Teaching notes and ideas – full version
Name of resource:
EAL Nexus
Holes by Louis Sachar : DARTs activities
Age group(s)
Subject(s)
10 to 11, 12 to 14
English
Topic
Language Level
English Literature
Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced
Description of resource
 Stanley’s feelings visuals substitution table
 True or false activity – statements to sort
 Past and present events cards with visuals for learners to match
Preparation needed
For each learner you will need to print:
 the facial expressions, the substitution table and the true/false words by going to
print, full-page slides
 two sets of the true/false statements as flashcards
 the past and present events and visuals as flashcards in colour
 the past and present events answer charts as full-page slides.
You will also need:
 bilingual dictionaries and/or a translation app.
You will need to:
 cut out and laminate the true/false cards and past and present events cards. To
print smaller cards, go to print, handouts and then choose how many you want
to a page. The more you print on a page, the smaller the cards will be.
Curriculum objectives
 To read texts in order to: learn new vocabulary within context; make
inferences; and refer to evidence in the text
Language/Literacy objectives
Functions
Structures
Describing
 When … Stanley feels …
 This/that character is/was …
This project and its actions were made possible due to co-financing by the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals
© British Council 2015
EAL Nexus
Recounting
 The boys dig/sleep/eat … (present tense)
 Sam/Katherine/… made/sold/killed …(past tense)
Justifying
 I think that he feels … because …
 I think that is true/false because …
 I know this because …
Asking and answering
questions
 Did this happen in the past or present?
 This/It happened in the past/present.
Vocabulary
angry, anxious, character, disappointed, exhausted, false, feelings, happy,
nervous, past, pleased, present, sad, scared, shocked, surprised, tired, true,
worried
This resource could be used:
 as differentiation within class for an individual or group of EAL learners
 one to one or small group
 independent learning as homework tasks (learners could use substitution tables
to write sentences)
Ideas for using the resource
What to do
After reading each chapter or the whole text the following DARTs activities
can be carried out:
 True or false activity – Learners work in pairs or groups to sort the
statements according to whether they are true or false. The blue cards refer to
events that happened 100 years ago in Green Lake. They have to justify their
choices. Learners can use the substitution table as a scaffold when explaining
their decisions.
 Stanley’s feelings – Learners work in pairs or groups to match the statements
to a feelings visual. They should justify their choices according to what
evidence they can find in the text. Learners can use the substitution table as a
scaffold when explaining their decisions.
 Present and past events
o Show the learners the images flashcards. They can work in pairs or small
groups. They can discuss the images to try and make links between them,
e.g. Sam’s boat is called Mary-Lou and his donkey was called Mary-Lou.
This project and its actions were made possible due to co-financing by the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals
© British Council 2015
EAL Nexus
They can also discuss what happened in the past and the present in the
story relating to the image.
o Next, provide the past and present statements. Learners match the
images with the statements using the chapter summaries to support them
if necessary. As a further challenge, you could provide only a few of the
past and present statements and ask the learners to work out the missing
statements. Alternatively you could just provide statements from the past
and the learners make the link to the present and vice versa.
Other ideas for making the best use of this resource
 EAL learners could be grouped with supportive peers for the activities. They can
then provide good models of English for them.
 You could ask the learners to sequence the statements from the DARTs
activities (Stanley’s feelings).
Possible extension activities
 Writing could be set as homework for learners to ‘write up’ sentences using the
substitution tables.
 Provide writing opportunities based on the text to develop academic language for
those more advanced learners of English (the non-fiction writing resources on the
website would support this, e.g. a newspaper report based on a key event in the
story; a persuasive advert for ‘Sploosh’; a letter home from one of the boys at the
camp; a diary entry; instructions on how to make an onion tonic; an information
text about an animal found in the desert such as the yellow-spotted lizard.
This project and its actions were made possible due to co-financing by the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals
© British Council 2015