Secret Garden

Lonely girl

Waiting for the magic to unfurl

Travels from India to Yorkshire 

With none so near or dear

Little did Missie Sahib know

about the huge bungalow

She didn't limit herself to the rooms within

And tried to uncover the secrets hidden.

'The Secret Garden' by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a classic and a must read for every 9 year old. They have read about magic and fairies, but this book ascertains that the real enchantment comes from nature. Nature nurtures you but if you care for it, the presents are beyond number.

When we start a novel, the focus is usually on the characters. However this time we decided to change it a little by creating the sets of the garden inside and outside our classrooms.

 Children converted their English jotters to the 'Secret Garden' jotters.

Chapter 1 

Whenever we read
There is a discussion to lead
But this time we had to sow seeds
Information or situations that we didn't understand
Even after the story was scanned
Comments about what we learned 
Inferences that we churned
Things that seemed interesting or surprising 
Points that got us analyzing
Vocabulary we wanted to know about 
Descriptive writing worth checking out
Things that reminded us of other things we knew
Phew! There was so much to do.

Students used these seeds of discussion to initiate discussions about Chapter 1 and got an opportunity to learn through conferencing.

'Why was I forgotten?' Mary said, stamping her foot. 

'Why does nobody come?'

At this point, I asked the students if they ever felt that they weren't cared for.
1. At  a water park, when I wanted to go on the slide and my sister wanted to go somewhere else, my parents decided to go with my sister.
2. My parents forgot my birthday
3. When my parents got divorced, I thought my dad left because of me

Chapter 2

This is the Chapter where we focussed on vocabulary

Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary

Chapter 3

After reading Chapter 3, we got Carla from 'There's a boy in the girls' bathroom' to time travel, meet Mary and explain to the world why Mary is the way she is. Carla was Bradley's counsellor and no one's as good as her at understanding children.

 Chapter 4 

This chapter got us talking about customs in different countries, discrimination, independence and loneliness.

Chapter 5

Cartoon scripts to summarise Chapter 5