Using Peel for crow country and building strong paragraphs

This Week Daisy and Samantha explored Kate Constable's award winning novel Crow Country - and turned careful reading into confident writing.

They started with comprehension, with Sam asking Daisy to summarise the story so far, where they discuss Sadie Hazzard and how she moves to the small town of Boort, and discovers a hidden sacred site, and hears the mysterious voice of a crow. Samantha pushed Daisy beyond recall, encouraging her to find evidence in the text and read between the lines.

Sam guided Daisy through the language techniques that bring the novel to life. Together they hunted for exmplaes in the text. They spotted personification in the way the crow seems to speak and watch with human awareness, giving it an eerie, living presence. They found similes in Constable's vivid decriptions of the dry, sun-baked landscape, where comparisons help the reader picture the harsh country. And they explored the central metaphor of the crow itself, standing in for memory, justice, and Sadie's connection to the land. Samantha explained that writers use these technique deliberatelu to create mood and deepen meaning.

The main focus of the session was the PEEL structure for writing a strong paragraph response to a random question. Samantha explained each step, the Point (a clear opening statement), Evidence (an example from the text), Explanation (how that evidence proves the point), and Link (The linking back to the question).

They then proceeded to create a skeleton paragraph starting with her point, Constable explores reconciliation as a choice to undercover hidden history rather then ignore it. They explored the curved Crow symbolism to explore the unaswered incredulities of first Nations people and the need for just justice to be served. They then link back to point. By the end of the hour, Daisy could confidently spot and use the language techniques in what she read and seemed prepared for her practise exam on friday.