Year 9: Shadowing the Carnegie Medal

This unit of work is designed to enable teachers and pupils to shadow the Carnegie Medal. This is best run in June, following SATs. The short list is announced in April giving time to order copies of the books.

Year 9 pupils will arrive at judgements through video conferencing with a Year 9 group in another school, as well as through their lessons Guided reading and independent investigations are key tools in helping pupils to apply the Carnegie criteria to the short-listed books.

Relevant KS3 English framework objectives provide a focus for teaching the unit which aims to enable pupils to make informed, personal responses to novels, so that they are in a position to explore, explain and justify a judgement and arrive at a considered viewpoint.

Teaching focuses on the range of strategies we use to construct meaning – those invisible in-the-head ways we make sense of texts. Talk plays a key role in helping pupils arrive at judgements - through literary conversations - and in communicating and modifying evidence-based viewpoints to others through video conferencing. Writing is used as a tool for developing thinking, for instance creating mind maps and other annotated visual devices to support discussion. Investigative activities are designed to help pupils work independently, applying what they have learned in whole class and guided reading sessions.

Background to the Carnegie Medal

The Carnegie website http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/ is very accessible with background information, the criteria for the award, past long and short lists, recent winners with brief reviews and a section for shadowing schools.

Resources

There are usually between 5 and 8 books on the short list. In the pilot, schools which taught this unit, bought 6 copies of each title. Some pupils read several of the books on the shortlist; others specialised in one title. This depends on numbers and reading capacity of your pupils.

Peters Bookselling Service offer an advance ordering service for the shortlisted books. Their address is:

Peters Bookselling Services, 120 Bromsgrove St , Birmingham , B5 6RJ . Tel:0121 666 6646 http://www.peters-books.co.uk/

There is a Carngegie / Greenaway shadowing section on their website and from this section a clickable link to order the shortlist. There is also an order form to print off if schools don't want to send an electronic order.

Unit outline and medium term plan

Aim: to enable pupils to make informed, personal responses to novels so they are in a position to use standard English to explore, explain and justify a judgement and arrive at a considered viewpoint.

• The outcome is to be a speaking and listening assessment of objectives 2 and 9. The students’ reading will provide a vehicle for this assessment. There will be exploration and explicit teaching of reading strategies.
• The writing completed during this unit will focus upon using writing as a tool for the development of thinking and will also focus upon development of ways of recording such thinking through mind maps and other visual devices.
• Reading journals will be constructed using Paul Johnson’s bookmaking examples.

Framework objectives

Vocabulary

7. recognise layers of meaning in the writer’s choice of words, e. g. connotation, implied meaning, different types or multiple meanings ;

Reading

Study of literary texts

12. analyse and discuss the use made of rhetorical devices in a text;

13. review and develop their own reading skills, experiences and preferences, noting strengths and areas for development;

18. discuss a substantial prose text, sharing perceptions, negotiating common readings and accounting for differences of view.

Writing

Plan, draft and present

2. record, develop and evaluate ideas through writing, e. g. essays, journals;

4. choose and use a range of presentational devices, on paper and on screen;

Speaking and Listening

Speaking

2. use standard English to explain, explore or justify an idea;

Group discussion

9. discuss and evaluate conflicting evidence to arrive at a considered viewpoint;

Route through the unit  - Part 1

The first three lessons of the unit (Short term Plan and resources.doc) will be shared sessions which will be teacher led.

Lesson One – choosing books

• Starter activity – book covers. Which would they choose/reject?
• Discussion of why they choose books – reading strategy outlined – prediction
• Analysing extracts of openings of a range of texts – prediction of genre, interest for them as readers, story outcome
• Categorising openings e.g. starting with question, dialogue, description of setting, straight into action etc

Lesson Two – focus on reading strategies and openings

• Reading strategies cards – teacher demonstration
• Read extract. Which reading strategies did you use?
• Snowball responses to build up to class feedback
• What other reading strategies might be useful?
• How does this extract work as an opening (use of ‘openings’, student sheet 2.3)?
• Can we generate success criteria which we could apply to other texts? (+ and – factors)

Lesson Three - judging books: Carnegie criteria

• Who influences and chooses the books you read?
• Presenting the Carnegie criteria and making explicit the ways books are filtered from publication to purchase
• Pupils explore their understanding of the criteria in expert groups applied to a recent shared text
• Anchoring understanding of criteria

Route through the unit  - Part 2

From this point onwards the pattern of the lessons will take the form of a shared mini-lesson which will be oral and interactive followed by independent work supported by guided groups. During this time video conferences with your partner school will enable pupils to explore their emerging judgements. The majority of the conferences will be between small groups of pupils with a final, more structured conference between the two whole classes.

The three independent investigations focus on two of the Carnegie criteria, plot/theme and character. Exploration of the more challenging style criteria is supported by guided work.

There will need to be teaching input on

• establishing that the outcome is a S&L outcome. They will be developing ideas and recording their judgements e.g. through diagrams, mind-maps, collage etc.
• note-making and note-taking (see Literacy across the Curriculum folder, module 10, handout 10.8 particularly useful) linked to the three sets of investigations. Need for some explicit demonstration here.
• establishing ground rules for group and guided work (see lesson provided Managing Guided Reading and group work.doc)
• guided reading
• video conferencing and presentational talk

Supporting materials for this part of the unit include:

• starter activities related to objective 13, reviewing and developing own reading skills etc and objective 12, analysing and discussing the use of rhetorical devices Carnegie Starter activities.doc
• materials for the three investigations for choosing a winner : Carnegie investigations
• guided reading sessions Carnegie Guided Reading Sessions.doc

The final part of the unit culminates in a video conference between all your pupils and your partner school’s when you vote on your top three titles. This choice is informed by formal presentations by groups of students about the classes’ top three books, discussion and questioning of judgements.

After a period off-line when each class votes, there is a second conference when final judgements are shared and a winner announced.

In the pilot, this conference was held on the day of the official announcement which added an extra layer of interest. The Carnegie website also has a running total of votes cast by the shadowing schools.