Street Child by Berlie Doherty

i went to hannan class to enquire about his writing


and was given a book to read.......





got this more information from here





Street Child by Berlie Doherty


Set in the second half of the nineteenth century, Street child tells the story of a boy called Jim who, after a series of misfortunes, spends time in the workhouse as a child labourer and lives on the streets. The book is based on the true story of an orphan whose plight inspired Doctor Barnardo to try to help street children, and led to the founding of his children's homes.

Exploring the novel enables children to discuss challenging themes including cruelty, injustice, resilience and humanity. It also enables children to develop an understanding of issues such as poverty and child labour.

Teachers should read the book and the teaching sequence before starting work on the unit with the class. Reading the text aloud or rereading sections of it can sometimes take place during teaching sessions but should also take place in separate read aloud times in order to reach particular points in the narrative in preparation for sessions. Where this is important, it has been signalled in the unit. Sessions are for guidance only. The length of time each aspect of the sequence takes depends on the ways they are developed by the teacher, the amount of time allowed for different activities such as discussion and also the prior experience of the class, for example with drama techniques.

Phase 1
Phase 1 of the unit (sessions 1-5) focuses on introducing children to the historical setting of the story, the main character Jim and the dire situation of his family. Discussion, visualisation, drawing, drama and performance reading are the main activities in this phase.

Phase 2
Phase 2 of the unit (sessions 6-9) develops children's understanding of Jim's experiences in the workhouse and after he escapes. The main activities are discussion, drama, poetry writing and writing in role.

Phase 3
Phase 3 of the unit (sessions 10-16) focuses on developing an understanding of the journey the main character has taken during the narrative and his feelings about his experiences through story mapping, story telling and writing in role.

Guided reading
Although the unit is designed for use with the whole class, teachers could also select aspects of it to use with guided reading groups. Alternatively, individual sessions could be followed up during guided reading sessions, taking a closer look at particular sections of the text - looking, for example, at the language or what has been revealed about plot or character.

All children will benefit from regular opportunities for small-group reading, discussion and writing with a teacher or teaching assistant.