Inspired by: The Rabbits - Week 1

The educational resource inspired by "The Rabbits" by John Marsden and Shaun Tan delves into the theme of 'Friend or Foe' to teach students about drawing inferences from a narrative. Through the story, students explore the transformation of the narrator's perspective towards the 'rabbits', initially perceived as friendly and intriguing, but later revealed as invaders. This shift is examined by looking at how the narrator's 'voice' changes throughout the text. Students are encouraged to analyse the narrator's feelings, vocabulary choices, tone of writing, sentence length, and imagery at the beginning and end of the book. The activity prompts students to ponder why Marsden wrote the book, how he intended to affect readers, and whether he was successful, using evidence from the text to support their conclusions.

Another aspect of learning focuses on 'Real or Imaginary', where students identify how authors use language, including figurative language, to impact the reader. "The Rabbits" is presented as a metaphorical fable, a narrative about environmental and cultural destruction. Students are asked to consider why rabbits were chosen to symbolise the newcomers and to draw parallels between real rabbits' impact on farmland and the metaphorical 'Rabbits'. They also explore other animals that could metaphorically represent invasion or environmental destruction and discuss the effectiveness of these metaphors. The resource encourages students to apply this understanding by thinking of people they know and selecting an animal that might represent their personality, further developing their interpretive and critical thinking skills.