War Horse Lesson 11: Happy Together - PowerPoint

Lesson Eleven of the 'War Horse' series by Michael Morpurgo, titled 'Happy Together', is an interactive session that aims to deepen students' understanding of the narrative and its characters. The lesson starts with a recap exercise where students fill out a table detailing the characters and key events from chapters 11 to 16. This consolidation activity serves as a foundation for the subsequent tasks. Next, students are tasked with reading and discussing chapters 17 and 18, with a focus on the emotional states of the characters at this juncture of the story. The objective is to encourage students to empathise with the characters and consider the impact of the story's events on their feelings and actions.

The core activity of the lesson involves a 'hot-seat' exercise, where students are divided into groups and assigned roles as different characters from the novel or as questioners. The characters included for this activity are Joey, Albert, Major Martin, David, and Sergeant Thunder. Each group member, either as a character or a questioner, participates in an in-depth discussion, answering and challenging questions to reveal a deeper understanding of the characters' perspectives and motivations. The lesson plan provides suggested questions to initiate this dialogue, such as asking Albert about his reasons for enlisting in the army or probing Sergeant Thunder's public versus private persona. The session culminates in a plenary where groups can perform their hot-seating to the class, allowing for audience interaction and further exploration of the characters' complexities.