The Highwayman - Lesson 8 - Deduction Skills PowerPoint

In Lesson 8, focused on 'The Highwayman' by Alfred Noyes, students are taught to enhance their deduction skills. The lesson's objectives are twofold: to learn how to deduce information from a text and to analyse how the author builds tension, particularly in stanzas 10 to 13 of the poem. The lesson begins with an activity designed to demonstrate that perception can vary from person to person, which is a crucial concept in deduction. Students are presented with two lines and asked to determine which is longer, thus illustrating that different interpretations can arise from the same piece of information.

Building on this understanding of perception, students are then encouraged to look at an image and discuss what they think has happened, using evidence from the picture to support their deductions. This exercise prepares them for the main task where they read specific stanzas of 'The Highwayman' and identify examples of description, dialogue, and action. They use these examples to deduce what may happen next in the narrative. For instance, from the intense description of Bess bound with a musket, students can infer the danger she is in and the possible outcomes of her predicament. The plenary session invites students to discuss their deductions with a partner, exploring why there may be differences in their conclusions, thereby reinforcing the lesson's focus on deduction and interpretation.