Getting There

About Marla Stewart Konrad

Marla Stewart Konrad is a speechwriter and communications professional. Her career has taken her to Hong Kong, where she lived for two years, and to numerous countries in Asia and Africa. She is keenly interested in global issues and has a special concern for the well-being of children. She works with World Vision Canada and lives near Toronto with her family.

Teacher's Guide

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES

Before Reading: Activating Prior Knowledge
Ask students to brainstorm different modes of transportation. How do people get from one place to another? How did you get to school today? Have you ever travelled to another city, province, country, etc.? If so, how did you get there? What is the most unusual type of transportation you have used? Record answers on a T-chart, listing types of transportation on one side and the number of students who have used them on the other. With older students, consider representing the findings in a simple bar or pie graph.

Getting There
Read the book out loud to students, using the questions below to prompt discussion about the photos. See list of photo credits in “Appendix B: Getting There Photo Credits” (page 9).

1. Where are the people in this photograph coming from? Where are they going?
2. What are they doing? How do you know?
3. What is surprising about this photo?
4. Are the people in the photo moving slow or fast? How can you tell?
5. Close your eyes and imagine the sounds in this photograph. Make the sounds you might hear.
6. Make the actions that go with this way of “getting there”.
7. Whose voice is telling the story of Getting There?


After Reading: Critical Thinking
Ask students which modes of transportation were new to them. Add the new types of transportation to the pre-reading T-chart. Add another column to the chart for brainstorming other uses for each type of transportation (e.g. a horse can pull a wagon, a wheelbarrow can carry dirt). Classify different modes of transportation as human-powered, animal-powered or machine-powered. Which ones use more than one type of power?


Suggested Getting There Art Activities: Grades 4 to 6

Found Poetry: Words to Go
Create a chart with three columns and headings on the board. Ask students to copy the chart onto lined paper. After a first read-through of Getting There, reread the text out loud, this time without showing the photos. Ask students to identify all the action words (verbs and verb phrases). Record them in the first column.

Read through the book again, this time showing the photographs. Ask students to use descriptive language (adjectives and nouns) to describe the people and things in the images (e.g. smiling girl, sleepy baby, black horse, blue sea, big wheels). Record these ideas in the second column. Encourage students to think of as many descriptions as they can.

Brainstorm a list of adverbs inspired by the photos and list them in the third column.

Using scissors, students cut out the words from each column, keeping them in separate piles. Instruct them to manipulate and combine words and phrases from the three piles to create a five-line found poem. Missing but necessary words, such as pronouns or prepositions, can be added and word forms changed to suit the logic of the poem.

Example: Pedal quickly!
The smiling girl rides.
Laughing friends,
Setting sun,
Big wheels take her home.


Drama Activity: People Movers
Divide class into groups of six to eight. Each group will construct a fantasy vehicle or machine that can move people from one place to another, using all members of the group. The only resource available is their bodies. Groups will need about 10 to 15 minutes to plan and rehearse their creations. Finished vehicles are presented to other members of the class, complete with actions and sound effects. The audience tries to guess what the vehicle is and how it works.