Skellig Lesson 17: Dr Death - PowerPoint

In Lesson Seventeen of the 'Skellig' series by David Almond, the objective is to delve into character analysis and explore how writers present their characters to the readers. The lesson begins with an interactive activity where students are presented with various characters and must decide whether they perceive them as 'good guys' or 'bad guys.' This exercise encourages students to articulate their reasoning, acknowledging that there are no definitive right or wrong answers when interpreting characters.

The lesson continues with a reading session, where students read up to the end of Chapter 32 of 'Skellig' and engage in a group discussion about the plot, characters, imagery, and themes within the text. Following the reading, students focus on the character known as Dr Death, noting the specific words and phrases used by the protagonist, Michael, to describe him. This leads to a writing task where students are asked to write an analytical page in their books, explaining how Almond presents Dr Death to the reader, with provided sentence starters to guide their analysis. The lesson concludes with a plenary where volunteers read out their work, and the class offers constructive feedback, focusing on the strengths of the analysis and areas for improvement.