Character one’s opinion.

The character’s opinion is that the story is very sad and that the fact that the love
that existed between two characters had to end is very cruel as the Granddaughter
is filled with grief. He therefore liked the story but found the ending too sad.
It is true that the story ends on a sad note especially given that the Granddaughter
had just mastered the courage that was being instilled in her by the Grandmother.
However, the story can be seen to be ending on a happy note as the Grandmother
dies after successfully transforming the Granddaughter, something that she goes on
to benefit from even after the Grandmother is long gone.
The second character’s opinion is that however the story ends sadly with the
Granddaughter upset with the death of the Grandmother, she becomes peaceful
with the fact that her memory will always remain with her. The story is reassuring
as we get to see that memories passed down are a very important part of life as the
Granddaughter uses what she learnt from Grandmother to nurture her generation.
Audio Comprehension.
1. What two backgrounds does Miguel say Mexicans come from?
2. What does Miguel mean when he says the cathedral ‘take his breath away’?
3. What do Mexicans celebrate on 16 September?
4. Name three things that Mexicans do on 16 September to celebrate, according
to Miguel.
5. Name two instruments that are used in Mariachi bands.
6. What does Miguel mean when he says ‘When I listen to Mariachi music, I
feel a strong connection to the past’?

Write a 150-word personal response to ‘Grandmother’s Song’, explaining your

views and opinions. This could include:
i. What you enjoyed about the story.
ii. How you reacted to what happened in the story.
iii. What was the main point the writer was making about family life.
Grandmother’s Song is a very beautiful story that I enjoyed reading a lot. The fact
that it had realistic characters and setting makes the story very unique as I enjoy
such.
At first, I felt sorry for the Grandmother who had to deal with the cowardice of the
Granddaughter who was extremely scared of literally everything including her own
shadow. However, the Granddaughter’s progress from Grandmother’s nurturing of
her is very positive and encouraging.
The story’s main point is that everyone is born with a weak-point that needs to be
worked on. Therefore, family has a great responsibility to mentor and nurture the
younger generation, an act that will develop them to overcome the weakness. With
this kind of help, the mentees tend to turn out to help the very people who helped
them and in the long run transform the next generation when their turns to help out
come.

Unit 2.5: Celebrating grandparents.

A theme is the idea being brought out in the text through actions and dialogue.
CONSIDERING THEMES IN A TEXT.
When considering a theme in a text, we need to look at;
i. What the characters do in the text – conversations between characters
reveal what they are talking about which in turn gives us a hint of the
main idea being discussed.
ii. The character’s experiences – what people do to others can tell us what
the text is talking about. For example, people going to school will give us
the theme of schooling or education.
Theme examples from Grandmother’s song.
i. When we touch our children ‘we imprint both the past and the future’ –
this phrase reveals the theme of care and good parenthood as the future
depends on how good we take care of our children morally.
ii. ‘When children are listened to in this way, they can learn to know what is
in their bones’ – the phrase suggests the theme of understanding as
listening to children means that they are being understood by their
caretakers.
The secret life of my Grandfather.
Biography – it is a form of writing in which the writer gives an account of
another character’s life.

Summary of main and subsidiary points from a text.

Main points.
i. He lived in Poland.
ii. He worked in the army as a
captain.
iii. Russia invaded his home
area and he had to flee with
his family to England.
iv. He used all his money to
relocate his family and
therefore had to stay back
for a week before starting
his own journey, most of
which he walked.
v. It took him a month to get
to England.
Subsidiary points.
i. Grandfather is sitting by the
fire.
ii. There are photographs of
Grandfather from a young
age.
iii. He was tall and handsome.
iv. He got married in army
uniform.
v. He caught trains in some
occasions while sometimes
got lifts from cars.

Diggin’ up the past – The kool kid’z treasure.

Positive phrases that present the Legina brothers in a positive way.
 1. ‘main men and coolest kids when it comes to findin’ treasure!
2. ‘local heroes’
3. ‘that’s dedication’
4. ‘made eye-poppingly amazin’ finds’
5. ‘but that ain’t stopped our boys.’
6. ‘if anyone can find it, the Legina brothers can.’
Comparing content and language in texts.
The impression the writers give of the brothers.
The ‘Why are treasure hunters fascinated with this Canadian island’ presents the
boys as people who have already failed in their mission and are seen as people who
lack ambition with their wealth as they spend it on unnecessary things like
treasure.’
Language.
The ‘Why are treasure hunters fascinated with this Canadian island’ uses very
formal language with complete words and sentences while ‘The kool kidz diggin’
for kidd’s treasure’ uses informal language as it is targeting a specific audience that
is young: ‘Cool!’ ‘Go get ‘em.’
STRANGE ISLANDS.
Learning objectives.
By the end of this section, I should be able to:
i. Identify key information in audio and written texts.
ii. Explore how punctuation can be used to express formality and convey
sheds of meaning.
iii. Write and evaluate a descriptive piece.
Effects of punctuation.
i. They change the tone.
ii. Expresses emotions.
iii. Affects the formality of the text.
iv. Enhances clarity in the text.
v. Affects meaning in the text.
Helix
Unit objectives.
Adverbs.
An adverb is a word that is used to give more details or to modify a verb, an
adjective or another adverb.
Examples.
1. The car moved slowly – adverb of manner modifying how the verb
happened.
2. Our guests will be arriving at noon – an adverb of time modifying when the
guests will arrive.
3. We often don’t realise how important something is until we lose it – adverb
of frequency modifying how frequent something happens.
4. The movie was extremely interesting – adverb of degree modifying the
adjective.
5. Everything looks really, really, interesting here – adverb modifying the first
adverb to give the degree.
Strategies to spell unfamiliar words.
1. Sounding out the word – this will help in relating the sound to the letters as
per the syllables.
2. Considering the root word – using the knowledge of how to write the root
word, it is easier to figure out the spelling if a prefix or a suffix is added.
Unit 2 review.
1. Explain the ways in which writers establish setting at the start of a story.
Setting can be established in various ways depending on how the writer wants the story to
be understood by the readers. It can therefore be done in the following ways:
a. Use of dialogue – characters can be conversing in ways that will reveal the time or
location in which they are.
b. Description – the writer may describe the setting in details to the readers.
2. Explain two ways that a writer can establish a character’s voice.
a. Dialogue – the voice of characters can be established through what they say to
each other in a story.
b. Reporting verbs – these verbs help to explain the mood in which a character was
when they said something.
Character’s voice can help the reader to understand the characters with regards to
their personalities or characteristics.
3. Describe the ways in which you could vary your voice when reading aloud.
Voice variation while reading can be done in the following ways:
a. Considering punctuations – by doing this, the reader will moderate their pitch
and intonation depending on the punctuation mark used with full stops
indicating a falling intonation while question marks indicating a rising
intonation.
b. Considering the reporting verbs – the reporting verbs help the reader to vary
their voices as they reveal the mood in which the character speaking is in.
c. Considering characters – the characteristics, conditions and age of characters
determine how the voice will vary in reading as older characters will have coarse
voices while characters who are in danger will have shaky voices.
4. Main themes in ‘Grandmother’s song’?
a. Human growth: we see the Granddaughter growing in terms of her age (from a
young girl to a Grandmother) and personality (from being scared to being brave).
b. The cycle of life: in the story, the Granddaughter takes over from the Grandmother
in terms of the responsibilities towards the young grandchildren.
c. Memory: there is the remembrance of the past as the Granddaughter remembers
the moments that she spent with Grandmother.
d. Wisdom of old people: Grandmother is seen to be very caring and wise enough to
tame and make her better and more brave while the Granddaughter also does the
same to her granddaughters when she grows old.
5. Give three conventions of a folk tale genre.
a. They have a moral lesson to be learnt at the end of the story.
b. There is always a victim and a villain in the story.
c. The victim always comes out triumphant at the end of the story by having their way
prevailing.