A Martian Sends a Postcard Home - Craig Raine

Transcription

1 Martian Sends a Postcard Home - Craig Raine This activity was first developed for use with a Year 8 class by a group of Year 10 pupils with the support of their teachers, Erica Plowman and Melanie Hart at Morpeth School in ethnal Green. The year 10s discussion of the poem led to some excellent course work on their first arrival in the UK when they similar to Martians arriving from another planet. We have produced the original drawings for the activity where cards provide the clues for the poem and the cards are for the what is it? activity to inspire poetic talk and further versions of the poem. We have added colour pictures if you want to brighten up the clue cards. The webaddress for this activity is: This activity was last updated 29th pril 2006 COLLORTIVE LERNING PROJECT Project Director: Stuart Scott Supporting a cooperative network of teaching professionals throughout the European Union to develop and disseminate accessible teaching materials in all subject areas and for all ages. 17, arford Street, Islington, London N1 0Q UK Phone: 0044 (0) Website: RIEF SUMMRY OF SIC PRINCIPLES EHIND OUR TECHING CTIVITIES: The project is a teacher network, and a non-profit making educational trust. Our main aim is to develop and disseminate classroom tested examples of effective group strategies across all phases and subjects. We hope they will inspire you to develop and use similar strategies in other topics and curriculum areas. We run teacher workshops, swapshops and conferences throughout the European Union. The project publishes a catalogue of activities plus lists in selected subject areas, and a newsletter available on the internet: PPER- CLIP. *These activities were influenced by current thinking about the role of language in learning. They are designed to help children learn through talk and active learning in small groups. They work best in mixed classes where children in need of language or learning support are integrated. They are well suited for the development of speaking and listening. They provide teachers opportunities for assessment of speaking and listening and other formative assessment. *They support differentiation by placing a high value on what children can offer to each other on a particular topic, and also give children the chance to respect each other s views and formulate shared opinions which they can disseminate to peers. y helping them to take ideas and abstract concepts, discuss, paraphrase and move them about physically, they help to develop thinking skills. *They give children the opportunity to participate in their own words and language in their own time without pressure. Many activities can be tried out in mother tongue and afterwards in English. growing number of activities are available in more than one language, not translated, but mixed, so that you may need more than one language to complete the activity. *They encourage study skills in context, and should therefore be used with a range of appropriate information books which are preferably within reach in the classroom. *They are generally adaptable over a wide age range because children can bring their own knowledge to an activity and refer to books at an appropriate level. The activities work like catalysts. *ll project activities were planned and developed by teachers working together, and the main reason they are disseminated is to encourage teachers to work effectively with each other inside and outside the classroom. They have made it possible for mainstream and language and learning support teachers to share an equal role in curriculum delivery. They should be adapted to local conditions. In order to help us keep pace with curriculum changes, please send any new or revised activities back to the project, so that we can add them to our lists of materials.

2 Martian Sends a Postcard Home Read and listen to the poem Martian Sends a Postcard Home The Martian has never seen things on Earth before. It uses lots of different words to describe common everyday objects. Match the pictures of the objects (the Cards) to the correct number of verse or verses. You can do it like this: 5. ut time is tied to the wrist or kept in a box ticking with impatience. What is it?? Imagine you are a Martian! You need the cards for this activity. Work in pairs. One of you pick up a card - you are the only one knows what it is. Describe the object, but you must not say its name. key!!!! It s a small object... of metal often used by people... In groups write your own poem. Try it out on another group. Can they guess what your Martian is describing? Draw your picture on this side Write your own Martian postcard. Illustrate it too. Message here Name and address

3 Martian Sends a Postcard Home Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings and some are treasured for their markings.. 1. they cause the eyes to melt or the body to shriek with pain I have never seen one fly, but sometimes they perch on the hand Mist is when the sky is tired of flight and rests its soft machine on the ground: then the world is dim and bookish like engravings under tissue paper. Rain is when the earth is television it has the property of making colours darker. Model T is a room with the lock inside... a lock is turned to free the world for movement, so quick there is a film to watch for anything missed. ut time is tied to the wrist or kept in a box ticking with impatience. In homes a haunted apparatus sleeps, that snores when you pick it up. If the ghost cries, they carry it to their lips and soothe it to sleep with sounds. yet they wake it up deliberately, by tickling with a finger. Only the young are allowed to suffer openly. dults go to a punishment room 7. with water, but nothing to eat. They lock the door and suffer the noises alone. No one is exempt and everyone s pain has a different smell. 8. t night, when all the colours die, they hide in pairs and read about themselves... in colour, with their eyelids shut

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