SECOND LEVEL
LEARNING RESOURCES
THIRD LEVEL
My Name is Mina by David Almond
Resource created by Carol Magee
Contents
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3
4
5
6
7
8
10
11
??
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12
14
14
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Introducing My Name Is Mina
Biography
Starting a Journal
‘There Is No Frigate Like a Book’
Dreams, Visions and William Blake
Writing Poetry 1: ‘13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird’
Writing Poetry 2: ‘I should like to...’
Writing Poetry 3: Concrete Poems and Building a Bird Mobile
Personal Writing: Changing Point of View
Nonsensical Writing
Extraordinary Activity: Birdbrain Among the Branches
Persephone – Springtime and Sorrow
Debate - On Education
Media – ‘Fly Away Home’ (U)
Additional Resources 1-5
Introducing My Name is Mina
My Name is Mina is an extraordinary novel which fleshes out the character
of Mina, the neighbour of ‘Skellig’s’ boy hero, Michael. Mina is a misfit and
school life is pretty difficult most of time but this novel is a presentation of
Mina’s journey to hope from her own unique viewpoint. As it takes the form
of a journal, it does not always present events in their logical order and
contains some lovely tangents, especially her views on school and
teachers! Her affinity with birds (she spends much of the novel in the
branches of her tree) is however one of the many threads that hold the
novel together and her emergence in the final pages as a ‘fledgling’ taking
flight from her perch in search of friendship is deeply moving and
satisfying.
Although this pack is aimed at P6-S2, it is up to the individual teacher to
decide which outcome from each activity best suits their class (depending
on ability, maturity, progression etc). The novel touches on many conflicting
themes including: courage and fear; creativity and those who stifle it;
school teaching and home education; vision and blindness; death and new
life. There are many discussion topics which will naturally arise from a
class reading of the novel. Mina’s forays into creative writing are, however,
an irresistible gift for teachers and so, many of the activities in this pack
stem from her ideas or imaginary worlds. There is also, especially for
secondary school classes, the opportunity to explore the writer’s craft
through the symbolism in the novel and an analysis of Mina’s changing
character.
The implicit warning within My Name is Mina is that teachers of English
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should not be too prescriptive! Our response is to include many
opportunities to explore and enjoy our relationship with words: there are
simple ideas to build curiosity and confidence; lessons to create structured
poems and prose and resources to learn or reinforce literary techniques
and terminology. Throughout, we have tried to stay true to the spirit of the
novel with these activities so that they can enrich your classroom
experience with true flights of the imagination!
CfE
NB There are chapter by chapter reading notes (with questions and
discussion starters) at the weblink below, which teachers may also find
useful: www.davidalmond.com/pdf/mina_reading_notes_c.pdf
Biography
I was born in Newcastle and I grew up in a big Catholic family in Fellingon-Tyne. I had four sisters and a brother and lots of relatives in the streets
nearby. My dad had been in Burma during the war. He and my mum
married in the late 40s. Dad became an office manager in an engineering
factory. Mum was a shorthand typist until she had the children. We moved
several times when I was a child, but always within Felling.
Felling had been a coal mining town, but by the time I remember anything
the pits were all closed. The river at the foot of the town was lined with
warehouses and shipyards. At the summit was a wild area we called the
Heather Hills. I loved playing football in the fields above the town, camping
out with my friends, messing about with my grandfather in his allotment. I
was an altar boy, and I still know snatches of the Latin mass by heart. I
loved our local library, and dreamed of seeing my books on its shelves one
day. Favourite books as a child/teenager included the tales of King Arthur
and his knights, the books of T. Lobsang Rampa, and Hemingway's
stories. I also used to read my sisters' Enid Blytons. I always knew that I
wanted to be a writer. One of my uncles had a small printing works. My
mum said that she used to take me there as a baby and I used to laugh
and point at the printed pages coming off the rollers - so maybe I began to
fall in love with print when I was just a few months old.
I went to primary schools in Felling and Sunderland - both of which I liked.
I went to grammar school in Hebburn - which I disliked. To the surprise of
some people (eg a few teachers and especially my headmaster) I went on
to the University of East Anglia and did a degree in English and American
Literature. After stints as a hotel porter, postman and labourer, I trained to
be a teacher. It seemed the perfect job for a writer: short hours, long
holidays, what more could I want? How wrong I was. I wasn't just
exhausted by it, I also found it fascinating, and I learned a huge amount. I
worked five years in a primary school on a large estate in Gateshead.
While I was there, my first short stories began to be published in little
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magazines. I needed more time to write, so I resigned and sold my house. I
went to live in a commune based in a dilapidated mansion in a beautiful
part of Norfolk. I lived for a year and a half on a few hundred pounds and
wrote my first decent stories there. When my money ran out, I found a job
writing booklets for an adult literacy scheme. This led to my final teaching
job, in a school for children with learning difficulties.
CfE
My first book for young people, Skellig, was published in 1998. Before that,
many short stories had appeared in magazines and anthologies, and were
broadcast on Radio 4. Two collections of my stories for adults, Sleepless
Nights (1985) and A Kind of Heaven (1997), were put out by IRON Press, a
small North Eastern publisher. I was editor of the fiction magazine Panurge
from 1987-93. I wrote a novel called Seances that took five years to write
and was rejected by every publisher in the country. Then Skellig came
along. It seemed to come out of the blue, as if it had been waiting a long
time to be told. At times seemed to write itself. Since Skellig, I've written
several more children's novels: Kit's Wilderness, Heaven Eyes, Secret
Heart, The Fire-Eaters, and Clay; and a collection of stories based on my
childhood, Counting Stars. My first picture book, Kate, the Cat and the
Moon, illustrated by the wonderful Stephen Lambert, came out in 2004. I
also write for the theatre. My first children's play, Wild Girl, Wild Boy toured
the UK in 2001. My stage adaptation of Skellig was produced at The Young
Vic in 2003, alongside my play for younger children, My Dad's a Birdman.
Heaven Eyes was premiered at The Edinburgh Fringe in 2005.
I live with my family in Northumberland. We live just beyond the Roman
Wall, which for centuries marked the place where civilisation ended and
the waste lands began.
Activity 1 – Starting a Journal
‘Writing will be like a journey, every word a footstep that takes me further
into an undiscovered land’
Write the quote from the novel on the board/smart board. Discuss the
meaning of the simile and how effective it seems to describe writing in this
way. How does Mina’s journal or any blank page seem to be like ‘an
undiscovered land’.
Reading and
Writing ENG
217T/ENG 201
A/L/W
Give a fresh jotter (preferably a slim one with blank or combination of
lines/blank pages) to each pupil. This will be their journal/jotter for the
duration of the novel study. Pupils may prefer to supply their own jotter or
journals. The emphasis should be on individuality.
Discuss the importance of the title of the book. Mina does not feel that she
fits in to her class and we have all had moments like this: when we are new
to a group or we feel we have had different experiences or backgrounds to
those around us. Give your own life examples. Explain that this journal is
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going to be important, that it will hold all of their ideas and imaginings for
this period of time and that to make it unique they must cover it in plain
coloured paper (this could be supplied by school) and then they must write
on it in bold letters:
CfE
MY NAME IS .................. and I love.
Then they are going to list some of the things they like best. Each pupil can
call out one thing - anything - around the class: Rangers, chocolate, my
mobile, my pet dog etc but then ask them to continue with answers to the
following:
I love (favourite place)...(favourite word)...(favourite food)...(favourite
animal). Continue with more abstract favourites (colour), (dream/hope for
the future), (feeling), (time of day). Add further (favourite) words so the final
front cover should be almost full of words/things which tell us who they
are.
There are no wrong answers! Add additional adjectives for extra word
power if desired, or keep it simple. Ask pupils to write these lines on the
front of their new jotter, filling up the cover, just as on the cover/jacket of
My Name is Mina
NB Let this journal be a place for rough drafts of poems, a place to try
some of Mina’s extraordinary activities; make personal word or spelling
banks etc. Personal photos, illustrative doodles/drawings and other
elements could be added as the novel study progresses.
Activity 2: Reading Poetry:
There is no Frigate Like a Book
This poem’s ideas relate closely to Mina’s comment on the ‘undiscovered
land’.
There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears the human soul!
– Emily Dickinson (c.1860)
This poem makes a good basis for exploring simile and metaphor. It also
helps pupils to see a further extension of the idea that books and the
imagination can take us on all sorts of journeys.
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Copy poem into journals. Use the poem for a textual analysis activity
either in group discussion or as an individual reading task, depending
on your group’s age and ability. Blooms Taxonomy Question Starters
could be useful.
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Talking and
Listening: ENG
219V
or
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As you reflect on the ‘lands’ away, discuss the imaginary worlds the
pupils enjoy in books they have read (Fairy Tales, Harry Potter, Artemis
Fowl, Roald Dahl , Philip Pullman novels etc) or in television/film
worlds (Dr Who, Star Wars etc).
Homework Primary School:
Bring in your favourite book which features a fantasy/imaginary world –
from childhood (e.g. Mina’s Where the Wild Things Are) or from current
reading. Be prepared to discuss three things which attract you to the
fantastical world of the story.
Homework Secondary School:
Fantasy worlds seem very different to our world but often the
characters face similar problems and trials. Choose a book from a
fantasy genre for your personal reading programme. Write a short book
review* and share your recommendations as a class
*Additional Resource 1
Reading for
Enjoyment:
ENG 211M
ENG 211M
ENG 311M
Activity 3: Dreams, Visions and William Blake
Mina’s belief in Blake’s poetry draws our attention to this visionary poet.
Ask pupils to look at some of the poetry of ‘Songs of Innocence and
Experience’. You might analyse ‘The Tyger’ to explore use of imagery or
‘The Lamb’ as revealing the opposite side of human nature. Mina’s motto is
from Blake’s The Schoolboy, which could be read in isolation, or as a
prompt for the debate on education styles.
Reading and
Talking/
Listening ENG
201A/L/W;
ENG 219V;
ENG
216T/217T
NB BBC TV Learning Zone have done an interesting series on Blake –
some of which might be age/ability appropriate to your group:
www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/william-blake-the-tyger-and-thelamb/1389.html
Dreams play an interesting part in the novel and truths seem to attend
them. The dream of the old lady, Grace, sees Mina as a bird ‘with little
feathers on’. The dream of the horses ends with the animals telling Mina its
‘time to wake up’ and a prompt to ‘peck her way out of her egg’ or the
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cocoon she has made herself. The astral flight around the world expresses
Mina’s curiosity about all she sees, yet the silver thread which ties her to
home shows she is not yet independent. And the vision of her father helps
her to find a sense of peace about where she belongs (for the time being).
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Ask pupils to write about their own dreams about the future in their
journal. They could write in the third person describing a day in their
life as a grown up.
Anna climbed into her car and headed off to work. The traffic in
London was ......
When the task has been completed, ask the children to pick out key
ideas from the text – what family situation they have written, what they
own, where they live, what possessions seem to be important? Then
ask them to think if there is anything else they feel will be important to
their future happiness and write these ideas down too.
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Or write about a future society – what will it be like? In 2030, 2080,
2111? What about transport? Clothing? Education? Government –
independent Scotland? Values? Will it be better or worse than our
current world?
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Creating Texts
1: ENG
226AD/227AE
Activity 4: Writing Poetry 1*:
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
*The poetry activities below are taken from ‘Does It have to Rhyme?’ by
Sandy Brownjohn – a wonderful resource of poetry teaching ideas for
upper primary children. The book is now out of print but available online
second hand from many booksellers.
Creating TEXT
1: ENG 230AH
‘This might be heaven...and we might be the angels!’ p.30
Mina’s delight in the everyday world and her time spent quietly
reflecting is quite different from the normal noisy helter-skelter of school
life. Remind the children of how as youngsters they took great pleasure
in small things. Perhaps a stone became a special ‘pet’ or they spent
hours stirring mud/ poking holes in the garden or just splashing in
puddles. The special bond Mina forms with the blackbirds in her tree
reminded me of this Sandy Brownjohn activity:
Originally from Wallace Stevens’ Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,
this exercise asks pupils to consider how many different ways there are of
looking at something? The answer is as many as you can find.
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The objective is that the children choose a subject and try to look at it from
different angles. Six or more is ideal to start with. Try to make the children
work for their poems, forcing them to look in greater depth at their chosen
subjects – good practice for all their writing!
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EXAMPLE:
Six ways of Looking at the Wind
The wind in the open
Tosses and hurls the leaves about the trees
The wind in the mountains howls like hyenas
And wisps around the mountain tops
The wind in the trees
Whirls around the birds’ ears and blows in.
It winds itself in and out of their legs
When the sun and wind meet
They make shadows like people dancing, moving swiftly
The rain comes and kills them.
The flag droops on the flagpole.
Suddenly the wind draws up its breath
The flag flies around gaily and shows the Union Jack.
The salient wind drives up the steep walls
And goes in through open windows
The windows bang shut and crack into a hundred pieces.
– S Gregory
Activity 5: Writing Poetry 2: ‘I should like to’
Mina’s motto by Blake is well worth reflecting on both for its beauty, its
symbolism for Mina, and for its comment on educating children:
How can a bird that is born for joy
Sit in a cage and sing
Talking:
Understanding,
Analysing and
Evaluating: LIT
207G; ENG
219V
TIP Have plenty of thesauruses in the classroom – ideally one between
two. Underline any words which are overused or unexciting after the
first draft. Model a few lines on the board and get pupils to choose
words from the thesaurus to improve it. Children take enormous
satisfaction in finding good words and this is a really helpful way to start
them thinking about improving self expression in all of their writing
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I have used the following Sandy Brownjohn activity many times with
great success both with P6/7 groups and with S1/2. It fits really well
with Mina’s desire to let her imagination fly .
CfE
Writing:
Creating Texts
2: ENG 230AH
Read the Poem ‘To Paint the Portrait of a Bird’ – Additional Resource 3 by Jacques Prevert (trans. Lawrence Ferlinghetti). This is in Touchstones
Anthology 3. Briefly, this poem says you can paint a cage with an open
door and place the canvas against the tree. Then you must hide and wait
for the bird to come and enter the cage. Then you must paint the cage
closed and then paint out all the bars. Then you must paint certain things
to make the bird sing..
The green foliage and the wind’s freshness
The dust of the sun
The noise of the insects in the summer heat.
The intangibility of these lines is what sets the children free to imagine
what they would like to do. Things which could not normally be done – e.g.
they hear things you could normally see, touch or taste, and have to try to
see sounds, to taste smells, or touch tastes. Ask the children to write for
each ‘wish’ and to expand the description of it to make each picture more
vivid. Although at first they might read the poem and feel it can’t be done,
once they are off, it is amazing what flights of fancy they are capable of.
With all the barriers down and constraints of the real world forgotten, the
children are free to experiment with words and ideas.
Examples:
I should like to touch the sound of the skylark wavering on the horizon
Or feel the stars in the night sky.
I would love to keep the moon shimmering in a jar.
I would like to hear the sound of the past
Or paint the liberty of life
– R Luff
I should like to paint the noise of a vulture on the eastern
mountains on a summer’s evening,
The buzz of dragonflies on the marsh
The sound of a hummingbird’s wings as they go up
and down in a plant.
I should like to take home the rays of the moon on a frosty night,
Or touch the magic of a witch in Hell
I should like to hear the glow in a tiger’s eye on a very dark night,
The calling of a painting to an artist.
I should like to understand the ways of the gods of ancient Mexico,
The mystery of the dark,
And the paint in the tin, waiting to be mixed.
– R Mattinson
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Activity 6: Writing Poetry 3: Concrete Poetry
Mina’s fondness for concrete poetry or shape poems offers a really good
opportunity to study and try writing some concrete poems of your own as
a class. Look closely at Mina’s Egg Poem p.178
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Creating Texts
2: 230AH ;
Reading ENG
201 A/L/W
Explore with your class how the words and shape are formed. What words
and phrases especially suit the ‘egg’ shape of the poem. Most anthologies
have some concrete poetry for you to use as models. Ask the pupils to try
shapes of their own. Rain drops, snow flakes and other shapes from the
natural world are quite good starting points, and then allow their
imaginations to take off.
Example:
A mixture of poets’ and children’s work which could be displayed on your
smartboard or copied as models.
A resource for Primary School Children which is available as an interactive
poetry builder is available on: www.readwritethink.org/classroomresources/student-interactives/shape-poems-30044.html
ENG 230AH
Cross
Curricular Link
ART: EXA 206a Design
Homework and/or Extension (all levels)
Create shape poems on a bird theme:
and then: make a mobile for the classroom on which you suspend your
bird shape poems (Additional Resource 4).
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Activity 7: Personal Writing
Use one or more of Mina’s extraordinary activites –
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Writing:
Creating Texts
2: ENG 229A
Write a story about yourself as if writing about someone else.
Mina uses this technique to distance herself from what has happened to
her – usually the difficult or painful situations. It can be a lot easier to do
this than to write as yourself.
Remember a time when you were alone or afraid. Explain the situation you
were in and how you coped. Try to express your thoughts and feelings.
Mina’s SATS episode is really funny and worth dipping into again. It is also
a turning point in Mina’s journey as it leads to her being taken out of
mainstream education. Ask pupils to look at one or two paragraphs of her
SATS essay to see if they could replace the nonsense words with plain
English. Then, more fun, try writing their own nonsensical story on a topic
of their choice. This freedom from restraint can be liberating and create
some funny words too. You could keep a class glossary of the best
invented words. [See also The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll].
Nonsensical
Writing: ENG
230AH
Activity 8 - Extraordinary Activity:
Birdbrain Among the Branches
Visual displays are often a great way to reinforce discussion points and this
activity asks pupils to discuss, read, create and draw.
The purpose of the exercise is to get the children to recognise the
significance of the bird motif in the story and to see how Mina fits into this.
Start by discussing the many types of bird. (see table Additional Resource
2). Which ones can they remember? Ask the pupils to think of any
associations they have with any of those birds – e.g. owls associated with
wisdom, the night, bird of prey, hunter etc. Give each group the table and
ask them to discuss then research the symbolism/associations of that bird.
This may be a good homework task. Each group presents their findings
and adds them to the table...
Art EXA 203a/2-04a;
Reading LIT
216S/316S;
ENG
219V/319V;
Discussion
209J
Then as a whole class think about MINA. How is she like a bird. What
aspects of the birds in the story also apply to her? E.g.wants to fly like a
lark, (literally? In what sense?), sits in a tree? Seems to rise above her
peers (e.g. squawks from the tree to Sophie and others)? More
comfortable in the night? Relationship with Whisper? Like a chick herself,
fledgling child – growing up.
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Create through collage or painting a large tree (wall size) – draw plenty of
branches. Pupils in small groups can take a bird template (Additional
Resource 5) or draw an outline of a specific bird. Once cut out, write on the
key words associated with the bird and stick the shape onto a branch.
Another group could prepare a collage of the nest with 3 green/blue eggs.
Another group should prepare a collage of Mina sitting. Try to remember
details (e.g. pale skin, black hair) to be accurate. Create a book to place in
her hands. In the book write all the words which also apply to Mina.
Perhaps draw a skeleton of a bird or the archaeopteryx. Discuss the
relevance of these in the story – links to the past/survival of a cataclysmic
event? How do these ideas relate to Mina?
CfE
The final display will cement the symbolic meaning of the birds and
Mina’s attachment to them. Read the last few pages again. Notice the
references to ‘chick’, ‘fledgling’, ‘making a first flight’ – discuss with the
pupils the part that the bird imagery adds to the meaning of Mina’s first
‘flight’ from her tree to make a new friend.
Extension/Homework
Primary or Secondary School (levels 1 2 3)
Write a character study of Mina. Try to describe her struggle to fit in to
an ordinary school and how like a bird she seems to be. Explain the
ending in detail and the way in which the author portrays her like a
chick taking her first flight.
Secondary School
Write an essay on the use of symbolism in My Name is Mina. Explore
the many symbols (Persephone, Whisper, eggs, nests) in the story,
especially the symbolic references to birds. Try to explain how the writer
links Mina’s ‘journey’ to the emergence of a chick from an egg.
ENG
219V/319V; LIT
328 AF
ENG
319V/419V
(Level 3)
Activity 9: Persephone : Springtime and Sorrow
READING AND WRITING AND DISCUSSION
The figure of Persephone is an interesting one and she appears several
times in the novel. Her story is told p.41-61 indirectly on Mina’s journey
into the ‘Underworld’ of Heston Park, but she also appears in p.103-110 as
Mina, fed up with the cold spring day, thumps the ground to awaken her.
She is linked to Mina’s grieving and there is an unspoken hope that in
some way she will heal Mina’s pain over her father’s death and help her
find her place in the world. The search for the Underworld is really a
journey for answers; the longing for spring and the physical awakening of
Persephone is an expression of hope – both deep human needs.
Cross
Curricular
Link –
RME/HWB
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Discuss with the children Mina’s sorrow and need for hope and
reassurance in circle time (Primary) or PSE/RME (Secondary) –
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Discuss different ways in which we express grief or sorrow in our
culture/in other cultures.
Reincarnation as well as a Christian heaven and astral flying are all
mentioned in the novel.
Different views of an afterlife could be explored and explained.
Since ancient times, because of the Birds connection to the sky, they
have been thought of as a supernatural link between the heavens and
the earth. What Indian spiritual idea does Mina want to believe about
birds?
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CfE: RME 2 09a/2-09d
HOMEWORK/EXTENSION READING ACTIVITY - RESEARCHING THE MYTH
Research the story of Persephone and Pluto from the Greek myths.
Technologies to
Enhance
Learning 203b/LIT 215R
HOMEWORK/ EXTENSION WRITING ACTIVITY - REWRITING TEXTS
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Rewrite the tale in a different genre - as a cartoon strip or as a
playscript to be acted in a small group OR:
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Rewrite the tale from Persephone’s point of view – in the first person.
Try to express the contrast in moods and atmosphere during her
transition from Hades to the surface of Earth.
ENG
230AH/330AH
If you have used the activity Bird Brain among the Branches, you could
now add cut outs of white or pink blossom to your tree – signifying the
healing of the springtime. You could write words on the flower shapes
to show a change for Mina – new life, threshold, hope, courage, flight,
friend, Persephone, possibility...etc
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Activity 10: Debate – on Education
There is a great discussion of education in the novel and teachers get a
mixed press! Spend some time discussing the different attitudes to
education in the novel – from Mina – ‘school is a prison cage’ - to the
immoveable Mrs Sculley, to the unflappable Malcolm at Corinthian Road
YPU. Consider the names Mina gives the teachers she does not rate –
Scullery, Palaver etc. What do these names mean? Are they helpful in
revealing Mina’s attitude to school? Read The Schoolboy by William Blake
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Talking and
Listening : LIT
207G/208H/20
9J
Debate the Motion: Home Schooling is better than Mainstream Education
Homework : You could follow up the debate with a written report on the
different kinds of education which feature in the novel.
LIT 228A
Activity 11: Media – Fly Away Home (U)
Watch the film ‘Fly Away Home’ (U) starring Jeff Daniels/Anna Paquin. This
film features another girl, Amy, who loses her mother in a car accident and
must uproot herself to live with an estranged father in Canada. Like Mina
she must come to terms with a new situation and also like Mina she has a
special relationship with birds – specifically geese. The opportunities to
compare and contrast the central character are obvious but discussion
could also cover:
Primary School (level 1 and 2)
The Character of Amy – consider Amy’s journey. What does she learn
about family throughout the film? In what ways do the geese help Amy?
Secondary School (level 3)
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Representation of Amy – grieving child/Mother Goose
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Symbol of Birds
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Ideas of Home/family portrayed in the film
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Use of Soundtrack
Listening and
Watching: UAE
– LIT
207G/307G
LIT 207G
LIT 307G
CONNECTIONS WITH MY NAME IS MINA:
Compare and contrast the different treatments of the themes of
grief/parent-child relationship/significance of birds to the development of
central character.
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Additional Resource 1 – Book Review
WHAT IS A BOOK REVIEW?
A book review is a written or oral report on a book that you have recently
read and enjoyed.
WHAT IS ITS PURPOSE?
Its purpose is to inform and to entertain. It should give a brief synopsis
(summary) of the plot, give character sketches of the main characters and
cover the important issues in the story and how the author conveys them.
HOW DO YOU GET STARTED?
1:
Decide which of your recent reading books you would like to review.
2:
Write an introduction in which you state the book’s title and author.
You could at this point give a little information on the author if you feel
it is relevant:
3:
Describe what happens in the story giving details of the characters
and how they evolve (change) as the story develops. Are there any key
moments or important turning points in the story that you feel test the
characters or help them to learn something
4:
Try to write a paragraph on the theme(s) (key issue(s) of the book. Ask
yourself what message the writer is trying to convey or what important
life issue the author is encouraging us to think about.
5:
Conclusion. Summarise your feelings about the novel and state what
made it memorable for you. Was it the vivid characters? Exciting plot?
The way it was written? Try to be specific and give an example. Finally
state why you would recommend this book to your classmates. (NB:
No mark out of 10 required!)
You may be asked to present this as a talk instead!
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Additional Resource 2A:
Bird Brain Among the Branches (Teachers)
Bird
Symbolic Meaning
OWL
The owl is associated with
night. Native Americans
saw them as guardians or
protectors and wore owl
feathers in their clothing.
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intelligence
brilliance
perspective
intuition
quick-wit
independence
wisdom
protection
mystery
power
Significance to Mina
Mina is associated with
dreams and night from the
very first pages of the
novel. She sees herself as
at one with the owls in
Crow Road. She has
intuition and is obviously
wise herself. The other
children recognise her
mystery but are not
mature enough to accept
her differences so they call
her ‘weird’.
What other words from the
list apply to Mina?
LARK
BLACKBIRD
Merriment – as the lark
sang hymns at the gates of
heaven; the lark was the
bird that announced the
coming of the day.
Because of the bird's
boundless energy, it is said
the lark is also the symbol
hope, happiness, and of
good fortune; creativity.
Mina’s creativity and
natural passions (that her
school suppresses) are
like the skylark she wishes
to be. Note her poems on
the skylark...
Enchantment, the
Gateway, the inner call,
Guide, illumination
Mina’s mother says ‘she is
poised on the threshold of
a time of wonder’
What other aspects of the
lark are like Mina?
The idea of illumination is
interesting – what do the
blackbirds show/guide
Mina to see
The nest is very important
to Mina. What does it
signify in the novel?
16
Bird
Symbolic Meaning
ARCHHAEOPTERYX
Does this bird have any
significance in the novel?
How does this relate to
Mina?
Survival – a link to the
past?
Just as the archaeopteryx
survived the death of the
dinosaurs so Mina must
try to survive the death of
her father and carry on.
Pigeons are of the dove
family and represent
spiritual peace.
Peace in the hubbub of
the city is hard, yet Mina
finds a way to make her
peace with the past and
move on.
PIGEON
Significance to Mina
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Additional Resource 2B:
Bird Brain Among the Branches (Pupils)
Bird
Symbolic Meaning
OWL
The owl is associated with
night. Native Americans
saw them as guardians or
protectors and wore owl
feathers in their clothing.
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
intelligence
brilliance
perspective
intuition
quick-wit
independence
wisdom
protection
mystery
power
Significance to Mina
Mina is associated with
dreams and night from the
very first pages of the
novel. She sees herself as
at one with the owls in
Crow Road. She has
intuition and is obviously
wise herself. The other
children recognise her
mystery but are not
mature enough to accept
her differences so they call
her ‘weird’.
What other words from the
list apply to Mina?
LARK
What other aspects of the
lark are like Mina?
BLACKBIRD
The nest is very important
to Mina. What does it
signify in the novel?
18
Bird
Symbolic Meaning
Significance to Mina
ARCHHAEOPTERYX
Does this bird have any
significance in the novel?
PIGEON
Can you see any relevance
of this bird?
19
Additional Resource 3:
To Paint The Portrait Of A Bird
First paint a cage
with an open door
then paint
something pretty
something simple
something beautiful
something useful
for the bird
then place the canvas against a tree
in a garden
in a wood
or in a forest
hide behind the tree
without speaking
without moving...
Sometimes the bird comes quickly
but he can just as well spend long years
before deciding
Don't get discouraged
wait
wait years if necessary
the swiftness or slowness of the coming
of the bird having no rapport
with the success of the picture
When the bird comes
if he comes
observe the most profound silence
wait till the bird enters the cage
and when he has entered
gently close the door with a brush
then
paint out all the bars one by one
taking care not to touch any of the feathers of the bird
Then paint the portrait of the tree
choosing the most beautiful of its branches
for the bird
paint also the green foliage and the wind's freshness
the dust of the sun
and the noise of insects in the summer heat
and then wait for the bird to decide to sing
If the bird doesn't sing
it's a bad sign
a sign that the painting is bad
but if he sings it's a good sign
a sign that you can sign
so then so gently you pull out
one of the feathers of the bird
and you write yours name in a corner of the picture
– Jacques Prevert (translated by Lawrence Ferlinghetti)
20
Additional Resource 4 – Bird Template and Mobile
Scale up or down as appropriate:
How to make a Shape Poem Mobile: full instructions with stage-by-stage
images:
http://catonalimb.blogspot.com/2010/11/paper-string-and-branches-birdmobile.html
21
Additional Resource 5 : Bird Templates for Birdbrain
Among the Branches
22