PersonalReflective –

That Special Book

S2 Homework Task - December

S2 Homework Task - December

Checklist

Section A

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Genre

Importance of books

Theme

Activity 5 Plot

Activity 4 Character

Activity 6 Setting

Section B

Activity 1 Produce a report

Activity 7 Conflict

Learning Intentions:

• I can read for enjoyment and interest andexpress how I feel about my choice of text.

• I can recognise techniques used by the writer to create character/setting.• I can recognise and comment on the relevance of theme in a text .

• I can use strategies and resources to spell my words accurately, including specialist vocabulary. • I can use punctuation to make the meaning of my sentences clear.• I can accurately structure and arrange my sentences to make their meaning clear.• I can use paragraphs, and show a straightforward relationship between them.

LIT 3-19a

LIT 3-11a

LIT 3-22a

Curriculum for Excellence‘Experiences and Outcomes’

LIT 3-21a

Section A – A Close Look at Books

There are 7 activities to complete in Section A.

2. Genre3. Theme4. Character

5. Plot

6. Setting

1. Why books are important.

7. Conflict

This month we are looking at why books can be such an important part of our lives.

Section A - Activity 1

In a short paragraph write down why you think that books are so important…

Genre

Genre:A type of writing characterised by similarities in form, style or subject matter.

Example Genres

Genre characteristics

• Thriller• Gothic• Realism• Romance

• Fantasy• Science Fiction• Horror • Autobiography

• Recognisable setting• Stereotyped characters• Typical plot• Certain style of language

• Fiction• Non-Fiction

Jonny EvansManchester United FC(click to watch clip)

Favourite Children’s Book: The Hard Boys – ‘The Tower Treasure’

Favourite Genre: Detective

Joey BartonQ.P.R.(click to watch clip)

Favourite Book: ‘Dracula’, by Bram Stoker

Favourite Genre: Horror

Section A - Activity 2

Note down what genre your favourite book belongs to.

Is this a genre that you particularly enjoy? Why?

Theme

Theme:

The central idea or ideas explored by a piece of literature.

Example Themes

• Change versus Tradition• Desire to Escape• Empowerment• Evils of Racism• Love

• Pride and Downfall• Reunion• Class Struggle• Darkness and Light• Isolation

• Growing Up• Honour and Valour• Casualties of War• How Power Corrupts• Selfishness

“Cowards die many times before their deaths/The valiant never taste of death but once.“ (Julius Caesar)

This is a version of Shakespeare’s Complete Works and was smuggled into the Robben Island jail, and includes notes added by Mandela and other prisoners it was shared with.

Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years during the *apartheid years before being released in 1990.

He went on to become the country's first black president.

The theme of this quotationsuggests the need for individuals to show bravery in the face of tyranny.

Apartheid ("the status of being apart") was a system of racial segregation enforced through legislation by the National Party (NP) governments, who were the ruling party from 1948 to 1994, of South Africa, under which the rights of the majority black inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and white supremacy and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained

Section A - Activity 3

Note down what theme(s) contained in your favourite book.

Think about why the writer chose to write about this particular theme – can you relate it to current events in your life?

Character

Character:An imaginary person represented in a work of fiction.

Character properties• Appearance

• Looks• Dresses

• Actions• What the character

does/does not do• What others in the

story do to the main character

• Good Characters are:• Believable• Consistent• Multi-dimensional

(not stereotyped)• Memorable• Grow or change over

time

• Thoughts and Conversation• What the character

says/feels• What other characters

say about the character

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A London-based "consulting detective" whose abilities border on the fantastic, Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to adopt almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve difficult cases.Holmes, who first appeared in publication in 1887, was featured in four novels and 56 short stories. The first novel, A Study in Scarlet, appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887 and the second, The Sign of the Four, in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890. The character grew tremendously in popularity with the first series of short stories in The Strand Magazine, beginning with "A Scandal in Bohemia" in 1891; further series of short stories and two novels published in serial form appeared between then and 1927. The stories cover a period from around 1880 up to 1914.

“Holmes was certainly not a difficult man to live with. He was quiet in his ways, and his habits were regular. It was rare for him to be up after ten at night, and he had invariably breakfasted and gone out before I rose in the morning. Sometimes he spent his day at the chemical laboratory, sometimes in the dissecting-rooms, and occasionally in long walks, which appeared to take him into the lowest portions of the City. Nothing could exceed his energy when the working fit was upon him; but now and again a reaction would seize him, and for days on end he would lie upon the sofa in the sitting-room, hardly uttering a word or moving a muscle from morning to night.As the weeks went by, my interest in him and my curiosity as to his aims in life, gradually deepened and increased. His very person and appearance were such as to strike the attention of the most casual observer. In height he was rather over six feet, and so excessively lean that he seemed to be considerably taller. His eyes were sharp and piercing, save during those intervals of torpor to which I have alluded; and his thin, hawk-like nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness and decision. His chin, too, had the prominence and squareness which mark the man of determination. His hands were invariably blotted with ink and stained with chemicals, yet he was possessed of extraordinary delicacy of touch, as I frequently had occasion to observe when I watched him manipulating his fragile philosophical instruments.”

Friend and colleague, Dr Watson tells us:

Harry Potter

Harry James Potter is the title character and the protagonist of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. The majority of the books' plot covers seven years in the life of the orphan Potter, who, on his eleventh birthday, learns he is a wizard. Thus, he attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to practice magic under the guidance of the kindly headmaster Albus Dumbledore and other school professors. Harry also discovers that he is already famous throughout the novel's magical community, and that his fate is tied with that of Lord Voldemort, the internationally feared Dark Wizard and murderer of his mother and father. “Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark

cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, and bright green eyes. He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose. The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning. He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.”Wayne Rooney

Footballer (Man. UTD)

Favourite Book:‘Philosopher’s Stone’

PipPhilip Pirrip, called Pip, is the protagonist and narrator in Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations (1861). He is amongst the most popular characters in English literature, widely portrayed all over the world on stage and screen.Pip narrates his story many years after the events of the novel take place. The novel follows Pip's process from childhood innocence to experience. The financial and social rise of the protagonist is accompanied by an emotional and moral deterioration, which finally forces Pip to recognize his negative expectations in a new self-awareness.[2]

“My father’s family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.

I give Pirrip as my father’s family name, on the authority of his tombstone and my sister – Mrs. Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith. As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones.”

Anne Frank Extract from The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Wednesday, 5 April 1944My dearest Kitty, For a long time now I didn’t know why I was bothering to do any schoolwork. The end of the war still seemed so far away, so unreal, like a fairy tale. If the war isn’t over by September, I won’t go back to school, since I don’t want to be two years behind…When I write I can shake off all my cares. My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived! But, and that’s a big question, will I ever be able to write something great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer?I hope so, oh, I hope so very much, because writing allows me to record everything, all my thoughts, ideals and fantasies…So onwards and upwards, with renewed spirits. It’ll all work out, because I’m determined to write!

Yours, Anne M. Frank

*The Secret Annexe: the place where Anne hid with her family

The Diary of a Young Girl (also known as The Diary of Anne Frank) is a book of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944 and Anne Frank ultimately died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The diary was retrieved by Miep Gies, who gave it to Anne's father, Otto Frank, the only known survivor of the family. The diary has now been published in more than 60 different languages.

Natalie PortmanActress

Favourite Book:‘Diary of a Young Girl’

Although Anne was a real person, her ‘character’ remains as such that itspeaks to us about the power of the human spirit in the face of such evil.

Section A - Activity 4

Note down the main character(s) from your book. Describe your character using a ‘character sketch’ diagram. (See next slide).

Who was your favourite character and why?

Did you find yourself identifying with any of the characters? In what way?

Plot

Plot:The events that make up a story, whether related in sequence or through cause and effect.

Plot properties• Exposition (opening)• Rising Action• Climax• Falling Action• Denouement• Happy/Unhappy ending

Plot Examples• A Hero’s Quest• Adventure• Escape• Love• Discovery• Revenge/Rivalry

JAWSThe shark is killed

Brody paddles backto shore

Section A - Activity 5

Summarise (or produce a timeline) of the plot of your favourite book.

or

Setting

Setting:The location and timeframe in which the action of a narrative takes place.

The Hobbit Chapter 1 – An Unexpected Party

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats—the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill—The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it—and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.”

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, and follows the quest of home-loving hobbit Bilbo Baggins to win a share of the treasure guarded by the dragon, Smaug. Bilbo's journey takes him from light-hearted, rural surroundings into more sinister territory.

The Pedestrian"The Pedestrian" is a short story by author Ray Bradbury. This story was originally published in the August 7, 1951 issue of The Reporter by The Fortnightly Publishing Company. It is included in the collection The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953).In this story we encounter Leonard Mead, a citizen of a television-centered world in 2052. In the city, roads have fallen into decay and people only leave their homes during the day, staying home at night to watch TV. It is revealed that Mead enjoys walking through the city during the night, something which no one else does. On one of his usual walks he encounters a robotic police car. It is the only police unit in a city of three million, since the purpose of law enforcement has disappeared with everyone watching TV at night. The police car struggles to understand why Mr. Mead would be out walking for no reason and decides to take him to the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies.

“To enter out into that silence that was thecity at eight o'clock of a misty evening in November,to put your feet upon that buckling concrete walk, tostep over grassy seams and make your way, hands inpockets, through the silences, that was what Mr.Leonard Mead most dearly loved to do. He wouldstand upon the corner of an intersection and peerdown long moonlit avenues of sidewalk in fourdirections, deciding which way to go, but it reallymade no difference; he was alone in this world ofA.D. 2053, or as good as alone, and with a finaldecision made, a path selected, he would stride off,sending patterns of frosty air before him like thesmoke of a cigar.

Sometimes he would walk for hours andmiles and return only at midnight to his house. Andon his way he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal towalking through a graveyard where only the faintestglimmers of firefly light appeared in flickers behindthe windows. Sudden gray phantoms seemed tomanifest upon inner room walls where a curtain wasstill undrawn against the night, or there werewhisperings and murmurs where a window in a tomblike building was still open.”

War of the Worlds

Chapter 3

I found a little crowd of perhaps twenty people sur- rounding the huge hole in which the cylinder lay. I have already described the appearance of that colossal bulk, em- bedded in the ground. The turf and gravel about it seemed charred as if by a sudden explosion. No doubt its impact had caused a flash of fire. Henderson and Ogilvy were not there. I think they perceived that nothing was to be done for the present, and had gone away to breakfast at Henderson's house.

It was glaringly hot, not a cloud in the sky nor a breath of wind, and the only shadow was that of the few scattered pine trees. The burning heather had been extinguished, but the level ground towards Ottershaw was blackened as far as one could see, and still giving off vertical streamers of smoke. An enterprising sweet-stuff dealer in the Chobham Road had sent up his son with a barrow-load of green apples and ginger beer.

Going to the edge of the pit, I found it occupied by a group of about half a dozen men--Henderson, Ogilvy, and a tall, fair-haired man that I afterwards learned was Stent, the Astronomer Royal, with several workmen wielding spades and pickaxes. Stent was giving directions in a clear, high- pitched voice. He was standing on the cylinder, which was now evidently much cooler; his face was crimson and streaming with perspiration, and something seemed to have irritated him.

A large portion of the cylinder had been uncovered, though its lower end was still embedded.

The War of the Worlds (1898), a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells, is the first-person narrative of an unnamed protagonist's (and his brother's) adventures in Surrey and London as Earth is invaded by Martians. Written in 1895–97,it is one of the earliest stories that details a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial race. The novel is one of the most commented-on works in the science fiction canon

Example Settings

Setting properties

• Future Earth (or Space)• Historical• Present Day• Fantasy Land

• Physical• Time• Societal

Section A - Activity 6

Note down where and when your novel takes place.

Note down why the author has chosen this time and place – what has it allowed him/her to do with their character and theme?.

Does the writer’s setting remind you of place that you remember fondly? Perhaps it is somewhere you dislike?

Conflict

Conflict:The struggle that takes place within a character’s mind or between a character and exterior forces (usually between the protagonist and the antagonist).

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old.The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator's father, Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. One critic explains the novel's impact by writing, "In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism."[1]

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

UK’s Best Loved Book(2011)

Favourite Book:‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning English author William Golding about a group of British boys stuck on an uninhabited island who try to govern themselves with disastrous results.

Roger gathered a handful of stones and began to throw them. Yet there was a space round Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law.

"Which is better--to have laws and agree, or to hunt and kill?”

Steven KingAuthor (Horror)(click to watch clip)

Favourite Book:‘Lord of the Flies’

Example Conflicts

Conflict properties

• Man versus Man• Man versus Self• Man versus Society• Man versus Technology• Man versus Nature

• Usually a protagonist versus an antagonist/enemy/villain

• Struggle to succeed or defeat

Section A - Activity 7

Note down the conflict(s) in your novel and why they occur.

Note down how the conflicts affect the characters and the novel’s plot.

Does the novel begin with the conflict?

Or is the conflict left until nearer the middle or at the end of the novel (the climax)?

End of Section A

Section B – Write your Reflective Piece

Section B - Activity 1

Using your notes from Section A, you will be writing a report thatinforms your reader as to why your book is important to you.

• Introduce the title and Genre of the book• Identify the Theme• Summarise the Plot & Conflict• Describe the Setting• Describe the main Character(s)• Comment on the effectiveness of the ending.

Paragraph Plan

End of Section B

S2 Homework Task - December

Checklist

Section A

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Genre

Importance of books

Theme

Activity 5 Plot

Activity 4 Character

Activity 6 Setting

Section B

Activity 1 Produce a report

Activity 7 Conflict

End of homework