Starter quiz
- Which war ended in 1945?
- World War One
- World War Two ✓
- The Cold War
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- Which of the below is *not* a verb?
- fall
- hit
- collapse
- power ✓
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- What is a cellist?
- someone who plays the cello ✓
- a singer accompanying a band
- someone who composes music to be performed with bass instruments
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- What does it mean to analyse?
- to make sense of a text
- to give your judgement about how well a writer does something
- to unpick a text and find patterns ✓
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- If something has great velocity, what does it have?
- high speed ✓
- huge weight
- great height
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- Why might something become charred?
- it has been exposed to fire ✓
- it has been trampled upon
- it has not been touched in a while
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Exit quiz
- In 'The Cellist of Sarajevo', where does the cellist live?
- Dresden
- Sarajevo ✓
- Italy
- Venice
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- When is 'The Cellist of Sarajevo' set?
- 1945
- 1990s ✓
- 17th century
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- What is interesting about the way Galloway structures the opening paragraph of 'The Cellist of Sarajevo'?
- The pace and order of sentences mirrors the course of the weapon falling. ✓
- The writer only uses complex sentences to withhold information for longer.
- The writer zooms into the cellist's perspective of the destruction.
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- What story seems to permeate the opening three paragraphs of 'The Cellist of Sarajevo'?
- the cellist playing music as a child
- the cellist sheltering from an attack
- the restoration of a charred musical manuscript ✓
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- What is it important to do when analysing a text?
- pick out language techniques
- ask yourself why a writer made certain stylistic decisions ✓
- find at least five quotations
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- Why might Galloway have used the verbs "screamed", "splitting" and "exploded" to describe the way the weapon falls in 'The Cellist of Sarajevo'?
- to emphasise how it had the power to destroy everything in the citizens' lives ✓
- to emphasise the hope of the citizens
- to emphasise the universality of the brutality of war
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Worksheet
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Presentation
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Video
Lesson Details
Key learning points
- The theme of hope permeates the opening of 'The Cellist of Sarajevo'.
- Galloway uses powerful verbs to describe the weapon's destruction.
- Galloway structures the opening paragraph of his novel to mirror the way in which the weapon falls.
- Galloway may have purposely omitted details in his opening to universalise his message.
- When we analyse a text, we must consider why a writer chose to make a particular decision.
Common misconception
Students may be confused about when the extract is taking place or what war the extract is about as it references multiple moments of time.
The novel opening takes place during the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s. However, the reference to the aftermath of WW2 is significant in universalising the themes and messages of the novel.
Keywords
Besiege - surround a place with armed forces in order to capture it or force its surrender
Permeate - spread through and be present in every part
Core - the basic and most important part of something
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