Myst - Writing up and the Squeee

Day 9 & Day 10

Well after the success of writing their paragraphs, I decided that it would be a great idea for the children to write up their work 'in best'. I want to create a display in our school hall so that all the other children can see the wonderful work my children have done. I have examples of writing, drawings of scenes from J'nanin and poems of Tomanha so far. This display is going to look great!


I have created an extension activity for the children who complete their 'best' piece of work. The children are going to write a fact file about a Squee.

This is a video of the squee running from his hut to eat the berries. 

Writing about Myst

Day 7 & Day 8

The time had come. We had done so much talking about Myst and written lots of key vocabulary, had a go at writing paragraphs, it was now time to write about the story so far.

I explained to the children that today they were going to be using the skills they had learned yesterday about paragraphing to write about Myst. We talked about what the paragraphs would be. The task a few days earlier helped them to identify the four events - arriving at J'nanin, the chase, the steps and the house.

I showed the children the clip starting at Atrus' study from the point that Saavedro stole the Releeshahn book. We discussed the journey.

They came up with some amazing vocabulary to describe what it felt like, such as they were on a roller coaster, how the book sucked them in. I talked through the scene using lots of rich vocabulary then modelled the paragraph on the white board. The children then wrote their paragraph. I repeated the same process for the following three paragraphs.

Marking their work I was extremely amazed, not only at the quantity but the quality of vocabulary they had used. It had been such a struggle to get these children to write and here they were with 3 - 4 pages in their A4 books! Wow!!!


Ash's work ....

Just when Saavedro had stolen Releeshahn I swayed through the strange looking rocks. It was very scary. I thought I might crash into the warm ocean. I could hear the whistling rocks as I flew past.

I went as fast as the speed of light up the steep ladder and ran across the bridge, very carefully as well. It was too late. Saavedro had rushed in the house. The door slammed and then locked. I tried to open the door, but it was stuck. I looked everywhere for a door, but there were no more doors.

I decided to look around for a secret door so I went to see if I was right. I walked down the steep ladder that was like coat hangers. When I got to the bottom of the ladder, I got to another ladder. I climbed down the ladder to the path of golden sand. Suddenly I spotted out of the corner of my eye a stone pair of stairs. As I got closer, the whistling got louder and louder until I got to the house.

I shivered across the bridge because I was scared I might fall on the fire marbles. The house was connected to the building Saavedro ran into and locked. I was very excited I might get Releeshahn, the very important book. I opened the colourful door. It made a loud noise and I just stood there having a good look around.

Myst - Paragraphing

Day 6 - Paragraphing

I explained to the children that over the next week they were going to be using MYST start writing a story. We discussed the need to use paragraphs.

Using Grammar For Writing,I explained to the children that they were going to learn all about paragraphs through a nursery rhyme they all knew - Humpty Dumpty.

I played a video clip of the nursery rhyme and encouraged the children to join in. They loved this! We then discussed the rhyme and identified the 3 main areas - Humpty sitting on the wall, Humpty falling off and Humpty couldn't be repaired. We talked about the possibility of making the nursery rhyme into a story. I read them the example .... 

BOX 1

The sun was hot, very hot. Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. For hours he gazed proudly at his

uniformed troops as they stood in rigid ranks before him. He felt on top of the world. Life was great. He was great. He was top egg. Sheer power welled up inside him. He leant forward and punched the air with his clenched fist. “Yes!”

BOX 2

Suddenly his rounded body began to rock. He felt giddy and his world began to spin. He wobbled.

He toppled. He fell. Splat! His shell shattered and its contents oozed onto the hot concrete, a yellow yolk glistening in the middle.

BOX 3

Cautiously the exhausted soldiers broke rank and approached the wall. They huddled around the

rapidly frying egg. They looked at each other in shocked silence. Then they laughed. There was no way now that they could put their leader back together again. What is more, they would not have done so, even if they could.

I explained to the children that they were now going to write Humpty Dumpty in their own words. I encvouraged the children to use phrases I had read out and use adjectives to describe what was happening in the story.

here are some examples.

Jack - One sunny day all of the other eggs were singingin like mad, so Humpty decided to sit on a giant wall. he looked with a suspicious look at the soldiers.

He slipped on a bit of egg shell. With a crash and a bang, he shattered into 100 pieces. You could hear his egg shell sizzling under the hot sun. 

All of his soldiers and their horses came in a flash, but they were to slow! The sun was cracking the egg shell. he tried to fix him, but there were too many pieces.

Ash - One freezing day, Humpty sat on the wall. The wall had loose bricks. he was shivering, saying to himself 'it's very cold'.

Suddenly the bricks became unstable and the wall fell down with Humpty too. he landed with a splat on the really cold grass.

The soldiers rushed over and tried to put him back together, but the shell pieces were like ice cubes.

Ollie - One sunny day, Humpty sat on the wall. Humpty was the king of Happy. Nothing could spoil his moment. 

Humpty wibbled and wobbled but fell. the breeze was in his face. he was scared.

When he hit the ground, he was splatted.The kings horse and kings men couldn't put Humpty together.

All these may seem like very short stories, they are in fact a huge achievement for the children. They always find it so difficult to write anything containing adjectives and structure. It was a very proud moment for me and the teaching assistants.

 

Myst - Setting the scene

Day 4 - Starting the game

I loaded the game onto the computer and asked all children to come and sit near the IWB. Having already seen Tomonha, I scanned the screen around. We met Catherine. We talked about the greenhouse and how different the two scenes were. The children were able to talk about everything they could see, without prompting.

We entered Atrus' study. We had a good look around and discussed everything there; the photographs, the items on the desks and shelves, tapestries, books. Then someone noticed the book in the glass unit. We moved over to the book (Releeshahn) and discussed what it was. Atrus then entered the room. We listened to what he said. the children were now in awe of the game. They were so keen to talk about what they could see and what was being said. It was very difficult to keep the children from talking, they had some many ideas and thoughts abouts things so far. Then Saavedro entered the room and stole Releeshahn. Many of the children were scared by this, others just wanted to know what was happening. I allowed the game to continue to J'nanin.

At J'nanin, we looked around (we didnt follow Saavedro). We talked about the difference between J'nanin and the other areas we had encountered. This was great! It really showed how much the children had already absorbed from the game. We went to the house at the bottom of the whistling stair case.

I gave each group (4 groups of 6 children) an image of the house stuck on sugar paper. They then worked together to use adjectives and descriptive phrases to describe the house. This again was so valuable. The vocabulary was great! The children came up with words they had not used in their writing before. They looked closely at all the details of the house and lake.

We shared our ideas before the end of the lesson then displayed our work on our working wall.


Day 5 - describing the events so far.

I gave the children worksheet divided into 4 areas - arriving at J'nanin, the chase, the steps and the house. As a class we talked about the four different areas and identified descriptive phrases and adjectives relating to the areas. This took longer that I had initially thought - it was completed over 2 lessons. It was such a valuable opportunity because the children were able to use their imaginations to identify key words relating to the areas.

Myst - the beginning

After deliberating for weeks about what I could do to raise attainment in my literacy class (24 SEN and LA Year 3/4 children), I came across Myst through a friend and colleague. She told me how Myst had helped her children to achieve goals they never thought they could and directed me to several articles and a blog she had written whilst teaching Myst. On reading the information, I knew it was something I had to try.

My first point of call was the Internet. How much stuff could I find about Myst? What resources were available? What evidence had other teachers published about the use of Myst? My research had begun. I came across an inspirational man called Tim Rylands whose website was provided me with so much to work from.

I was amazed at the amount of information out there! From websites to articles in the Guardian to resources on various websites. I printed out as much as I could find and started to read through it. I had reservations at first. Would my children be able to access such a programme? (These reservations stayed with me until they started to write).

I set to work. I used all the resources I could find and started planning, soon I had planned a whole term's work.

Starting Myst
January 2011
Day 1 - Introducing the topic
I explained to the children that they were going to learning all about imaginary worlds this term. We discussed what an imaginary world was. This was difficult. They eventually understood that an imaginary world was made up. They then begun to list lots of different imaginary worlds.

Next I read them a short extract from The Wizard of OZ, where Dorothy entered Munchkin Land. We discussed the vocabulary - some quite challenging for my children. They closed their eyes and tried to build build a picture as I read it again (this time replacing some of the challenging vocabulary). We talked about they things they could see and how the author had used description to help us build a picture in our minds. We then watched the clip showing the same extract from the book. The children were silent! They watched as the events unfolded and Dorothy walked out of the house. We discussed the differences and similarities between them. At times they needed lots of prompts.

Day 2 - I asked the children to bring in any games, DVD's or books they had at home which had an imaginary world in (I also brought in lots). We talked about the different examples and how the worlds in them were imaginary. They love the word imaginary and keep on repeating it. After about 20 minutes of explores the examples we moved on to MYST Exile.

I started the game and showed the opening scene - Tomonha. We discussed what we could see, the colours, the animals, the scenery. The vocabulary was amazing! We made a list of key words and put them on our MYST display.

Day 3 - We recapped on the Tomonha scene, drawing out all the rich vocabulary they had used yesterday. I then game them a 'worksheet', titled In Tomonha, The children used their senses to describe the image.


Here are some examples :

I can see a wild cacti in the rocks.
I can hear a bird singing in the air.
I can hear the scorpions scuttling across the sand.
I can smell the scorpions roasting in the boiling, hot sun.
I can feel the scary bugs creeping all over my feet.

I can taste the cold, salty sand in my mouth.
I can feel rocky rocks crumbling in my silky hands.

They had completed their first piece of work based on MYST. I was amazed at the adjectives they had come up with. Many of these children find descriptive writing very difficult.