Examining text structure and organisation
Plan a story sequencing experience for the students. Use photocopies of a selection of illustrations or write the main events on cards and have students order the events as they took place in the story. Students can write a sentence or two in their own words to describe the event.
Alternatively, the events of Ruby Red’s rescue can be sequenced using ordinal numbers(first day, second day, etc).Provide students with a template to sequence the events of this section of the text.
(ACELT1578) (ENe-11D) (ACMNA289) (MAe-4NA)
Introduce students to the text structure of a narrative – orientation, complication, resolution, coda. On the interactive whiteboard or butcher’s paper, identify the key events in the story and list them under the various parts of a narrative. Discuss the function of the coda(gives the final meaning or moral to the story). What could the message of this story be? Do a pair-share before brainstorming as a class.
(ACELT1785) (ENe-8B)
The movements and actions of Banjo and Ruby Red have been shown through the illustrations very effectively. Re-read the story and stop to draw students’ attention to the illustrations on selected pages to highlight this. Focus on the double page which reads ‘Mum whistles and yells…’ Discuss the pictures with the students.
- How many dogs have been drawn on the page? How many dogs are there?
- How does the picture give the sense of movement?
Look at another double page – ‘Banjo slides on his belly…’ Again, discuss the movement depicted here. Some complementary work on visual literacy might be useful here to explore the techniques in use. For example the use of colour, in particular the browns and reds, the use of vectors leading the reader from left to right and how perspective is used. Students can act out the movements of the characters as these sections are read aloud.
Provide some time for students to experiment with this style of illustration for an animal and movement of their choice. Add a description of the movements and create a class display. This activity could also be completed on computers – students can use basic functions to copy and paste images of animals to depict movement across the page.
(ACELA1786) (ENe-2A) (ACAVAM108)
Creative Arts K–6 syllabus:(VAES1.1)
Examining grammar and vocabulary
The text contains a collection of simple sentences that feature intransitive verbs in the present tense (Banjo leaps. Logs tumble. Sticks fly. Ruby Red rises).These verbs help create tension in the text.Libby Gleeson also uses transitive verbs which give an image of the character’s actions (stretches her neck, ruffles her feathers, sniffs the long grass). She has used the verbs in the text to paint the picture for the reader, rather then using adjectives. This gives the reader a sense of immediacy and the feeling of being on the farm with Banjo and Ruby Red.
Explore the text with the students and make a list of theaction verbs present.Some of these verbs may not be part of every student’s vocabulary. Discuss the meaning of these verbs with the students to build their vocabulary and assist in understanding the actions of the characters. Have the students act out these verbs as a way of understanding them further. Some interesting verbs to focus on:
- Page 11: leap,tumble
- Page 13: ruffling
- Page 15: slides,snuffles
- Page 23: peers
(ACELA1434) (ACELY1646) (ENe-9B) (ACADRM028)
Creative Arts K–6 syllabus:(DRAS1.1)
There is a lot of farm-specific language used throughout the text, including chook, shed, woodheap, roosts, perch, rounding up, lambing yard, woolshed. Have students complete a Word Huntactivity and locate these words in the text. In small groups, then as a class, define these words, using the text to infer meaning. Make a word wall of these terms and include written and/or visual definitions of these terms. Students can make a model of the farm or paint a mural and label the locations mentioned in the story.
(ACELA1437) (ENe-6B)
Rich assessment task
The text makes excellent use of onomatopoeia, which adds to the development of character and tension throughout the story. Discuss this language feature with students andgive examples by watching thisvideo. Explore other texts where this technique is also used.
As a culminating activity, have students author a page to be collated as a class book depicting the various animals and the sounds they make which could be found on the farm with Banjo and Ruby Red. Alternatively, students could focus more broadly and consider animals in other environments – at the zoo, in the bush, in the jungle.
(ACELA1434) (ACELA1786) (ENe-10C)
