yal.weebly.com · Web viewTeaching ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ We made this Reading Guide for students and teachers to use in the classroom as an alternative

VMBO 3/4Geeske LCarmen W

2

SchedulePage

Lesson 1 Introduction of the book 3

Homework: Do exercise 1 and 2 in your workbook

Lesson 2 Reading part 1 5

Homework:

In class:

Read ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ page 1-82

Fill in the 1st part of the ‘Character Scheme’ (p. 20-21 of your workbook)

Exercises 1, 2, 3 and 4


Homework:

In class:

Read ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ page 83 - 178

Fill in the 2nd part of the ‘Character Scheme’ (p. 20-21 of your workbook)

Exercises 1,2 and 3


Homework:

In class:

Read the last part of ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’

Fill in the 3rd part of the ‘Character Scheme’ (p. 20-21 of your workbook)

Exercises 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

Lesson 5 Groupwork on the characters 16

Homework: Do the exercises 1 and 2 in your workbook to prepare for the discussion in groups

Bring a picture of something (e.g. an object, a colour, an animal, a place) that you think of when you think of the character you have been assigned

3

Exercise 1 Asperger’s Syndrome

Go online and look up some information on : ‘Asperger’s syndrome’ (Dutch: ‘Syndroom van Asperger’)

Write down 5 characteristics that you find out about people with this syndrome:

(If you find it difficult to do this in English, you can do this in Dutch)

1. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Listen to the information on ‘Asperger’s syndrome’ your teacher gives you and complete your answers.

4

Exercise 2 The Monty Hall Problem

If you were to be a candidate on a quiz show.....

And you would see 3 closed doors in front of you....And the quiz master tells you that behind 1 door there is a car, And behind the other two doors there are goats.

And the quiz master asks you to pick one door. And let us say you pick door number 1.

Then the quiz master shows you that behind door 3 is a goat.

And he asks you if you want to stick with your door, or if you want to change to door number 2.What would you do? Would you stick? Or would you swap?

o I would sticko I would swap

Why? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________You see a video in class explaining ‘the Monty Hall Problem’ .After seeing this video, would you change the choice you have made before?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_djTy3G0pg

1 32

32Your door

? ?


5

Fill in the 1st part of your ‘Character Scheme’ .

Exercise 1 Facial ExpressionsOn page 2 and 3 of the book you find out that Christopher has difficulties understanding facial expressions. He knows what expression means ‘sad’ or which one means ‘happy’ , but there are so much more expressions that are very difficult to understand for him.

Below you see drawings of several different facial expressions. Fill in the boxes besides the drawings what you think this expression means and if you think Christopher would be able to understand what this expression means.

I think this means:

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I think Christopher would / would not be able to understand it.

I think this means:

6


I think this means:


I think this means: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I think Christopher would / would not be able to understand it.

I think this means: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I think Christopher would / would not be able to understand it.

I think this means: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I think Christopher would / would not be able to understand it.

7

I think this means:

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I think Christopher would / would not be able to understand it.

I think this means: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I think Christopher would / would not be able to understand it.

‘I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant.’ (p. 3)

Do you think that it is possible to ‘translate’ facial expressions? Why/Why not?

8

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Exercise 2 Sherlock HolmesWatch this short clip on YouTube and then answer the questions.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=388-rOzD9SM

Sherlock Holmes meets Dr. Watson and Mary Morstan (Dr. Watson’s fiancée) over dinner in a restaurant.

In what way does Sherlock Holmes remind you of Christopher?_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In what way is Sherlock Holmes different from Christopher?_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Exercise 3 Behavioural ProblemsOn pages 59 and 60 there is a list of some of Christopher’s Behavioural Problems. Do you recognise any of these things in yourself?Are these problems more difficult to deal with for Christopher of for the people around him? Put a tick in the box you think is right.

Most difficult for:Christopher

other peopleA. Not talking to people for a long time. ▢

▢B. Not eating or drinking anything for a long time. ▢

▢C. Not liking being touched. ▢ ▢D. Screaming when I am angry or confused. ▢

▢E. Not liking being in really small places with other people. ▢

▢F. Smashing things when I am angry or confused. ▢

▢G. Groaning. ▢ ▢

9

H. Not liking Yellow things or brown things and refusing to touch yellow things or brown things. ▢ ▢I. Refusing to use my toothbrush if anyone else has touched it. ▢

▢J. Not eating food if different sorts of food are touching each other. ▢ ▢K. Not noticing that people are angry with me. ▢

▢L. Not smiling. ▢ ▢M. Saying things that other people think are rude. ▢

▢N. Doing stupid things. ▢ ▢O. Hitting other people. ▢ ▢P. Hating France. ▢ ▢Q. Driving Mother’s car. ▢ ▢R. Getting cross when someone has moved the furniture. ▢

▢

Exercise 4 Keeping promises and avoiding them

Christopher’s father doesn’t want him to continue investigating Wellington’s death. On page 72 Christopher lists five promises he made to his father. How does Christopher manage to keep these promises, while still continuing his investigation?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Your parents want you to be home by midnight. They make you promise three things:- Leave the club no later then 11:30 pm.- Don’t enter another club after 11:30 pm.- Cycle home with a friend.

When you come home at 2 am, your parents are both awake and angry. They want you to tell them where you’ve been all evening, and with whom. Write down what you would tell them. You can make up a story and any names, but you must include an explanation to your parents that you didn’t break any promises.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Exercise 1 Drawing maps

Draw a quick map of the ground floor of your school building :

Compare it to the map of the zoo Christopher drew on page 110 of your book. What differences do you notice?__________________________________________________________________________________

11

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Exercise 2 Letters

How would you react if you found out about the letters if you were Christopher? How does Christopher react? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

12

Exercise 3 Seeing EVERYTHING

Look at the picture on page 10 for 2 minutes and put it away. Describe what you see.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What would Christopher see?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

13

Exercise 1 Timetables

Write down what you have done today so far:

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Rewrite your schedule so that it would look like something Christopher could have made:

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

14

In what way do the two schedules differ from each other?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Exercise 2 Regaining trust

Do you think Christopher’s father is handling the situation well by getting Christopher a dog and making ‘trusting each other’ into a project? Why or why not?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Exercise 3 Christopher’s dream

Read pp. 42 – 44 (about Christopher’s dream)

What does this dream tell you about Christopher?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Did you ever have a (day - ) dream like this? Describe it. Alternatively, if you have never had a dream like this, describe an end to the world and what you would do if you would survive it. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

15

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Exercise 4 The Appendix

Did you read the appendix (p. 269 – 272)?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Did you understand it?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Do you think it is interesting? Why, or why not?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

16

Exercise 5 Planning a journey

Plan the journey from Swindon train station to Chapter Rd, London, United Kingdom, via Paddington train station in London.

Useful links include: Google mapsFirst Great WesternNational RailTube Maps

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

17

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In the last few weeks you have filled in your Character Scheme, in which you have put in key points what you found out about the characters in each part of the book. For the next two exercises and the group discussions you will need this scheme.

Exercise 1 Character development

Write down for all 6 characters in the Scheme if your image of them changes in the course of the book. And if your image of them changes, write down how.

Christopher__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Siobhan__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Father________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mother________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mrs. Shears________________________________________________________________

18

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mr. Shears________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________How does Christopher feel about each of the other characters and does his image of the characters change? If his image changes, how?

Siobhan__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Father________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mother________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mrs. Shears________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mr. Shears

19

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

20

Does your view on the characters differ from Christopher’s and if so, how?

Siobhan__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Father________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mother________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mrs. Shears________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mr. Shears________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Exercise 2 Character development

Did you think the book was realistic? Why/Why not?_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What did you learn from reading this book? (e.g. about Asperger’s syndrome?)

21

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Exercise 3 Group Discussion on one of the

Characters

Last week you have been divided into 4 groups. Each of the groups was assigned another character. You have been asked to bring a picture of something (e.g. an object, a colour, an animal, a place) that you think of when you think of the character you have been assigned.

Join together with your group. Your teacher will give your group a big sheet. On this sheet you write the name of the character you and your group were assigned. Around the name you stick the different pictures you have assembled together, so you make a collage on your character.

You have 20 minutes to do your group discussion.

Look at the collage you have made: talk about what you see and what this says about your character.

Discuss your character: a. Do you understand him/her? b. Do you have sympathy for him/her? c. Does he/she develop/change during the story?d. Do you think the character is realistic?

After you have talked about these questions, summarize what you have talked about and what you as a group think your collage tells us about the character.

After this discussion the collages are put up in front of the class, so the rest of the class can see what you have made. The other groups are asked what they think of the pictures and what they think they mean. After this you explain to the rest of the class why you have chosen these pictures and what you have discussed about your character.

You also get to have a look at what the others did!

Character Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Christopher

Father

Mother

Character Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

23

Mrs. Shears

Mr. Shears

Siobhan

In the ‘Character Scheme’ you make key notes on the characters. Write down what you find out about them while you are reading. You will need these notes later on.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon

VMBO 3/4Geeske LukkerCarmen Wijnands

24

Teaching ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’

We made this Reading Guide for students and teachers to use in the classroom as an alternative to the standard reading assignments. We do not aim to provide an outlined plan for 5 lessons, this package can be seen as an inspirational guide to use this book in the classroom. What we present here are our own ideas on how we would like to use this book, but we take into account that there are endlessly varying perspectives on how to teach reading. This Reading Guide can therefore be used as it is, but also as inspiration for your own lessons.

Our own perspective is one that does not aim to make sure students read the book, but to encourage them to do so. We try to give students space to elaborate on their own ideas on their reading, to use their own creativity. That is why we designed the questions in a way that there are no right or wrong answers.

We thought about the lay-out of this workbook extensively, we wanted it to really accompany the book. ‘The Curious Incident’ has a very specific lay-out, which we tried to copy as much as we could. You can probably recognize the font and the use of tables and illustrations. The workbook partly aims at giving students a small insight in Christopher’s mind, by using his way of structuring things and focusing on matters he is interested in. We believe that this empathetic point of view and this lay-out have made the book and the workbook mutually attractive.

Using this workbook, students work through the book thoroughly and place its contents in a larger context. They have room to exchange ideas and learn to understand the themes of the book. We think that if student’s finish this workbook, they can hand it in as evidence of their reading the book and thinking it through. The finished workbook can be seen as an alternative book report.

The teacher’s guide will be quite short, as we wish to let the workbook speak for itself. There are just some notes where we thought they were needed and some information on the materials and preparations you could need as a teacher.

We wish you enjoyable classes!

Geeske LCarmen W

SchedulePage

Lesson 1 Introduction of the book 23

Prepare: Information on Asperger’s syndrome Internet access in class: smartboard or beamer,

to show the video on ‘the Monty Hall problem’ Or: Other tools for demonstrating the problem:

3 cups, a miniature car, 2 goats. Printed versions of the student’s workbooks


25

Prepare: Exercises 1, 2, 3 and 4 Discuss the first part of the book Internet access for Sherlock Holmes video


Prepare: Exercises 1,2 and 3 Discuss the second part of the book


Prepare:

Discuss the last part of the book Exercises 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 Reserve a computer room or provide maps/info

for the journey planning in the class room

Lesson 5 Groupwork on the characters 24

Prepare: 4 big sheets, 4 big markers, glue, scissors, etcetera, tape to put the collages on the board

Leading the discussion

26

Lesson 1. Introduction to the bookAppr. 30 minutesAsk your students to do exercises 1 and 2 as homework before you start this class.

Exercise 1 Asperger’s Syndrome

Go online and look up some information on : ‘Asperger’s syndrome’ (Dutch: ‘Syndroom van Asperger’)

5 characteristics:(If the student’s end up with something like this, this will do)

1. Difficulties in making contact with other people:For example: not making eye contact, not being able to read other people’s facial expressions and body language

2. Autism

3. Preferring repetition, order, structure

4. Very strong interest in certain things, like hobbies, a certain animal, science

5. Different ways of using language

Exercise 2 The Monty Hall Problem

As homework, your students have made a choice, to either stick or swap on the game. In class you can ask ‘who has chosen to stick, put your hands up’ etc. And then show the video to explain or demonstrate by using cups or something else.


Introduce the book and explain what the next 4 weeks will include.

Lesson 2. Reading part 1

Exercise 1 Facial Expressions Let the students do the exercise and discuss it afterwards.The questions have a subjective nature, so there are no wrong/right answers.Exercise 2 Sherlock Holmes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=388-rOzD9SM

Exercise 3 Behavioural ProblemsYou can link the behavioural problems to the key characteristics of someone with Asperger’s syndrome the students wrote down in lesson 1.Exercise 4 Keeping promises and avoiding them


Exercise 1 Drawing maps

Exercise 2 Letters


27

Exercise 3 Seeing EVERYTHING

As a teacher you can be creative with this exercise. You can print out a big version of the picture, and show it in front of class and you can use every big picture you like. Off course any answer on the 2nd question that is extremely detailed will do.


Exercise 1 Timetables

Christopher’s schedule should be very detailed.Exercise 2 Regaining trustDo you think Christopher’s father is handling the situation well by getting Christopher a dog and making ‘trusting each other’ into a project? Why or why not?This question can be used as a discussion question.Exercise 3 Christopher’s dreamWhat does this dream tell you about Christopher?This question is also suitable for discussion.Exercise 4 The Appendix

Exercise 5 Planning a journeyFor this exercise it is necessary to make sure all students can have their own computer with internet access or work in pairs. You can also provide the maps for them to use in the classroom.

Lesson 5. Group Discussions

Exercise 3 Group Discussion on one of the CharactersPrepare the discussion.

Explain the character scheme well. It is important that the student’s fill this in properly every week.

Documents

yal.weebly.com · Web viewTeaching ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ We made this Reading Guide for students and teachers to use in the classroom as an alternative