Starter quiz
- What language feature is seen in the following sentence? 'As the fire blazes, Holmes puts down his violin.'
- complex sentence ✓
- fronted adverbial of place
- semi-colon
- rhetorical question
-
- A semi-colon can be used to ...
- join two closely-related sentences. ✓
- join a main clause and a subordinate clause.
- separate a fronted adverbial from the rest of a sentence.
-
- After which word could the semi-colon be placed in the following sentence? 'Holmes sat by his desk Watson was in an armchair close to the roaring fire.'
- sat
- desk ✓
- armchair
- was
-
- Which of these sentences could be joined by a semi-colon?
- Holmes takes a seat at his desk. ✓
- The sound of a violin issues from within the house.
- Watson takes a sip from his drink. ✓
- There is thick smog above the city.
-
- What features are seen in the following sentence? 'On the street, the cobbles shine in the light of the gas lamp; from inside, the sound of a violin can be heard.'
- fronted adverbials of place ✓
- historical context ✓
- complex sentence
- semi-colon ✓
-
- Which of these sentences could include a semi-colon?
- On the desk there was a pile of leather-bound books.
- On the desk there was a pile of books on the wall a clock ticked. ✓
- On the desk there was a pile of books that were leather-bound.
-
Exit quiz
- If you make something explicit, you are making it ...
- difficult.
- clear. ✓
- confusing.
- complicated.
-
- What inferences can we make from the following description? 'Holmes barely looked up when I walked in, so engrossed was he in his work.'
- Holmes can be rude. ✓
- Holmes is kind.
- Holmes is single-minded. ✓
- Holmes is friendly.
-
- What character trait is shown in the following description? 'Holmes ordered the man to leave Baker Street immediately.'
- diffident
- presumptuous
- assertive ✓
- shrewd
-
- What character trait is shown in the following description? 'Holmes deduced from the woman's appearance that she had been riding in a dog-cart.'
- diffident
- presumptuous
- unflappable
- shrewd ✓
-
- Match the words to their definitions.
- presumptuous⇔over-confident or possibly rude ✓
- diffident⇔modest and shy ✓
- assertive⇔confident ✓
- unflappable⇔calm under pressure ✓
- Which description shows that Holmes is 'presumptuous'?
- Holmes stands by Watson's bed at seven in the morning, waking him up. ✓
- Holmes tells someone he does not want to take on a case.
- Holmes is not upset when he is told about a shocking crime.
-
Worksheet
Loading worksheet ...
Presentation
Loading presentation ...
Lesson Details
Key learning points
- A text gives us clues about a character's features and feelings.
- Some text clues about a character are explicit and some text clues about a character use subtext.
- We can infer a character's traits by examining their behaviour.
- Sherlock Holmes is a complex character.
- 'Shrewd', 'unflappable', 'presumptuous' and 'assertive' are words that can be used to describe Sherlock Holmes.
Common misconception
Pupils may struggle with some of the complex character trait vocabulary.
Use the vocabulary pictures to tell a very short story about how what the character is doing reflects the word - or choose your own images which do this in another way if you prefer.
Keywords
Explicit - clear and exact
Subtext - a hidden or less obvious meaning
Character traits - the special qualities that make a character in a story unique and interesting
Inference - a conclusion drawn from information and evidence in a text
+