Recently four members of the St. Andrews Primary Exceptional Learners’ Program were invited to attend a special Literacy Day event at Bangkok Patana School. These students were chosen for demonstrating outstanding skills in reading, writing and oral language.
The Literacy Day event consisted of three activities which were designed to challenge the students’ critical and logical thinking skills.
The morning started off in the library where students participated in a book challenge. They were asked to identify books and authors based on a variety of clues including short passages from the book and possible character epitaphs.
Ali’s using her logical thinking skills.
In the afternoon, students began a reading comprehension challenge which required students to work in teams and use their higher level thinking skills to solve the mystery.
As the day drew to a close, the students were faced with one final task. They were asked to write a story, an entire story, using exactly 50 words. Their story needed to be interesting, use powerful vocabulary and have a clear beginning, middle and end. The participants quickly realised that writing a short story can be even more challenging than writing a long one! Although it wasn’t easy, each student independently produced a fantastic short story using only 50 words, and here they are:
The Mysterious Case of Donald Sapphire
Austin, Year 6
When Donald Sapphire was 21 years old in the year of 2001, he got his first laptop! But one day, he unfortunately got run over by a car. Mysteriously his laptop got lost. After this, the police at the scene found out that it was the work of eerie ghosts.
A Cute Spook
Ali, Year 4
Two eyes peered around the corner. A loud noise filled the room. The windows were shaking back and forth quickly. “What was that!?!” the kid screamed with terror. A few minutes later, the lamp shook and fell on the floor. Around the corner came a Cat. “Oh! It’s you!”
The Legend of the Gaffamor
Jennisa, Year 4a
The Gaffamor is a creature that lives in the depths of the River Nile. His black skin ripples like the sea; his pure white fangs are bared and his mane of seaweed-like hair is tangled. At twilight, he drags villagers into their watery grave, torturing them. The legend is true.
Outlaw to Help!
Nicky, Year 6
“You will never get me alive!” I shouted. I’m Lightning Girl, I’m an outlaw but I save the people of the world. Police won’t capture me this time. I’m never going to jail because they will never catch me! I will help the people today. Prepare to live life world!
Austin writing his 50 word masterpiece.
Jennisa and her partner share ideas on their 50 word stories.
Jennisa’s team working on the ‘Book Challenge’.
Nicky uses her technology skills to produce her writing piece.
Nicky’s team working together to solve the puzzle.
The students get some tips on how to organize their work.
