Gorilla in class

By: Karoline Lilleberg

Use of Gorilla in primary school

In 1983 Anthony Brownes book Gorilla was published for the first time. It is a children’s book about

… a lonely girl, a friendly gorilla and their amazing night out

(Browne, 2008).

It is a young girl, and children will easily relate to her story because of that. The gorilla is not a type of animal you see every day, possibly making it more interesting for children. Some might find it kind of exotic and fun. The text in the book is easy for everyone to read, and it is not much of text for each page either.

When the pupils has read the book, there is also difference types of tasks they can work with, here is a list of after work:

Could you write a similar story, but based on a different animal?

Can you rewrite the story from the point of view of the gorilla? Where did he come from?

Try to write a sequel to the story... what other adventures did Hannah and the gorilla go on?

Source: http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/library/books/gorilla.htm (20.09.15)

This kind of tasks will be easy for the pupils to work with. They tend to have a great imagination and from my own experience many like to continue on a story, for example answer on where they think the gorilla came from. I myself prefer to have none, or only few boundaries if needed. Let the pupils mind bloom and not setting any limits for their thoughts.

After working with this book ourselves, I have gotten several good ideas for my own classes in the future. I would very much like to work with this with younger pupils, and perhaps with the kind of tasks I mentioned earlier. Another tool used well in this book, is the use of pictures. There is at least one picture on each page, and it will take a whole class to go through every picture by detail. For example, look for all the gorillas on each picture, or the easter eggs hidden in the pictures. This kind of activity will keep the pupils full attention and hopefully their interest as well.

I find this book very relevant for working with at school, and for every class as well, from first grade to university students.