Great Expectations: Pip and Estella!

This engaging and informative lesson enables students to make detailed and precise interpretations of the introduction and development of the relationship between Pip and Estella in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. In particular, students learn about how the two characters feel and act towards one another throughout the novel, linking this to their understanding of context and to Dickens’ key messages about love, morality, and class.

The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through:
- Understanding key contextual information about love and courtship;
- Reading a key extract introducing their relationship in ‘Great Expectations’ and identifying their behaviour traits towards one another;
-Using clues to track their developing relationship throughout the novel;
- Analysing the development of their relationship through the novel, considering Dickens’ key messages to the readers;
- Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts.

Included is:
- Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive;
- Analysis template with success criteria for creating well-structured responses;
- Estella and Pip text retrieval worksheet;
- The necessary extracts to aid the lesson;
- Comprehensive lesson plan.

All documents are attached as Word and PDF in case formatting differs on your computer.

There are also opportunities for group learning, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. This was originally taught to mixed ability year 10 groups, but can easily be differentiated for groups of different ages and abilities.

All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.