Mad Challenges - New Literacy

From the moment you get up, look in to yesterday’s bowl of coco pops and find ants forming the word UNLUCKY you know that today is not going to be a good day. The hot water is not working and you have a cold shower, all your undies are grubby and you miss the bus.
Write about the day from hell - a day when the school yard bully remembers you exist.

You will recall Zoey’s letter to her parents, reassuring them that the planned trip was all to be supervised. Well Zoey was not being upfront with her parents and there was little supervision over the weekend. The following is the report that appeared in The Age on the Sunday of the naughty weekend.

Local Fire Caused by Underage Stupidity.

On Saturday the 12th of May a group of nine fifteen year olds were found responsible for a local fire. All nine of them had been drinking alcohol unsupervised and one of the kis had passed out in the gutter in the front yard. Later tests found that five of the nine children had been smoking marijuana. Police discovered the fire was caused by the stupidity of the drunken fifteen year olds who went to the park and thought it would be fun to light some leaves on fire and throw rocks at birds. When one fire they lit got out of hand and they could not put it out they made a run for it back to the house.

A witness of the fire, who would like to stay anonymous said “I was walking in the park when I saw flames, then I saw them all run back to that house (and pointed towards a small rental unit). That’s when I called the fire brigade and the police.” We believe that the children were on an unsupervised trip as there were two cars in the driveway with P plates on them but no one around who was eighteen with their licence.

The police are yet to call the parent’s of the children because they are still interrogating all nine of them but will expect their parents to pick them up from the police station.

Because of the underage stupidity that happened on the weekend police have decided that they must not only charge the children for vandalism and drug taking but also the parents for letting their parents be involved in underage drinking and smoking.

“We didn’t want the whole park to burn down. We were just burning leaves and having fun… as for the drinking and smoking… none of our parents knew what we were doing. They all thought it was going to be a supervised trip because that was what we told them” said one of the girls involved in this pathetic behaviour.

Police are still trying to get the name of the person who supplied the marijuana to the underage teens but none of them will speak up, which may lead to major consequences if they decide to keep their mouths shut. They are also trying to find who bought the alcohol but the kids are keeping their lips sealed pretty tight.

We will have further information when it comes to hand. Meanwhile something has to be done. When the paper contacted the Principal of Macleod Secondary College she said…..

by Zoey

Activities

Copy and paste these questions in to the comment tool and answer each carefully.

1. Does the headline match the actual report in the newspaper?

2. What sources of information does the reporter use in constructing her article?

3. What is the Principal likely to say to the press?

4. What sort of follow up would you expect as a result of this article? Who will be involved? What will be the consequences?

Dear Mum and Dad

This weekend, from Friday night til Sunday night, some friends and I would like to go away. There will be two of my friend’s parents coming along, who will be driving us there and back and staying with us the whole weekend to supervise us.

We are meeting at Troi’s house and Troi’s parents and Tom’s parents will be the ones coming along for supervision. We are meeting at Troi’s house at 5:00 p.m on Friday night and will be leaving Troi’s house around 5:30 and we will come back home at around 6:00 p.m on Sunday night.

0435628871 is the number of Troi’s Mum so if you would like to ring and confirm all of this then feel free to do so. You do not have to take me to Troi’s house because Sam’s Mum is picking me up from home to take me to Troi’s house.

We plan to spend the weekend watching DVD’s and will just sit bumming so you and Dad can also sit back and relax this weekend and have a quiet weekend. Troi’s Mum might also take us down to the beach if the weather is good. If not we might go shopping at the local shopping centre…. maybe even watch a movie at the cinema.

Love Zoey

PS. Troi’s mother would like to know if I am allowed to go to their place on Wednesday night so she can organise the trip better.

Looking at Zoey’s Argument.

Copy and paste the following questions in the comment tool of this post and then answer each one carefully.

1. What is the main purpose of this letter?

2. List three arguments that you think will convince her parents that this weekend is all supervised and that she will be safe.

3. Explain why two of these arguments are quite effective?

4. What has Zoey not told her parents that might influence their decision?

5. Think of three reasons why her parents might not be convinced that this is such a good idea?

6. If you were Zoey’s parents what other information would you need before you approved this trip?

NAME

FIVE

THINGS

IT

MIGHT

BE

WORTH

FORGETTING

Use the comment tool to share the five things that you think are most worth forgetting.