Ready Steady Read Together
Boy in the Tower: Fiction Lesson 5
Quiz Time
Start
Questions about the book so far...
Match Me
Match each word with its definition:
3) menacing
4) origin
1) collapsing
2) stalking
B) dangerous and threatening
C) the place where something starts
A) moving quietly and carefully while watching something, ready to attack
D) falling down suddenly
Click if correct
Check
Sequence Me
Order these events from the story:
A) Ade sees a Blucher on television and thinks it is beautiful before realising its danger.
B) A pub fell down unexpectantly.
C) More buildings collapse and no one knows why.
D) Ada and Gaia joke that a monster is eating the bricks.
Click if correct
Check
Find Me
Find the phrase which shows that they don’t know where the Bluchers came from.
‘These images are coming live from the Blucher Disaster area,’ the newsreader was saying, ‘where this plant has just been discovered. Its origin has not been identified and scientists have already confirmed that this is a completely new species.’
Discuss then check
Its origin has not been identified
True or False?
Ade isn’t scared of the Bluchers anymore once he sees them on television and knows what they are.
True
False
Speaking Spotlight
TV Journalist
Explore
TV Journalist
Could you introduce yourself and explain...
Can you give us an example...
What would you say to someone that disagreed with you?
Explain more about what happened when...
How did you feel when...
Tell us more about this...
Decide roles: Ade or Gaia and a TV Journalist.
Vocabulary
Explore
Hover for definitions!
clusters
swelling
fungi
grasped
spores
leering
Explore
From: Boy In The Tower by Polly Ho-Yen © 2015. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.
Let me read today's text
Explore
After the first sighting of the Bluchers, they started to pop up more and more.
Soon, I was able to see clusters from my window. What started out as little patches of silvery-blue soon spread out and covered the ground below me. They grew so fast that sometimes it seemed the patches were swelling in front of my eyes.
Now they had lots of people on the television who knew about plants and fungi.
I wasn’t able to follow most of it. I caught certain words like fruiting body and chemical trails, which I wrote down in my book, but I didn’t understand how the Bluchers worked.
The only thing I truly grasped was that they thought they knew why the buildings were falling down. It was because of the Bluchers. Gaia had been right all along. The falling buildings and the people collapsing on the street were linked. They were both being caused by the Bluchers.
Not only were they sending out deadly spores into the air; they were feeding on concrete and stone and glass and metal. They released some kind of wet stuff which could dissolve all those kind of things. That had a special name too. Enim or enzim, or something like that.
Bluchers.
From: Boy In The Tower by Polly Ho-Yen © 2015. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.
The word sat heavily on my chest. Whenever I closed my eyes I could see their shiny silvery heads leering towards me. I could sense their hunger, urgently and desperately feeding upon the buildings that were our homes. And when I opened my eyes again, I could see that we were surrounded by them. When I looked out that morning, I heard myself gasp out loud. As far as I could see, I saw the silvery-blue colour of the Bluchers.
The city was being flattened out.
So that’s what’s happened to me.
That’s why I’m still here in the tower, surrounded by Bluchers. I wonder if there are other people trapped like us and I wonder why no one has come to rescue us yet. Like they do on television. If something bad happens to someone on television, somebody always comes along to rescue them.
But that doesn’t happen here.
From: Boy In The Tower by Polly Ho-Yen © 2015. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.
Strategy Stop
Teach
Your turn
Practise & Apply
Use your text
Practise & Apply
What started out as little patches of silvery-blue soon spread out and covered the ground below me. They grew so fast that sometimes it seemed the patches were swelling in front of my eyes.
1) What does the word ‘swelling’ tell you?
Acceptable Answers
- they are getting bigger quickly
- they are spreading and expanding
- they are growing in a powerful, uncontrollable way
Reveal Answer
Practise & Apply
2) Which two scientific terms did Ade write in his notebook, despite not fully understanding?
Acceptable Answers:
- fruiting body
- chemical trails
Reveal Answer
3) Bluchers. The word sat heavily on my chest.
What impression does this give you of how Ade feels about the Bluchers?
Acceptable Answers:
- pressure and fear, like something is pressing down on him
- trapped and burdened by them – he cannot escape the feeling
- worried and scared as if something is weighing him down
Reveal Answer
3) Which of these themes are explored in Boy in the Tower?
Tick all that apply:
friendship
survival
isolation and loneliness
environmental transformation
Reveal Answer
Practise & Apply
4) Predict what you think will happen next in the story, using your knowledge of the story so far.
Acceptable predictions using knowledge of the story so far and referencing the text, for example:
Based on what has happened so far, I think the Bluchers will continue to spread and take over more of the city, making it even more dangerous for Ade and anyone still trapped inside buildings. The city already seems to be ‘flattened out,’ so it is likely that more buildings will collapse as the Bluchers feed on materials like concrete and metal. I also think Ade will have to face the reality that rescue may not come, especially as he wonders why no one has come like they do on television and says, ‘but that doesn’t happen here’. This suggests he may need to find a way to survive on his own.
Reveal Answer
Feedback: Who did what well?
FindRead Talk
EchoRead
ChoralRead
ReadingStrategy
Answers & Text Marks
Other...
To be a book lover, you could...
ask,"What if?"
Reveal
Imagine how the story would change if the characters made different choices.
If you like this book, you might like...
Copyright Notice
This document has been supplied under a CLA Licence with specific terms of use. It is protected by copyright and, save as may be permitted by law, it may not be further copied, stored, re-copied electronically or otherwise shared, even for internal purposes, without the prior further permission of the Rightsholder. Extracts sourced from: Boy In The Tower by Polly Ho-Yen © 2015 Schools must purchase the original text for full content.
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Transcript
Ready Steady Read Together
Boy in the Tower: Fiction Lesson 5
Quiz Time
Start
Questions about the book so far...
Match Me
Match each word with its definition:
3) menacing
4) origin
1) collapsing
2) stalking
B) dangerous and threatening
C) the place where something starts
A) moving quietly and carefully while watching something, ready to attack
D) falling down suddenly
Click if correct
Check
Sequence Me
Order these events from the story:
A) Ade sees a Blucher on television and thinks it is beautiful before realising its danger.
B) A pub fell down unexpectantly.
C) More buildings collapse and no one knows why.
D) Ada and Gaia joke that a monster is eating the bricks.
Click if correct
Check
Find Me
Find the phrase which shows that they don’t know where the Bluchers came from.
‘These images are coming live from the Blucher Disaster area,’ the newsreader was saying, ‘where this plant has just been discovered. Its origin has not been identified and scientists have already confirmed that this is a completely new species.’
Discuss then check
Its origin has not been identified
True or False?
Ade isn’t scared of the Bluchers anymore once he sees them on television and knows what they are.
True
False
Speaking Spotlight
TV Journalist
Explore
TV Journalist
Could you introduce yourself and explain...
Can you give us an example...
What would you say to someone that disagreed with you?
Explain more about what happened when...
How did you feel when...
Tell us more about this...
Decide roles: Ade or Gaia and a TV Journalist.
Vocabulary
Explore
Hover for definitions!
clusters
swelling
fungi
grasped
spores
leering
Explore
From: Boy In The Tower by Polly Ho-Yen © 2015. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.
Let me read today's text
Explore
After the first sighting of the Bluchers, they started to pop up more and more. Soon, I was able to see clusters from my window. What started out as little patches of silvery-blue soon spread out and covered the ground below me. They grew so fast that sometimes it seemed the patches were swelling in front of my eyes. Now they had lots of people on the television who knew about plants and fungi. I wasn’t able to follow most of it. I caught certain words like fruiting body and chemical trails, which I wrote down in my book, but I didn’t understand how the Bluchers worked. The only thing I truly grasped was that they thought they knew why the buildings were falling down. It was because of the Bluchers. Gaia had been right all along. The falling buildings and the people collapsing on the street were linked. They were both being caused by the Bluchers. Not only were they sending out deadly spores into the air; they were feeding on concrete and stone and glass and metal. They released some kind of wet stuff which could dissolve all those kind of things. That had a special name too. Enim or enzim, or something like that. Bluchers.
From: Boy In The Tower by Polly Ho-Yen © 2015. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.
The word sat heavily on my chest. Whenever I closed my eyes I could see their shiny silvery heads leering towards me. I could sense their hunger, urgently and desperately feeding upon the buildings that were our homes. And when I opened my eyes again, I could see that we were surrounded by them. When I looked out that morning, I heard myself gasp out loud. As far as I could see, I saw the silvery-blue colour of the Bluchers. The city was being flattened out. So that’s what’s happened to me. That’s why I’m still here in the tower, surrounded by Bluchers. I wonder if there are other people trapped like us and I wonder why no one has come to rescue us yet. Like they do on television. If something bad happens to someone on television, somebody always comes along to rescue them. But that doesn’t happen here.
From: Boy In The Tower by Polly Ho-Yen © 2015. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.
Strategy Stop
Teach
Your turn
Practise & Apply
Use your text
Practise & Apply
What started out as little patches of silvery-blue soon spread out and covered the ground below me. They grew so fast that sometimes it seemed the patches were swelling in front of my eyes.
1) What does the word ‘swelling’ tell you?
Acceptable Answers
Reveal Answer
Practise & Apply
2) Which two scientific terms did Ade write in his notebook, despite not fully understanding?
Acceptable Answers:
Reveal Answer
3) Bluchers. The word sat heavily on my chest. What impression does this give you of how Ade feels about the Bluchers?
Acceptable Answers:
Reveal Answer
3) Which of these themes are explored in Boy in the Tower?
Tick all that apply:
friendship
survival
isolation and loneliness
environmental transformation
Reveal Answer
Practise & Apply
4) Predict what you think will happen next in the story, using your knowledge of the story so far.
Acceptable predictions using knowledge of the story so far and referencing the text, for example: Based on what has happened so far, I think the Bluchers will continue to spread and take over more of the city, making it even more dangerous for Ade and anyone still trapped inside buildings. The city already seems to be ‘flattened out,’ so it is likely that more buildings will collapse as the Bluchers feed on materials like concrete and metal. I also think Ade will have to face the reality that rescue may not come, especially as he wonders why no one has come like they do on television and says, ‘but that doesn’t happen here’. This suggests he may need to find a way to survive on his own.
Reveal Answer
Feedback: Who did what well?
FindRead Talk
EchoRead
ChoralRead
ReadingStrategy
Answers & Text Marks
Other...
To be a book lover, you could...
ask,"What if?"
Reveal
Imagine how the story would change if the characters made different choices.
If you like this book, you might like...
Copyright Notice
This document has been supplied under a CLA Licence with specific terms of use. It is protected by copyright and, save as may be permitted by law, it may not be further copied, stored, re-copied electronically or otherwise shared, even for internal purposes, without the prior further permission of the Rightsholder. Extracts sourced from: Boy In The Tower by Polly Ho-Yen © 2015 Schools must purchase the original text for full content.