This is a simply stunning book to ponder. There are so many great activities you could do in the classroom with this text…but should you? Listen to Kerry Gittins and myself ‘ponder’ this story by Rebecca Young and Matt Ottley.
Pondering Character
No-one new that his courage was as endless as the sky.
Stickboy is the perfect text to explore the textual concept of character. With your children, explore the complex interrelationship between appearances, actions, attitudes and beliefs that make up Stickboy. What techniques did Rebecca Young draw upon to create such a strong and purposeful character? I personally found it intriguing that although the boy was often left behind by his group, and faced many challenges alone, he never seemed weak or afraid.
Pondering Context
This text has so many possible links to climate change however I think it would be a shame to use for that purpose alone. In the classroom I would read it for pleasure to the children, at a time when climate change was being explored in the classroom. It would then be interesting to see how children draw connections between the text and their learning.
The description of Stickboy’s relationship to his grandmother has strong parallels to the role of indigenous elders within a community, and is another lovely storyline to ponder.
Thinking Routine – Take Note
This thinking routine can be used to enhance students’ memory of and engagement with ideas by focusing on capturing the heart and distilling key issues and questions after a learning episode.
Key questions include:
What is the most important point?
What are you finding challenging, puzzling or difficult to understand?
What question would you most like to discuss?
What is something you found interesting?
Read more about this on the Project Zero website: TAKE NOTE GUIDE
Explore more…
You might enjoy other titles by Rebecca Young including Teacup which was also illustrated by Matt Ottley.
