creative lesson plan

Creative Lesson Plan

One relatively interesting lesson plan I have conducted so far is with Secondary Two students for The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, focusing on the characterisation of Bruno and Father. For the hook activity, I created character identity cards with blanks that students had to fill in: this allowed students to consolidate their knowledge of the characters’ superficial traits. The main activity comprised two parts: in the first part, students had to complete a worksheet in pairs where they had to sketch in their impressions of each character based on a blank human template, and circle corresponding character traits from a list of character traits that they think best describe the character. On the alternate side of the worksheet, students had to then match the traits they have circled to quotations from the book: this was supposed to help them perform some sort of close-reading in a scaffolded manner. A couple of students/pairs were then selected to showcase what they have drawn and what traits they have picked out. The second part of the main activity, on the other hand, comprised a short dramatization based on an important scene in the book: three students were selected for the skit, and the class had to then reflect on some questions after the dramatization. On the whole, this lesson was relatively successful because it was very learner-centred: there was a lot of pair activity and discussion rather than frontal teaching, which made it more interactive and less dry. Furthermore, the activities were scaffolded, and thus students were able to engage with the tasks on their own with no major issues.