activity suggestions from current group leaders for

2016 Carnegie Medal
Shadowing Activities
Incorporating creative activities into your shadowing group meetings is a
great way to encourage both traditional and non-traditional readers to
engage with the shortlisted books and reading for pleasure in general.
Here are suggestions from current group leaders for activities that you could
try based on the 2016 shortlist.
Each shadowing group will be unique and so not all activities will be possible to run
for all groups, but hopefully there is something here for everybody. If you have a
practical or creative activity you would like to share with other group leaders please
email us and watch this space for updates.
All shortlist titles
Activity 1: Review first chapters and
front covers. A good way to introduce a
selection of books to choose from. Can
spark a debate about "judging books by
their covers" and decide which books look
the most interesting. Compare results at
the end of shadowing to see if predictions
were right.
Activity 2: Make a video. Create a "big
brother style" video diary to track your group's progress and favourites or interview
students as book characters by getting them to answer questions as though real events
were taking place, use props to reinforce character, create book trailers for your favourite
books. You can upload your video to your group homepage!
Activity 3: Run competitions and award small prizes for best reviews, best book cover
re-designs, wordsearches, crosswords, quizzes etc.
Activity 4: Brand your meetings. Download free stuff including membership cards,
certificates, doorhangers and bookmarks to give out at meetings.
Activity 5: Write a blog. All groups have the facility to write and update their own blog.
This is a great way to track activity. One group member can be in charge or readers can
take turns each week.
Activity 6: Video chats. If you have a webcam and suitable software (e.g. Skype) you
can connect up with other shadowing groups. It may take a while to sort
out all the technical details, but it's worth it for the experience of talking
on the telly! Use the Message Board to see if anyone wants to set up a
connection.
Activity 7: Meet up with other shadowing groups in your region. Discuss and
vote for favourite titles. Organise a special debate or shadowing celebration with a
neighbouring school or library. Contact your regional judge and the Shadowing Champion
group in your region for help and advice.
Activity 8: Customise your Shadowing Homepage. Get IT-gifted students to help
re-design your group's shadowing homepage. They can choose from a number of funky
designs and layouts to give your group a unique identity.
Activity 9: Design your own polls. Everyone loves to vote! Your group can design
their own polls to find out what group members are thinking and refresh content at any
time. You can share your polls with other groups. Groups have made polls about
everything from deciding what biscuits to choose for their next meeting, to working out
which genre is the most popular amongst their readers.
Activity 10: Dramatic interpretations of scenes from the shortlist. Which one fires
the group up the most, and which scene comes over the best?
Activity 11: Powerpoint displays. Challenge students with the task of creating
Powerpoint presentations on each of the shortlisted authors, using information from our
website, and other internet sources.
Activity 12: Booksharing. Take secondary school students into infants or primaries to
try storytelling with Greenaway shortlist titles. A hugely rewarding experience.
Activity 13: Use the archive of previous winners as a practice run for shadowing,
reading and reviewing books out of season.
Activity 14: Watch videos of authors and illustrators talking about their work by
visiting the Watch section of the site.
Activity 15: Playlists. Create playlists for each of the shortlisted books. This is a great
way of introducing shadowers to new music, as well as new books, and once your playlists
are compiled you’ll have some fantastic background music to enjoy during book
discussions and at CKG celebration events.
Activity 16: In the style of: Hold a meeting where you all decorate something in “the
style of” a different shortlisted book. The something you decorate will depend on time and
budget, but possibilities include: cakes, t-shirts, classroom doors, library display boards
and faces (with face paints).
2016 Carnegie Medal
Shadowing Activities
One, by Sarah Crossan
Published by Bloomsbury
Activity 1: Ask shadowers to consider who they would choose if
they had to be connected to someone for the rest of their life.
Use a paper doll template to draw themselves on one side and
their chosen person on the other. Label it with the reasons why
they’ve chosen that person.
Activity 2: The following activity has lots of potential to help
shadowers develop empathy for other people. It may not work for every group
though, so we suggest you consider the maturity of your shadowers before
embarking on it. We also suggest that it can only be done in a shadower-only
environment.
· Before the meeting ask each shadower to bring in something that means a lot to
them (this could be a teddy bear, a photograph etc., but we suggest you advise
that they do not choose valuable items).
· At the start of your shadowing meeting tie pairs of shadowers together so they
are side-by-side with one arm over their partner’s shoulder.
· Allow them to enjoy being tied together at first, but then refuse to untie them.
Explain that this is how they are going to remain for the entire meeting.
· Give them a little time to work out how to move around together and then how
to sit comfortably.
· As a group, read an extract from One.
· Discuss and list ways in which being joined is affecting them already, how being
tied together for longer would impact on their relationship, how they'd feel if
they had to walk through the school with people watching, what they could and
couldn't do etc.
· If time allows, watch a clip from a documentary about real-life conjoined twins.
· If anybody needs the toilet during this activity then they MUST, of course, be
temporarily untied. You could use this as a discussion topic in itself.
· As the meeting draws to a close tell shadowers they will only be untied if they
agree to let the earlier, personally important item remain with you. You will, of
course, eventually give it back either way, but they don’t have to know that!
This will move them onto considering how it would feel to lose somebody and
the choice Grace and Tippi are forced to make.
· Untie them as they leave and return the items to their owners. They will have
moved from laughing and feeling fairly uncomfortable to having
developed a greater empathy and a little understanding of the main
characters.
· Begin your next meeting by reflecting on how the experience made
them feel and what they learned about themselves and their
understanding of the characters. This would be another
opportunity to show a documentary clip too.
2016 Carnegie Medal
Shadowing Activities
The Lie Tree, by Frances Hardinge
Published by Macmillan
Activity 1: Build your own lie tree. This could be a paper display
or a 3D version with branches and twigs. In The Lie Tree
characters tell the tree lies and in return secrets are revealed.
Which lies you choose for your tree is up to you.
You could:
· have shadowers anonymously decorate the tree with the white lies they find
themselves telling during one week.
· use the strong feminist theme of the book to look at the gender “lies” young
people are subjected to on a daily basis, in real life and in the media, i.e. boys
don’t cry, girls aren’t strong etc.
· decorate the tree with reading lies (reasons people give not read) and reading
truths. This is a great opportunity to start a conversation with reluctant readers.
Some examples of reading lies and truths are:
READING EXCUSES
READING TRUTHS
I don’t have time to read.
20 MINUTES A NIGHT FOR 2 WEEKS
WILL FINISH A BOOK.
You are reading the wrong book.
Reading is for everyone. You Read This.
Don’t let others tell you what to do. Be
Yourself.
Books can be just as exciting as any
video game! They have cliffhangers
galore and fantastic plots full of twists
and turns. Graphic Novels are visually
gripping and action packed too.
Every exam you will ever sit involves
reading at some point. Including your
driving test!
Why is the Kids’ Lit Quiz won by all boys’
teams then? How come there are so
many male authors?
Reading is boring.
Reading is for swots.
My friends don’t think I should read.
I’d rather be playing on my X-Box.
Reading is a waste of time.
Only girls read.
Dyslexics can’t read.
Books are too long.
I don’t understand all the words the
author uses.
Oh yes they can. It just takes more time
and effort. Dyslexics can achieve
greatness. Dyslexic author Sally Gardner
won the Carnegie Medal with Maggot
Moon.
There are lots of shorter books to choose
from. Ask your librarian for help finding
one you like.
Reading is like a muscle. You build it up
SLOWLY. A dictionary can help you.
Expanding your vocabulary is a good
thing and will help you with your
subjects.
One thing that shadowers always mention when raving about group meetings is the
sweet treats involved. Why not have a whole meeting full of treats by holding an
exotic fruit tasting session to tie in with the fruit produced by the lie tree? It’s
amazing, and quite sad, how many young people haven’t sampled all of the delicious
fruits widely available. And, if nothing else, the sight of your shadowers screwing up
their faces as they taste raw, unsweetened rhubarb for the first time will make the
slicing and dicing beforehand well worth it!
2016 Carnegie Medal
Shadowing Activities
There Will Be Lies, by Nick Lake
Published by Bloomsbury
Activity 1: Hold an activity that explores lip reading/sign language. This will give
your shadowers the opportunity to consider how people with hearing impairments
communicate.
·
You could start off the meeting by turning away and muttering when giving
instructions – this will represent the brackets used in There Will Be Lies.
·
You could then play Chinese whispers, but rather than whispering players
must only mouth the words. Top tip: start off with “elephant juice”!
·
If possible, you could invite somebody in to teach some British Sign Language
basics or you could try as a group to teach yourselves using online instructions.
Activity 2: Explore the Coyote as a mythological figure in Native American culture.
·
Create some Navaho inspired artwork or design your own Coyote figure and
create a display. While shadowers are being creative, read to them from A
Coyote’s in the House by Elmore Leonard. How does the voice of Antwan, the
coyote hero match up to the character in the book?
·
Explore other famous coyotes in comics, cartoons and graphic novels. The
Sonic the Hedgehogcomic book features Antoine D'Coolette, a cowardly coyote
with good intentions; and Patch, Antoine's opposite counterpart from a mirror
universe, known for being cunning, deceptive, and cruel. Wile E. Coyote is a
popular character in the Looney Tunes series etc.
Activity 3: How good are your shadowers at telling lies, being a trickster? Play a
version of the TV panel game Would I Lie to You. You could even get them to role
playing being the shortlisted authors whilst playing the game. Give them a mix of
cards with true and false facts about the shortlisted authors and see how convincing
they can be.
2016 Carnegie Medal
Shadowing Activities
The Rest of Us Just Live Here, by Patrick Ness
Published by Walker Books
Activity 1: Hold a creative writing session where shadowers invent a parallel story
that runs alongside their “normal” school life. Who are the characters? What
danger are they in? Do they have any superpowers?
Activity 2: Using the chapter introductions as inspiration, have shadowers write a
short story describing their favourite scene from a favourite book from the point of
view of an outsider character. For instance, what did James and the Giant Peach
look like from the point of view of the seagulls? What is the library scene from
Apple and Rain (when Apple hides from her Grandmother) like the point of view
of the library assistant? You could choose scenes from other shortlisted books to
encourage shadowers to think about those books at the same time.
Activity 3: Reading only the start of every chapter, bulk out the story of the Indie
Kids. You could do this with creative writing, by creating a storyboard, through a
piece of drama etc.
Activity 4: We may not all be the chosen ones, but this novel teaches us that we’re
all special in our own right! Create some Fiction Fashion by decorating blank tshirts with details of what makes your shadowers special and who would “choose”
them.
2016 Carnegie Medal
Shadowing Activities
Five Children on the Western Front, by Kate
Saunders
Published by Faber
Activity 1: Five Children and on the Western Front is a continuation of to E.B.
Nesbit’s Psammead novels. Why not take this opportunity to introduce shadowers
to the original stories? You could link to The Phoenix and the Carpet by having
shadowers design a modern day flying carpet and have them write on it where
they’d like it to take them and why.
Activity 2: You could build on the first activity by getting really creative and have
shadowers create their own magic carpet! Instructions on how to create your own
rug are abundant online and with a little imagination these could easily become
magic. It can be a time consuming activity though, why not screen the 2004 Five
Children and It film whilst you’re all busy creating?
Activity 3: Page 4 of the novel offers a fantastic description of the Psammead, have
shadowers draw their own Psammead using this description. You could then
compare their interpretations with those of others (again, there are plenty of
examples to be easily found online).
Activity 4: Have shadowers draw or create images of themselves 25 years in the
future. What world events might have affected their lives? What will they be doing
for a living? What will the world around them look like? Will libraries still exist?
The possibilities are endless with this activity and you have a multitude of options to
display the results. The technologically minded could create a future photo album,
either by using photoshop or by creating the scenes (what shadower wouldn’t enjoy
dressing up in imagined future fashions and using make-up to age their faces?!).
This website by the University of St. Andrews allows you to upload and age
photographs and there are apps available (such as Age Booth) that will also age
photographs.
2016 Carnegie Medal
Shadowing Activities
The Ghosts Of Heaven, by Marcus Sedgwick
Published by Indigo
Activity 1: Spirals! Spirals are a recurring theme in The Ghosts Of Heaven and
almost become a character themselves. You could challenge students to identify all
the spirals they can find in a week and then create a display with the photos.
Activity 2: Continuing with spirals, have shadowers create their own spirals and
decorate them with a CKG theme. Can they fit an entire review on one spiral? Be
creative with the materials used and you’ll have a library full of beautiful spirals in
no time.
Activity 3: Explore the four different time periods in the book. You could do this
by creating posters about each period or by splitting your group into four and asking
them to research a period each and report back to the group. You could even use
this as another opportunity to incorporate food into your meetings by sampling food
from each period. Apparently insects are the food of the future!
2016 Carnegie Medal
Shadowing Activities
Lies We Tell Ourselves, by Robin Talley
Published by Mira Ink
Activity 1: Have shadowers consider what happens to the characters after the novel
finishes. What becomes of Sarah? Linda? Sarah’s parents? Sarah’s sister?
Activity 2: Another activity that should only be undertaken with sensitivity and by
those who know their shadowers well, is to separate your group in two using an
arbitrary reason that gives equal results (this could be age, form group, alphabetical
name order etc.) and treat them differently throughout the meeting. Tasty biscuits
for one half, boring rich tea biscuits for the other half. Comfy chairs for one half, the
floor for the others. Continue this treatment throughout your normal meeting. Try
to be harsh and do not be drawn into what and why you’re behaving as you are.
Towards the end of the meeting discuss what you’ve done, how did it make
shadowers feel? How did they treat each other as a result of your treatment? What
does this say about human nature?
2016 Carnegie Medal
Shadowing Activities
Fire Colour One, by Jenny Valentine
Published by HarperCollins
Activity 1: Do an artist based activity – collect together examples of many famous
artworks and challenge shadowers to identify the artist and find out about the piece.
Activity 2: P181 of Fire Colour One discusses the mathematical principle of beauty.
Apply this principle to famous faces. Is there any substance to it? Group leaders
who know their shadowers well and are confident that it will not create self-image
problems could even have shadowers apply the principle to themselves.
Activity 3: Produce your own reproduction of famous paintings. Do you have a
potential art fraudster in your midst? You could link to the Greenaway shortlist
with this activity by looking at Anthony Browne’s Willy’s Stories in which surrealist
paintings evoke well-loved stories.
Activity 4: Paint a simple object “in the style of” a selected artists. Plant pots are
good for this activity, they’re cheap to source and the results could make an
interesting library display.
Activity 5: Have a look at the real Fire Colour One (FC1) by Yves Klein. There is a
YouTube video about its creation. Be aware though, there are a lot of flames and
brief glimpses of nudity in the clip.
Activity 6: Make a mask out of broken sunglasses (or pieces of other reflective
materials), as Iris and Thurston do on p43.