Jane McKenzie

Thank you John, David and Andy for your helpful contributions. I'm following up on all of them - and yes, David, I'd really appreciate details of the two Australian sources you mention. I've already spent many hours trawling the net but didn't look in detail so close to home - why not I can't imagine. An area in the book of particular interest (and some delicacy) I think, is getting readers to get to know and understand Christopher (character) on his own terms and in his own world ... C is gradually revealed as special needs but nowhere is it blatantly stated that he is autistic or has Asperger's Syndrome. Readers compile the clues from the outset, of course, unravelling C much as he's unravelling the various mysteries in his life. I want my students to be detective in C's life, so I don't want to hand them solutions on a plate but I do want to handle this critical junction of teaching and reading practice with a deft hand and not spend a disproportionate amound of time on it. Thank heavens we can edit these posts - I'm still not entirely happy with how I've put the above - but I'm confident you will understand. I'll post again when I have something more concrete to contribute! Thanks again to all.

I'm planning a series of lessons (up to 15) to teach Mark Haddon's book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. Lessons are aimed at our Year 12 (New Zealand, old 6th form, second last year at school) and the problem is that I have too many ideas ... The book is so rich in potential material that I'm having trouble streamlining a comprehensive yet containable teaching plan. Has anyone else taught this? Of course you have, and I'd be very interested to hear your experiences. I'd so appreciate hearing some ideas or suggestions for main connecting points for anchoring an overall plan as it's a fantastic book and I want to do it justice. I look forward to hearing from you, and many thanks.

My name is Jane McKenzie and I live in Christchurch, New Zealand, where I'm about to complete my post-grad diploma in secondary teaching. At 50 I'm somewhat older than the average 'new' teacher but I'm a qualified and experienced ESOL teacher and have taught journalism (specialising in subbing) at post-graduate level. These teaching experiences follow a long career in journalism, where I started in newspapers but spent 10 years on magazines in Sydney. I won a Churchill Fellowship in 2001 and completed research on the teaching of journalism in the UK, and I have had a couple of short stories published. Why do I want to join the forum? Because I'd appreciate all the help I can get in a secondary school classroom! My areas are English, classics, ESOL and media studies and I seem to be spending a lot of energy on lesson plans, energy I'd rather save for the classroom. The ESOL environment has set an incredibly good example for sharing lessons and ideas and I'm delighted to find a place such as the forum where similar genuinely helpful exchanges take place. I'm more than willing to share any/all of my material as appropriate.