These lessons will support our reading and wider understanding of the novel, Skellig, and provide inspiration for deeper thinking while also encouraging you to challenge your own thinking.
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The novel’s themes provide many opportunities for reflective thought and discussion:
• Growing up – times of change and transition.
• Tolerance – understanding those who are strange or different to us.
• Belief in the power of love and hope.
• Considering the magical possibilities of evolution of a species and the links between all forms of life.
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The activities are designed to promote enjoyment, as well as depth of thought, so that you are able to think about and respond to the reading in a variety of ways: teasing out your own conclusions about characters and feelings from clues in the text, transferring your knowledge and understanding to create other forms of writing, and beginning to look
beyond the story at the writer’s craft.
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Speaking and Listening
• Read aloud – dramatised readings, pairs, small groups and silently.
• Listen to readings – by the teacher, other pupils or author on audio book.
• Discuss ideas and responses in small and large groups.
• Take part in role play.
• Take part in a class presentation.
Reading
• Begin to analyse what happens in the reading process.
• Gather and use textual evidence to understand character.
• Use various media to do research.
• Look for patterns and links within the text.
• Understand how themes and symbols underpin the novel.
Writing
• Record responses to your reading and related research, in the form of notes, comments and various pieces of artwork.
• Make notes on characters, setting, plot and themes.
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