Biography and Autobiography - Lesson 7 - Captain Hardcastle PowerPoint

In Lesson 7 of the series on biography and autobiography, students delve into the character of Captain Hardcastle from a Roald Dahl chapter. The objective of the lesson is to distinguish between description, dialogue, and action within a narrative, and to understand how these elements are used by authors to present characters to readers. Students are encouraged to read to the end of the chapter 'Captain Hardcastle' and explore the methods Dahl employs to reveal the character's traits. The lesson prompts students to form initial impressions of Captain Hardcastle, asking them to consider whether he comes across as a hero or a villain based on the text, and to identify the words and phrases Dahl uses to craft this impression.

The lesson further challenges students to match terms with their definitions, ensuring they understand that description pertains to how the character looks, feels, and behaves, dialogue is what the character says, and action is what the character does. Through examining quotations from the text, students analyze how description, dialogue, and action suggest certain qualities about Captain Hardcastle. They are then tasked with writing a paragraph that explains how these narrative elements contribute to the reader's understanding of the character, using sentence starters provided to help structure their analysis. To conclude the lesson, students share their paragraphs with the group, discussing and debating their interpretations of Captain Hardcastle's character.