As part of their English Literature classes, Year 6 has just recently finished reading John Boyne’s: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. The novel falls into the historical fiction genre, thus the context of the story is centered on some of the atrocities committed during World War 2. This has been an excellent complement to our history lessons too, which has also focused on different aspects of this war.
Having a sound grasp of the contextual features of the novel has enabled Year 6 to develop more critical approaches to studying plot developments, themes and characters present in the text. Boyne’s novel contains many heroes and villains, and the Year 6 students have enjoyed getting to grips with how Boyne has presented them on paper; through physicality and personality.
To analyse characters critically, the students have focused on how characters respond to different situations; how they speak to others; what others say about them; what thoughts and feelings they reveal about themselves; their actions and so forth. With this in mind, literature lessons have focused heavily on characterisation. This has allowed the children to understand more thoroughly, how authors construct fictional characters; and how they all have important roles in driving the action of a story forward.
Take a look at some of the included photos with this blog. You will see physical sketches of the principal characters in the book along with key words which represent the type of characters they are. In addition to this, you will see quotations which have been lifted directly from the text to support the points the students have made.
Such a great and advanced job Year 6!
