S2 Homework Task - December
The Novel
S2 Homework Task - December
Checklist
Section A
Activity 1
Importance of novels
Activity 6
Setting
Activity 2
Type of Book (Genre)
Activity 7
Conflict
Activity 3
Theme
Activity 4
Character
Activity 5
Plot
Section B
Activity 1
Produce study cards
Learning Intentions:
Curriculum for Excellence
‘Experiences and Outcomes’
• I can read for enjoyment and interest and
express how I feel about my choice of text.
• I can recognise ways in which the writer creates
character/setting.
• I can recognise and talk about the theme of the
writing.
• I can use strategies and resources to spell my
words accurately.
• I can use punctuation to make the meaning of my
sentences clear.
• I can structure and arrange my sentences to
make their meaning clear.
• I can use paragraphs.
LIT 3-11a
LIT 3-19a
LIT 3-21a
LIT 3-22a
Section A – A Close Look at Novels
There are 7 activities to complete in
Section A.
1. Why novels are important.
2. Genre
3. Theme
4. Character
5. Plot
6. Setting
7. Conflict
As well as looking closely at the novel you
are studying in class, you are also
learning the skill of good note-taking.
You should use ‘study cards’ to record
the information that you are being
asked to think about and write down.
This month we are looking at why novels 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
similar in the way it
has been written (style
and form) and what it’s
about (subject
matter.)
Example GENRES
• Fiction
• Non-Fiction
•
•
•
•
Thriller
Gothic
Realism
Romance
•
•
•
•
What makes a GENRE?
•
•
•
•
Recognisable setting
Stereotyped characters
Typical plot
Style of language
Fantasy
Science Fiction
Horror
Autobiography
Favourite Children’s Book:
The Hard Boys – ‘The Tower Treasure’
Favourite Genre:
Detective
Jonny Evans
Manchester United FC
(click to watch clip)
Favourite Book:
‘Dracula’, by Bram Stoker
Favourite Genre:
Horror
Joey Barton
Q.P.R.
(click to watch clip)
Section A - Activity 2
•
•
•
•
Think about your class novel.
What genre is it?
Is this a genre that you particularly enjoy?
Why?
Theme
Theme:
The central idea (or ideas)
explored by a piece of
literature.
Example Themes
• Desire to Escape
• Reunion
• Growing Up
• Evils of Racism
• Darkness and Light
• Honour and Valour
• Love
• Loneliness
• Selfishness
Section A - Activity 2.a
Match the THEME to each book
Story about a boy who learns he is a wizard on his
eleventh birthday.
Adventure
Children’s Classic
Story about girl who pretends to have a much more
glamorous life than the one she really has living in a
children’s home.
Story about an unhappy and sickly ten year old who gets better
when she learns to grow plants in a locked and forgotten garden.
Realist
Fantasy
Story about 14 year old spy who works for
British Secret Service, MI6.
Now match the GENRE to each book
Section A - Activity 3
A book can have a lot of different themes.
• Note down what theme(s) there are in your class novel.
• Why do you think the writer chose to write about this particular theme?
• Is it like your life in anyway?
Character
Character:
An imaginary person
represented in a work of
fiction.
Character properties
Appearance:
Good Characters are:
• Looks like
• Believable
• Dresses like
• Memorable
Thoughts and Conversation:
• Grow or change over time
• What the character says/feels
• What other characters say about the character
Actions
• What the character does/does not do
• What others in the story do to the main character
Sherlock Holmes
Friend and colleague, Dr Watson tells us:
“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.”
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by
author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
A London-based "consulting detective”, 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.
“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, and his thin, hawk-like nose gave his
whole expression an air of alertness and
decision.”
Harry Potter
Harry James Potter is the title character (protagonist) of
J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. The books' plot covers
seven years in the life of the orphan Potter, who, on his
eleventh birthday, learns he is a wizard.
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 his fate is tied with that of Lord
Voldemort, the internationally feared Dark Wizard and
murderer of his mother and father.
Favourite Book:
‘Philosopher’s Stone’
Wayne Rooney
Footballer (Man. UTD)
“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.”
Anne Frank
Extract from The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The Diary of a Young Girl (also known as The Diary of
Anne Frank) is a book of the diary kept by Anne Frank
while she was in hiding for two years with her family
during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
The Jewish family was discovered in 1944 and Anne
Frank ultimately died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp.
The diary has now been published in more than 60
different languages.
Favourite Book:
‘Diary of a Young Girl’
Natalie Portman
Actress
Wednesday, 5 April 1944
My 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
Ann Frank – died in a
concentration camp
aged 15
Section A - Activity 4
Note down the main character(s) from your class novel.
Who was your favourite character and why?
Did you find yourself identifying with any of the characters?
In what way?
Describe your character using a ‘character sketch’
diagram like this
Plot
Plot:
The events that make
up a story (what
happens in the story.)
Plot properties
•
•
•
•
•
•
Opening
Rising Action
Exciting or impressive event (climax)
Falling Action
Final part where strands are pulled together (denouement).
Happy/Unhappy ending
Plot Examples
•
•
•
•
•
•
A Hero’s Quest
Adventure
Escape
Love
Discovery
Revenge/Rivalry
JAWS
The shark is killed
Brody paddles back
to shore
Section A - Activity 5
Summarise (or produce a timeline) of the plot of your class novel.
or
Setting
Setting:
Where (location) and
when (timeframe) the
action takes place.
The Hobbit
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.
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 hobbithole, 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, diningrooms, 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.”
War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds (1898), is a science fiction novel by H.
G. Wells. Written in 1895–97,it is one of the earliest stories
about a conflict between mankind and an extra-terrestrial
race.
Chapter 3
I found a little crowd of perhaps twenty people
surrounding the huge hole in which the cylinder
lay. I have already described the appearance of
that colossal bulk, embedded 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 barrowload of green apples and ginger beer.
Example Settings
•
•
•
•
Future Earth (or Space)
Historical
Present Day
Fantasy Land
Setting properties
• Physical
• Time
• Societal
Section A - Activity 6
Note down where and when your class 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 anywhere?
Perhaps it is somewhere you like or dislike?
Conflict
Conflict:
The struggle that takes
place within a character’s
mind or between a character
and outside forces (usually
between the protagonist and
the antagonist).
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 make their own rules 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?”
Favourite Book:
‘Lord of the Flies’
Steven King
Author (Horror)
(click to watch clip)
Example Conflicts
•
•
•
•
•
Man versus Man
Man versus Self
Man versus Society
Man versus Technology
Man versus Nature
Conflict properties
• 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 –
Hand in your study cards
Section B - Activity 1
End of Section B
S2 Homework Task - December
Checklist
Section A
Activity 1
Importance of books
Activity 6
Setting
Activity 2
Genre
Activity 7
Conflict
Activity 3
Theme
Activity 4
Character
Activity 5
Plot
Section B
Activity 1
Hand in your study cards
End of homework