Picture

Books
Point of
View
The Island Armin Greder
Reviews and discussion
https://booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/windows-into-illustration-armin-greder/
https://gatheringbooks.org/2012/07/12/the-foreigner-in-armin-greders-the-island/
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3891556-the-island
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/may/17/booksforchildrenandteenagers
https://didyoueverstoptothink.com/2013/05/23/the-island-armin-greder/

Lesson 1: Building the field of

knowledge: Preparing to read the text

Learning intention

We are learning to examine the techniques used by illustrators to position the reader.

Success criteria

1. I can explain my reaction and responses to an image.

2. I can identify the techniques used by an illustrator and infer the intended effect on the viewer.

Role of the reader

Text user: Visual techniques can be manipulated to create certain effects and position the
reader.
Text analyst: The text is interrogated to examine the use of certain visual techniques, which
can be explored when considering the illustrator's purpose.

Group size

Individual, partner, small group and whole class.

Learning sequence

Spend a few minutes working independently to draw what comes into their head when they
think of an island. Students share and explain their drawings in small groups. Ask each
group what commonalities were found amongst their drawings.

Reflect about the factors that led them to the drawings - past experiences with illustrations
about islands, having been to an island, Australia as an island, seeing movies about islands.

Work with a partner, using an interactive site, such as Google Earth, to explore islands on
the globe. Make a class list of things we know about islands.

Take a look at the front and back cover of Armin Greder's book The Island. Draw
comparisons between the front cover and the way islands have been conceptualised in your
illustrations.

Discuss the effect that the front/back cover has on the viewer and what the author/illustrator
has done to create this effect.

Points to consider:
 ● use of dark colour
● size of the image and the space it takes up on the page
● the use of white space
● viewer perspective, looking up at the wall.

Write your thoughts here:

"What type of world is being created by this cover?"

Complete the anticipation guide prior to reading the text.

Go back to the images of islands created. Use sketching to explore if the same effect gained
by the text's front cover could be gained by using an image of an island. Colour, image size,
white space and perspective can be examined.

Homework Activity

Sketch some tall structures from different perspectives, or

use a device to take photos.

Write a paragraph or two discussing how illustrators can

capitalise on perspective to highlight positions of power and
serve to position the viewer as comparatively small.
Lesson 2: Build the field of knowledge
by making intertextual links
Additional resources

Images from van Gogh's Peasant Series Useful images include:

● the potato market by vincent van gogh

● The sower 1882
● Potato digging 1883
● The sower (study) 1883
● Woman with wheelbarrow 1883
● Shepherd with a flock of sheep 1884
● Weaver at the loom 1884
● Wood gatherers in the snow 1884
● Peasant digging 1885
● Woman Cutting Bread 1885
● Two peasant women digging 1885

Learning intention

We are learning to use images to infer about people, time and place.

Success criteria

1. I can generate ideas about an image.

2. I can label connections between images.
3. I can contribute to discussions and justify my thinking.

Role of the reader

Text analyst: Considering why a text has been created and the values and ideologies the
creator of the text may portray.

Group size

Individual, partner, small group, whole class.

Lesson process

Clearly articulate the learning intention for the lesson.

Using the document attached below record your thoughts when viewing the image. You will
share your image and list of thoughts with a partner. Discuss which thoughts could relate to
both images. Consider the setting of the images, who is portrayed and what actions are
occurring.

Van Gogh Images

Greder's The Island

The foreigner sits alone. His eyes are downcast. His

posture and his facial expression,makes him look tired
and sad. He is sitting in a place that is sparse.

Work in small groups to share your images and ideas.

Each group will use the images to create a visual
concept map, linked by strips of paper, which have the
connections made between each image.

Create a clause to act as a title for your concept map

(i.e. the title must include a noun group and a verb
group). For example: People feeling alone. People
(noun) feeling (verb) alone (adverb). Share the concept
maps with the class.
Look at the images of the peasants in The Island and draw some comparisons with Van
Gogh's peasants.

Write your response here:

Lesson 3: Inferring characters' feelings

Theory/practice connections

Characters' feelings can be described through words and images. In the verbal mode,
adjectives tell us how a character feels. The islanders felt threatened. The islanders were
scared. The man was lonely.

Verbs can also provide information about the characters' feelings. However, here we need to
infer what the feelings might be by focusing on the action. The islanders grabbed their
pitchforks. They locked their doors. Inference also needs to occur when reading the visuals.

The characters' actions, body language and facial expression all serve to provide information
about their feelings.

Learning intentions

We are learning to identify and explain characters' feelings.

We are learning to identify our own responses and feelings to texts.

Success criteria

1. I can name characters' feelings and infer why they feel that way.
2. I can use the text's visuals to support my thinking.
3. I can identify my feelings and responses to a text.

Role of the reader

Text user: Texts can elicit an emotional response from the reader.

Group size

Whole class, small group, partners.

Lesson sequence

Sequence over several sessions.

Explore the title page of The Island. Examine the raft that is foregrounded and the skyline in
the background. Discuss the colour of the skyline, and what it might mean. Link this with the
discussion based on the front/back cover. Make predictions about what will happen with the
raft.

Write your thoughts here:

Soft copy: Slide 1 (blesseddominicprimary.co.uk)

Reading of the text Book Talk - The Island - Rang Maher.

Read the text together as a class. We will stop at the double page, where the islanders
express their fear.
(Ending with "Foreigner
spreads fear in town.")
Recap what has
happened in the text.

Write your response here:

Context

Read the articles and examine the newspaper images below:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/01/cabinet-papers-reveal-seeds-

australias-divisive-asylum-seeker-boats-policy-were-sown-in-2000

https://www.politico.eu/article/how-australia-built-a-wall-and-paid-for-it-migration-ban-

refugees-donald-trump/

“In the early 1990s Australian immigration legislation was changed

dramatically, introducing the concept of mandatory detention of
unauthorised arrivals, who were popularly referred to as boat
people.”
Work with a partner and role play an island character. Draw upon the characters in the text
or upon their knowledge of van Gogh's peasants. Partners role play a discussion between
two islanders, where they articulate how they feel about the stranger and what should be
one with him.

Whole class discussion, which focuses on the feelings driving the characters in the role play.
What did these characters feel? Why did they feel this way?. Throughout the discussion
refer back to the illustrations to examine the characters' feelings through their facial
expressions, body language and actions.

Write your thoughts after the discussion here:

One of the images intertextually references Edvard Munch's The Scream (1883). Explore
both of these images and discuss what they are portraying.

Write your answer here:

Complete the reading of the text and refer back to the predictions made when the title page
was examined.

Anticipation guide

Homework
Context
Complete questions for the text
Lesson 4: Exploring racism through
voice
Theory/practice connections

Speech functions or the use of dialogue in texts presents the reader with information about
the interactions between characters. Types of speech functions include: statements,
questions, commands and offers.

Most of the examples of dialogue between the characters in The Island are statements (to
simply state something or provide information).

Learning intention

We are learning to consider how dialogue shapes texts.

Success criteria

1. I can classify dialogue based on the character's intention.

2. I can explain the effect created when the singular or plural first person pronouns are
used.
3. I can explain how the combination of dialogue and visual techniques show
characters' perspectives.

Role of the reader

Text analyst: The use of dialogue can help the author meet the purpose for text.

Group size

Whole class, small group.

Lesson sequence

Sequence over several lessons.

Point of View

In defining a point of view the writer, speaker or director of the text controls what we see and
how we relate to the situation, characters or ideas in the text. Point of view may be expressed
through a narrator or through a character (focaliser in a novel, persona in a poem) and
because we are invited to adopt this point of view we often align ourselves with the character
or narrator. The point of view constructed in a text cannot be assumed to be that of the
composer.

Composers can privilege certain points of view by choosing a particular narrative stance
including omniscient, limited, 1st, 2nd or 3rd person narrator. In visual, film and digital texts,
point of view is indicated through such devices as foregrounding in visual images, types of
camera shots or guiding a pathway of navigation through a web site. In spoken and audio
texts the tone and accompanying sounds convey a point of view. Point of view therefore
constructs an attitude towards the subject matter in a text which the reader, listener or viewer
is invited to adopt.

Explore the competing voices through dialogue in the text.

Voice of compassion (The Fisherman):

● We have to take him in.

● We can't ignore him now that he is among us.
● We must help him.
● Even though he is not one of us, he is still our responsibility.

Voices of prejudice:

● But we can't just feed anyone who comes our way.

● We don't have enough for everyone.
● He will come and eat you if you don't finish your soup.
● I am sure he would murder us all if he could.

Track the use of pronouns used in the dialogue. What difference would it make if the
fisherman substituted the pronoun we with I ? How would this change affect the storyline and
the possible outcome?

Write your answer here:

Examine the lone voice of the fisherman. Discuss why his perspective is different to that
of the islanders and the difficulty he would have as a lone voice. Make connections to your
own experiences, when you perhaps were the only voice and how this felt.
Reflect:

Examine the voices of the islanders. Categorise these into reasonable concerns (e.g. the
island may not have enough resources for everyone) and unreasonable concerns based on
fear or paranoia.

Reasonable Concerns Unreasonable Concerns

The final page of the text tells us that there were people who agreed with the fisherman but
stayed silent. Why this might be? Make connections to your own experiences of times when
you chose to remain silent.

Reflect:

Similarly, we do not hear the voice of the stranger. If his voice was included, what might he
say?

Consider who are those in society today who do not have a voice or are not heard?

Find visual examples that match the verbal animosity of the islanders eg pitchforks

Write the examples here or find images on the internet to demonstrate and paste them here.

The collective voices of the islanders were negative ones. Why?

Write your response here.
Homework Activity:

Investigate the positive collective voices that support refugees or displaced persons -
United Nations, The Refugee Council of Australia, Oxfam, World Vision, Save the
Children.

Students research the purpose of one organisation. The organisation's slogans can be a
useful starting point.

Students capture the organisation's message in one sentence and add it to the voice of
the fisherman.

Explore the effect the use of pronouns has in these organisational voices. Is the use of
we or I more effective?
Lesson 5: Deconstruction and joint
construction of essay response

Learning intention

We are learning to identify the visual elements used in text and describe their effect on the
viewer.

Success criteria

● I can use the technical language of visual literacy.

● I can describe the effects caused by the elements used in visual texts.
● Role of the Reader Text user - Recording the meanings of visual terms and creating a
glossary for reference.

Group size

Whole class, small group.

Lesson sequence

Reread The Island and recap the storyline and author's purpose.

Slide 1 (blesseddominicprimary.co.uk)
Read the reviews about The Island

Reviews and discussion

https://booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/windows-into-illustration-armin-greder/
https://gatheringbooks.org/2012/07/12/the-foreigner-in-armin-greders-the-island/
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3891556-the-island
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/may/17/booksforchildrenandteenagers

What is the writer’s purpose for writing? What are some of the important topics that he
advances?

The Island is labelled as an allegory in the following statement:

“Poignant and chilling, this allegory is an astonishing, powerful, and timely story
about refugees, xenophobia, racism, multiculturalism, social politics, and human
rights. When the people of an island find a man sitting on their shore, they
immediately reject him because he is different.”

What is an allegory? What is the text a symbolic representation of?

Conduct a page-by-page book walk, examining the main visual elements and their use to
create particular effects. Some of these elements have been addressed in previous lessons,
while others have not been a focus. Aspects to discuss include:

● use of line to create movement

● use of white spaces
● size of image and perspective
● multiple framing on pages
● colour
● design and layout
● vectors
● Symbolism

Picture Book Metalanguage

You will be given an opening,and in small groups, you will need to analyse the effect of
these visual elements.

Then consider the words on the page and how they reinforce or further develop the images
presented.
Analysis of openings in The Island

Exam Preparation

Essay Writing on Picture Books

Modelling the Genre

Model Response

Draft question:

Picture books challenge readers to consider other points of view.

Discuss this statement with reference to the text and the techniques used by the author
to convey key themes to his audience. Support your ideas with evidence from the text.

Supported Writing

● Co-construct intro for practice essay

● Co-construct a single body paragraph for practice essay

Independent Writing

Students use the resources that they now have to compose a response to the above essay
question.