Mrs Sybil Birling in 'An Inspector Calls'

This lesson asks students to analyse what Mrs Birling’s dialogue shows about her as a character and consider how the audience is meant to react. The lesson starts by asking students to consider what what role she plays and how she develops as a character. There is a 'challenge task' also provided which asks them to think about how a modern audience responds to her.

There is a list of quotes from across the play attached as a handout which students can think about in pairs and they can then be annotated on the board by students/the teacher.

Students are then asked to list the positive and negative aspects of her character and what she does across the play. There are some suggestions which follow this.

The lesson ends with a chance for students to write independent essay paragraphs with the AQA English Literature GCSE success criteria which can be adapted for your course. There are 3 options on how to approach essay writing: 'layers of meaning', PEA, or the 'reading ladder' which follow the same idea. There is then an opportunity to self or peer assess according to the key skills.