Introduction

This literacy sequence is suited to grade four and has been developed around
the book The Two-Hearted Numbat by Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekial
Kwaymullina. The book tells the story of a numbat who had one heart that was a
stone, which made him strong and brave and a second heart that was a feather
which made him gentle and soft. The numbat decides to choose between which
heart he should have forever but in the end, decides on using both hearts at the
same time so that he has the qualities of both hearts always. Through using this
book as a resource, the sequence will focus on building comprehension
strategies as well as the skills associated with the construction of genre,
specifically language features and text structures. This literacy sequence will
eventuate in a play where students can demonstrate their knowledge through
dance, music and speaking. This sequence will address the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander histories and cultures priority.

Sequence 1: Frontloading
Teaching
Focus 1

Strategic
Questions

Whole
Class
Activities
to Engage
the
Students

To find
out
whether
students
can
identify
key
features
of
Indigeno
us
stories.

What
similarities
between
these
stories can
you see?
What
differences
between
these
stories can
you see?
What can
you tell
me about
the
illustration
s?
Is there a
recipe to

The
students
will sit on
the floor
while the
teacher
reads How
the Birds
got their
Colours by
Mary
Albert.
Students
will also
watch the
video Why
Koala has
a Stumpy
Tail.
Teacher

Follow on
activities
(either
small
group or
independe
nt)
Following
on from
that, the
teacher
will give
the
students
details of
an
Indigenous
story that
has not
been
written yet
and ask
the
students
to draw
the first
page of

Assessme
nt

Resources

Teacher
will listen
to the
students
views and
responses
that were
expressed
during the
class
discussion
as well as
taking
note of
how the
students
have
created
the front
page of

How the
Birds got
their
Colours
(Mary
Albert
2011)

Why Koala
has a
Stumpy Tail
(Martha
Hamilton
2012)
http://www.
youtube.co

these
stories and
if so what?
Who are
the main
characters
in the
stories?

Teaching
Focus 2

will
discuss
the two
stories
(See
Strategic
Questions)
and as a
class,
create a
mind map
on the
board of
the
similarities
they
found.

Strategic Whole
Questions Class
Activities
to
Engage
the
Students
To build
What do
Students
an
the
would sit
understa hearts
on the
nding of
represent floor
the literal ? Would
while
and
most of
teacher
inferred
us use
reads
meaning more
The Twoin the
than one
Hearted
text as
heart at
Numbat
an
once?
by
introducti What
Ambelin
on to
might
and
compreh those
Ezekial
ension
hearts
Kwaymull
strategy
be? When ina. As a
might we class,

the story
with an
introductor
y line/s
that would
compleme
nt the
picture.

the story
ie. Have
the
students
included
features
that are
typical of
Aboriginal
stories

m/watch?
v=itszep0d
uwI

Follow on
Activities(ei
ther small
group or
independe
nt)

Assessment

Resources

Individually
, students
will then
complete a
cloze
passage
that
summarise
s the story
that was
just read
and asks
students to
fill in the
blanks.

Teacher will
observe
discussion
responses
to gauge
whether the
students
understood
the
meaning
behind the
story and
the pictorial
representati
ons. The
cloze
passage

The Two
Hearted
Numbat
(Ambelin
and Ezekial
Kwaymullin
a 2008)

use our
stone
heart?
When
might we
use our
feather
heart?

they
would
then
discuss
the book
and the
meaning
behind
the
pictures
and what
they
represent
. (See
Strategic
Questions
)

(See
Appendix 1)
will also be
analysed to
check
whether
students
were able
to fill it in
with
appropriate
words.

Sequence 2: Explicit Teaching

Explicit Teaching Session 1
Introduction

Elaboration

Practice

As a class, brainstorm the different

features that the imaginative
narrative The Two-Hearted Numbat
has such as a title, beginning where
the author sets the scene and so
on. The brainstorm should be left up
on the board so that the students
may refer back to it. Discuss the
importance of each part.
AUSVELS link: (ACELY1690)
Together as a class, the teacher and
students will write an imaginative
narrative using all the text features.
They will go back over what they
have written to make sure it makes
sense and to make sure they have
included everything.
The students will then write an
imaginative narrative with
appropriate language features and
text conventions of an Indigenous

Review

Resources

imaginative narrative. The students

may refer to the brainstorm ideas
on the board.
AUSVELS link: (ACELT1794)
Once completed, students will then
swap their stories with a partner
and will use highlighters to highlight
the different text features that have
been used as well as the
appropriate structural features.
They will be marking/editing their
partners work based on the
brainstorm on the board and as
such should have all aspects
included.
The Two Hearted Numbat by
Ambelin and Ezekial Kwaymullina

Explicit Teaching Session 2

Introduction

Elaboration

Practice

Together as a class, the teacher and

students will go through some
groups of sentences (See Appendix
2) that will be up on the board. A
key word or phrase of the sentence
will be covered so that students will
have a chance to predict what the
missing word would be. The teacher
will be there to guide them and
prompt them with questions.
With the class, the teacher will look
at page 3 of The Two-Hearted
Numbat and go through each
sentence one at a time. The teacher
will then model good
comprehension strategies such as
inferring and asking questions from
the text.
AUSVELS link: (ACELY1692)
Students are to create their own
storyboard using Indigenous type
illustrations and language features

Review

Resources

commonly found in Aboriginal

stories. They then have to create a
set of 5 inferential and literal
comprehension questions pertaining
to their story.
AUSVELS link: (ACELT1607)
For this part, students will pair up
with one of their peers. They then
have to read through their peers
story and answer the
comprehension questions that their
peers have also created. The
partners will then swap their work
back and give their partner a mark
out of 5 according to the number of
questions that they got right.
The Two-Hearted Numbat by
Ambelin and Ezekial Kwaymullina

Sequence 3: Developing a multimodal response

Whole
class
activities
to
prepare/su
pport the
students
for what
will be
expected
of them:
Follow on
activities: Either
small
group or
independe
nt:
Assessmen
t:

As a class, students will use The Two-Hearted Numbat as a resource

for a play. The teacher will assign someone to play Numbat, Eldest
Numbat, the narrator, the dingo, the magpie, the other numbats,
the heart of stone and the heart of a feather. The students will retell
the story that they have been looking at over the weeks as a play.
The teacher will then have the ability to freeze the play as they
please and point out the drama skills that the students would be
using such as voice projection.
AUSVELS link: (ACELY1687)

In small groups, the students will be given either The One in the
Middle is the Green Kangaroo or The Magic Brocade A Tale of China
to rehearse as a play. This will allow them to work independent of
the teacher as a practice for the assessment task. Students will also
be encouraged to take note of the type of genre that their story
falls into and as such use tone and expression that would be
befitting.
This assessment will take the form of a role play whereby students
have to direct, narrate and act out the story of How the Birds Got
Their Colours. The idea of this role play is to make the audience feel
like they are reading an interactive version of the book. As such,
one of the students will be playing the part of the reader and will
be able to stop the play using a signal, to point out different

features in the play. Students will have to create their own

costumes and props and they will perform their final piece at
assembly. The students will be assessed on how they use music,
dance and storytelling to convey the appropriate conventions used
in Indigenous storytelling.
AUSVELS links: (ACELY1689)
Resources:

The Two Hearted Numbat by Ambelin and Ezekial Kwaymullina

The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo can be accessed at
http://web.archive.org/web/20051223172044/http://users.aol.com/r
cswallow/GreenKangaroo.html
The Magic Brocade A Tale of China can be accessed at
http://www.aaronshep.com/rt/RTE26.html

Part 2: Rationale
This sequence is designed to suit a grade four level as it was centred on
the book The Two-Hearted Wombat by Amber and Ezekial Kwaymullina
(2008). The Two-Hearted Wombat provides for the literacy needs of a
students in grade four in a number of ways. Firstly, a language feature of
Indigenous Australian narratives is that they use simple language when
telling the stories. This makes the book flow well when accompanied with
the illustrations but also allows the audience to focus on the meaning
hidden in the words and the illustrations. As text comprehension was a
focus in this literacy sequence, it was important to find a book that could
provide opportunities to point out literal and inferred meaning in the text
without unnecessarily getting the students caught up with the vocabulary
of the text. Secondly, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and
cultures priority is the cross-curriculum priority that was chosen to be
focused on. This was largely due to the fact that Indigenous Australian
history is integral to Australian history and students at a grade four level
will be able to appreciate the wide variety of Australian childrens
literature about Indigenous Australians. Students will also be able to pick
up on the different text structure and language and visual features that
are apparent in Indigenous Australian books and as such be able to
compare the nuances of the genre. It is the unique features of Indigenous
Australian literature that teachers and students would find motivating and
in turn inspire them to Create literary texts that explore students own
experiences and imagining (AusVELS 2013). This AusVELS link which can
be found in the literature strand of the English domain captures the
inspiration that Indigenous Australian texts turn in you. If The TwoHearted Numbat was not read aloud, it could be swapped with the video
called Why Koala Has a Stumpy Tail which was resourced in the first

sequence. This animated story could be used as it is more accessible to

the students and does not need to be read aloud. The story is also an
Aboriginal one and it has simple language that will not complicate matters
when trying to focus on literacy aspects. The above literacy sequence
could be used with most Indigenous Australian childrens literature as they
all have similar text structures and language features. Spender (as cited in
Winch et al. 2010 p. 401) states that [e]quality of access should be the
aim. As such, the above literacy sequence has been created so that it is
interchangeable with a variety of resources. It is also due to this reason
that the literacy sequence and the activities have been created to be very
flexible so that they can be used to challenge students with a range of
abilities as well as the students of different intellectual capabilities. For
instance, in the first explicit teaching session, students were encouraged
to write their own story using typical Aboriginal text structure and
language and visual features. This activity allows those who are more
capable in writing to extend themselves as much as possible and not be
limited by too much criteria. It also allows for those who are not as
capable in writing to explore and not worry too much about how well they
write as the language used is relatively simple. This activity also allows
those students who are better at illustrating to express themselves in a
creative way. Similarly, the activities have been created using many
different styles such as the storyboard or the play which in turn allows
those with different strengths to step up and be assessed in a different
way. Activities such as the cloze passage (See Appendix 1) are flexible in
the way they are created and delivered to students and as such, allows
the teacher to adapt it based on the capabilities of the students in their
class. The teaching approaches that have been used in this literacy
sequence are quite specific in the way that they allow teachers to guide
students. One of the teaching approaches used is modelling. Winch et al.
(2012 p. 383) states that [s]tudents learn about the conventions of
writing from the models they see and practice. Students benefit greatly
from being able to see exactly how a text is structured. This was
demonstrated in the first explicit teaching session where the teacher
would model how to write an imaginative narrative while using all the
appropriate text and language features. Students are then able to work
independently to create their own unique version. Explicit teaching was
the main approach used in this sequence. Explicit teaching is the
[c]areful examination of literacy interactive practices in the context of
classroom [to provide] information about teaching practice [which] leads
to important conclusions about instructional efficacy for all students
(Edwards-Groves 2002). This approach greatly helps teachers to find each
students strengths and areas of need and as such develop their teaching
practice to be more suited to the needs of the students. This allows for

flexibility in the classroom and with lessons as well as the ability to

provide equitable education for all your students. This in turn provides the
most valuable learning for the students as well as the most efficient.

References
Edwards-Groves, C 2002, Connecting Students To Learning Through
Explicit Teaching, retrieved 28/9/2014, http://www.myread.org/explicit.htm
Kwaymullina, A & Kwaymullina, E 2008, The Two-Hearted Numbat,
Fremantle Press, Western Australia
Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority 2013, English, Victorian
Curriculum and Assessment Authority, retrieved 28/9/2014,
http://ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/English/Curriculum/F-10#level=4
Winch, G, Johnston, R, March, P, Ljungdahl, L & Holliday, M 2010, Literacy
Reading, Writing and Childrens Literature (4th edn), Oxford University
Press, Victoria

Appendix 1

The Two-Hearted Numbat

By Ambelin and Ezekial Kwaymullina

There once lived a _________ who had _________ _________.

One heart was a _________ and when he wore it, the other numbats
expected him to be _________ and _________. The other heart was a
_________ and when he wore it, it made the numbat _________ strong and
________ but the other numbats did _________ not like him.
Numbat decided to choose _________ _________ to wear all the time.
On the way to the _________ __________, Numbat met a dingo. Numbat
could not pass the dingo until he realised that he needed to look at the
_________ from a different point of ______ and so Numbat put on his
_________ heart.
Whilst wearing his feather heart, Numbat was faced with _________
situation and so he eventually decided to use his ___________ ____________
which gave him __________ and he jumped over the river and headed into
the Deep Bush.

In the end, Numbat realised that he needs to be both ________ and

_________ to be his true self.

Appendix 2

One hot and sunny day, Peter and his friends went to the beach for a
swim.

The planes were roaring as they hit the landing strip. Judy was incredibly
sad. Her father stood at the departure gate and soon she would have to
say goodbye.

I stood outside, dripping with water. When was this rain going to stop?

Heidi was furious! How could she have failed this test?

Key: words highlighted in yellow are to be covered