Exploring Sinister Imagery in 'Lord of the Flies'

In this lesson students are asked to explore how Golding uses patterns of imagery within 'Lord of the Flies' in order to explore the sinister nature of the boys and the island itself. The lesson starts by asking students to consider how the boys would feel after arriving at the island and the challenge task asks them to consider why Golding chose the island as the setting at all. As a warm up, students are then asked to consider 2 quotes from the first chapter in pairs and list any techniques used and the effect of those comments. A slide follows with suggested ideas to discuss. Student can then in groups consider the list of quotes from across the rest of the novel attached.They can stick them in their books, annotate and highlight them and then the teacher can annotate them on the board where the class can feedback their ideas.

Students are encouraged to think about the following questions:

- What is Golding’s message to the reader?
- What is he trying to say to us about what is happening to them?
- The novel was published in 1954. How might these quotes link to people’s attitudes towards the world after WWII?
- Some people think that the island is like a character itself. To what extent do you agree?

Students are then asked to write essay paragraphs independently using provided sentence starters which come in 3 formats: a 'layers of meaning' approach, PEA or the 'reading ladder'. An opportunity to self or peer assess their essay writing follows this.

To follow this, there is an exemplar essay about the island which students can peer assess in order to think again about the targets that they can set themselves. They can annotate this essay within their books and compare it to their own efforts. I've also added it to the powerpoint for class feedback annotations.

The success criteria provided refers to the Edexcel English Literature course but can be adapted to suit your course.

This lesson, as my other Literature lessons do, includes:

- Links to online videos (see 'notes' under Powerpoint slides)
- Starter tasks which introduce the main idea of the lesson
- Handouts of quotes / extracts from the novel
- Differentiated tasks
- Opportunities for pair and group talk within activities ('Talk for Writing')
- Alternating opportunities for self and peer assessment
- Essay writing prompts to allow students to write about the text