©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

The Lonely Beast by Chris Judge

Have you heard of the Beasts? No, not many people have. That's because they are very rare. This is the tale of one such Beast, whose determination to overcome his loneliness leads him to undertake a daring and dangerous quest to find others like him. Trekking over mountains and swimming under seas, he comes at last to a great city. There he finds many delights but sadly no Beasts, so he returns home, where a surprise awaits him. The Beast cuts a solitary figure, quietly passing the time of day in his remote garden. His quest for companionship is arduous and his arrival in the city at first met with fear at this seemingly menacing figure. Of course, the people of the city soon warm to their peaceable Beast and he is welcomed into their lives and free to continue his favourite pastimes. However, he still needs to find out if there are Beasts like him in the world and has his heartfelt appeals broadcast worldwide in an effort to feel less alone. Not hearing from any Beasts, he soon misses his own garden and retraces his journey back to his garden only to find the Beasts waiting for him there. The artwork is quirky and comic in style; the large, shaggy black silhouette of a Beast contrasting starkly against the vibrant backdrops. The distinctive image of the Beast is an emotive and sympathetic character, despite being virtually featureless with just two yellow eyes. His plight and his determination to find Beasts he can relate to is a theme familiar to the human condition and one in which we can all relate. Overall learning aims of this teaching sequence.

To discuss themes and issues that arise in this touching story, making connections with their own lives

To explore and develop ideas through talk and to listen to each other’s responses

To develop creative responses to the text through drama, play and artwork

To write in role in order to explore characters and events

To compose and perform own poetry

To write a newspaper article in role as a fictional character

To write a short story following a known narrative

To reflect on reading through keeping a reading journal This teaching sequence is designed for a Year 1 or Year 2 class.

Overview of this teaching sequence.

This teaching sequence is approximately 4 weeks long if spread out over 20 sessions. This book supports teachers in enabling children to develop understanding and empathy through in depth exploration of character viewpoint. The illustrative style is highly engaging throughout the book but the almost feature-less Beast is particularly emotive in drawing out individual responses in children. The plot is well developed throughout the Beast’s quest with a strong narrative structure and language rich in description. It is a story that touches on children’s many natural interests as well as inspiring exciting role play possibilities through the Beast’s many daring deeds. It offers young readers a good stimulus for their own descriptive writing as well as some potentially challenging non-fiction text types.

National Curriculum 2014

Reading (Comprehension):

Listen to, discuss and express views about books at a level beyond that which they can read independently;

discuss the significance of the title and events;

link what they hear or read to own experiences;

explain understanding of what is read;

discuss the sequence of events in books and how items of information are related;

discuss favourite words and phrases;

answer and ask questions;

predict what might happen on the basis of what has been read;

draw inferences on the basis of what is being said

Writing (Composition / Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation):

Draft and write by noting ideas, key phrases and vocabulary, and composing and rehearsing sentences orally;

sequence sentences to form short narratives;

write for different purposes including about fictional personal experiences, poetry, non-fiction and real events;

reread and evaluate writing to check it makes sense and make simple revisions;

read writing aloud with appropriate intonation to make the meaning clear;

use new and familiar punctuation correctly;

©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

and done;

participate in discussion about what is read, taking turns and listening to others;

express views about reading.

use sentences in different forms;

expand noun phrases to describe and specify;

use past and present tense correctly and consistently;

use simple conjunctions to link subordinate and co-ordinating clauses.

Speaking and Listening:

Listen and respond appropriately to adults and peers;

ask relevant questions to extend knowledge and understanding;

consider and evaluate viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others;

participate in discussions, performances, role play, improvisations and debate about what has been read;

use spoken language to develop understanding through imagining and exploring ideas.

Cross Curricular Links Maths:

Children can estimate number of beast in the image around the world. Find out exact number of countries in the world and therefore the number of beasts.

Children can explore place value through games involving creation of models of 10-cube monsters (throw dice, collect cubes, make monster – 1st to 5 monsters - 50)

Children can use and apply mathematics in their party preparations by: - Counting (resources, guests) - Money (costing resources) - Measure (length/shape/pattern in decoration) - Reading and using weighting scales (baking) - Fractions (sharing between guests)

Art and Design:

Children can explore the author illustrator’s depiction of the Beasts. Why do you think he has represented him this way? Does it remind you of anything else you have seen? Provide images of other monsters and beasts in film, illustration and by artists for chn to appreciate.

How do we know what the Beast is thinking if we had no words? How does the illustrator represent its mood? Play out key scenes in role as the Beast, examining its body language and exploring possible facial expressions. Children take photographs of each other in freeze frame.

Children can respond to artistic portrayals of underwater scenes, including photography and multimedia. Design and Technology:

Children can use a range of tools and materials , collaborate to design and make everything necessary to hold an end of year, monster themed class party in celebration of the Beast and friendship: - Banners - Bunting - Monster masks / costumes - Preparing party food including a (tiered) cake - Themed stationery

(Charlie and Lola ‘This is my party’ DVD might support ideas as would a number of books exploring this theme, e.g. ‘Alfie

and the Birthday Surprise’ by Shirley Hughes)

Children can use a range of tools and materials, and collaborate to design and build a bridge to cross the river and hold the (toy) Beast.

Music:

Children can listen to, respond to and understand music – discuss choices of music for key moments in the story and incorporate in storytelling for effect.

Children can compose, make and combine sounds musically to represent The Beast’s experience of swimming underwater / walking along the sea bed.

Children watch jellyfish or other sea life then compose and create music to represent the movement.

Listen to or create a music score for The Beasts’ party. What sort of music do Beasts like? Draw your own Beast, how will they move to the music? Create a simple notation.

©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

Science:

Biology

Children can research marine life: - Habitat - life cycles - adaptation - food chains

Children can grow and investigate the needs of plants (water, light, warmth) in their own garden, help tend a community space, research similarities and differences in plants in the locality and around the world.

Chemistry

Children can explore and evaluate materials used in D&T work. Physics

Children can explore sounds the Beasts would hear throughout the journey (populate the storymaps to enhance retelling performance) and how it changes in relation to distance travelled.

Geography:

Children can investigate physical features of the Beast’s journey. Describe unfamiliar areas using basic geographical vocabulary

Where in the world is his home? How do you know? How can we check? What else lives there?

Children can compare our local area to the Beast’s home / the city. Where would you rather live and why?

Where in the world do the other Beasts live? Plan one of these Beast’s journey to the Beast’s home – physical features?

Children can use aerial images and other models to create a simple plan/map of your Beast’s journey, incorporating symbols.

Children can compare the human features of the city to the physical features throughout the Beast’s journey.

Children can name and locate the world’s continents and oceans.

Children can make an environmental report about the world’s oceans and the impact on marine life.

Children can investigate the water cycle - source, stream, river, ocean... P.E.:

Children can explore, imitate and innovate a range of the Beast’s movements throughout the journey and the story

Children can design and create an obstacle course to represent the beast’s journey. Evaluate and refine to allow scope for challenge and space for a range of physical movements. What if two Beast friends were to travel together? How did he travel to the city and is that different to the speed in which he travelled back home again?

Write invitations to the Beast dance party. Choreograph, practice and perform your dance to the music. Computing:

Children can film role play, and take and use digital photographs to make books or present ideas about the Beast.

Children can create short simple text using PowerPoint/Moviemaker that combine words with images (and sounds) – the journey / underwater scene / interview.

Children can use the internet to research the physical, human and environmental features in the story / growing plants / marine life / monster-themed parties and party planning (blogs)

Children can explore and use technology to record a prepared interview in different ways using digital cameras, dictaphones, Easispeak microphones, flipcams etc.

Children can explore Windows Publisher to present a newspaper article – layout, formatting, image etc. Personal, Social and Emotional:

Children can explore viewpoints – welcome / unwelcome stranger in town

Children can debate – should the Beast leave when he has made human friends?

Children can learn to empathise – drawing an Graph of Emotion to track the Beast’s feelings

Children can explore and celebrate their own languages, identity and belonging – writing as another beast in home language about its home – with lots of scope for meaningful parental involvement

Teaching Approaches

Responding to illustration

Reading aloud

Writing Outcomes

‘Tell Me’ responses

Role on the Wall

©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

Book Talk

Role on the Wall

Reader’s Theatre

Storytelling

Visualising

Drama and role-play

Drawing and annotating

Debate and argument

Writing in role

Book-making

Performing Poetry

Character descriptions of The Beast and a friend for The Beast

An underwater creature poem

Interview questions

Script for news report including interview

Front page newspaper article

Persuasive letter to the city Mayor

The story of a Beast’s journey

Writing in role (diary entries, postcards, letters and invitations)

Caption for Tourist Information Poster

Party preparations (lists, invitations, banners, etc)

Links to other texts and resources: Display a range of stories, poetry and non-fiction in which there are beasts, wild creatures and monsters:

‘Bedtime for Monsters’ by Ed Vere (an EYFS Power of Reading text)

‘Emily Brown and the Thing’ by Cressida Cowell (another Power of Reading text)

‘Ogres don’t Dance by Ann Carey, illustrated by Chris Judge Display stories that involve challenging or arduous quests:

‘The Princess and the White Bear King’ by Tanya Robyn Batt (a KS1 Power of Reading text)

‘Journey’ and ‘Quest’ by Aaron Becker Other books by Chris Judge: ‘The Brave Beast’ ‘The Great Explorer’

Links to other resources on the Power of Reading Website

The image of the Beast arriving at the city (Session 1)

An example of a Lonely Beast storymap

‘Tell Me’ grid

Weblinks*:

The Lonely Beast book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRzshxnjeXI

Chris judge’s Website: http://www.chrisjudge.com

Michael Rosen performing ‘Jellyfish’ and printed poem: http://www.poetryline.org.uk/poems/jellyfish-58

Underwater creatures (Session 10): • Turtles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nC-r3yIepk • Octopus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ClNSh3YEUw • Giant Clam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO44qj7evA4 • Jellyfish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJUuotjE3u8 • Whale:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8xdz92Ij60

News broadcasts, articles and reports: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/28701601 http://teachingkidsnews.com/2014/07/13/1-girl-reaches-top-mount-everest/

*All weblinks here and throughout the sequence were last accessed September 2014

©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

Teaching Sessions

Prior to teaching this sequence:

Have a Big Book already made-up to use as a class reading journal. This should be added to as the story is read together. Use shared writing to write in children’s comments as well as adding individual responses.

Prepare a large wall display so that the story can be plotted on a ‘map’ as the Beast makes his journey to and from his home.

Prepare a large Role on the Wall of The Beast.

Prepare a large ‘Beast’s Diary’, including a couple of prepared extracts, in which the children can paste their own writing in role as the Beast.

Have ready a large book/space in which to create an underwater poetry anthology or display.

Consider a prominent space in the school in which the children’s book reviews and Chris Judge / monster book recommendations can be displayed for the community to interact with.

Gather resources to make playdough in a range of colours and collect crafting and junk modelling materials.

Make a collection of texts that feature beasts, monsters and creatures, a misunderstood or lonely character or a quest journey, including comics and folk tales. Also, gather a range of texts, in particular poetry books, that the children can read about underwater creatures in order to inspire their own compositions. These texts can be read independently by children in reading times, or used in group reading.

Session 1: Response to Illustration, special questions, freeze frame and Role on the Wall Learning Objectives: Children draw inferences on the basis of what is being said and done Children consider and evaluate viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others Children use spoken language to develop understanding through imagining and exploring ideas

On an interactive whiteboard (IWB), show the class an enlarged picture of the city scene when the Beast first arrives at the city. Alternatively give colour photocopies to groups of children (see resources). Ask them to look at the picture and talk about what they see, then encourage them to respond and predict with questions such as: ­ What is happening in this scene? ­ Why are the people running away? How are they feeling? What might they be saying? ­ If the character was speaking what might it be saying? ­ Where did it come from? What will it do next?

On a prepared Role on the Wall image of the Beast, scribe children’s initial ideas and responses to him around the outside, discussing opinions and experiences of this kind of character in other stories.

Ask the children to work in groups of six or seven to create a freeze frame of the people and the Beast in the scene. Allow time for groups to practise their scene before they present them to the class. Pay particular attention to the children’s ideas about the Beast’s facial expressions. How do they know? Note the illustrative style of the Beast – all black with just two yellow eyes; no mouth but body language to infer from.

Unfreeze some of the children, asking them to voice their thoughts in role.

Record the thought tracking in thought bubbles around the illustrations, pasted into the class journal and adding new descriptive vocabulary to the Role on the Wall.

Session 2: Introducing the book, book talk, reading aloud and response to illustration Learning Objective: Children listen to, discuss and express views about books at a level beyond that which they can read independently Children ask relevant questions to extend knowledge and understanding Children draw inferences about a character on the basis of what is being said and done

Tell the children that you are going to read them a story about the creature that we looked at last session. Scribe their responses in the class journal:

- What sort of story are you expecting? Why? - What do you think this story might be about? - What sort of creature is this?

©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

- Do you know any other monsters like this?

Show the children the book trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRzshxnjeXI), scribing further thoughts: - What do you think now? Have your ideas about the story changed? Why? Why not? - What do you think it is doing? Where is it going? Where has it come from? - Does it remind you of anything?

Show the children the book, looking at the cover. Read the title and discuss how this changes our perceptions of the Beast. Using white chalk, scribe new thoughts about him on the inside of the Role on the Wall image.

­ What does it mean to be lonely? ­ Why do you think he is lonely? ­ Why is he standing at the cliff’s edge? What can he see? ­ What is he thinking about?

Provide the children with the front cover image, asking them to find ten things they notice or find interesting about it. The children could work in pairs then participate in a wider discussion with other pairs about what they noticed.

Encourage the children to ask the Beast some questions that the discussion throws up. These can be recorded by pairs and stuck in the class journal or around the Role on the Wall.

Read aloud the story, pausing at the Beast’s arrival in the city to compare and discuss our initial perceptions to what we know now. Add to the Role on the Wall after finishing the story.

Sessions 3: Readers’ theatre – narrative performance reading Learning Objectives: Children participate in discussions, performances, role play, improvisations and debate about what has been read Children use spoken language to develop understanding through imagining and exploring ideas Children show understanding by reading with appropriate intonation

Re-read from ‘This is the story of one such Beast…’ until ‘…and finally he reached the sea’.

Discuss how lonely the Beast was feeling and his motivation for making such a perilous journey. Support the children in recalling the places he has visited and the risks he has undertaken so far.

Prepare copies of the extract for groups to read, adapt, rehearse and perform. Read through the extract together. Encourage the children to consider ways to emphasise, through intonation, the atmosphere of each new setting and the daring deeds and efforts involved in each task. How can this be performed in the group? Model marking the extract with ideas around expression and creative touches as well as discussing how the narrator’s voice can be assigned to a number of children. They may decide to take the narration in turns or speak in unison. The Beast’s body language will be highly significant throughout this process, inferring from it his facial expressions and therefore the way in which the reading can be performed. There is scope for including freeze framing to enhance the performances and emphasise the arduous nature of the Beast’s quest.

Assign the narration to a few children in each group as well as ‘special/creative effects’ roles. Children mark the text, make adaptations and rehearse the sequence.

Children perform their reading to the class. Feedback on the creativity that went into their adaptations as well as the performance itself. Discuss particularly effective elements that support author intent.

Sessions 4 & 5: Rereading, Storymapping, sequencing events, retelling and writing in role – diary extract Learning Objectives: Children discuss the significance of the title and events Children discuss favourite words and phrases Children discuss the sequence of events in books and how items of information are related Children can retell a known story in sequence, using story language Children can write a recount based on a fictional first person experience

Prepare a large Beast’s ‘diary’. It need only have a couple of extracts for the children to see to maintain the sense of awe and wonder. The children will later fill it with their own extracts once they have taken the story to heart.

Show the children the diary and shared read one of the extracts, pertaining to a particularly significant event in the book. Discuss and find the part in the book he has recounted.

Re-read aloud the whole story.

Revisit the children's reactions to the story, focusing on the aspects that they found most interesting or surprising.

©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

Retell the story, encouraging children to contribute.

Remind the children that the main events are the main things which happen in a story and they must be told in the right order for the story to make sense. Re-read ‘The Beasts are very rare.’ and ask the children to consider what else we can say about Beasts to briefly introduce them and specifically our Beast. Refer to the Role on the Wall. Collect feedback and remodel answers into sentences if necessary.

Following this brief character description, concentrate on sequencing the main events, starting with the Beast’s decision to find some other Beasts. Encourage the children to retell the story in stages, providing them with suitable adverbials to order their retelling for example: This is the story of...In fact...so...until...When...Late one night...At last...Soon...Suddenly...While...Just when...It wasn’t long before...Everyday...And the beast was never lonely again.

There are too many separate events within each leg of the return journey to remember them all. Support the children in recalling the main parts of the story, as a whole, without getting too bogged down with recalling each and every location or event in the journey to and from the city. Support the children in understanding why the author had the Beast undertake so many challenges in reaching first the city and then his home. Model generalising certain individual challenges by using oral storytelling devices such as repetitive refrain. Alternatively, groups could be assigned to different parts of the story then come together for a whole class retelling.

Make explicit the way in which the adverbial phrases and precise language choice demonstrate the passing of time as well as the changing location.

Swiftly demonstrate how to map the story geographically on a map to demonstrate the Beast’s story. Label the story map with the rich adverbials used in the oral retelling. These can be displayed alongside some of the illustrations.

In pairs, invite the children to draw a map of the story. If possible use backing/wall paper that can be rolled out as they draw.

When completed, encourage the children to retell the story using their story maps.

Children could make puppets of the Beast and use visual prompts to support storytelling. Using voice and instrumental sounds, they might be encouraged to create soundscapes to mark the changing landscape of the Beast’s journey to the city.

Once the children are able to retell the story orally, ask them to write a diary extract in role as the Beast. Ask the children to help you choose a particularly significant event then model writing a diary recount through shared writing, exploring the Beast’s emotional responses to the event he is writing about. Stick it in the large Beast’s diary at an appropriate point.

Children can choose which part of the story they think the Beast would be likely to write about in his diary. Once they have read aloud their extract to a partner and evaluated their extract, they can be helped to stick it into the Beast’s diary at the appropriate point in the story, referring to the storymaps. The diary can be illustrated and displayed in the reading area.

Sessions 6 & 7: Visualising, painting, dance, and responding to and composing poetry Learning Objectives: Children consider and evaluate viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others Children discuss favourite words and phrases Children write for different purposes including poetry

Re-read the underwater section of the Beast’s journey to the city from ‘He jumped in and started to swim…’ until ‘Just when he could swim no more, he hitched a lift from a friendly whale.’

Talk about the sea creatures that the Beast encounters on this leg of his journey and encourage the children to imagine the way in which they move in the water.

Watch Michael Rosen perform ‘ The Jellyfish’ on Poetryline (http://www.poetryline.org.uk/poems/jellyfish-58) then shared read the printed poem. Discuss the way in which he has described its appearance and movement underwater, compared to being beached, picking out words and phrases such as ‘dances’ and ‘waves its frilly underwear’; writing these around the image of the pink jellyfish from the book. Discuss the use of poetic devices such as metaphor and simile to create powerful images in our minds.

Tell the children that we are going to write our own poetry about the pink jellyfish in the book, adding to Michael Rosen’s description of their underwater dance.

Watch footage of jellyfish (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJUuotjE3u8) eliciting descriptive words and phrases that come to mind:

­ What do they look like?

©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

­ How do they move? ­ They remind Michael Rosen of polythene bags or that they could be waving frilly underwear. What do they

remind you of?

As they watch again, ask the children to use coloured chalk or watercolour paints to express the movement of jellyfish floating and dancing in the sea.

Either play the footage again or a piece of appropriate music, this time providing pairs with sheer fabric that they can use to choreograph a single jellyfish dance. This would be most effective rehearsed in a large space. Each pair could perform their dance with several other pairs, the rest of the class enjoying the layered effect of several jellyfish moving simultaneously. This could be filmed and music later composed and recorded by the children.

Children watch other groups carefully, and evaluate and compare performances, commenting on particularly successful elements in the performances as well as considering new ideas. Elicit further descriptive words and phrases, scribing around the image of the pink jellyfish.

Ask the children to consider a word or phrase they could use to describe the jellyfish underwater and to write it on a strip of paper. In small groups, put the strips together to form a poem, rearranging and refining as it is composed and re-read; encouraging the children to listen out for the way the lines sound and redrafting in the light of their responses.

Rehearse and recite the poems for the class, perhaps including an element of expressive movement in the group performance.

The poems could be edited, illustrated and published neatly in handmade books or together in a class anthology.

This session could be adapted to work with any of the other underwater sea creatures the Beast encounters: • Turtles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nC-r3yIepk • Octopus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ClNSh3YEUw • Giant Clam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO44qj7evA4 • Whale:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8xdz92Ij60

The children could make a class anthology of underwater creature poerty to be displayed and enjoyed in the reading area.

Session 8: Hot-seating, composing questions and conscience alley Learning Objectives: Children consider and evaluate viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others Children participate in discussions, performances, role play, improvisations and debate about what has been read Children ask relevant questions to extend knowledge and understanding, orally rehearsing and writing them as interview questions

Read an extract from the Beast’s diary that follows his first night in the big park. This might be a child’s piece of work – if it is in the diary already from session 5 - or an extract that you had already prepared. Explore his feelings and intent at this time. Examine the double page spread of the big park, discussing the benefits of him staying there as well as what he might gain from staying, such as lots of potential friends living in the buildings very close by.

Ask the children to consider the residents of these buildings more carefully: ­ Who are they? Are they old or young? Do they live alone? How long have they lived there? ­ How do you think they might feel about the Beast staying so close by? ­ Do you feel that inviting the Beast to stay in their park is fair to them?

Explain that we have a disgruntled resident from ‘Park Lane’ coming in to speak of his/her views, objecting to the Beast staying in their local park.

­ What questions would you like to ask him/her?

Model composing, orally rehearsing and writing down questions that can be used when interviewing the resident.

In pairs, children compose and write down questions.

Now invite an older child or adult to be interviewed as the displeased resident.

Scribe the views of the resident around the park image in the class journal.

Discuss whether the Mayor is right to let the Beast stay in the big park. Support the children in considering the two

©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

viewpoints by offering counter arguments.

Split the class in half to form a conscience alley for a child in role as the Mayor who will walk towards the enlarged image of the Beast in the big park. Give the children a moment to decide what they will say to the Mayor to support their argument for or against the Beast staying in the park. When the Mayor arrives at the park s/he picks out some particularly persuasive arguments and chooses a course of action.

Sessions 9 & 10: Drama and role play, composing questions and writing a script for a news broadcast Learning Objectives: Children use spoken language to develop understanding through imagining and exploring ideas. Children participate in discussions, performances, role play, improvisations and debate about what has been read Children ask relevant questions to extend knowledge and understanding, orally rehearsing and writing them in a script

Prior to this session it would be helpful to watch episodes of programmes like BBC Newsround (http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/) to support the children in becoming familiar with the format, style and structure of news broadcasts.

Re-read the double-page spread from ‘He liked the people very much, but he was still lonely.’ until ‘…and on television, about his great journey to the city and his search for other Beasts.’

­ Why did he think it would help him to be interviewed on radio or television or be in the newspapers? ­ What do you think he talked about with the news reporters? ­ What did the reporters ask him? What would you like to ask him in a radio or television interview?

Model composing, orally rehearsing and writing down questions that can be used when interviewing the Beast.

Children compose and write down questions that can be used to interview the Beast.

Invite an adult to be interviewed as the Beast, answering some of the questions posed by a child in role as a reporter. Model the role of the newsroom anchor who introduces the report and to whom the reporter refers back to. Possibly include another reporter interview someone in role as the resident to create a balanced argument.

In small groups, assign the children roles such as the Beast, reporter and newsroom anchor in which to role play a televised or radio broadcast. More confident children might be able to manage an additional interview with a resident or the Mayor within the news report.

Children go on to script their news broadcast which could be modelled through shared writing.

Groups rehearse and record their news reports using digital cameras or voice recorders.

Children watch or listen to other groups’ recordings carefully, and evaluate and compare performances, commenting on particularly successful elements in the news broadcasts as well as considering new ideas.

Sessions 11-13: Shared reading and writing – front page newspaper article Learning Objectives: Children listen to, discuss and express views about texts at a level beyond that which they can read independently Children explain understanding of what is read Children write for different purposes including about fictional personal experiences, poetry, non-fiction and real events Children reread and evaluate writing to check it makes sense and make simple revisions Children use past and present tense correctly and consistently

Prior to these sessions, you will need to prepare a range of resources to support the children in formatting and presenting their front page newspaper articles. This might include large paper on which to stick large strips of paper for newspaper names and headlines, rectangles for illustrations/photographs with captions, narrow strips for the columns, and a range of writing and drawing materials, digital cameras, word-processing or publishing software and printers. Ensure the children are able to access the Role on the Wall, the storymaps and the class journal, all of which they will need to reference when composing their newspaper articles.

It might be more appropriate to create a more simple style of news article such as those found online, such as: ­ http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/28701601 ­ http://teachingkidsnews.com/2014/07/13/1-girl-reaches-top-mount-everest/

Collect a range of newspapers for the children to take a look at; ensuring that you have viewed them beforehand to check that content is age-appropriate. Support the children in considering the ways in which newspaper articles differ from or are similar to other text types, such as storybooks or a page in a non-fiction book. Focus on page format then the way in which the content is organised by headings, subheadings, captions to illustrations, quotations and so on. Read aloud an accessible newspaper article then shared read it, examining its mixture of recount, including

©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

quotations, and non-chronological report. This may be most effective as a group reading activity as it may be quite challenging and therefore it is worth spending some time over.

Shared read the headlines on an enlarged copy of the newspapers illustration from ‘The Lonely Beast’: ‘BEAST SEEKS FRIENDS’ ‘WHERE ARE THE BEASTS?’ ‘BEAST LOOKS FOR OTHER BEASTS’

Discuss what the aims of the reports are - to help the Beast find Beast friends. Ask the children to work in pairs to orally compose their own headline that might rally support for the Beast. Children write their headlines on strips of paper and decide where to stick it on their enlarged front page.

Through shared writing, write a headline for your prepared front page report then discuss which image of the Beast would be most persuasive in engaging the readers to help find him Beast friends. Quickly sketch it and paste both that and the headline onto the prepared front page. Model orally composing and writing an appropriate caption for this image of the Beast.

Now consider what is needed for the opening paragraphs. ­ What is the most important information that we need to convey to our readers? ­ Who is the Beast? How do we know him? What makes him special? ­ Why are we writing this for him? ­ What kind of friend would he like, do you think?

Using thin pale coloured strips of paper create the columns for the main body of text on the rest of the front page and begin to shared write the opening paragraphs.

In pairs, or during group writing, the children can begin to arrange the headline, create an attractive image of the Beast then orally compose a caption and the opening paragraphs.

Through shared or group writing, go on to finish the piece, possibly including a quotation from the Beast expressing his loneliness or determination or a glowing reference from the city Mayor and finishing with a statement or question to support the appeal to find Beast friends.

Help the children to revisit the writing with response partners to check that it makes sense, the meaning is clear and it is punctuated. Children can offer peer support in evaluating the compositions and suggesting simple revisions.

The children can plan out this extended piece of writing on paper, as suggested, or the whole process can be facilitated using word-processing or publishing software and digital media.

Finished newspaper reports can be published neatly and displayed in the reading area or as part of a school appeal for Beast friends. Read aloud some of the articles, evaluating their successes and their potential in achieving their goals – finding those elusive Beast friends.

Session 14: Visualising and annotating – make a friend for the Beast Learning Objectives: Children are able to use appropriate vocabulary to describe a character. Children are able to write labels

Prior to this session, you will need to make playdough in a range of colours and collect crafting and junk modelling materials.

Re-read the introduction to the Beasts in the book and refer to the Role on the Wall. Look at the first double-page spread of the earth surrounded by Beasts.

­ What do you think they are like? ­ How are they feeling?

Flip to the image of the earth surrounded by ‘the whole world talking about him.’ Imagine a friend for the beast: ­ What might it look like? What are its interests? What kind of Beast is it? ­ Where in the world would he come from? What is its home like? How does it feel there? ­ When it hears of our beast, how does it feel? How will it get to him? ­ Is it a boy or a girl Beast?

Ask the children to create a friend for the Beast from playdough and/or a range of junk modelling and crafting materials. As the children make their models, encourage lots of discussion between the children and elicit back stories and interesting ideas about their Beast that they think would be appealing to the Beast in the story.

Using your own Beast, model how to describe it. Provide prompts to support descriptions for example, name, age, what they look like, what they like doing, characteristics. In pairs children describe their Beasts. Collect good

©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

language use and display this for later use in writing.

Expect the children to label their Beasts with language to describe them. Support children to think of new ideas and vocabulary. Display the labelled Beast friends around a large globe. The children might go on to write character descriptions.

Session 15: Shared writing in role – persuasive letter from another Beast Learning Objectives: Children are able to write a persuasive letter in role Children are able to plan and rehearse a sentence orally before writing Children reread writing to check it makes sense and make simple revisions

Ask the children what they think is special about their Beast and why it would be a great friend for the Beast in the book. Explain that we are going to write a letter, in role as our own Beast, asking the Mayor to pass on an offer of friendship to the lonely Beast.

Use shared writing to model the process of composing the letter from your own Beast, thinking aloud when making choices and explicitly teaching grammar through sentence structure. Expect the children to contribute their ideas and read aloud to check for sense, making simple revisions. Take on the role of your own labelled Beast:

­ How did I hear about the lonely Beast? ­ Why am I going to be a great friend for the lonely Beast? How are we similar? What could we do together? ­ Where am I from? What am I prepared to do to meet the Beast?

Ask children to write their own letter in role, supporting each other to re-read, check and revise, if appropriate. This would be a fantastic opportunity for children with English as an additional language to write in their first language if they are able. They might have their Beast write from a country familiar to them.

Discuss effective letters and whether the Mayor will pass their letter on. How do you think the lonely Beast will respond to the letters? Send them off to be revisited in the next session.

Sessions 16: Storymapping and storytelling – the story of a friend’s journey to the Beast Learning Objectives: Children discuss the sequence of events in books and how items of information are related Children can retell a story in sequence, using story language

Prepare letters from the Mayor to each of the children’s Beasts thanking it for writing and praising it for putting forward such a persuasive argument; that he agrees that it would indeed make a great friend for the lonely Beast. However, the Beast was missing his garden and has left in the dead of night. He is probably on his way back there now. These letters are a creative and powerful way in which to give the children feedback for their writing. They need only be brief but their impact would be enormous as each child has the special task of opening their own envelope and reading the letter to their own Beast.

Have someone from the school office ‘interrupt’ the start of the session with some post from the city Mayor! Open and read aloud the letter addressed to your own Beast. Ask the children to imagine how this makes your Beast feel and what they think she will do next. Expand on ideas about your Beast taking a journey to the lonely Beast’s home.

Look at the storymap of the lonely Beast’s journey to and from the city. Ask the children to remind each other of some of the settings the Beast travelled through and the challenges he met along the way.

In pairs, discuss a possible journey for their beasts to make from their home to the Beast’s; a quest as arduous as that in the story.

Take ideas and model swiftly creating a storymap for the quest to reach the lonely beast’s home. Limit the number of settings and daring deeds to three to make the stories manageable for the children and ensure the use of high quality language throughout. Model the story structure carefully through the use of oral storytelling techniques and adverbial language; drawing and annotating on the storymap. Provide a useful structure such as: a brief character description, the three events or places in the journey and the arrival to find lots of other Beasts preparing for a party at lonely Beast’s home.

Provide the children with suitable adverbials from the book to order their retelling, for example: This is the story of...In fact...so...until...When...Late one night...At last...Soon...Suddenly...While...Just when...It wasn’t long before...Everyday...And the Beast was never lonely again.

In pairs, the children can create their own storymaps horizontally on backing or wall paper that can be unrolled as the children draw. Encourage the children to retell their story to other children, reminding them of the story structure

©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

and praising the use of adverbial phrases.

Shared read the journey pages of The Lonely Beast in order to pick out powerful or descriptive words and phrases that we might find useful in our own quest stories, such as: ‘snowy mountain’, ‘a garden of pink jellyfish’, ‘stumbled’, ‘crept through a dark cave’. Explore why these are so effective. Take your own storymap and ask the children to work in pairs to orally rehearse and compose a powerful sentence to describe each of the three daring deeds or settings. Annotate the storymap.

An example of a Lonely Beast storymap can be found in ‘Resources’.

Session 17: Storytelling and story writing in role – the story of a friend’s journey to the Beast Learning Objectives: Children can retell a story in sequence, using story language. Children draft and write by noting ideas, key phrases and vocabulary, and composing and rehearsing sentences orally Children sequence sentences to form short narratives Children write for different purposes including about fictional personal experiences, poetry, non-fiction and real events Children reread and evaluate writing to check it makes sense and make simple revisions

Remind the children of the powerful sentences the class composed for your story. Ask the pairs to orally compose powerful sentences for the three main aspects of the journey and write these on their storymaps. The children then retell their story, expecting them to incorporate a character description, these new descriptions as well as employing adverbial phrases to mark a change in event or setting. Children can be supported further through group writing.

With the class, and using shared writing, write your Beast’s story, checking and referencing your storymap as you think aloud. Make explicit the use of rich adverbials and descriptive phrases and continually re-read aloud to check for sense, grammar and punctuation. Invite the children to contribute throughout.

Children go on to work independently or in pairs to write their own Beast’s story in draft. As they work, ask them to stop occasionally to read parts of what they have written to a response partner. Ask them if there is anything they want to change; a section, sentences or phrases? When a whole section is complete, it can be edited with the help of a response partner.

The children can publish their illustrated stories in handmade books to be displayed in the reading area.

Encourage the children to read their stories aloud to their classmates or to a wider audience.

Session 18: Argument and debate, drawing and caption writing– tourist information poster Learning Objectives: Children write for different purposes including about fictional personal experiences, poetry, non-fiction and real events Children consider and evaluate viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others Children participate in discussions, performances, role play, improvisations and debate about what has been read

Re-read ‘But still he had not heard from any other Beasts…’ until ‘…he crept out of the park.’ Discuss with the children whether they think he is right to leave the city when the people had been so helpful to him. He hasn’t received the Beasts’ letters yet!

Model and then elicit simple statements that can be sorted into ‘for’ and ‘against’, gathering them in the class journal.

Discuss the statements then conduct a brief class debate. Prepare a short argument, using the statements for the Beast leaving and begin with a couple of confident children presenting their case for one minute each. Following this, children can counter with their own statements and opinions. Chair the debating process, turn taking and advocate for the opposing view if all are for him leaving, given they already know he will meet other Beasts. Ensure the children are clear that the Beast isn’t aware of his future at this point – his motivation is that he misses his own garden. Model effective use of adverbial phrases and subordinate conjunctions when countering an argument.

Consider the reasons for the Beast staying in the city and what it has to offer. Imagine the people find out that the popular Beast might leave them. What would they say about their city that might persuade him or other visitors to stay? Ask the children to choose one aspect of city life that they think could be included in a Tourist Information Guide. Create a persuasive poster - shared write a short descriptive caption of one aspect of city life alongside an image of the Beast partaking in it, such as a meal out at a restaurant, watching a movie, etc.

Children can create their poster, demonstrating an attractive part of city life which can be published in a class Tourist Information Guide or posted around the school to encourage more visitors.

©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

Session 19: Welcome home party preparations – writing invitations, guest lists, reading recipes etc. – and thank you letter to the Mayor Learning Objectives: Children write for different purposes including about fictional personal experiences, poetry, non-fiction and real events Children participate in discussions, performances, role play, improvisations and debate about what has been read

Read the double-page spread of the party at the end of the story. ­ What kind of party was it? ­ What would the Beasts have done to prepare for this welcoming party? ­ What happens at parties? What do you need? How can we theme it for the Beasts?

Explain that we are going to have our own class party to celebrate friendship and family. What will we need to do? Watch the Charlie and Lola DVD, ‘This is my Party’, and gather ideas for party preparations, particularly if they want to it monster themed. You might also want to have read ‘The Birthday Surprise’, from the Alfie and Annie Rose Collection by Shirley Hughes to support the children’s ideas.

Each group can contribute in different ways; some can plan the menu and source appropriate recipes, make a shopping list and bake, others can create decorations or perhaps organise games and costumes, such as monsters or traditional costumes from specific countries.

Children can decide on a guest list, such as parents and other members of the school community and make other lists to help organise the party plans.

Through shared writing, model writing invitations which the children can then write for their guest and post.

When the party is planned the children can enjoy the celebration on the date, possibly dressed in costumes and dancing to music from around the world. Engage everybody in the spirit of friendship and inclusion.

Once the party is over, shared read a letter the mayor has sent, expressing concern for the lonely Beast’s welfare and telling him he has received several letters from other Beasts. Have they found him yet?

Shared write a thank you letter from the no longer lonely Beast to the Mayor telling him what happened when he returned home and how he feels now.

Session 20: Drama, role-play, book talk ‘Tell Me’ and writing a book review Learning Objectives: Children are able to articulate the answer to a question Children express simple views of the story giving reasons for their answers

Talk briefly with the children about their responses to the story, using the ‘Tell Me’ grid: ­ What did you like and/or dislike? ­ Did anything surprise you? Why? ­ Did you find anything particularly interesting? Why? ­ Did the story remind you of anything in real life or in other stories?

Referring to a storymap, cast different groups of children into each of the adventures or events in the Beast’s quest. Sitting in a large circle read the story again, with each group of children coming into the centre of the circle to act out their part of the book.

Through modelling, describe your favourite part of the story. Provide the children with an oral scaffold for example: the most memorable part of the story was... because...; my top moment in the story was... because... and in pairs ask them to identify their favourite part of the narrative. Encourage children to give reasons for their choices and invite some children to share these.

Invite the children to draw and describe their favourite part of the story. Model how to do this, orally rehearsing before writing, considering spelling and punctuation.

Encourage children to revisit writing with a partner to check that it makes sense, the meaning is clear and it is punctuated.

Publish the reviews in a class anthology and display prominently in school, alongside a display of Chris Judge’s authored and illustrated books as an author recommendation display. Invite other children and class teachers to add to the reviews and recommendations.

Ask the class to consider what the author might be trying to tell us. Through shared writing, write one or two sentences to capture the children's ideas and display these too.

It might be interesting for the children to consider alternative titles for the book given what else we know about the Beast. Introduce the children to the sequel ‘The Brave Beast’.

©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

Word Reading and Transcription (National Curriculum 2014)

Use and Application of Phonics and Spelling The following words could be used to exemplify learning at phonic phases: Phase 2: not, ran, let, him, in, big, it, had Phase 3: high, deep, nothing, garden, rain, back, down, dark, soon, long, see, fish, lift Phase 4: Tend, streets, left, standing, felt, forest, drink, still, cliff, start, swim, swam, land, clam, sink, pink, just, octopus, from Phase 5: Alternative graphemes: /ai/ day, away, late, made, cave, came, amazed, radio, newspaper, straight, they, great /ee/ Beast, sea, creature, read, eat, each, lonely, very, story, many, only, jellyfish, suddenly, country, even /igh/ side, like, find, mind, finally /oa/ over, snowy, slowly /oo/ through, huge, curious, beautiful /u/ good, book, woods, country, could, would, other, another, river, newspaper, longer, some, bottom /or/ shore, more, walk, caught /ur/ heard, search, journey /ow/ out, found, about, mountains /l/ stumble, turtle Alternative pronunciations: /c/ decided, city /a/ many, was, waterfall /g/ giant, dangerous Storytelling Language: This is the story of...In fact...so...until...When...Late one night...At last...Soon...Suddenly...While...Just when...It wasn’t long before...Everyday...And the beast was never lonely again.

High Frequency Words: a, was, in, the, he, not, go, by, with, who, were, beautiful, nothing, one, them, so, like, is, some, such, much, up, are, any, they, than, their, through, there, could, would, don’t, from, people, have, of

Spelling:

Suffixes ‘-ed’ suffix ‘-ing’ suffix

root word simply + ‘ed’ double consonant then +‘-ed’

-e then + ‘-ed’

change y to i then + ‘-ed’

simply + ‘-ing’

double consonant then + ‘-ing’:

-e then +’-ing’

climb climbed climbing

hitch hitched hitching

reach reached reaching

walk walked walking

talk talked talking

trap trapped trapping

tire tired tiring

stumble stumbled stumbling

like liked liking

amaze amazed amazing

hurry hurried hurrying

©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE.

‘-s’ plurals

simply + ‘-s’ change y to i then + ‘-es’

Beasts countries

mountains

creatures

gardens