Stories That Shape Us

You need: the class novel · iceberg template (above and below the waterline) · sticky notes

1. Above the waterline, write what the text tells you directly (age, looks, what they do).
2. Below the line, write what you infer: feelings, fears, hopes, secrets.
3. Match every inference with a quote and a page number.
4. Compare with a partner. Did you infer different things from the same evidence?

How you'll know: Each inference is backed by a quote, and you can explain the step from the words to your idea.

Go further: Make an iceberg for a minor character and show how they change the main character.

You need: six to eight novels and story collections (NZ, Pasifika, Māori, global) · tasting menu sheet · a timer

1. At each table, read the cover, blurb and first page in three minutes.
2. On your menu, note the first line, the setting, and one question the opening makes you ask.
3. Rate each 'must read', 'maybe' or 'not now', with a reason.
4. Choose your independent reading book and tell a partner what hooked you.

How you'll know: You can explain what hooked you using the opening itself, not just the cover.

Go further: Write your own tasting-menu line for a book you love, to hook a classmate.

You need: notebook and pencil · a place to walk: the school grounds, a nearby park or beach

1. Walk slowly, then stop in three different spots for two minutes each.
2. At each stop, write one thing for each sense: see, hear, smell, touch, taste (or imagine taste).
3. Circle the most unusual detail, the one nobody else would notice.
4. Back in class, write a 100-word setting paragraph using your three best details and no 'I saw' or 'I heard'.

How you'll know: A partner can picture your setting and guess the mood from your paragraph alone.

Safety: Stay within the boundaries the teacher sets, in pairs or groups, with an adult. Near water, keep well back from the edge.

Go further: Rewrite the same place in a different mood (peaceful, then eerie) by changing only the details.

You need: emotion cards (nervous, jealous, proud, guilty, excited, lonely) · a partner

1. Draw a card and act the emotion without words for 20 seconds.
2. Your partner writes down the actions that showed it (clenched fists, looking at the floor…).
3. Write a three-sentence scene that shows the emotion through action, speech and thought, without naming it.
4. Swap scenes. Can your partner name the emotion?

How you'll know: Readers can name the emotion from your scene without being told.

Go further: Show two emotions at once, such as a character who is excited but guilty.

You need: the class novel · graph paper · coloured pencils

1. Along the bottom, mark each chapter or key event.
2. Up the side, rate the tension from 0 (calm) to 10 (heart racing) for each point.
3. Join the dots. Label the peaks with what happened and the technique used (cliffhanger, short sentences, a secret).
4. Compare your graph with your literature circle. Where do you agree and disagree?

How you'll know: Your graph shows how tension rises and falls, and you can name at least two techniques that build it.

Go further: Make a tension graph of your own story plan and move an event to raise the peak.

You need: two short stories or the novel and a short story · theme word cards (courage, belonging, loyalty, injustice, identity, forgiveness)

1. Choose a theme word that fits the story.
2. Turn it into a statement the author might be saying: 'Belonging means…'.
3. Find three pieces of evidence: an event, a character's choice, a line of dialogue.
4. Test your statement with the other text. Does it say the same thing, or something different?

How you'll know: Your theme is a full statement, not one word, and it is backed by three pieces of evidence.

Go further: Find a theme the author may not have meant, and argue for it with evidence.

You need: your story map · first-line cards: action, dialogue, setting, question, surprise

1. Write five openings for your story, one for each card.
2. Read them to a group of three without explaining.
3. Each listener picks the line that made them most curious and says what they want to know next.
4. Keep the winner and write the next three sentences straight away.

How you'll know: Listeners ask a question about your story after hearing only the first line.

Go further: Write a last line that echoes your first line in a new way.