1. Wednesday 16th November 2016 Curriculum Evening P.E.E.
LI: To understand how to use P.E.E. as a tool to analyse a text and answer comprehension questions thoroughly

2. Point – Evidence - Explanation
To help you thoroughly analyse a text, we use PEE as a tool to make sure that you cover the important parts. It can also be used as a way of answering comprehension questions completely, backing up your opinions with quotations from the text. It should be used whenever a question asks you to … refer to the text in your answer.

3. Point – Evidence - Explanation
Point: - A simple answer to the question or an opinion to offer. Evidence: - A section of the text copied, exactly as it is in the text, to help prove the point you have made. We call this a quotation and it needs ‘quotation marks’ to show it is not your words. Explanation: - One or two sentences that help link the point you have made to the evidence. It explains anything that might need clarifying and may repeat important words from the quotation.

4. Task:
You have been given 4 points, 4 quotations (evidence) and 4 explanations.
You will have to match them up with the corresponding parts to complete a full PEE answer.
Read through them and try to match the different PEE paragraphs to form an answer.

5. Introduce Your Quotation:
To make our PEE paragraph flow as one continuous piece of writing we need to introduce the quotation.
This tells our reader that we are about to quote from the text.
You could use:
In the text we are told;
Chapter 1 tells us;
It says in the text;
Can you think of some other examples?

6. Example:
Question: What do we know about Jim’s situation at the start of book? (use evidence from the text in your answer) Point: Jim is already cold and hungry, even at the start of the book. Evidence: ‘Jim hopped about on the edge of the road, his feet blue with cold… He could hear his stomach gurgling as the rich smell of gravy met him.’ (Chapter 1 – Page 15) Explanation: We can tell Jim is cold because his feet are ‘blue’. We can also tell that he is hungry as it says that he could ‘hear his stomach gurgling.’
In the text it says;

7. Answers: What could you say of the conditions Jim’s family live in?
Point: Jim’s family is very poor and live in very difficult conditions. Evidence: ‘They had no furniture, though they had seemed to have plenty when they piled it high on the cart the day they left their cottage. But it had all been sold, piece by piece, and what hadn’t been good enough to sell had been broken up and used as firewood.’ (Chapter 2 – page 25) Explanation: Since moving from their cottage, the family has either sold or burned their old furniture. They now live in a room with very little possessions or belongings.

8. Answers: What was the attitude of poor Victorians to the workhouse?
Point:
The workhouse was known and feared by everybody.
Evidence:
‘The children had heard terrifying stories about workhouses. Old people spoke of them with a fear and hate as if they were worse than hell on earth. They’d heard that people who went there sometimes had to stay for the rest of their lives. People died in there. Some people slept out in the streets and the fields rather than go to the workhouse.’
(Chapter 3 – page 32)
Explanation:
The stories that the children had heard are described as ‘terrifying’ and when you went in, it was unlikely that you would ever leave. We are told that people preferred to sleep ‘out in the streets and the fields’ than go to the workhouse.

9. Answers: Explain how Jim felt and adjusted to the workhouse.
Point:
The workhouse was very hard for Jim at first as he did not fit in.
Evidence:
‘He followed the boy in front of him and he sat on one of the benches. He glanced round him, trying to catch someone’s eye, but none of the boys looked at him. They all ate with their heads bowed down, staring into their bowls. The boy next to him sneaked his hand across and grabbed Jim’s bread. Jim ate his broth in silence’
(Chapter 4 – page 42)
Explanation:
Jim feels very alone in the workhouse. Not only are we told that Jim ate in ‘silence’ but we are also told that ‘none of the boys looked at him’. He was bullied by other boys and even had his food stolen.

10. Answers: What was life like in the workhouse? What did they do?
Point: Life in the workhouse was hard and tedious. Evidence: ‘It was impossible to tell one day from the next. They were all the same. School, sack-making, bed. The only thing that changed was the sky.’ (Chapter 7 – Page 60) Explanation: Those in the workhouse did the same thing every day. The routine of school, sack-making and then bed was a daily one. We are told that the only thing that ever changed was the seasons.

11. Useful Phrases:
Certain words and phrases are helpful when you're explaining an idea in some detail, especially if you are commenting on implicit meaning. Some phrases you could use are:
this implies
this suggests
which gives the impression that
possibly
perhaps
this indicates that
this shows
obviously

12. Write your own explanation
Extension:
Question:
How would you describe Rosie’s relationship with Jim?
Point:
Rosie is like a mother to Jim.
Evidence:
‘Rosie sat on the floor and rocked Jim until he had sobbed himself to sleep, and then she lowered him down and went outside.’
(Chapter 11 – Page 88)
Write your own explanation

13. Possible Christmas Present:
This book is linked to the class reading book ‘Street Child’ and is by the same author. It tracks Jim’s sisters, who he loses in Street Child, and explains their life stories.

14. Questions:
You can find out more about this technique on the BBC website.
It is listed under the KS3 element.
You can practise it with your children or write some questions yourself from books that you are reading with your children.