Jenni Heeks
English
The Sandman Lesson 4: What makes a Monster?
Key Stage
3
Subject
English
Requirements
Copy of the film
Diamond 9 Template * number of tables
Lesson description
Students use the film ‘The Sandman’ as a springboard for discussion of what
makes a monster in the Gothic, before using this to either create or add depth
and detail to their own monsters.
Key words
Monsters.
Curriculum Links
Reading: Enhancing and deepening knowledge of a key concept of the Gothic
genre. Through monsters, looking at the idea of stereotypes and stock
characters and developing analytical skills to enable students to challenge, or
follow, these archetypes as appropriate.
Writing: Using deeper knowledge of the idea of ‘monsters’, and why something
is a monster, to consider more deeply creation of students’ own monsters in
producing their own creative texts.
Media literacy
opportunities
Students use the concept of the monster in The Sandman to look at what
makes a monster in the media and challenge stereotypes surround the popular
concept of ‘monsters’.
Lesson work summary
The lesson begins with a ranking exercise, whereby the students rank
characteristics of a monster in order of importance, and add any they think
are also important. This is followed by a whole class discussion, after which
students used the ideas discussed to create their own monster for their
puppet theatre piece of creative work, and a short descriptive piece about the
monster.
The end of the lesson discusses the classes’ monsters, and considers the idea
of ‘unexpected’ seen widely in the Gothic.
Lesson work value
This lesson contributes to a wider scheme of work, whereby students create
their own Monster Gothic story through puppetry.
This lesson, as well as developing students’ literacy skills, also asks them to
consider wider, relevant, societal questions about what makes a monster
(“monster” being a word that figures prolifically in the Red Top media) and
judging a being based on them looking ‘monstrous’.
OBJECTIVE
To understand the complexities of the question ‘What makes a monster?’ and
to use these complexities to create our own monsters.
TRAILER
Monsters!
Give out one ‘What Makes a Monster?’ Diamond 9 per table. Students have to
cut out the segments and rearrange the characteristics of a monster in order of
what they feel to be most important (which they place at the top of the
diamond) to the least (which they place at the bottom).
Ask students to think of any other characteristics that they think should have
been included, and make a note of them (in their heads, or on a post-it), for
later discussion.
Jenni Heeks
English
Once the students have finished this activity, conduct a whole-class discussion
covering the following points:
 Find out how the groups ordered the characteristics and why.
 Find out if there were any characteristics that students would have
added.
 Ask if students think there is a single (or more than a single)
characteristic that students absolutely have to have.
 Get students to think of examples for everything they argue a monster
‘is’.
MAIN ATTRACTION
Make your own.
Students now use the previous discussion to hone, or recreate, their monster
from their storyboard completed in lesson 2.
In order to do this, ask the students to do the following:
-
‘Design’ their monster and say why – they could be human or
otherwise, but students have to say why. Get the students to be specific
as possible.
In addition to this, get the students to add extra details:
How does the monster choose its victims?
What ‘weapons’ does it use?
Does it have any interesting habits?
What are its interests?
Where does it live?
Who does it live with?
What does it eat and drink?
Where does it sleep?
For every question, get the students to say why.
Finally, get the students to think about the effect on the audience: How do they
want the audience to feel about the monster and why? What about your
monster makes the audience feel this way?
END CREDITS
The Bigger Picture
Now students have created their own personal monster, explore the deeper
meaning behind ‘what makes a monster’ – in pairs or groups, get students to
discuss the question, ‘are monsters born or made?’
Discuss this as a class – link this to the idea of evil in The Sandman and the
Gothic, and ask students whether, in different circumstances, the ‘monster’ in
certain Gothic stories could be the ‘victim’ in others.
EXTRAS
Other Ideas


For the initial activity, ‘what makes a monster?’ you could get several pictures of
‘Monsters’ (Harold Shipman, Frankenstein etc) and ask students if they can work
out what links them all – they cannot say ‘monster’ though, they have to be
specific. Get them to think about the idea of perception; perhaps the only thing
that link all monsters is that people perceive them as that.
You could use the final thinking point of whether monsters are born or made as
a prompt for a lesson. Within this, you could consider and debate this question,
and get students to write a backstory for the Sandman himself, asking how he
came to plucking young children’s eyes out in the dead of night.
Jenni Heeks
English
Read
Gothic sagas…
Darren Shan – either the ‘Cirque Du Freak’ or ‘The Demonata’ series
Joseph Delaney – ‘The Wardstone Chronicles’ series
Derek Landy – ‘Skulduggery Pleasant’ series
Laini Taylor – ‘Daughter of Smoke and Bone’ series
Collections of Short Stories
Edward Gorey, ‘Amphigorey: 15 Books’ (1980)
Mick Jackson, ‘Ten Sorry Tales’ (2006)
Edgar Allan Poe, ‘Tales of Mystery and Madness’ (Illustrated, published 2004)
Edgar Allan Poe, ‘Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1908)
Watch
Animated Gothic…
Corpse Bride (dir. Tim Burton and Mike Johnson, 2005)
Coraline (dir. Henry Selick, 2009)
The Nightmare before Christmas (dir. Henry Selick, 1993)
Beauty and the Beast (dir. Kirk Wise, Gary Trousdale, 1991)
The Black Cauldron (dir. Ted Berman, Richard Rich, 1985)
The Curse of the Were Rabbit (dir. Nick Park, Steve Box, 2005)
Vincent (dir. Tim Burton, 1982)
Katy Towell’s Animated Shorts (all are good. Try ‘The Little Girl who was
Forgotten’, http://skary.com/portfolio/the-little-girl-who-was-forgotten/_)