A group of schoolchildren in Britain got the surprise of their lives recently, when actor Johnny Depp showed up at the school, dressed as the character Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Grade-four student Beatrice Delap had written Depp a letter, telling him that she wanted to mutiny against the teachers at Meridian Primary School in Greenwich, and that she needed his help.
She got the letter into Depp’s hands by giving it to a security guard where Depp was filming Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides at a location nearby.
She never dreamed he would actually show up at her school!
Not only did he show up, but he brought with him a cast of four pirates in full costume. They performed pirate songs and dances at a quickly arranged assembly.
Depp called Delap out of the audience and gave her a hug, joking that, “maybe we shouldn’t mutiny ‘cause there are police outside monitoring me.” Instead, he suggested that they eat candy every day and not brush their teeth until they turn green and fall out.
He pulled out Beatrice’s letter, which read:
“We are a bunch of budding young pirates. Normally we’re a right handful, but we’re having trouble mutinying against the teachers. We’d love it if you could come and help.”
He said he plans to frame the letter.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Johnny Depp’s unexpected visit would have been a wonderful surprise for the students at Meridian Primary School. If you could choose any famous person to come and visit your school, who would you pick and why?
Reading Prompt
Before you begin reading, formulate questions about the article after reading the title: “Jack Sparrow Shows up at Primary School.” Then pose questions while you read and after you are finished reading.
Discuss these questions as a class or in partners. Try to use inference and prediction to answer the questions.
Why is questioning a useful reading comprehension strategy?
Primary
identify a variety of reading comprehension strategies and use them appropriately before, during, and after reading to understand texts (OME, Reading: 1.3)
Junior
identify a variety of reading comprehension strategies and use them appropriately before, during, and after reading to understand increasingly complex texts (OME, Reading: 1.3).
Grammar Feature: Quotation Marks
Quotation marks are used twice in the article for the following purposes: to indicate speech and to quote the student’s letter to Johnny Depp.
Discuss when and how quotation marks are used in writing.
