The Thing About Oliver - Teacher Guide - Comprehension - Task Cards - Worksheets

This is a 120-page resource bundle to support the use of the excellent novel
“The Thing About Oliver” by Deborah Kelly in your Stage Two (Years 3-4) classroom. This book was shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year for Younger Readers in 2020 and it focuses on building awareness for individuals with autism at an age-appropriate level.

This book is a recommended text to support the implementation of the NESA plan (Unit 9), which focuses on narrative and characterisation. This bundle of resources can be used in conjunction with the unit, or used as a stand-alone teacher guide.

Included in this bundle:

• an extensive comprehension guide, which can be printed and used independently in either whole-class or small-group settings. The comprehension guide is divided into chapter-by-chapter sections, with two pages of comprehension questions for every chapter of the book.
• questions which focus on a range of comprehension strategies, from literal to inferential, as well as text-to-self and self-to-world.
• a creative response for every chapter (24 in total), linked to the text. These involve a high degree of student choice to encourage maximum engagement.
• a comprehensive answer guide to provide feedback and summative and formative assessment.
• a series of ten full-colour literature circle task cards, linked to the text. These can be printed and laminated for future use, or displayed on a screen. Tasks are designed to be completely independent.
• all associated printables. These worksheets not only apply directly to the task cards, but are open-ended so they can be used for a range of other texts and tasks.
• a vocabulary booster, focusing on words from The Thing About Oliver, which require students to develop their “word detective” skills, identifying word meanings in context, then use these words in their own writing.
• a full-colour writing stimulus with images of the Great Barrier Reef (linked to the text), as well as page borders. Again, these could be used again and again for future writing tasks.

This is weeks of no-prep learning for students. This is part of a much larger bundle of resources, specifically to support the teaching of NESA Unit 9 (Narrative and Characterisation), also available in my store. This unit of work supports students to create their own narrative stories and analyse the text. All assessment benchmarks are included.

I have many other literature-based resources in my store, so feel free to check them out.

Happy reading!