The Stone Book Quartet
Introduction | Subjects | Genesis

'A book, properly written is an invitation to the reader to enter:
to join with the writer in a creative act: the act of reading.'

From The Voice That Thunders. Alan Garner.
(The Harvill Press, London, 1998.)

Introduction

In The Stone Book Quartet Alan Garner celebrates the landscape and the power that landscape has to shape the people within it. The book is a fictionalised biography. It depicts one day in the life of one child through four generations of one Alderley family.

The Scheme of Work

The scheme of work is based on a unique combination of a prize-winning work of fiction by an established author and resources drawn from the research findings of The Manchester Museum's Alderley Edge Landscape Project.

It is particularly relevant for work with children aged between 10 and 13.

The scheme of work consists of integrated Humanities teaching units for English, Geography and History, specifically designed to encourage the development of transferable higher thinking skills across all three subjects. Each subject unit may be used on its own, but if used together, the units are more than the sum of their parts: they support children in a systematic enquiry into the Geographical and Historical background of the book.

All the teacher and pupil resources may be downloaded and photocopied and some can also be accessed on the screen and will provide practice in ICT skills.

In the English educational system, the scheme of work meets English National Curriculum Subject Orders and the National Literacy Framework in both Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3.

Where secondary schools and their partner primaries are able to organise a combined approach, the units can be used as a structured Bridging Unit, easing the transfer for pupils between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3. It also addresses the issue of inclusion by providing support for all pupils, including extension work for able children.