One Careless Night: Lesson Activities Focused on Reading

The following activities are drawn from a Upper Primary Teaching and Learning Unit created by Jennifer Asha for PETAA in 2021, using the quality text One Careless Night, written by Christina Booth. The full unit is available on the PETAA website, but the below activities are taken from the Modelled reading and viewing/talking and text deconstruction sections. This is designed for Years 4 - 6 ideally.

Before Reading

  • Introduce vocabulary:
    Trophic cascade, Control, Reduced, Effects, Radically changed, Regenerate, Quintupled, Increase, Engineers, Niches, Habitats, Impact, Behaviour of rivers, Erosion, Stabilised, Recovering, Transformed, Geography
  • Share the dictionary/literal meanings of the words.
  • Discuss the etymology and morphology of the words.
  • Explain that the words are all from a clip that the class will watch together, and that by thinking about the meanings of the words before watching, students will be better placed to take on the overall message and meaning of the clip, which can be found here: https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/wolfreintroduction-changes-ecosystem
  • Explain to students that the clip demonstrates the interdependence of all living things, the negative and positive impact humans can have on environments and ecosystems. Explain these words and associated concepts if needed.

During Reading

Introducing the focus text:

  • Display the cover of the picture book, One careless night and think aloud about the title, particularly the evaluative language used by Christina Booth in her choice of ‘careless’. Think aloud your prediction of the plot and possible characters/participants, making reference to the faint image of the thylacine on the cover.
  • Read the book aloud.

After Reading

Language focus – evaluative vocabulary

  • Revisit the personal responses and use them to demonstrate the concept of evaluative vocabulary.

    Christina Booth is a very good author and illustrator.
    One careless night is a meaningful book.

  • Explain that judgement and appreciation vocabulary can be negative or positive, although it is likely all students’ personal responses will include positive evaluative vocabulary.
  • Discuss the title of the picture book again and hypothesise on Christina Booth’s choice of careless as an adjective. Reflect on the choice of no evaluative vocabulary in the ‘author’s note’ at the back of the picture book. Pose questions to prompt discussion as a whole class or in small groups:

     Is ‘One careless night’ an example of judgement (of a person) or appreciation (of a thing)?
    Is it positive or negative?
    Can a night be careless?
     Why has Christina Booth chosen to give her opinion of a night rather than a person?

  • Elicit from students that the author’s choice of vocabulary allows the audience to apply the lesson or moral of the story to other situations rather than just being a comment on one person’s actions.

Visual focus – framing

  • Use the book Zoo by Anthony Browne to demonstrate and think aloud about framing of the animals and people in the context of the meaning of this book. Notice how the illustrations showing the family are loosely framed, while in contrast, those showing the animals in captivity are very strongly framed. Explain the symbolism that can be drawn from these examples. 

Language focus – variety in sentence structure

  • Demonstrate the use of adverbial phrases that build description of the setting in One careless night on the first page opening.

    Where the mist swallows mountains and wild winds whisper through ancient trees, myths and legends are born.
    There are forests here where no one has trod and creatures run free in endless rain and deep, dark bush.

  • Think aloud about the purpose and effect of these sentence structure choices. Consider the way that this page orients the reader to where the thylacine lives and foreshadows the mythical quality of the animal now that it is extinct.

Visual focus – distance & contact

  • Use the page opening of One careless night that has the close up shots of the face of the thylacine and the written text Caught. Carted away. Sold for a bounty.
  • Think aloud about the way the close up puts a focus on the face of the creature and has the effect of personalising the thylacine’s struggle. Notice the way the visual demand of the second face makes eye contact with the viewer, demanding a response.
  • Consider the way that this illustration works with the written text on the page and feeds in to the purpose of the story generally, to use the example of ‘Benjamin’ to highlight the negative human impact on a whole species of animal.