Prepared by Claire Argyle. Key Stage 3, 4 & 5 Teacher’s Pack 1 for teaching Dylan Thomas Prepared by Claire Argyle. Key Stage 3, 4 & 5 Lesson 4: Holiday Memory (Key Stage 3). Aims:

UK Teacher’s Pack 1 for teaching Dylan ThomasPrepared by Claire Argyle.

Key Stage 3, 4 & 5

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Key Stage 3, 4 & 5

Please note: More than one lesson may be needed to complete activities.

Resources: Links and resources on where to find texts and background source material.

It is not possible to reprint on this website the actual texts of Dylan Thomas’ work due tocopyright restrictions. The Dylan Thomas Omnibus (London, Phoenix 2001) contains all thekey texts and is referred to here [DTO] with corresponding page numbers.

Hunchback in the Park, [DTO p80]: Originally from the collection Deaths And Entrances (1946).

The Followers, [DTO p271]: Originally published in World Review, October 1952, collected posthumously in A Prospectof The Sea.

Fern Hill, [DTO p118]: Originally from the collection Deaths And Entrances (1946).

Holiday Memory, [DTO p295]: Originally BBC Wales Broadcast 25 October 1946, Published in The Listener November 1946,collected posthumously in Quite Early One Morning (1954).

The Fight, [DTO p189]: Originally first published in Life and Letters Today, December 1939, collected in Portrait ofthe Artist as a Young Dog (1940).

Lesson 1: Hunchback in the Park (Key Stage 4).

Aims: To providean opportunity to assess group and individual oralperformance.

Possible Outcomes: Greater awareness of the poet’s use of imagery and understandingof how to report back to an audience.

Text: Hunchback in the Park.

Lesson Plans: Explain that there are 3 viewpoints in the poem; the poet’s, thehunchback’s and the boy’s. Ask groups of pupils to discuss how and when the viewpoints alter.

Recap on the key elements of a video; camera shots, sounds, use ofcolour etc.

Set the groups the task of making a video of the poem, withoutusing a voiceover. The order of the original may be altered but allthe ideas/images must be included. Assess the process talk.

Choose one member of the group to report back to the class andassess this as an individual extended contribution.


Key Stage 3, 4 & 5



Lesson 2: The Followers (Key Stages 3 & 4).

Aims: To develop drama, media and descriptive skills.

Possible Outcomes: Prediction, group drama, storyboard and description.

Text: Opening section of the short story The Followers.

Lesson Plans: Using an interactive whiteboard or acetate copy of the opening ofthe story up to ‘it was the saddest evening I had ever known,’ allowthe class to read the extract together a few lines at a time, sharingideas of what might follow. Look back at the clues, which couldhave led to the concluding line.

In small groups ask the pupils to form a ‘sculpture’, or ‘freezeframe’, of different moments in the piece.

Remind the class of the different types of camera shots used by filmand TV directors. Talk about the importance of sound effects andlighting in creating mood and atmosphere. It may be helpful to usefilm trailers, as examples.

In pairs, ask the class to storyboard the opening of the story, notingcamera shots, sound effects and lighting.

Individually, the pupils could then be asked to produce, in writing, a description of a scene with a contrasting mood to the one studiedand to follow it up with a further storyboard.


Key Stage 3, 4 & 5



Lesson 3: Fern Hill (Key Stage 5).

Aims: To increase understanding of Dylan Thomas’s skill as a poet.

Possible Outcomes: Paired oral work and individual autobiographical writing.

Text: Fern Hill.

Lesson Plans: Provide each pair with a green, red and blue highlighter pen.

Ask each pair to annotate the poem, highlighting references toyouth and nature in green, red for references of joy (includingsounds), and blue for the passing of time.

Discuss their findings and further understanding of the poem. Givethem the example of line 6 – ‘I felt as important and honoured as aprince when I sat on the wagons, surrounded by apple trees as tallas the buildings of a town.’

Compare their paraphrases with the original lines, moving to adiscussion of what has been gained and lost.

As individuals instruct them to consider their own childhoods and toattempt to capture elements of them in words.


Key Stage 3, 4 & 5



Lesson 4: Holiday Memory (Key Stage 3).

Aims: Language study and an awareness of various formats.

Possible Outcomes: Short descriptive pieces, poetry and postcards.

Text: Holiday Memory.

Lesson Plans: Using the opening paragraph devise a cloze exercise, omitting keydescriptive words such as slap, tickle, fanfare, dancing, rolling larketc. Ask the class to try and fill the gaps.

Discuss their suggestions and then look at Thomas’s original choiceof words. Draw their attention to his word play, invention, use ofalliteration etc.

Use the first part of the story as a framework for their own writing, e.g.

I remember the ……….

I remember ……….ing ……….

I remember a ………. (person)

Arrange the class into groups. Ask them to prepare, practise andperform for the rest of the class a group reading from ‘There wasno need……’ to ‘….. beautiful beach’.

Ask the pupils to read the two paragraphs beginning respectively ‘I remember the smell of the sea…’ and ‘And the noise…’. Discusstogether the importance of the smells and sounds here.

In pairs the pupils could proceed to turn the two paragraphs intopoetry.

After reading to the end of the story, pupils could research into thestyle of postcards at the time and design and write Dylan’spostcards to his grandfather and/or friend.


Key Stage 3, 4 & 5



Lesson 5: The Fight (Key Stage 3)

Aims: Response to literature

Possible Outcomes: Greater understanding of subtext. Non-fictional response toliterature.

Text: The beginning of ‘The Fight’ – the first page and a half, up to ‘toshow the bloodstains’.

Lesson Plans: Produce worksheets containing the following questions:

Read the first paragraph

1. Write down two reasons why Dylan Thomas is standing outside Mr. Samuels House. (2 marks).

2. Write down two ways in which Mr. Samuels reacted to Dylan Thomas standing there. (2 marks).

Read up to ‘bloodstains’

3. What impression do you get of the ‘strange boy’? Give clear reasons for your answer. (4 marks).

Read to the end of the passage

4. How does the writer (Dylan Thomas) build an impression of whathe was like as a young boy?

Think about…• His deliberate actions to annoy Mr. Samuels• His reaction to the strange boy• His feelings about their injuries• His imagination (11 marks)

Ask the pupils to answer the questions and then mark according to the scheme below:

1. He wants to annoy him and he is waiting for a reaction.

2. He tries to ignore him, but is getting cross (the newspaper is trembling and he is breathing heavily).

3. He is a nuisance/trouble/likes fighting. He is also a good/experienced fighter. He has no reason for the fight. He exaggerates. He is proud.

4. Dylan Thomas is patient, rude, likes a challenge, aggressive/violent, likes attention and impressing the girls, snobbish and has a vivid imagination.

Non fiction writing – write a newspaper report of the fight.

Documents

Prepared by Claire Argyle. Key Stage 3, 4 & 5 Teacher’s Pack 1 for teaching Dylan Thomas Prepared by Claire Argyle. Key Stage 3, 4 & 5 Lesson 4: Holiday Memory (Key Stage 3). Aims: