Please note: additional material for this workshop plan may be found in the Key Stage 3 menu.

Workshop Plan

Date: Lesson:Year:Number in Class:

Key Stage: 3

Ability: MixedFocus:Idioms

Resources: Interactive Whiteboard Post-it Notes/Paper

Lesson title:

‘Fern Hill’

Lesson Opening:

Opening questions about holidays. Invite anecdotes. Note that one of Dylan Thomas’ favourite holidays was to a family farm in Carmarthenshire.

Lesson Objectives:

By the end of the lesson, the groups will have learned that changing one word in a phrase can open up a whole new meaning.

Strategies

Organise the class in groups of two/three/four Invite them to read the verse on the screen, and emphasise that understanding of

every word or phrase is not imperative. Listen to Thomas’ voice reciting the verse. Click to reveal the question about the windfall light Class discussion based on the pupils’ understanding of “the windfall light”. Click to show picture. Apple could be dragged to reveal the sunlight. Discuss ‘Once below a time’. Compare difference to ‘Once upon a time’ Click’ Next section’ to reveal numbers. Give each group the chance to click on a number to reveal idiom. Group to change one word in their idiom, to a word that may rhyme or could be an

opposite to the original word. Discuss the new meaning.

Follow-up idea

Group to use the idiom as a basis to a descriptive passage/poem

KS3 English-medium Workshop

This workshop will provide opportunities to develop elements within the Literacy and Numeracy Framework such as ‘Oracy across the curriculum’ where collaboration, discussion and the ability to listen and evaluate the contribution of others will be imperative to learners’ own language appreciation and development. The reading strand, which includes aspects on comprehension, response and analysis, is also an essential skill to develop within this workshop.

This workshop will provide opportunities to develop elements within the using number skills strand of the Literacy and Numeracy Framework e.g. to identify age, date of birth and date of death of Dylan Thomas as well as other prominent dates in his life. In addition there is an opportunity to count syllables and to identify patterns within the literary form that has been chosen.