Starter quiz
- Who was Wilfred Owen?
- a poet ✓
- a soldier in WWI ✓
- a soldier in WWII
- Ian Beck's grandfather
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- Through his war poetry, Wilfred Owen wanted to show what about fighting in the war to his readers?
- that it was worth the sacrifice to fight for England
- that fighting in the war was violent and brutal ✓
- that lives lost fighting in the war were wasted
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- How the author of a text feels about the subject matter is known as...
- interpretation
- methods
- tone ✓
-
- To analyse something is to...
- examine it in great detail ✓
- give a brief overview of it
- to give a definition of the meaning of it
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- Having or expressing devotion to and support for one's country is to be ______.
- 'patriotic' ✓
- Many soldiers who fought in World War One experienced ______. In modern times we would refer to this condition as PTSD.
- 'shell shock' ✓
Exit quiz
- Match the keywords on the right to their definitions on the left.
- nonfiction⇔writing that is factual rather than made up ✓
- gist⇔the main idea or essence of something, often brief and simplified ✓
- tone⇔a writer’s attitude or emotional stance; encompasses the mood ✓
- ______ and scanning a text involves quickly reading something, and gathering its main ideas and overall tone.
- 'skimming' ✓
- ______ involves carefully considering a writer’s methods and their effects.
- 'close reading' ✓
- The aims of close reading include:
- selecting some words, images or phrases
- understanding shifts in tone ✓
- understanding the overall tone
- understanding the finer points ✓
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- Which reading approach best helps you understand the gist of a text?
- skimming and scanning ✓
- close reading
- making predictions
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- Wilfred Owen wrote a letter to his mother in 1917 in which he described "Those fifty hours were the ______ of my happy life".
- 'agony' ✓
Worksheet
Presentation
Video
Lesson Details
Key learning points
- Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) was a British poet and soldier.
- Owen is best known for his stark, unflinching and graphic poems about World War One.
- Making predictions about what a text might be about is a helpful preparatory step before reading something.
- Skimming and scanning a text involves quickly reading something, and gathering its main ideas and overall tone.
- Close reading involves carefully considering a writer’s methods and their effects.
Common misconception
Skimming and scanning means you just aren't reading a text properly.
Reading is a skill and, often it is good not to dive into its most difficult skill - analysis - immediately. Instead, giving yourself some time with the text, its title and overall ideas can allow for a deeper understanding in the long run.
Keywords
Nonfiction - writing that is factual rather than made up; the opposite of fiction
Skimming and scanning - the act of quickly reading over a text, gathering its keywords, tone and main ideas
Close reading - carefully, thoughtfully and slowly examining a text and considering the choices the writer made
Gist - the main idea or essence of something, often brief and in a simplified form
Tone - a writer’s attitude or emotional stance; encompasses the mood, feeling and overall atmosphere