An Introduction to Charles Dickens and Oliver Twist
In this lesson, we will introduce the author of 'Oliver Twist': Charles Dickens. We will also study the description of Oliver's birth from Chapter 1.
Unit Overview: Oliver Twist: Oliver and the Workhouse
For next step we recommend the unit: Oliver Twist: Oliver Heads to London.
For next step we recommend the unit: Contemporary Short Stories (2/2): Sweetness by Toni Morrison.
Lessons:
4 lessons
Oliver Appears Before the Workhouse Board
In this lesson, we will witness the nine-year-old Oliver Twist meet the intimidating workhouse board. He will analyse how Dickens makes the reader feel towards Oliver in this scene.
Oliver Asks For More
In this lesson, we will look at how Dickens was a social critic. In our reading, Oliver is selected for a risky task - he must ask for more gruel from the workhouse master. We will then analyse what social problems Dickens is critiquing through this scene.
Oliver Runs Away
In this lesson, we will see how Oliver loses his temper and makes a life-changing decision to run away. We will also explore how Mr. and Mrs. Bumble treat Oliver.
Units in English
- The Oral Tradition
- Epic Poetry
- The Canterbury Tales: 'General Prologue'
- The Refugee Tales: 'Prologue', ed. Anna Pincus and David Herd
- The Canterbury Tales: 'The Knight's Tale', Chaucer
- Telling Tales, Patience Agbabi
- A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare (Introduction and Act 1)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare (Act 2)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare (Act 3)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare (Act 4&5)
- Contemporary Short Stories (1/2): The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
- Contemporary Short Stories (2/2): Sweetness by Toni Morrison
- Introduction to poetry
- The sonnet through time: Introduction to the sonnet
- The sonnet through time: 'Sonnet 18', Shakespeare
- The sonnet through time: 'Death, be not proud', Donne
- The sonnet through time: 'If thou must love me', Barrett-Browning
- The sonnet through time: 'If we must die', Claude McKay
- The sonnet through time: 'The sonnet-ballad', Gwendolyn Brooks
- Creative writing: short stories
- Creative writing: poetry
- Recapping the basics: simple sentences, statements, paragraphs, capital letters and past simple verbs
- Complex sentences, avoiding fragments and run-ons, capital letters
- Past simple tense, subordinate clauses, punctuating conjunctions and lists
- Writing accurate, correctly punctuated and paragraphed dialogue, using personal pronouns
- Avoiding fragments, fused sentences and comma splices. Using capital letters and writing in the past tense. Using multiple subordinate clauses, punctuating lists correctly when in a complex sentence.
- Paragraphing narratives for clarity, using possessive pronouns, using apostrophes accurately, structuring, writing and editing genre-specific narratives
- Introduction to Tragedy
- Julius Caesar, Shakespeare, Act 1
- Julius Caesar, Shakespeare, Act 2
- Julius Caesar, Shakespeare, Act 3
- Julius Caesar, Shakespeare, Act 4 and 5
- Romantic poetry and paired texts: Introduction to the Romantics
- Romantic poetry and paired texts: Romanticism and Nature
- Romantic poetry and paired texts: Nature poetry
- Romantic poetry and paired texts: Romanticism and Revolution
- Romantic poetry and paired texts: Revolutionary and Protest poetry
- Oliver Twist: Oliver and the Workhouse
- Oliver Twist: Oliver Heads to London
- Oliver Twist: Oliver is Caught
- Oliver Twist: Oliver, Bill & The Maylies
- Oliver Twist: Oliver and the Consequences
- Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid
- Creative writing: memoir
- Rhetoric: Introduction to rhetoric
- Rhetoric: Injustice: Pankhurst & Sojourner Truth
- Rhetoric: Change: Michelle Obama & Lennie James
- Rhetoric: Motivate: Churchill & Gandhi
- Rhetoric: Writing rhetoric
- Shakespearean Comedy - The Tempest
- Language Skills - Fiction - Reading
- Language Skills - Fiction - Writing
- Language Skills - Non-Fiction - Reading
- Language Skills - Non-Fiction - Writing
- Grammar for Writing
- The Short Story
- Gothic Literature
- Fiction: Reading and descriptive writing
- Non-Fiction texts and view point writing
- Jane Eyre
- Animal Farm
- Paragraphing non-fiction writing, including presenting a balanced argument