My Shore Adventure

8-10 yrs old

11-13 yrs old

Reading and Writing

Gather information about a character using point, evidence and explanation, build vocabulary, and write descriptive sentences.

Submitted By: Litcraft

September 26, 2019

Lesson Plan
My Notes

Download Assets

Print Lesson Rework Lesson

Skills

Collaboration
Communication
Creativity

External References

Treasure Island World File

Treasure Island world in Minecraft to support lessons.

Litcraft Website

LITCRAFT uses the popular Minecraft gaming platform to build accurate scale models of authorial maps from classic works of literature.

Java World

Treasure Island Minecraft world file for Java editions of Minecraft.

Supporting Files

My Shore Adventure

Full lesson plan and activities.

Treasure Island Excerpts

Resources and map.

Learning Objectives

To gather information about a character using point, evidence and explanation.
To use a range of strategies to work out the meaning of unfamiliar words

Guiding Ideas

This series of lessons is designed to help teach English Language Arts concepts through the study of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

Reading aloud/shared reading of extended extract ‘My Shore Adventure’

Excerpts can be found in the external resources section.

Students re-read the extended extract with a partner taking turns to read a paragraph and help each other with any difficult vocabulary.

Working together, the children highlight any phrases that tell them about the character of Jim. These can be sentences where meaning is direct or where it is inferred. Discussion and feedback.
Role on the wall activity (in groups or whole class):
- Draw a large body shape on a piece of paper to represent the character of Jim Hawkins.
- Students work in partners and, on post-it notes, they record facts that they know about Jim using the point, evidence and explanation prompt. These are stuck around the outside of the body. Feedback and discussion.
- Students are given a different coloured post-it note and the record what they think they know about Jim using the point, evidence and explanation prompt. These are stuck around the outside of the body. Feedback and discussion.
Create a word bank of challenging words from the extended extract e.g. becalmed, melancholy, amphitheatre, foliage, stagnant, consort, outlandish, contorted, redescending, foolhardy. Discuss a range of strategies that children can use to work out the meaning of these words e.g. looking for compound words, breaking words down into prefixes and root words, reading the word in the context of the sentence, using a dictionary. Task children to work out the meaning of the words in the bank. Feedback and discuss.

Additional supporting activities can be found in the attached PDF file.

Student Activities

Start by loading the Treasure Island Minecraft world file found in the resources section.

Immersive Activity 1: Scavenger Hunt

Students go to CHEST 1 in the game and pick up and read the book inside.

Find as many of these items as you can and be the first of your crew (friends) to return

- A compass

- Leather armour

- A solid tool

- A solid weapon

- Some cooked food

- An apple

- Some grog

- A jewel

- A parrot companion

- A caught fish.

Remember to also bring along your journal from this chest to record how you acquired each item necessary for a pirate’s life.

[Children also pick up Journal]

CABIN BOY’S JOURNAL

As the ship’s cabin boy (or girl) you are charged with writing a description of the island for the first mate. Write down your experience of the island - what you see, hear, think and feel as you journey about to find the items.

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES: ‘MY SHORE ADVENTURE’

Follow-up reading activity:

Now the children have experienced being Jim in the game can they add anything about his character to the role on the wall? In particular, can they infer anything about how he might have been feeling at this point in the text from their experiences in the game?

Follow-up writing activity:

Children write a first-person account of their experiences of exploring Treasure Island based on their experience in the game and on Jim’s account.

*This writing activity should develop over a sequence of lessons and include sentence level development work and modelling of good practice.

Performance Expectations

Students are active participants in each activity.
Students are able to gather information about a character using point, evidence and explanation.
Students will be able to write their own version of exploring Treasure Island based on their experience in the game and on Jim’s account.