Ideas for Key Stages 3 and 4: English
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Research and study skills
Pupils should be taught to:
- know how to locate resources for a given task, and find relevant
information in them, e.g. skimming, use of index, glossary, key words,
hotlinks; The
Lord of the Rings offers opportunities to use a variety of resource location
tools; the appendices are particularly interesting. Tasks: skimming: finding
recurrent use of images index: finding minor characters
- use appropriate reading strategies to extract particular information,
e.g. highlighting, scanning; The size of The Lord of the Rings makes
reading strategies demonstrably useful.
- compare and contrast the ways information is presented in different forms,
e.g. web page, diagrams, prose; A comparison between the original books
and Peter Jackson's film adaptation reveals many differences.
- make brief, clearly-organised notes of key points for later use; Again,
the length of the work makes this demonstrably useful.
- appraise the value and relevance of information found and acknowledge
sources; There are many web sites about Tolkien, and many critical works
which are accessible to young people at this level. These can be compared
and contrasted.
Reading for meaning
- adopt active reading approaches to engage with and make sense
of texts , e.g. visualising, predicting, empathising and relating to own
experience;
Pupils can be encouraged to practice these skills with the simple
and accessible text which begins The Lord of the Rings, to more challenging
text, such as the Death of Boromir.
- identify the main points, processes or ideas in a text and how they are
sequenced and developed by the writer; This can be done both at the macro
and micro level. Pupils could be encouraged to summarise, develop time lines,
and map the development of imagery.
- infer and deduce meanings using evidence in the text, identifying where
and how meanings are implied; Tolkien's use of language makes The Lord
of the Rings a particularly good example to teach about meaning. Tom Shippey's
critical work, particularly The Road to Middle-Earth could be summarised
for pupils, and given to more able pupils.
- distinguish between the views of the writer and those expressed by others
in the text, e.g. the narrator, quoted experts, characters; The Council
of Elrond is a particularly good scene to discuss viewpoint.
- identify how media texts are tailored to suit their audience, and recognise
that audience responses vary, e.g. popular websites; A comparison between
Tolkien's texts and Jackson's film, or between various Tolkien websites
could be used here.
- recognise how print, sounds and still or moving images combine to create
meaning; A discussion of the opening of Jackson's The Fellowship of
the Ring could be used here.
Understanding the author's craft
- comment, using appropriate terminology on how writers convey setting,
character and mood through word choice and sentence structure; Contrasting
pairs of characters, such as Aragorn and Boromir, or Legolas and Gimli.
Contrasting scenes, such as the dream-sequences.
- identify, using appropriate terminology the way writers of non- fiction
match language and organisation to their intentions, e.g. in campaign material;
A comparison between various Tolkien sites, including the scholarly,
film-advertising and so on.
- recognise how writers' language choices can enhance meaning, e.g. repetition,
emotive vocabulary, varied sentence structure or line length, sound effects;
The Lord of the Rings is a particularly rich source of such effects.
- trace the ways in which a writer structures a text to prepare a reader
for the ending, and comment on the effectiveness of the ending; Pupils could
skim to find out how the images used in the final chapter are introduced
and developed.
- distinguish between the attitudes and assumptions of characters and those
of the author; This could take the form of a comparison between the
mythology of Middle-earth and Tolkien's Roman Catholicism.
- Study of literary texts: read a range of recent fiction texts independently
as the basis for developing critical reflection and personal response,
e.g.
sharing views, keeping a reading journal;
- give a considered response to a play, as script, on screen or in performance,
focusing on interpretation of action, character and event; Pupils could
use Peter Jackson's films, the BBC dramatization, or put on their own play,
and reflect upon it.
- explore how form contributes to meaning in poems from different times
and cultures, e.g. storytelling in ballads; There are a wide variety
of poetic forms used in The Lord of the Rings; pupils could find their antecedents,
and compare how they are used there, and in the text.
- explore the notion of literary heritage and understand why some texts
have been particularly influential or significant. 'Comparable to Tolkien
at his best' - a sign of a bad fantasy novel? - Discuss! Pupils should also
be encouraged to find out about 'fantasy before Tolkien'.
