The Pied Piper of Hamelin

A work sequence menu

NOTE:

ENGAGING STUDENTS

Activity 1- Listening and Notemaking

Activity 2- Responding To The Text

Activity 3 - Ratcatcher Sought

• REFINING STUDENTS' QUESTIONS, IDEAS AND TEACHER'S INTENTIONS

  Activity 4 - RATS!   These activities focus upon the Rats section of the poem. Teachers and students might choose to use all, or select some, according to their purposes and audiences, and available time. Teachers might like to set them up as learning centres and have groups of children rotate through the activities.

  Activity 4a - Freeze Frame

  • In-groups of four to six students, students choose the four main events from this section of the poem.
  • Students create a still tableau, or freeze frame, for each event.
  • Tableaux are presented to class with appropriate spoken captions.
  • Photograph tableaux, write captions and or speech bubbles relevant to the scene being portrayed, and display.

  Activity 4b - Storyboarding

  • Teacher explain and model through joint construction a simple example of the storyboard process.
  • In pairs or threes, students prepare a storyboard treatment of the Rats section of the poem, using only four frames. ( Social Skill = Equal contributions , brainstormed using Y chart)
    

• Activity 4c-Grammar Poem

  • In pairs or individually, use grammar poem scaffold ( refer to Nancy Lee Cecil , For The Love Of Language: Poetry For Every Learner, Peguis Press, page 120-121) as a structure to write descriptively about another animal, possibly a rodent or 'vermin'.
  • Use for Readers Theatre type performance or for individual reading aloud.
    

• Activity 4d - Rat Rap

  • This activity may be undertaken with small groups or on a whole class basis.
  • Students will need copies of "The Pied Piper" (Three Rapping Rats, pp.54-56 and melody from p.64) and access to simple musical instruments.
  • Following instructions re music, singing and chanting students perform the rap. Everyone should have loads of fun. (There might be some justification in completing this activity to lead into a break or home time, as there is the potential for much sound to be made!)

  Activity 4e - Report Writing

  • Using data retrieval charts, or Venn diagram, students work in pairs, or groups of four, to record similarities and differences they notice between different versions of 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' they have encountered so far.
  • Each student must keep a copy of notes made in the groups to construct individual reports comparing and evaluating the different versions examined.
    

EXTENDING STUDENTS' IDEAS

Activity 5 - Rapid-researching the historical and scientific contexts

• Form students into pairs or small teams.
• Each team is allocated a topic from the Topic Box and in an agreed limited time (e.g. 10-15 minutes) finds at least ten items of relevant information .
  

• Activity 6 - Memorisation and Recitation

  • Divide the poem into equal parts (probably around 10 -12 lines) and divide the class into two or three random groups:
    • photocopy the poem for each group
    • cut the poem into pieces and glue to different colour cards for each group
    • shuffle cards to ensure thoroughly mixed up
    • distribute cards around the class
    • students find their group members using colour of card
    • from memory, each group sequences the cards in order of poem
    • check with own copy of poem to ensure that sequence is correct
  • Groups are to prepare a recitation of the poem with each group member taking responsibility for the section on their card. Students are to present the poem in sequence and are to memorise their lines for the performance.
  • Groups could all present their recitation to the other groups within the class or to separate groups outside the class, such as other classes at their grade level or junior classes. Note: the memorisation part of this task may be a suitable homework activity for students.
    

• Activity 7 - Descriptive Writing

  • Pre-writing - through questioning, teacher lead students in a visualisation to build a sensory picture ( sounds, colours, textures, smells, feelings from touch, and emotions) of a special place. Provide some time for students to share some details of their special place with a partner.
  • Use graffiti cooperative learning process for students to brainstorm descriptive words and phrases associated with:
    • Life inside the mountain
    • Being entranced by the Pied Piper's music
    • Life in Hamelin before the Pied Piper's arrival
    • Hamelin after the Pied Piper takes the children
    • Piping the rats out of Hamelin
  • Display graffiti sheets for student reference during writing.
  • Students to choose one of the graffiti headings about which they will draft, revise and prepare for publication a piece of descriptive writing focusing upon particular senses and about one and a half to two pages in length. Revise with writing conference partner(s).
  • Publication draft to be shared at a Writer's Read-In ( collaborative peer response groups of three or four students) and in a class publication stored in class library.
    

• Activity 8 - Letters

  • With the whole class teacher revises business, official, and personal letter genres, deconstructing the essential elements to use as a features list for later reference.
  • Writing in role, students are to construct one business/official letter, such as:
    • Mayor of Hamelin writing to the town's parents after the disappearance of the children
    • From an enterprising pest extermination firm offering their services to the residents of Hamelin
  • Writing in role, students are to choose an appropriate audience and write one personal letter detailing their experiences and opinions of the events in Hamelin, such as:
    • The sole surviving rat who somehow escaped drowning
    • A parent of a missing child or children
    • The lame boy who is shut out of the mountain
    • The Mayor of Hamelin
    • A child living inside the mountain or ...
  • In their journals students to write about the similarities and differences in the three letter text types and explain how their two letters meet the requirements for a particular genre. This may be in the form of two mindmaps or a double set of Venn diagrams.
    

• Activity 9 - Arts/Technology Simulation

  • Using the Design, Make, Appraise process, groups of three or four students, in role as design teams entering a competition being run by the Hamelin Historical Society, will prepare plans and models for one of the following:
    • Stained glass window and inscription for the cathedral.
    • A monument with inscription for the town square.
    • A sheet of commemorative stamps.
    • A tourist brochure with map of the infamous Piper's trail .
    • A mural in five panels to be displayed in the main banqueting chamber of the town hall.
    • A video box cover for the commemorative film, 'Dancing to the Piper's TuneÓ.
    • A prototype Hamelin Ratcatcher with packaging instructions for use.
  • This is a project of the Hamelin Historical Society to commemorate the 750 year anniversary of events, which led to Robert Browning's poem. They intend for the launch of products of the successful designs to be a centrepiece of the commemorations. Winning such a prestigious competition would bring much valuable media attention and future business to your company, and all team members are keen to do very well.
  • The following restrictions apply:
    • In constructing plans and models, the only materials to be used are paper, card, cardboard, and cellophane, glue, staples, pins, paints and household recyclables.
    • Models must be of no greater dimensions than one square metre.
    • Plans are to be submitted to the Historical Society for peer review and approval before construction of models. This will involve a short oral and visual presentation involving all team members equally.
  • Students will maintain their reflective journals during the simulation.
    

• REFLECTING ON WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED

  Activity 10 - Street Kids

  • Teacher share the 'About the Author' (p.184) information in Alan Wheatley's novel Merchant of Doom.
  • Groups of four discuss the allusion Wheatley draws between the Hamelin rats and today's street kids, recording their elaboration of the similarities and differences on a Venn diagram.
  • Teacher share Libby Hathorn and Greg Rogers' picture book, Way Home, and other texts (newspaper stories, advertising), drawing connections with The Pied Piper story.
  • In their journals, students write a personal response to Wheatley's idea, drawing on points raised in the group discussions. This response may be in reflective prose, or as a poem, a letter, a dialogue, a newspaper article, transcript of a tv or radio talk show
    

• Activity 11 - Academic Controversy

  • Ask students to take a position on a values line in relation to the question - 'Who is to blame - the Mayor or the Pied Piper?' Students share their reasons for their position on the line with the person next to them. Teacher randomly selects students from different parts of the line to justify their position.
    OR
    
  • Set up Academic Controversy groups using the same question as for Values Line above, follow the Academic Controversy procedure to debate opposite sides of this argument.
  • In their journals, students consider other options to answer the questions:
    • Who else might bear some responsibility for what happened?
    • Is there any point in blaming?
    • How else could the situation been handled?
      

Activity 12- Retelling

• Students are to assume a role of a character that features in the Pied Piper story, and in role to construct a first person narrative retelling of the events which occurred in Hamelin.

OTHER ACTIVITIES Hamelin Herald - Class to construct a newspaper covering the events told in the story

• Brainstorm newspaper contents, stories, regular features, advertising
• Hold a press conference, using the Hot Seat Drama strategy, with teacher in role as the Pied Piper, or the mayor, or the lame boy, or other citizens of Hamelin. (Maybe also use senior drama students to play roles after they have had a briefing session). Students in role as journalists, cartoonists, photographer (if can get the digital camera).
• Divide the tasks amongst class to draft, revise, edit and publish newspaper.
  

WANTED poster, ballad and speech - After the children's disappearance the Mayor and the town corporation send heralds out to surrounding areas trying to find the Pied Piper or the stolen children. Students to prepare:

• the herald's/town crier's speech
• a wandering troubadour's ballad
• a WANTED poster

which could have been used as part of this quest.

Explicit teaching points • Provide and deconstruct models of the three forms   used • Remind students of the historical significance of   ballads as newstelling

 

RESOURCES

Bartos-Hoppner, B., and Fuchshuber,A., (1985) The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Hodder and Stoughton, London (ISBN 0 340 36952 3)
Biro, V., (1997) The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK (ISBN 0 19 272321 9)
Browning, R., and others (1996) The Pied Piper Of Hamelin And Other Classic Stories In Verse, Penguin Books, London (ISBN 0 14600 331 4)
Browning, R., and Amstutz, A., (1993) The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Orchard Books, London (ISBN 1 85213 414 3)
Browning, R., and Greenaway, K., (1888) The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Frederick Warne, London (ISBN 80 00 00027 X)
Browning, R., and Greenaway, K., (1993) The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Robert Frederick, Bath, UK (ISBN 9 781850 810957)
Browning, R., and Hodges, C.W., (1971) The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Chatto and Windus, London (ISBN 0 7011 0360 4)
Cecil, Nancy Lee, (1994) For The Love Of Language: Poetry For Every Learner, Peguis Press, Winnepeg, Manitoba, Canada (ISBN 1 895411 61 0 )
Corrin, S. &S., and Le Cain, E., (1990) The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Picture Puffin, London (ISBN 0 14 054072 5)
Hathorn E., and Rogers,G., (1994) Way Home, Random House Australia, Sydney
Hunia, F., (1993) The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Ladybird Books, Loughborough, UK (ISBN 0 7214 1592X)
Picard, B.L., (1958) German Hero-sagas and Folk-tales, Oxford University Press, Oxford UK (ISBN 0 19 274163 2
Rickards, D., (1992) The Pied Piper: A Play, Mimosa Publications- Literacy Links, Melbourne (ISBN 07327 1160 6)
Skurzynski, G., (1993) What Happened in Hamelin, Random House, New York ISBN o 679 83645 4)
Storr, C., (1984) The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Methuen Children's Books, London (ISBN 0 416 49130 8 - hardcover: ISBN O0 416 49560 5 papercover)
Umansky, K., (1998) Three Rapping Rats, A&C Black, London (ISBN 0 7136 4570 9)
Wheatley, A., (1994) Merchant of Death, Angus and Robertson, Sydney (ISBN 0 207 18593 X)
Zak, D., and Holden, R., (1997) The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Angus and Robertson, Sydney