Belonging – a good idea to start the year with Grade 6

Nobody Owns the MoonNobody Owns the Moon by Tohby Riddle is one of those books that can be read over and over, I have read this to many classes and there is always a new aspect that appears. An emotional story that provides discussion points on friendship and belonging as a base. The play on words and  visual literacy allow the reader to pause on each page and enjoy.To extend the reading experience, this year at the conclusion of the story the students were asked to respond to a question ‘What does it mean to belong?’ Socrative.com allowed the students to type their response anonymously, with use of the IWB we were able to see thoughts as soon as the student posted their idea. Once the first few were posted students quickly got the idea and in a very short time the page was full of suggestions. Time restrictions did not allow this to go further that lesson, however by  refining what the student had shared and pasting their words into Wordle.net an attractive summary was promptly created – this will be shown to the class next lesson for a brief review.

Belong Wordle

For additional information refer to Nobody Owns the Moon Teachers Notes by Tohby Riddle.

NSW Syllabus Outcomes – English Stage 3:

EN3-7C Thinking imaginatively, creatively and interpretively – engage personally with texts

  • recognise and explain creative language features in imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that contribute to engagement and meaning
  • interpret events, situations and characters in texts

BTW this was the first time I have used Socrative with a class and it was very easy and highly effective – always great when a student asks ‘will we be using this  again?’

Here is my ‘How to’ for basic Socrative use.

  • Sign up as a Teacher. Set up Q e.g. ‘What does it mean to belong?’ Set for individual, anonymous response. Students login as a student and enter class code, type and submit answer. Read over responses for general discussion. Use Wordle for a summary – I did take words out to refine and provide a focus.

Premier’s Reading Challenge 5-6 Book.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *