English for Life Learner's Book Grade 6 Home Language. Lynne Southey
• Think of a short story about the animal.
• Give names to the other animals or people in the story.
• Plan how you will fit the story into twelve pictures. This is quite difficult, and you may have to try a few times before you get it right!
• Decide what the characters will say and think in each picture of the story. Keep it short because there is not much space in each block.
• Now you are ready to draw and write your story. Your drawings should also be simple so that they can fit into the blocks.
1. Draw and write your own animal comic strip. Show your comic strip to your partner. Use solid bubbles, as in the first example, to show what someone is saying. Use fluffy shapes, as in the second example, to show what someone is thinking.
2. Now retell your comic strip story in your own words. Remember what you learnt about telling a story well in the previous activities. Also remember how to use indirect speech.
Have you heard of the Reach for a Dream Foundation? This is an organisation that tries to make a child between the ages of 3 and 18, who has a life-threatening illness, feel really special. They believe that no child should live without hope, and that childhood should be the most magical phase of a person’s life, filled with dreams, hopes and most of all fun!
For these ill children, the magic of childhood may be lost in dealing with their illness. Reach for a Dream creates an environment for the child that is not focused on her or his illness. They would like these really sick children to find their laughter again and find the strength to live beyond their illnesses.
The dreams they have participated in range widely from visiting an aeroplane cockpit to going to the beach, to meeting a favourite sports star, to riding on an elephant!
If you were in such a situation, what would you ask for from them? Do some research on their website and then write a paragraph about what you would like to do if you were in the situation of the children they have helped.
Introduction
Have you ever thought about what a dream really is? We all dream at night and most of us have dreams for our future. The pictures below illustrate this.
In this module you will listen to and read different articles on dreams. You will talk to your classmates about your dreams. You will hear about the dreams of some famous people. You will present a 3D-autobiography to the class. You will also look at phrases used with the word dream/s, and do revision on direct and indirect speech and different tenses. You will also do a role play, and read a poem and a scene from a play.
Read an article
In the first part of this module you are going to read an article on dreams. Read carefully as you will discuss and answer questions to test your comprehension of the article.
1. Your teacher is going to read the following article about what a dream is to the class. Follow carefully in your books while she is reading and then answer the questions below.
The four different meanings of 'dream'
The word ‘dream’ has four different but connected meanings. This means that when we put the meanings together, we are able to know what a dream is.
Firstly, a dream happens when there is very little brain activity, when the outside world cannot enter the brain, and when the system that thinks about ‘I’ or ‘me’ is shut down. This might sound very complicated, but it is explained this way because we don’t just dream during sleep, but also when we are in a very relaxed, waking state. This is when we ‘drift off’ and suddenly realise that we have been dreaming.
Secondly, a dream is something we ‘experience’ because the thinking is very real and makes use of our senses, especially seeing and hearing.
Thirdly, a dream is what we remember in the morning, so it is a memory of the dreaming experience.
Finally, a dream can also be the spoken or written report we give others about the experience. Talking or writing about your dreams is the only way anyone else can ever know about them.
So, to sum up these four connected meanings, we can think of a dream as the report of a memory in your brain. The dream happens under conditions that are most often formed in a state of sleep.
2. Now discuss the following questions with your group:
(a) How many different meanings of a dream does this article talk about? Name them.
(b) It is important to know all four meanings in order to know the exact definition of a dream. Why?
(c) Do we only dream when we are asleep? Give a reason for your answer.
(d) What two senses are often used in our dreams?
(e) Can we know about another person’s dreams?
3. If John wakes up terrified of the monsters he had been dreaming about, which of the meanings of dream should we use?
4. If he tells his brother about his dream, which meaning should we use?
Talk, write and draw
In the next activity you are going to tell your group about dreams you have had in the past. Then you will write a journal entry in which you will describe one of these dreams. Finally, you will draw a picture of this dream to make it more visual to your classmates. Put these pictures up in your class. The picture here shows a boy writing about the dream he is remembering.
1. Tell your group briefly about a dream you had recently.
2. Here is an example of a journal entry:
Now write a journal entry about a dream you had.
(a) Draw a picture of the dream you told your group. Draw as much detail as you can. Show your dream picture to your group.
Read and write about dreams for success
It is important for everyone to have a dream for the future so that they can plan their lives and have a goal to reach. Although we are not always sure how to achieve such a dream, we are inspired by other people’s stories of how their dreams became a reality. In the next activity you are going to read an article about the Wright brothers’ dream. You will then answer questions on the article.