Class 5 | Unit 7 - Prose
Gulliver’s Travels
1. INTRODUCTION: The teacher can begin by talking about travels, journey and ask the students the following questions: do they like to travel, what are the different modes of transport, while travelling by bus or train what do they do during the journey, how people travelled in olden days etc. This can help bring out the context of travel, adventure, ship etc. Teacher can also make a reference to the Robinson Crusoe lesson to refresh their memory about sea adventure. Moving closer home, a reference to Arikamedu port and how trade with Rome took place in olden days before the advent of aero planes can also be brought in for better understanding.
With the context in place, introduce the character Gulliver.
Play the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHtEMszARtY
Pause at intervals to check the understanding of the story and read the relevant part from the textbook. To keep them interested, the discussion can feature the prediction element where students can make a guess on what would happen next.
Pause at 4:32 mins (Read the 1st 2 paragraphs on Page 116)
Pause at 7:58 mins (Read the 2 paragraphs on Page 117)
Pause at 9:34 mins (Read the 1st para on Page 119)
The video can be stopped at 11:50 minutes as the textbook story ends at this point.
A discussion can be done to check if the students found any difference between the textbook version and the video.
2.COMPREHENSION:
Sample questions to check understanding of the video:
- Who is the main character?
- Where was he going?
- How did he travel?
- What happened to the crew/other sailors?
- What did Gulliver see?
- What did Gulliver do after seeing the giant?
- Where did he hide?
- What did the farmer do on seeing Gulliver?
- Where did the farmer take him?
- What all did Gulliver see at the farmer’s home?
3. ACTIVITY: Elicit the characters, places, objects and actions that occurred in the video, from the students (allow responses in Tamil and English) and write them on the blackboard in a columnar form. Through this story mapping activity, the teacher can get a sense of the students’ understanding of the story. The students can also write it down in their notebooks.
Teacher can read aloud the text generated from the blackboard. The students can come up to the blackboard to read. This will help them to familiarize with words in the lesson.
3.SUMMARY: The teacher can elicit a simplified summary of the entire story on the blackboard.
| Sample questions | Sample answers |
| What happened to Gulliver’s ship? | A storm hit Gulliver’s ship. |
| What did the Captain do? | The Captain sent the sailors in a small boat to the land to get water. |
| Why did Gulliver go with the sailors? | Gulliver went with them to explore the land. |
| What did Gulliver see? | He saw a huge creature. |
| What did the creature do? | The creature was walking fast to catch the boat and the sailors. |
| Where did Gulliver hide? | Gulliver climbed a hill with corn fields to hide. |
| What did he see? | He saw one giant farmer talking to seven monsters telling them to reap the corn. |
| Did he talk to the giants? | Gulliver tried to talk to them loudly in many languages. |
| Where did the farmer take him? | The farmer took him to his house. |
| How did the farmer’s wife receive him? | The farmer’s wife was kind and gave him dinner. |
| How big was the cat? | Gulliver saw a huge cat ten times larger than an ox. |
| What did the baby do? | The farmer’s baby took Gulliver in his mouth and dropped him. |
| How did the farmer’s wife save him? | The farmer’s wife caught him in a handkerchief and put him on her bed |
| What did Gulliver dream? | Gulliver went to sleep dreaming of his family and home. |
The students can come up to the blackboard and read. They can also write it in their notebook. Here the textbook images can be used to plug the gaps if any.
4. ACTIVITY: Story sequencing: Teacher can divide the class into groups for this activity. Sentence strips can be made, and students can sequence the story. This can be part of the assessment.
5. Creative Writing: This can be an individual or a group activity. The teacher can write down the story of one or 2 groups on the blackboard to do the editing process. The time taken for this would be 90 minutes.
You wake up one morning and find yourself in the land of dwarfs or giants. Write a paragraph describing your experiences there and how you got back home safely. Also give a title to your creation.
Make a story map: Who are the characters, What are the actions, Where are the actions taking place, and then write the story.
OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES:
Story Sequencing: For students who can read the textbook lesson, the teacher can do this activity.
Sample sentence strips:
1.Our captain sent a dozen men with vessels for water, if any could be found.
2. Before I could reach them, I observed a huge creature walking after them in the sea as fast as he could.
3. The water of the ocean reached only till his knees!
4. He was of the same size as the creature chasing the boat.
5.He called in a voice much louder than a trumpet.
6. It sounded like thunder!
7. He called his friends and gently placed me on the ground.
8. The farmer took me to his house.
9.The farmer’s wife crumbled some bread and placed it before me.
10.Later she put me on her own bed.
11. I slept dreaming of my home, my wife and my children.
The same activity can be given for children who have difficulty in reading the textbook from the summary generated earlier.
DRAMA: Teacher can enable a class discussion to plan the drama. Main discussion points
1. How many scenes- Example- Gulliver in the giant cornfield & Gulliver in the farmer’s house.
2. Characters in each scene.
3.Simple dialogues.
Beyond Textbook: The students can watch the complete video to help them understand the adventures encountered by Gulliver in Part 2 of his voyages.
Gulliver’s travels to land of Lilliput.
Term: Term 2
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