Inspired by: The Viewer - Week 6

In an engaging lesson centred on linguistic creativity, students delve into the transformation of nouns and adjectives into dynamic verbs through the addition of suffixes such as -ate, -ise, and -ify. The activity is inspired by the book "The Viewer," where the protagonist, Tristan, encounters devices that magnify, focus, and illuminate. Students examine sentences from the book, identifying how words like 'intensify' and 'notify' are derived from their root forms. The class is prompted to explore the formation of other verbs ending in -ify, such as 'classify', 'purify', and 'simplify', and to deduce a spelling rule for adding the suffix -ify to base words. This exercise not only expands their vocabulary but also enhances their understanding of word formation in English.

Another aspect of the lesson involves summarising and identifying key details from a commentary by Shaun Tan about his collaboration with Gary Crew. Students are tasked with condensing the essence of their partnership into five sentences or even five words, drawing on Tan's reflection of their shared interests and the unique collaborative process behind their book "Memorial". This activity sharpens students' skills in distilling main ideas and supporting details from a text, an essential skill for comprehending and conveying complex information succinctly. Additionally, the lesson touches on building cohesion within and across paragraphs, challenging students to speculate on the fate of Tristan and to craft their own endings to the story, using a range of cohesive devices and considering the impact of passive verb constructions.