Skellig Lesson 7: Mysterious Girl - PowerPoint

In Lesson Seven of the 'Skellig' series by David Almond, students are invited to delve deeper into the character of Mina. The objective of the lesson is to consolidate students' understanding of Mina's character through a series of engaging activities. After reading to the end of Chapter 9, students are prompted to reflect on their initial impressions of Mina, considering the words and phrases that best describe her. This exercise encourages students to think critically about the character and the literary techniques used to bring her to life.

The lesson explores the concept that authors create characters through a combination of description, dialogue, and action. Students are tasked with matching these terms to their correct definitions, thus enhancing their literary analysis skills. They are then asked to review Chapter 9 with a focus on Mina, completing a table that helps them identify quotations and categorise them as description, dialogue, or action, and to consider what these elements suggest about her character. The activity culminates in writing a paragraph that analyses how David Almond uses these techniques to present Mina to the reader, with sentence starters provided to aid in structuring their responses. The lesson concludes with a plenary where volunteers read out their paragraphs and receive constructive feedback, further refining their understanding and critical thinking skills.