Task 1 (Question 1)

Identify one suitable short story/poem/graphic novel to be used in a primary classroom

SAND CASTLE BY J. PATRIC LEWIS
CHARACTERS:

Narrator
Sandra
Cassandra
Sandras mother

Scene 1
Setting: Sandras house
Narrator: the doorbell rang; Sandras mother opened the door and welcomed Sandra.
Sandras mother: hi my little girl, (gave a warm smile). How was your day? You look tired. Go
fresh up yourself we shall have our lunch together.
Sandra: okay mother. Where is Cassandra mother? (Looking around the shoe rack)
Sandras mother: oh, she is up in her room. Can you please bring her down once you fresh up?
Sandra: okay.
Scene 2
Setting: in the dining hall
Sandras mother: here you go Sandra have some mixed vegetable. Its good for your health.
Narrator: Sandra and Cassandra were whispering to each other.
Sandras mother: girls, why are you both not eating? Is there something wrong?
Sandra: well mother, actually myself and Cassandra would like to go to the beach in this
weekend with our friends. Can we mother?

Sandras mother: well, is this why you both looked one kind. (Smiled), you can go but be careful
and prepare your things carefully before leaving.
Scene 3
Setting: next day at the school.
Narrator: Sandra and Cassandra were waiting for their friends to get in the bus. They were
looking the pathway hoping to see their friends arrival.
Sandra: there they are! Common girls the bus is about to move. Hurry up!
Cassandra: hurry up girls!

Scene 4
Setting: beach
Sandra: wow! What a beautiful view, isnt it Cassandra
Cassandra: yea it is. I am going to build my castle over there!
Cassandra: here I go with my spoon, cub and my bucket. I shall build a beautiful castle.
Sandra: Cassandra can I join you as well we can build a big and beautiful sandcastle.
Sandra: Cassandra, shall we add one more floor to our castle. It will look more beautiful.
Cassandra: but will it be strong enough, I fear it might fall as the wave hit it.
Sandra: heheheh! Cassandra you are funny, the wave is not high, look at them.
Narrator: both sisters started to build the second floor of their castle. All of a sudden their friends
called both of them to see the boats sailing in the sea. They boats were fancy and the two
sisters were excited to follow their friends.
Sandra: wait girls, we are coming too.
Cassandra: Sandra how about our castle? I fear the waves will hit hard and it will go like
dominoes.

Sandra: do not worry, noting will happen.

Cassandra: Sandra! Look over there!
Sandra: oh no! That is a huge wave Cassandra.
Cassandra: we are gone our castle will be gone too!!
Sandra: oh no! What should we do now?
Cassandra: I have no idea Sandra! (closed her eyes tightly)
Sandra: Cassandra open your eyes.
Narrator: Cassandra opened her eyes slowly and was surprised; the wave was just touching
their toes and did not destroy anything
Cassandra: we are safe! Our castle is safe too.
They were happy that their castle was safe. Sandra and Cassandra happily followed their
friends to see the fancy boats on the sea.

Task 1 (Question 2)
Substantiate your selection based on the principles and features of children literature.
Through plays and drama, children develop understanding of themselves and the world around
them. The characters and events which are not real also help children to explore significant
issues which are relevant to their daily lives, in a way that is safe and enjoyable.
In this task I have to substantiate my selection of poem entitled sand castle and changed in to a
play script. Well basically poems are difficult to be understood and recited for young learners.
However with interesting way of teaching the poem can be a way for the young learners to
understand the meaning of poem. This poem entitled sand castle does not contain slang and
cultural references which would make the students face difficulty on the learning process. They
will be very active because they will be able to involve themselves in the given activity physically
and mentally because of the easiness of the text.
I chose this poem because I discovered that this poem can attract the childrens attention by
arrangement of words. The aesthetic value which is integrated in this poem that is from the word
by word we can make the students imagine the storyline, and this poem allows the students
develop the aesthetic of an art in their mind through imagine the how would they act out or show
their expression if they were I the beach and gave a chance on building the sand castle.
In a pedagogical context play and drama gives the opportunities for our young learners to use
various combination of their multiple intelligences (blueprint 2012-2025). Well, how this poem
can be connected to this feature? The answer was given by a transformational leadership coach
from Oakland, California, Elena, she says that reciting poem is the most kinesthetic of all
literature, so when it comes to play, obviously it's physical and full-bodied which activates your
heart and soul and sometimes our minds and the outcome is that poetry moves us. According to
Gardner, 1999 he believes that through different intelligences in storytelling and drama
activities, young learners as a person will have the chance to develop their individual strengths
to a better level.
In the article written by McLeod (2008) poems brings the imagination of a child to higher level,
Because poems can develop the children extension of mind where they will help to increase
their memorization skills. Memorizing is one of the important parts of a play script. So Children
also learn to pick up patterns and sequences in poetry recitations. As in this poem the word
choices are not difficult and as they practice memorizing the poetry to recite, it links memory

with audio and visual events, helping them develop memorization skills. Being proficient in
memorization, patterns, and sequences in turns give students an advantage in learning new
languages, reading comprehension. (McLeod, 2008)
In conclusion, Young learners in the communicative classroom should get as many speaking
opportunities as possible and their speaking time should slowly but steadily rise so as to
prepare them for various communicative situations. Keeping in mind that each classroom offers
a wide range of learners differing in various aspects, a teacher should provide them with a
proper environment that would help them develop their skills and combining the approaches,
varying the cognitive styles, mixing and matching various methods and tools will help them later
on when their knowledge of English has advanced and moved to a higher level.

REFEENCES
Aguilar, E. (2014). Five reasons why we need poetry in classroom. Student Engagement, vol 2.
Retrieved August 29, 2015.
Gardner, H. (1999) the unschooled mind: how children think and how schools should teach.New
York: Basic Books Inc.

McLeod, S. A. (2008). Bruner. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/bruner.html