Literature Study Post-16 II

Activities with student teachers

Activities addressing contexts

Timeline activity – students look at a range of statements on cards relating to events before/during/after writing of text to be studies. Students (pairs/groups) research a few events each and then as a class pool findings to create a timeline. Before reading discuss which events might play a part in the writing. During reading, annotate timeline with key contextual links to text (can be an individual timeline in books or a class timeline on a wall).

Examine cultural artefacts of the period – e.g. paintings, photographs, newspaper pages, architecture, film. Facsimiles of newspapers dating back to early 1800s can de downloaded from websites; ITN/Pathe archive website can give access to downloadable newsreel dating back to WW1

Individual/pair/group seminars on specific historical/cultural/social contexts around texts -e.g. on King Lear, different groups present on Elizabethan notions of Kingship, sources of the play. Or different groups present on different aspects of Romantic Age – political events, philosophy, religion, revolutions, etc... Presentations done to brief.

Pairs given a single year before/during writing of the text under consideration. Research and present key events of the year (in a 'I Love 1838' style)

Contents