Literacy Unit - Rowan of Rin #4

We are working through the book Rowan of Rin by Emily Rodda. Last week we read chapters 7 and 8 and focused on plot development. For an overview of activities in earlier chapters please use these links:
Chapters 1 and 2
Chapters 3 and 4
Chapters 5 and 6

Chapters 7 and 8 Summary
Val makes it through the spiders but with a heavy heart, as already she misses Ellis (her brother) terribly. As they continue the journey, a second message appears on the map. After reading the verse, Bronden is chosen to lead the party as they head through a misty swamp. The mist has ways of fooling the members of the party. They think they see their loved ones and hear them calling to them for help. This draws people off the path into the muddy sludge that pulls them down. One after another they are fooled by these voices and need rescuing. Bronden's courage is broken when she is fooled by the voices, so she and Val return to Rin. The remaining party tie themselves together with rope and feel their way through the swamp with a wooden pole. The party is now down to only four: Strong Jonn, Marlie, Allun and Rowan.

Activities
Code Breaker:

• Look at sentence length and punctuation with particular attention to the use of commas. Discuss how this changes in high energy action scenes.
• Practice fluent reading of chapter 8 with greater expression in high energy scenes.

Text Participant:

• Again, in their groups, students make videos of character responses to the events of chapters 7 and 8. The Ellis group creates their own story for Ellis' journey back to Rin and create interview questions that allow Ellis to share his feelings of this experience.

Text User

• Explore plot development in a narrative and the use of a high energy scene followed by recovery scene. Look at the features of each.

(Please Note: This week I have provided fewer activities as we had many disruptions to our classroom routines and could not fit in the full literacy program.)

Here is the complete Rowan of Rin unit.