Help students explore the power of symbolism through this engaging five-day text exploration pack built around the original mentor text, The Unopened Box.

Designed for Years 7-8, this pack focuses on how authors use symbolism to communicate ideas that extend beyond the literal events of a story. Through Noah’s quiet decision to leave a treasured wooden box unopened, students discover how carefully chosen objects can represent family, memory, identity, legacy, and the emotional connections we carry with us.

Across five structured lessons, students revisit the text multiple times, building their understanding of vocabulary, symbolism, inference, author’s purpose, themes, and evidence-based responses. Students are encouraged to explore how the unopened box may represent more than a physical object and how different readers can develop and justify multiple valid interpretations using clues from the text.

This pack includes:

• Original mentor text
• Five days of structured learning
• Explicit WALTs and success criteria
• Vocabulary and figurative language investigations
• Personification analysis activities
• Inference and interpretation tasks
• Theme and author's purpose exploration
• Evidence-based response scaffold
• Student self-reflection pages
• Comprehensive teacher guide with answers and alternative interpretations

Perfect for:

• Whole-class reading
• Guided reading follow-up
• Literacy rotations
• Independent literacy tasks
• Figurative language instruction
• Explicit comprehension teaching

Students will learn how symbolism allows authors to communicate deeper meanings through ordinary objects, encouraging readers to think beyond the surface of a text.

By the end of the week, students will be able to identify symbols, explain what they may represent, and discuss how symbolism contributes to meaning, theme, and author purpose.

Curriculum Focus: Figurative Language, Reading Comprehension, Author Craft, Inference, Themes, Symbolism, Evidence-Based Responses
Year Level: Years 7-8
Lesson Length: 15–20 minutes per lesson
Pack Focus: Figurative Language
Week Focus: Symbolism
Theme: Memory, Legacy and Family Connections

Key Learning: Students explore how authors use symbolism to communicate ideas that cannot always be expressed directly, discovering how meaningful objects can represent identity, belonging, memory, and the enduring connections between people across time.