Shipwrecked! Class Novels

Stay tuned for a video here...

I have been reading the novel "Peter and the Starcatchers" to my class.  I have used this book as a read aloud a couple of times before. It is an incredible book, the best read aloud I've found by far.  Action, adventure, never a dull moment, strong male and female characters, etc.  The students love it.  The read aloud serves a few purposes as I use this time in our schedule in place of silent reading.  With the read aloud I know the majority of kids are engaged in rich literature, many students get exposed to stories that their current abilities would not allow them to read independently, I can model use of voice/presenting skills as I use a different voice for each character which the kids really enjoy.  We have a common story to work with to work on a variety of skills such as: identifying key plot elements, descriptive writing, imagery, character development, similes, metaphors, dialogue, etc.  The read aloud time is something we all look forward to and another big benefit is it helps many students to self regulate as it is soothing/calming which is why I read after lunch to bring them "down".  I have noticed that the read aloud also helps us build our class community as it is something special we do together, it is ours.

In an attempt to go deeper and build the emotional connections that contribute to lasting memories and to have fun I decided to try a "Shipwrecked" theme.  In the story about half way through the book there is a shipwreck stranding the characters on an unknown island. 

On Monday morning after the shipwreck scene the students came into the "shipwrecked" classroom.  I had messed up the room thoroughly!  Knocking all desks, chairs, tables, etc over in piles.  On the wall I had created (actually my far more artistically talented wife had created for me) a mural of an island in the ocean.  Students started peeking in the windows before school and word quickly spread.  By the time the day started and they actually came into the room their interest level, excitement, enthusiasm, engagement, curiosity were sky high.  Which was the point!  By changing it up, literally changing their environment it jolted them into a place where they were looking forward to being a part of whatever was coming.  

We quickly watched a video clip of a boat sinking at sea in stormy weather and the people swimming frantically to survive, again to increase engagement/emotional response.  Then they were distributed into random "tribes" by selecting a pre cut colour card out of a bag.  They worked together in their tribe amongst the wreckage as there was"no time to rebuild yet, they have to survive!" to generate a list of survival items.  From these we generated a class list.  They then worked together to re-build the classroom and create a table group of their new tribe members, it took just a couple minutes for them to put everything back together.  They came up with a name for their tribe then set about building their survival structures where each group got the same roll of tape and cardboard box to work with and the instruction they could use anything else found in the room, but they did need to ask about using my things first.  Creativity, enthusiasm were very high and the energy was great as they worked on their structures.  When the students are this engaged it feels so good to be in the classroom there are no significant behaviour problems just lots of smiles and on task children.  One student who has many significant learning, behaviour, social challenges wanted to make his own structure and do his own thing not with a group so I said go for it as he was then more engaged and worked harder than he had in a long while.

We have since been creating in our groups pictures/props to add to our mural scene.  Whenever I say they have some time to work on their shipwrecked stuff immediately the enthusiasm spikes and off they go.  This was one crazy idea (and I sure did get some looks from  staff when they saw what I was doing!) that worked out well.