Inspired by: The Viewer - Week 5

The educational materials inspired by "The Viewer" focus on enhancing language skills through various activities. One key learning point is the use of relative clauses beginning with words such as who, which, where, when, whose, and that, or even with an implied relative pronoun. Through the character of Tristan, students are encouraged to construct sentences that add further information using "which," thereby deepening their understanding of how relative clauses can enrich a sentence. Another activity challenges students to distinguish between statements of fact and opinion, a critical thinking skill. By examining the character Tristan, the viewing machine, and the book "The Viewer" itself, students must identify and discuss which statements are factual and which are based on personal beliefs or interpretations.

Further exercises in this educational series include a task that prompts students to propose changes to vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation to enhance the impact and clarity of a message. This is exemplified by imagining a scenario where Tristan, the protagonist, writes a desperate note to his mother in his final moments. Students are tasked with writing this hypothetical letter and then reviewing each other's work to suggest improvements. Additionally, there is a focus on word formation, specifically converting nouns or adjectives into verbs using suffixes such as -ate, -ise, and -ify. This linguistic exploration helps students understand the process of verb formation and the creation of spelling rules. Finally, summarising skills are honed by asking students to condense information about the collaborative relationship between Shaun Tan and Gary Crew into concise sentences and words, drawing out the main ideas and supporting details from a given text.