You Will Need
Texts
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
Fiction
English Year 5 Summer Fantasy
Fantasy Stories by Shaun Tan
Inspirational short stories from Shaun Tan, guaranteed to stimulate amazing work. Explore use of modal verbs, parenthesis and dialogue. Write a short story in Shaun Tan-style.
Start with the core unit to introduce key texts. Then select from comprehension, SPAG and composition units.
Unit 1 Core: Introducing Fantasy Stories by Shaun Tan
(suggested as 4 days)
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Explore the front and back cover of Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan, making predictions about its stories.
Activity
Look in detail at the intricate drawings on the endpapers of the book, using these to predict its contents and inventing possible short story titles. Watch an interview with Shaun Tan and then look at and discuss the contents page of the book.
Day 2 Teaching
Read Eric from Tales from Outer Suburbia. Start by reading just the text in order to realise the importance of illustrations to Shaun Tan stories.
Activity
Talk about and answer questions about Eric. Look carefully at four illustrations from the story and speculate about what the characters might be saying.
Day 3 Teaching
Read Alert but not Alarmed from Tales from Outer Suburbia. Make notes about this story: its characters, plot, setting, language patterns, illustrations and the questions it leaves.
Activity
Read four more Shaun Tan stories, making similar notes then talk together about what they have in common.
Day 4 Teaching
Read Broken Toys from Tales from Outer Suburbia and make notes using Day 3’s headings. Read a short summary of the story, looking at how this has been written.
Activity
Write summaries of the Shaun Tan stories read on Day 3. Talk together about which of these stories could make a good board game.
Unit 2 SPAG: Using modal verbs to indicate degrees of possibility
(suggested as 3 days)
You Will Need
Texts
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
Presentations
Grammar PowerPoint: Modal Verbs
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Read Eric from Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan. Use a key sentence from this story to introduce modal verbs and use a Powerpoint to teach their use.
Activity
Complete a cloze procedure using modal verbs, thinking about their effect on meaning. Find further times that modal verbs are used in the story and consider whether others could be used.
Day 2 Teaching
Further explore illustrations from Eric. Read a reflection about the story and identify the modal verbs that it uses.
Activity
Read a further reflection, identifying modal verbs. Write own thoughts, using modal verbs. Listen for these in one another’s writing. Watch a video version of Eric and offer feedback, using modal verbs.
Day 3 Teaching
Look and talk about the text and illustrations at the end of the story of Eric. Revisit the list of Modal Verbs.
Activity
Produce an illustration to show where Eric goes next. Write about this with sentences that use modal verbs. Make a list together of possible titles for a sequel to Eric.
SPaG: Grammar and Punctuation
Modal Verbs PowerPoint
This presentation teaches about modal verbs, their use and the position they take in a sentence.
Unit 3 Comprehension: Exploring an imaginative text, The Lost Thing, in detail and making comparisons
(suggested as 4 days)
You Will Need
Texts
The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Explore key illustrations in The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan in detail, using them to make predictions about the story, its setting and characters. Read the first half of the story.
Activity
Work with a partner to observe and discuss three artworks that inspired Shaun Tan carefully as he wrote The Lost Thing. Discuss the use of other’s ideas when creating something new.
Day 2 Teaching
Talk about the dilemma facing the boy in The Lost Thing and hot-seat characters from the book giving him advice. Read to the end of the story together.
Activity
Discuss and then write questions about The Lost Thing. Look in particular at the last words of the story and use these to talk together about the theme of the story.
Day 3 Teaching
Read Undertow from Tales from Outer Suburbia. Analyse this story and then The Lost Thing talking about differences and similarities between the two stories.
Activity
Read and analyse four more Shaun Tan stories, starting to compare them to The Lost Thing. Watch the trailer for the film of The Lost Thing and debate which of the stories read would make the best movie.
Day 4 Teaching
Read an example comparison between Undertow and The Lost Thing. Talk about how this is structured. Choose a story to compare and make a paragraph plan.
Activity
Write and share comparisons. Discuss statements about Shaun Tan, make conclusions about his interests and themes and then think about your own interests and ideas as a writer.
Unit 4 SPAG Using dialogue in own writing effectively
(suggested as 4 days)
You Will Need
Texts
Cicada by Shaun Tan
Presentations
Grammar PowerPoint: Dialogue
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Explore the front cover of Cicada by Shaun Tan and make predictions about this story. Make a list of questions about cicadas to research.
Activity
Research cicadas finding out about their attributes and behaviour. Look at a haiku written about cicadas and speculate about how Shaun Tan might use them in his book.
Day 2 Teaching
Look at a picture from Cicada of the main character being bullied. Hot-seat the role of the humans. Use a Powerpoint to revise the punctuation of dialogue and talk about how dialogue in writing can make characters clear.
Activity
Role play the bullying scene, then write the dialogue that goes with it. Discuss how this dialogue has shown the characters clearly.
Day 3 Teaching
Revisit the punctuation of direct speech. Read a formal letter written to the main character in Cicada. Look at the illustration of the cicada clearing his desk. Talk together about the use of informal language in direct speech.
Activity
Role play the desk-clearing scene and record dialogue, including informal language.
Day 4 Teaching
Read the whole of Cicada by Shaun Tan and have time to talk about this story. Watch Shaun Tan talk about the book, its inspiration and his hopes for it.
Activity
Discuss questions relating to Cicada and record the answers to these in writing. Enjoy reading the book together again.
SPaG: Grammar and Punctuation
Dialogue PowerPoint
This presentation revises and consolidates the rules for punctuation of direct speech.
Unit 5 SPAG: Use brackets, dashes or commas to indicate parenthesis
(suggested as 3 days)
You Will Need
Texts
The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan
Presentations
Grammar PowerPoint: Parenthesis
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Write descriptive phrases about the The Lost Thing before reading or re-reading the story. Look at a sentence from the book that uses parenthesis and then use a Powerpoint to introduce punctuation for parenthesis.
Activity
Add parentheses to sentences about The Lost Thing. Work together to combine pairs of descriptive phrases into single sentences.
Day 2 Teaching
Discuss the characters in The Lost Thing and look carefully at an illustration of the city workers. Read sentences about this picture that use parenthesis and write a new sentence about them. Use Powerpoint to teach about how to decide which punctuation to use to show parentheses.
Activity
Write descriptions of characters from the illustrations of The Lost Thing. Look at Shaun Tan’s character notes for the character of the boy.
Day 3 Teaching
Read a book review of The Lost Thing and spot the examples of parentheses. Talk about the same questions that the reviewer has answered.
Activity
Write book reviews of The Lost Thing, including parentheses. Share and discuss them together, noticing how parentheses have been used.
SPaG: Grammar and Punctuation
Parenthesis PowerPoint
Children are introduced to the idea of adding extra information into a complete sentence and learn how to use commas, brackets and dashes to indicate parenthesis. They look at the effect that each of these types of punctuation have.
Unit 6 Composition: Plan and write a short story in the style of Shaun Tan
(suggested as 4 days)
You Will Need
Texts
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
Optional Texts
Cicada by Shaun Tan
The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan
Presentations
Grammar PowerPoint: Summary
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Play a quiz about Shaun Tan stories. Discuss a way of planning stories and read about how Shaun Tan finds inspiration.
Activity
Work through activities to generate ideas for stories. Discuss these ideas with a partner and decide which to write.
Day 2 Teaching
Model how to use Story Notes and a Story Board to plan a story. Look at an example from Shaun Tan.
Activity
Use Story Notes and a Story Board to plan stories. Talk through stories with a partner and ask probing questions of one another.
Day 3 Teaching
Read a favourite Shaun Tan story together, noting some of the language features. Model how to use a Paragraph Plan before writing the first paragraph of a story.
Activity
Complete paragraph plans and then start to draft stories.
Day 4 Teaching
Model evaluating and improving a draft story, then proof-reading for errors. Talk about the use of illustrations and discuss Shaun Tan’s ideas about illustrating stories.
Activity
Work with a partner to finalise stories. Illustrate and display them. Reflect on learning about Shaun Tan.
SPaG: Grammar and Punctuation
Summary PowerPoint
This short presentation summarises the conventions for using commas, dashes and brackets to add parenthesis as well as the rules for punctuating direct speech.