EAL Nexus
Holes by Louis Sachar : DARTs activities
10 to 11, 12 to 14
English
English Literature Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced
 Stanley’s feelings visuals substitution table
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True or false activity – statements to sort
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Past and present events cards with visuals for learners to match
For each learner you will need to print:
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the facial expressions, the substitution table and the true/false words by going to print, full-page slides
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two sets of the true/false statements as flashcards
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the past and present events and visuals as flashcards in colour
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the past and present events answer charts as full-page slides.
You will also need:
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bilingual dictionaries and/or a translation app.
You will need to:
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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.
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To read texts in order to: learn new vocabulary within context; make inferences; and refer to evidence in the text
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

Recounting
Justifying
 The boys dig/sleep/eat … (present tense)
 Sam/Katherine/… made/sold/killed …(past tense)

I think that he feels … because …

I think that is true/false because
…
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I know this because …
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Did this happen in the past or present?

This/It happened in the past/present.
EAL Nexus
Asking and answering questions
angry, anxious, character, disappointed, exhausted, false, feelings, happy, nervous, past, pleased, present, sad, scared, shocked, surprised, tired, true, worried
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as differentiation within class for an individual or group of EAL learners

one to one or small group

independent learning
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

They can also discuss what happened in the past and the present in the story relating to the image.
EAL Nexus o Next, provide the past and present statements. Learners match the images with the statements using the chapter summaries to support them if necessary.
Other ideas for making the best use of this resource
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EAL learners could be grouped with supportive peers for the activities. They can then provide good models of English for them.
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You could ask the learners to sequence the statements from the DARTs activities (Stanley’s feelings).
 Writing could be set as homework for learners to ‘write up’ sentences using the substitution tables.
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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