the lastling
The Lastling by Philip Gross
The main character, Paris, is excited that her uncle has decided to take her on an expedition to the Himalayas, visiting places where tourists are not allowed. This leads to a meeting with Tahr, a boy Buddhist monk, and eventually the sighting of the mysterious yeh-teh in the forbidden war zone. Seeking to capture the yeh-teh Gen-sun, Paris and Tahr learn that her uncle has a sinister side, which leads to disaster.
Reading skill
Suggested activities
Example
Using strategies to decode words they don’t know – phonics, syntax, word recognition and context
Word families & word patterns
Chunking and breaking down the sounds in a word
Dictionary activities
Starter activities focusing on word level
Re-writing sentences with different syntax
Progress Unit on Phonics
Cloze
Reading backwards and forwards
Asking “Does the word make sense?”
Explore words from first chapter: monk, meditation, lamas, Buddahs, journey to ensure full understanding of one of the themes of the novel.
Explore words from first chapter: how the author introduces words from another culture – gompa and dzong (p6). Make own glossary.
Explore the author’s use of italics to create meaning, e.g. page 1 Kuala Lumpur … Anchorage.
Look, me, Paris!
Before she had even been there. leadings page 4.
Engaging with meaning as well as decoding
Asking questions – who, what, where, when, why
Discussing what has been read
Matching illustrations to appropriate sections of text
KWEL charts
What do I know
What I want to know
Where will I find the evidence
What I have learned
Focusing on key words (reverse cloze/fridge magnets)
Role play, hot-seating, thought tracking
Summary sub-headings
Matching quotations to meaning
Create a picture/diagram of Tahr’s journey across the mountains. Compare this to the journey that Paris makes to reach the Himalayas. Then plot the journey they make together.
Sensing miscues and then
The main character, Paris, is excited that her uncle has decided to take her on an expedition to the Himalayas, visiting places where tourists are not allowed. This leads to a meeting with Tahr, a boy Buddhist monk, and eventually the sighting of the mysterious yeh-teh in the forbidden war zone. Seeking to capture the yeh-teh Gen-sun, Paris and Tahr learn that her uncle has a sinister side, which leads to disaster.
Reading skill
Suggested activities
Example
Using strategies to decode words they don’t know – phonics, syntax, word recognition and context
Word families & word patterns
Chunking and breaking down the sounds in a word
Dictionary activities
Starter activities focusing on word level
Re-writing sentences with different syntax
Progress Unit on Phonics
Cloze
Reading backwards and forwards
Asking “Does the word make sense?”
Explore words from first chapter: monk, meditation, lamas, Buddahs, journey to ensure full understanding of one of the themes of the novel.
Explore words from first chapter: how the author introduces words from another culture – gompa and dzong (p6). Make own glossary.
Explore the author’s use of italics to create meaning, e.g. page 1 Kuala Lumpur … Anchorage.
Look, me, Paris!
Before she had even been there. leadings page 4.
Engaging with meaning as well as decoding
Asking questions – who, what, where, when, why
Discussing what has been read
Matching illustrations to appropriate sections of text
KWEL charts
What do I know
What I want to know
Where will I find the evidence
What I have learned
Focusing on key words (reverse cloze/fridge magnets)
Role play, hot-seating, thought tracking
Summary sub-headings
Matching quotations to meaning
Create a picture/diagram of Tahr’s journey across the mountains. Compare this to the journey that Paris makes to reach the Himalayas. Then plot the journey they make together.
Sensing miscues and then