The Sign of Four - GCSE Unit of Work

GCSE English Teaching Resources: The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Sign of Four is made up of a 173-slide PowerPoint presentation, a 28 page booklet of worksheets and notes and an 18 lesson by lesson, scheme of work overview.

The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle contains 18 lessons designed to develop pupil knowledge and understanding of the plot, characters, language, themes and the social and historical context of the novel. English Teaching Resources: The Sign of Four includes a collection of activities for pupils of all abilities:

-A brief biography of Conan Doyle and the crime novel genre

-An explanation of the social and historical context of the novel (Victorian Britain, 1880s London and the British Empire)

-Plot tracking and consolidation activities

-Activities to explore the narrative structure of The Sign of Four

-Analysis of the characters of Shelock Holmes, Dr John Watson, Mary Morstan, Jonathan Small and others

-Exploration of the key themes of The Sign of Four - good and evil, crime and punishment, justice, the British Empire, C19th Britain

-Developing understanding of the features of a novel – character, theme, plot, style and language

-Examining Conan Doyle’s use of language and narrative structure - setting, description and pathetic fallacy

-Reading and discussion tasks and questions

-Links to additional The Sign of Four teaching and learning resources

-An 18 lesson unit of work (following the four part lesson structure)

-A 173 slide PowerPoint presentation (see preview below)

-28 worksheets to accompany the PowerPoint

The Sign of Four follows the four part lesson structure. Each lesson begins with a starter activity, moves through an introduction and development and ends with a plenary activity. All PowerPoint slides are fully editable so you can personalise and differentiate the resources as much or as little as you want. Add extra slides, delete pages, change the text and imagery and update it as is necessary to suit your teaching needs. In addition, the resource contains a scheme of work overview and a student booklet packed with worksheets created to be used in conjunction with the PowerPoint.

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