The Coracle

8-10 yrs old

11-13 yrs old

Reading and Writing

To create a story map using key moments and quotations from a text

Submitted By: Litcraft

September 26, 2019

Lesson Plan
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Skills

Communication
Creativity
Critical Thinking

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

The Coracle

Full lesson plan and activities.

Treasure Island Excerpts

Excerpts to support activities.

Learning Objectives

To scan for information.
To create a story map using key moments and quotations from a text.
To summarize a section of a story.

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 ‘The Coracle’

Children re-read the longer extract with their partner taking turns to read a paragraph and helping each other with any difficult vocabulary.

Teacher sets a timer and the children have to re-read the extract and underline as many key events as they can find during the time that they have. Feedback and make a list of the key events from the chapter. Did all children have the same events? If not, why not? How can we tell if something is important in a story?
Agree on a list of key events as a class. Children create a story map of the key events. They draw the events in the correct order and annotate them with key quotations from the text. Once the children have completed this activity they discuss the following:
- What different feelings/emotions does Jim display in this section of the text?
- How do Jim’s feelings/emotions change over the course of the section? Why do you think this might be?
- What devices does the author use to create tension in this section of the story?
After the discussion, ask children to go back to the story map and add words that show the emotional journey of the character at each of the different points that they have identified. Encourage them to use quotations from the text.
Jigsaw the children so that they show their completed story map to a different partner. Working together with the partner the children write a synopsis of that section of the story. Choose children with good examples to read theirs to the class.
Discuss: Why bother summarizing a section of a story in this way? What is the purpose of a synopsis? How does it help the reader?

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

Student Activities

Immersive Activity: The Coracle

Start by loading the Treasure Island Minecraft world file found in the resources section. Students go to CHEST 3 in the game and pick up and read the book inside.

Instructions and Journal

In the book, Jim Hawkins takes Ben Gunn’s coracle and is swept around the island. You are going to imitate him and also write about your experience in 4 tasks.

First, find Ben’s small boat hidden under the white rocks.

Get in and set off to circumnavigate the island (go all round it by sea).

Carry out the four tasks on the following pages, and write about how it would feel to do them in the Journal.

Use your harpoon provided in the chest to catch three different kinds of sea creatures. What did you catch and why? If you could only live on things you fish for what would you eat?
Take an underwater swim. What was it like? What did/could you see?
Take the boat so far out that the island is almost out of sight. How did this make you feel? How might Jim have felt after weeks at sea on a ship?
Now head back to the white rock harbour. How does the island look or feel different when you return safely to it?

JOURNAL

Journal for Notes and Thoughts

Write your answers in full or in note form. [Same questions given as prompts]

Use your harpoon provided in the chest to catch three different kinds of sea creatures. What did you catch and why? If you could only live on things you fish for what would you eat?
Take an underwater swim. What was it like? What did/could you see?
Take the boat so far out that the island is almost out of sight. How did this make you feel? How might Jim have felt after weeks at sea on a ship?
Now head back to the white rock harbour. How does the island look or feel different when you return safely to it?

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES: ‘THE CORACLE’

Follow-up writing activity:

Children write a ‘Ship’s Log’ of their journey around the island in the Coracle based on their experience in the game and of the Treasure Island text.

*This writing activity should develop over a sequence of lessons and include engagement with examples of first person writing about sea journeys, sentence level development work and modelling of good practice.

Follow-up cross-curricular activity: Design and Technology link

Design and make a better boat for Jim that will float and that can be powered by the wind.

Key skills: Plan a sequence of work; identify suitable materials; make prototypes; join materials using appropriate methods; identify strengths and weaknesses of design ideas; refine product; test and evaluate overall effectiveness of the design.

Performance Expectations

Students are active participants in each activity.
Students are able to effectively scan for information .
Students are able to create a story map using key moments and quotations from a text .
Students are able to summarize a section of a story.