Thursday's lesson

Review the author centred approach in the PowerPoint on Blackboard about the four approaches to reading. Do some research on your author and make notes. As you read, see if you can see any links between the author’s life and the work you are reading. We will come back to this next term so keep your notes safe. Go on reading if you have time.

Wednesday's lesson

Review the PowerPoint on Blackboard about traditional ways to analyse a novel. Set up a section of your notebook or a folder on your laptop/iPad with headings for each of the things you might want to make notes on - structure, narration etc. Go on reading your novel but stop with ten minutes to go in the lesson and make some notes. Characterisation is usually important early in a text so this might be a good place to start.

Monday's lesson

Re-write a section of the story “The Speckled Band” from Sherlock Holmes’ point of view as discussed in our last lesson. Post to your blog. Continue reading your novel, being aware of whether it is first or third person narration and the impact of this for the reader. Make some notes in your book about this so that you can discuss it with the class.

Thursday's lesson and homework

Agatha Christie's 1926 dedication in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is – “To Punkie who likes an orthodox detective story, murder, inquest, and suspicion falling on everyone in turn!”

 Is And Then There Were None an orthodox detective story? What is the evidence for this being true? What is the evidence against?

What is your final judgement and why? Post to your blog.

Week 3 Homework

Comparing detectives

You have read some of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", the first detective story written by Edgar Allen Poe. Roald Dahl is famous for subverting this genre. Read the story "Lamb to the Slaughter" and write a paragraph in which you compare the detectives in this story with what you know so far about Dupin, the detective in Poe's story.

Clues

In the first detective story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Edgar Allen Poe begins providing clues through the testimony of the witnesses which Dupin reads in the newspaper.

Read the story by Roald Dahl, The Landlady, which is on Blackboard and make a list of the clues Dahl provides to readers to enable them to solve the mystery. This can just be dot points.

Post to your journal with a sentence or two in which you give your personal response to the story. You might consider the following:

Did Dahl make it too difficult for the reader?

Did you enjoy the story?

"And Then There Were None" - Your title page

 

We have looked at and discussed a number of title pages, identifying what makes them suitable for the novel. Construct your own title page and be able to explain (and justify) your choices.