Harcourt Education Limited, 2005

3 Teaching notes Activity 1 Research working in the rainforest Framework Objectives Year 7: R2 Use appropriate reading strategies; R6 Adopt active reading strategies; Wr14 Describe an object, person or setting in a way that includes relevant details and is accurate and evocative; S&L5 Promote, justify or defend a point of view using supporting evidence, example and illustration which are linked back to the main argument. Year 8: R2 Undertake independent research; Wr12 Describe an event, process or situation, using language with an appropriate degree of formality; S&L3 Make a formal presentation in standard English, using appropriate rhetorical devices. Year 9: R2 Synthesise information from a range of sources; Wr3 Write in standard English; Wr11 Make telling use of descriptive details; S&L2 Use standard English to explain, explore or justify an idea. Activity aims: To develop persuasive writing/speaking techniques. To expand research skills. This activity asks the students to first research the conflicts faced by poor people who are employed to fell trees in rainforests. Students then produce a speech either in favour of or against the logging trade. Provide the students with Resource Sheet 1. This Resource Sheet asks the students to reflect on three extracts from the novel. Students could work alone to read the extracts, and then work with a partner to record the conflicts they identify from the texts. You could take feedback as a class to discuss any differences in opinion that might occur. Provide students with Resource Sheet 2. This Resource Sheet asks the students to carry out a piece of independent research, and to use their research to produce their speech. In their pairs, students should call themselves A and B. All the As should write a speech against logging as El Gato, and all the Bs should write a speech in favour of the logging trade as his father. Students should aim to write a two minute speech, and use extracts from the text on Resource Sheet 1 to support their argument. You may need to revise the dos and don ts of speech making, and support less able students in quoting relevant material. It would be useful to have internet and library access for the research part of the task, or this could be set as homework prior to carrying out the activity. Guided reading Inferential reading Choose a small group of students who will benefit from support with inferential reading. Together, re-read page 55 from On the workbenches to diesel oil on page 56. Ask the students to explain how Gato feels about the logging camp. Ask them to identify the vocabulary that gives them this impression. (They might need support to identify words such as weapons, amputated, and bleeding.) 3 Teacher s Notes Harcourt Education Limited, 2005

4 1 Keeper Researching the logging trade: conflict Read the three extracts below from Keeper. In the box that is placed below the extracts, make a note of any of the struggles that the people living in this community face. You will notice that although logging provides a living, it is very dangerous and it harms the environment. What examples are there to show that the people live in a wonderful environment, but to survive they have to harm it? And I saw wonderful things. Shimmering green humming-birds smaller than butterflies, a family of tiny emerald frogs living in less than a cupful of water, moths with wings as clear as coloured glass, like little pieces of the church window, golden millipedes longer than my arm tracking through the leaf-rubbish of the forest floor. I saw beetles that looked like flowers and flowers that looked like beetles. Extract 1 Page 10 When he spoke about his work, his stories were mostly about the men he worked with. When he spoke about the forest, his talk was about the difficulties and successes he had met while cutting it down. He was expert at calculating the weight and balance of a tree, and the direction in which it would fall if the saws made the right cuts. When he looked at a tree, he saw what it might be turned into: houses, boats, furniture, telephone poles, paper. Money. Extract 2 Page 27 Saw-monkeys had to carry heavy steel cables to the fallen tree and lock them on, so that the big dragging machines could tear the tree out of the forest. And if the cutting was on a slope, and if there had been rain, the logs were sometimes pulled down on top of the saw-monkeys and they would be crushed to death. Sometimes, not often, but sometimes, a cable would snap and whip back; in the past couple of years three saw-monkeys had been killed by broken cables. One had been cut in half at the waist like a piece of cheese being sliced by a wire. Extract 3 Page 57 Struggles: 4 Student Sheet Harcourt Education Limited, 2005

5 2 Researching the logging trade: writing a speech Imagine that you are either El Gato or his father. Your task is to present an argument to your local community to support your view that either logging is good for the local community or that it is a bad thing. The extracts that you studied in Resource Sheet 1 provided some information from the novel. However, it is important that you look beyond the novel for information. Use geography books, books about the environment, and books about the communities who live in rainforests. In addition, use the internet to research information about the conflicts faced by people who live in the rainforests and who are employed in logging. Some helpful keywords might be: Rainforests Logging Deforestation Rainforest communities Rainforest communities economy Finally, choose whether you would like to be El Gato or his father. Present your speech in order to persuade the local community that your own point of view is the best point of view. Remember, as you are trying to persuade people in a speech you should: write in the first person use examples to illustrate your points use adjectives, adverbs and powerful verbs for emotive effect use connectives to link your ideas use rhetorical questions. 5 Student Sheet Harcourt Education Limited, 2005

6 Teaching notes Activity 2 Newspaper article about El Gato Framework Objectives Year 7: S17 Use standard English; Wr10 Organise texts in ways appropriate to their content. Year 8: S12 Explore and use different degrees of formality in written texts; Wr12 Describe an event, process or situation, using language with an appropriate degree of formality. Year 9: S9 Write sustained standard English with the formality suited to reader and purpose; W7 Explore how non-fiction texts can convey information in amusing or entertaining ways. Activity aims: To consider the stylistic conventions of newspaper articles. To write a newspaper article. This activity leads the students towards writing a newspaper article about an aspect of El Gato s career. Provide the students with Resource Sheet 3. This Resource Sheet presents a newspaper article about a sporting activity and asks the students to identify some of the stylistic conventions. Teachers may need to revise the stylistic conventions of newspaper articles. (a) The first paragraph answers all of the wh questions. (b) It would be expected to find the following stylistic devices superlatives (the best); emotive language (an extraordinary goal); adjectives (superb, beautiful, exquisite); interesting verbs (thumped, glided, danced); quotations (I wanted to win this game so badly; exaggeration (the crowd shouted the roof down when Yeovil scored in the final minute of extras time). It would be possible to explore these conventions in a piece of sports journalism from the students local newspaper. Provide the students with Resource Sheet 4. This Resource Sheet asks the students to select relevant information to include in their own newspaper article on an aspect of El Gato s career. The students will have revisited the convention of answering the wh questions when they studied Resource Sheet 3. However, students will also benefit from being reminded of the conventions of direct and indirect speech. Guided reading Identifying stylistic conventions of newspaper reporting Activity 2 focuses on newspaper sports reporting. It asks the students to identify uses of the following stylistic features: superlatives; emotive language; adjectives; interesting verbs; quotations; exaggeration. Each of these stylistic features might need to be revised. Find a sports report from the local newspaper. Choose a group of students who need some support in identifying these stylistic features. Read the article together and identify uses of these features. 6 Teacher s Notes Harcourt Education Limited, 2005

7 3 Stylistic conventions of newspaper reporting Look at the following newspaper article that might have been written about El Gato by a sports journalist. Once you have read the article, place the words below into boxes around the article. Afterwards, draw a line from each box to an example in the article. Superlative, Emotive language, Adjective, Interesting verb, Quotation, Exaggeration Deportivo is right move for young star Paul Faustino The most exciting teenage goalkeeper in South America, already known as El Gato, said yesterday that he was confident that the move to DSJ was the right move for him. Straight from the rainforests, 500 km from the city of San Juan, he has found the big city a formidable place. However, the boys of the rainforest always saw DSJ as their local team. We roared at their victories and howled at their defeats, said El Gato. The teenage star was plucked from oblivion, in a plot fit for a fairy story. He was spotted playing in the most violent of games, in the middle of the rainforest; The Loggers versus The Camp. Senora da Silva made a dangerous journey from the city to the rainforest, across a formidable landscape, in order to give El Gato the chance of a lifetime. It is now up to the youngster to prove that he is able to make the journey from the rainforest to the city. 7 Student Sheet Harcourt Eduction Limited, 2005

8 4 Newspaper article about El Gato We know that Paul Faustino, a sports journalist for La Nación, has decided that the interview he has conducted will lead to three different newspaper articles: the first would be about the jungle and the Keeper; the second would deal with the logging camp and the death of Gato s father; the third would be Gato s view of the World Cup final. Imagine that you are Paul Faustino and that you are about to write the article about the logging camp and Gato s father s death. The following page references provide all of the information that you require for your article. Incident Pages Notes El Gato s father s view of 27 28, 54, 56 working in the rainforest El Gato s experiences of work in the rainforest The death of El Gato s father You have decided to write three paragraphs: one about El Gato s father s view of working in the rainforest one about El Gato s experiences of work in the rainforest one about the death of El Gato s father. Firstly, re-read the page references that you have been given in the table above, and then make notes for each of the paragraphs. Now write your newspaper article. When you write your article you should try to include the following: superlatives emotive language adjectives interesting verbs quotations exaggeration. 8 Student Sheet Harcourt Eduction Limited, 2005

9 Teaching notes Activity 3 El Gato s point of view Framework Objectives. Year 7: S15 Vary the formality of language; R6 Adopt active reading strategies; R8 Infer and deduce meaning; Wr6 Portray character through writing. Year 8: S15 Vary the formality of language; R4 Review active reading strategies; Wr6 Experiment with figurative language; Wr7 Create tone in writing. Year 9: S9 Write in standard English; Wr16 Present a balanced analysis of a situation. Activity aims: Review research skills. To produce a piece of empathetic writing. This activity helps students to select information from the novel in order to produce a piece of empathetic writing. The students are asked to consider two key moments in Gato s life and to write about them from Gato s point of view. Provide the students with Resource Sheet 5. This Resource Sheet asks the students to reflect on two extracts from the novel. The students are asked to imagine that they are El Gato. They are asked to record the feelings that they might have had during the events described in the extracts. The students might have to be encouraged to consider that people can have contrasting emotions. Provide students with Resource Sheet 6. This Resource Sheet asks the students to produce a piece of writing in the character of El Gato. The students are asked to consider the following stylistic devices: writing in the first person; writing in the past tense; describing in detail how they feel; using adjectives, adverbs and powerful verbs to make their accounts vivid. Each of these stylistic devices might need to be revisited before the students are provided with Resource Sheet 6. Guided reading Empathetic reading Choose a small group of students who would benefit from some support with empathetic reading. Together, re-read the extract on pages that describes El Gato taking the final penalty of the World Cup penalty shoot-out. Ask the students whether they have ever been faced with a stressful situation during a sporting event. Ask the students to imagine that they are El Gato. What emotions would El Gato have been feeling during this incident? 9 Teacher s Notes Harcourt Eduction Limited, 2005

10 5 El Gato s emotions Re-read the extract below which describes the moment El Gato took the World Cup back to the Keeper. Imagine that you are El Gato. In the boxes around the extract record the feelings you might have had. Remember, you might have been feeling different emotions at the same time. Write them all down. Gato s words came out in a clumsy tumble. I am sorry I took so long. It took much more time than I thought it would. I thought I would be able to come here four years ago. The thought of you waiting, of your long wait, has, has Has what son? Has troubled me. Haunted me. The keeper lifted a hand. And it has made you great, he said. It has made you complete something. And as for time He shrugged. We are used to it. It is like rain to us we knew it would stop, eventually. And that then we would be in the sun, at last. I was afraid, Gato said, that you would think I had failed. That I would not come back. There was never any doubt, the Keeper said. There was a silence then. The living man and the man who had not managed to die stood facing each other in the unnatural quietness. The Keeper ended it. He said, in a controlled, formal way, I believe you have brought something to us. He held out his arms as a father might reach for a child. Except that they were trembling. Page Student Sheet Harcourt Eduction Limited, 2005

11 6 El Gato s point of view The novel Keeper is a third person account of an interview with El Gato, conducted by the sports journalist Paul Faustino. Although there are many accounts of El Gato s feelings they are always reported by the author. Imagine that you are El Gato, and that instead of asking Paul Faustino to write a biography, you have decided to write your own autobiography. The publishers are interested in your project, but they have asked you to produce three paragraphs in your own words in order to see whether you can make your life sound interesting. You have chosen the following three incidents to write about: the first time you met the Keeper your first game of football the World Cup penalty shoot out. Remind yourself of the relevant details by re-reading the following pages and making notes as you read: Incident Pages Notes The first time you met the Keeper Your first game of football The World Cup penalty shoot out Now, use these details to write your three paragraphs. Remember, you are writing as though you are El Gato about events that have happened: write in the first person write in the past tense describe in detail how you felt use adjectives, adverbs and powerful verbs to make your account vivid. 11 Student Sheet Harcourt Eduction Limited, 2005

12 Further study areas This novel explores how a peasant from a South American rainforest is coached into becoming a magnificent goalkeeper. His goal is to win the World Cup so that the tormented ghosts of a previous team can rest in peace. The following study areas provide ideal opportunities for creating interesting and stimulating activities: Author s craft: Consider the advantages and disadvantages of writing in the third person. For example, would we learn more about El Gato s feelings if the novel had been written in the first person? What advantages are there from presenting the novel as an interview in the third person? (Author s craft: Yr7 R12; Yr8 R10; Yr9 R9) Persuasive writing: Imagine that you are El Gato. Persuade your mother that you should go off to Deportivo in order to play football. (Persuasive writing: Yr7 W15; Yr8 W13; Yr9 W13) Personal view: How far should parents influence the careers of their children? (Writing reflectively: Yr7 W19; Yr8 W16; Yr9 W13) Group discussion: El Gato says I ve got a life ahead of me, God willing, and I want to do something with it. What would you like to achieve with your own life? What barriers are there in your way? (Group discussion: Yr7 S&L12; Yr8 S&L10; Yr9 S&L10) Writing to entertain: Choose any of the key events in the novel and rewrite them from El Gato s perspective. For example, we do not learn very much about the way he felt when the manager of Deportivo turned up at his house. Similarly, we could learn more about the way he felt when he realised that his mission had been to allow the Lost Ones to rest. (Writing to entertain: Yr7 Wr5; Yr8 Wr6; Yr9 Wr5) Reading for pleasure This novel is set in a rural community in South America, and focuses on two issues, the way an individual escapes from this environment through his footballing skills and the ecological damage caused by logging. If students have enjoyed this novel then they will also enjoy Perfect Match, a collection of extracts about football including poetry, biographies, prose and articles and Billy Elliot, the story of a boy trying to live up to his family s expectations and still follow his dream to become a dancer. 12 Teacher s Notes Harcourt Eduction Limited, 2005