Monthly Archives: March 2015

Barrington Stoke and S1

Books are books right? They all look the same, feel the same and smell the same? Well, no. If you take the time to open a Barrington Stoke titles you will be aware that you are looking at a book with a difference. The pages are well banana coloured, the chapters short and easily accessible, the font just the bit easier on the eye and the page set up just that bit simpler to follow.

Is this a fluke? Has the world gotten a little bit stranger?
Nope- this is how Barrington Stoke see the world or indeed how they want their readers to see the world.
As a fluent reader from an early age I find it difficult to comprehend just how hard it must be for some pupils with specific reading issues to pick up and read a book.

If words danced in front of your eyes and shapes and order lost their meaning would you keep going? Barrington Stoke books and those like them make reading easier. Please don’t just take my word for it take the words of my S1 class a mix of fluent and not so fluent readers who were up for the challenge of reading some of my over 200 different Barrington Stoke titles.

We started with a very honest lesson about how we saw ourselves as readers and what reading meant to us. Several pupils would not class themselves as readers at all with one or two saying they didn’t read at all. For some reading was a pleasure which they often indulged in after school for others just another bit of classwork.

Our challenge was to read 3 titles over the course of 3 months. So far, after 3 weeks most pupils have read 2 titles. I could not be prouder and neither could they.

I chose one lesson to be reflective- How are they getting on? What do they like and what don’t they like? How do they see themselves now?

Proud to be a reader

Proud to be a reader

Proud to be a reader

proud to be a reader

So scary I had to hide behind my book!

Here are some quotes from my brilliant readers to speak for themselves
Here is what they had to say when I asked them I have ( or have not) enjoyed reading this Barrington Stoke book because:
I just enjoyed it I don’t really know why.

It is very interesting because there are lots of characters in it and a lot of different storyline.

It was really interesting when it came to the Saturday game because I didn’t know what Blake was going to choose. This book made me not want to stop.

It was about football
The font is much easier to read
The books are short and really exciting to read!

It is very interesting and mysterious and at some moments it can be a little bit funny

I have never read a book like this

The pages are different colours and it is easier for me because I have Meares Irlen.
It was really exciting and I wanted to know what happened next.

I have loved this book because it was a horror/sport/romance novel. It covered lots of different types of things which kept me interested.

it is quite upsetting at the fact that Matthew hasn’t got a lot of money and is getting bullied, but I found it interesting when he got the new uniform and the bully ended up being the one who got bullied.

I found the story to be interesting. I wanted to know whether or not he would be able to convince people he was really ill.

I like the story.

It is really exciting and tense. You don’t know if he is going to succeed or not.

These books are better because it’s a better font because my dyslexia I find it harder for me to read fonts
I can not tell you how proud I am of these pupils willing to give this project a go and being able to see the results.
Who knows how far they will go after this?

What does the Hunger Games mean to you?

Well, to Mrs McCoy’s S2 class it means everything and I mean everything.

Wed 18th and 25th of February saw the final flourish to weeks of research and study; our presentations.

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We began with our first group of Tributes talking us through the music choices that SHOULD have been made to accompany the film. With images and music and conversation we were transported to the cornucopia, to the reaping and to the loss of *spoiler alert* Rue. A brilliant start to proceedings to get us into the mood of the novel.

Attention to detail
Our next group looked at the fashions of Districts 7-12. Our “designers” had created male and female tribute outfits and explained their reasoning behind the colour , design and material choices. There was even details on the make-up to match. Beautiful illustrations and and thoughtful and well planned designs were at the core of this excellent presentation.
Engineers burst on to the scene with their plans for weapons to be grabbed from the cornucopia. A toughened light weight long bow and a mini– prototype crossbow were on display. The crossbow made out of lethal Lego bricks was showed it’s deadly force as one engineered tested it out on the other to dramatic effect ( no engineers were hurt in the presentation). The weapons were available for other pupils to admire.
Techical information

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Ready..aim..
More designers were up next with their Pinterest account of fashion for TRIBUTES FROM District ? As with all fashion the devil is in the detail and the idea of rear shooting arrows seems to gain biggest approval from the audience with many enquiring when the prototypes might become a reality and would they stull be able to wear their blazers over them?

In the bag

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The rucksack is something of an icon for all tributes and our next group had not only brought in their own but had created a companion Prezi presentation to detail it’s contents. Whilst we delved into the back for items the presentation showed us examples of tributes from the film using these weapons or provision to the maximum. Schoolbags will never look the same!
We were next invited into a world of intrigue and suspicion where top secret plans for next year’s arena had been leaked. Our secret spies created a 3-d model and highlighted dangerous beasts and water and shelter all to aid any tributes in our audience who might just be called up in the reaping next year. It was all very Hush Hush—Don’t tell the CAPITOL!
District 5 acme to the fore( see what I did there?0 when our two Haymitch’s implored us to send money and goods to their tributes; Foxface and Porta—they were strong and lean and talented athletes with a real chance of winning . Or so our speakers tried to persuade us into thinking.
More scientists took over in the form of Gamesmakers and horrible beasties; their evil genius had designed the killer kedwick for the next games. It looks cute but it had phenomenal hearing and a bite well lets just say the odds would Not be in your favour if this thing got to nibble on you.
If it’s one thing that the Hunger Games can never be accused of is balance and fairness and equality. Our next pairing tries to show us there are two sides to ever game and gave us the pros and cons of the games on one handy poster. On the one side the games keeps the masses quiet , stops riots and is the natural order of things and on the other there is of course the killings and the violence and the poverty. Depending on where you stand would depend on what side of the poster you would most identify—Capitol or District 12?
Yummy

Science Bod

Look out below!

@hungergames

Timeline

Double Act of One
After all this hard work it was time for a snack—err sort of our next delight was culinary—what will you be eating or be seen to be eating in the capitol when the games are on; crystal juice, jellyfish soup, t-rex burgers ( re animated for your diing pleasure) or even the blob fish—genetically created to tell you what part of it’s body was the tastiest. Well, would you rather eat an animal that wanted to be eaten or didn’t want to be eaten? ( nod to the genius of Douglas Adams here).
Dr Olaf and his “assistant” informed us of his new deisgns for the capitol– a new mode of transport using new forms of energy. We were all witness to some test flights indeed some being unwilling victems of paperplaneitis. Well they are called prototypes for a reason.
Social media is an integral part of getting the most out of the juicy gossip from the games and our group had hacked @Cecelia Sanchez’s account where she chats with @katnissE and gets blocked by @capitol—carefull what you tweet you never know who might be listening.
Our penultimate AMAZING accounts were introduced our historical duo—using timetoast curation software they were able to track the history of Panem right up to the 74 Hunger Games. The audience were invited to take part by picking dates from a box to which the boys would add historical depth. The amount of work and detail that went in to this presentation was staggering.

Our last presenters was one presented who was able to give us both presentations one a BOGOF as it were. More good information on tributes and their talents, skills and efficiencies and hope for the games?
Outstanding work by the class who were allowed the opportunity to show their creativity and my goodness it shone.
Kudos also to their teacher Mrs McCoy for encouraging and inspiring the activities.