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ROALD DAHL LESSON PLAN

THE LESSON FOCUSES ON READING FOR PLEASURE AND GETTING TO KNOW THE CULTURAL ASPECTS OF THE STUDIED LANGUAGE AND ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES. IT ALSO FOCUSES ON READING AND WRITING SKILLS SUCH AS READING COMPREHENSION, WRITING SKILLS AND VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

o Understand an unabridged literary text

o Investigate about a well known British Author

o Recall previous knowledge and experiences

o Critically reflect on old times customs and ethical choices

o Collaborate effectively by supporting and giving feedback

o Enjoy and appreciate reading literary texts for fun

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ACTIVITY 1

The teacher will show the first slide (see picture below) and present the first driving question to incite students to recall the books they read in Primary School. Sometimes they relate them to the films based on the books which they may have seen at home or at school as well. The teacher will encourage to participate as many students as possible by prompting the most quiet ones or the ones who don't remember at all to look at the picture in the slide, which contains many characters from Dahl's books to help them.

After giving the students 3 minutes to think about it, (or in pairs if they need to), the teacher will use this free and online tool to select the students:

. He/She will ask one student to come to the whiteboard and click on the wheel which will pick up a name at random until finished.

The teacher will use the information to ask the student about the plot, characters, their opinion about it in order to make them talk and interact with each other as much as possible, encouraging the gathering of information all together.

Material complementario

Slide 1

ACTIVITY 2

First of all, the teacher asks in plenary what they know or remember about the writer, making them guess about his nationality, likes or dislikes, if he is a modern author or an old fashioned one...4 minutes. Answers are written down on slide 3 for later checking.

Slide 2

In pairs, students elicit information about the author's biography by looking at the pictures that show many clues about Dahl's life. (10 minutes). Once the time is up, they discuss it in plenary each pair giving their reasons for and against to support their statements. Answers agreed in plenary are written down for latter checking on slide 4.

Slide 3
Slide 4

*Answers: He was in the Army, in the Royal Airforces in WWII.He was married to Patricial Neal, a Hollywood film star. He had two dogs. As a young boy, he was schooled at a Boarding School.He was a spy in WWII6. He had 5 children.

Group management and upcoming activities will be adapted depending on the outcome of each pair and individual participation in both activities.

ACTIVITY 3

Students are asked to work in groups of four. They will have four different texts with biographical information about Roald Dahl. Within the group they will decide to distribute it. This task will be done in class (12 minutes)

Their task will be to individually read, watch or listen Dahl's biography, take notes and prepare a questionnaire. Each student will make three questions or statements on these three categories: life, work, and curious facts in these formats: true or false, Wh-questions, unfinished sentences and multiple choice. This task will be set for homework.

The following day the group will select three questions and write them down on cards provided by the teacher. This activity can result in another one for a plenary session on following days and could be used as individual or group assessment. Another option is to ask them to prepare a questionnaire in

Afterwards, the teacher will exchange the quizzes among the groups for individual or group assessment.

At the end of the activity, each group will reflect on how well they distributed and carried out the tasks and the final outcome as individuals and as a group and they will suggest how to improve them. If cards are used to display the questions we can carry out a contest like

If the groups are asked to prepare a Goggle form we can ask each student to complete it and send it for review to the ones who created it (peer assessment) or to the teacher (individual assessment).

Prior to this, peer assessment and group assessment will take place as the activity is being developed as they have to make decisions based on correctness and accuracy of the questions or statements for the quiz.

ACTIVITY 4

The class will read out loud "Chocolates", one chapter form Dahl's autobiography: Boy. See Anex II.

After each paragraph, the students will ask about any vocabulary doubts they may have while the teacher will encourage peer help. The words will be explained in English, but mother language can be used when needed. Once this process is finished, the students will be asked to read it again by themselves and then they will answer the questions provided. In plenary students will discuss and debate each answer.

Most proficient students will provide help to weaker ones. The teacher will provide feedback to every intervening participant, stressing positive aspects and suggesting ways to improve their performance.

ANNEX II: Chocolates

Every now and again, a plain grey cardboard box was dished out to each boy in our *House (at a boarding school), and this, believe it or not, was a present from the great chocolate manufacturers, Cadbury. Inside the box there were twelve bars of chocolate, all of different shapes, all with different fillings and all with numbers from one to twelve stamped on the chocolate underneath. Eleven of these bars were new inventions from the factory. The twelfth was the "control" bar, one that we all knew well, usually a Cadbury's Coffee Cream bar. Also in the box was a sheet of paper with the numbers one to twelve on it as well as two blank columns, one for giving marks to each chocolate from nought to ten, and the other for comments.

All we were required to do in return for this splendid gift was to taste very carefully each bar of chocolate, give it marks and make an intelligent comment on why we liked it or disliked it. It was a clever stunt. Cadbury's were using some of the greatest chocolate-bar experts in the world to test out their new inventions. We were of a sensible age, between thirteen and eighteen, and we knew intimately every chocolate bar in existence, from the Milk Flake to the Lemon Marshmallow. Quite obviously our opinions on anything new would be valuable. All of us entered into this game with great gusto, sitting in our studies and nibbling each bar with the air of connoisseurs, giving our marks and making our comments. "Too subtle for the common palate," was one note that I remember writing down.

For me, the importance of all this was that I began to realize that the large chocolate companies actually did possess inventing rooms and they took their inventing very seriously. I used to picture a long white room like a laboratory with pots of chocolate and fudge and all sorts of other delicious fillings bubbling away on the stoves, while men and women in white coats moved between the bubbling pots, tasting and mixing and concocting their wonderful new inventions. I used to imagine myself working in one of these labs and suddenly I would come up with something so absolutely unbearably delicious that I would grab it in my hand and go rushing out of the lab and along the corridor and right into the office of the great Mr Cadbury himself. "I've got it, sir!" I would shout, putting the chocolate in front of him. "It's fantastic! It's fabulous! It's marvellous! It's irresistible!"

Slowly, the great man would pick up my newly invented chocolate and he would take a small bite. He would roll it round his mouth. Then all at once, he would leap up from his chair, crying, "You've got it! You've done it! It's a miracle!" He would slap me on the back and shout, "We'll sell it by the million! We'll sweep the world with this one! How on earth did you do it? Your salary is doubled!"

It was lovely dreaming those dreams, and I have no doubt at all that, thirty-five years later, when I was looking for a plot for my second book for children, I remembered those little cardboard boxes and the newly-invented chocolates inside them, and I began to write a book called _________________________ .

Boy, by Roal Dahl

*House: at a boarding school, like the four houses in Harry Potter's books.

1. Why did Cadbury, the chocolate company, gave away their new products to be tested in Roald Dahl's school? Do you think this practice continues nowadays? Why?

2. Can you guess the book that inspired Roald Dhal this experience?

3. Given the chance, what kind of processed drink or food would you like to test? Why?

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