Y7 Home Learning Project:
Curriculum area:
English
Title:
Novel: ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ by John Boyne
Outline of task:
Students will build on their class work and develop a deeper understanding of the topic being studied in class. The task get progressively harder through the booklet, students should attempt all tasks. It is expected that the tasks will take approximately 6-8 hours in total, this is equivalent to 10-12 separate homework tasks (four week’s worth of homework). Students should plan to complete 2 of the tasks each week in order to meet the three week deadline.
Choice of presentation:
Students are encouraged to be creative with the presentation of their work for this project. Work can be handwritten or be completed using ICT. Many of the tasks can be completed in this booklet. The project must be presented appropriately (exercise books is not to be used for this project).
Assessment Criteria:
Level 4:
You have completed some research, although shown little interpretation of the information (mainly copy and paste)Your writing shows an awareness of the purpose you are writing for and you use appropriate formal language.Level 5:
You have undertaken independent research, from which you have selected relevant and importantinformation. Your writing shows an awareness of the purpose you are writing for and you use appropriate formal language, you show an awareness of punctuation and sentence structure. You can use language to create effects.
Level 6:
You have completed all tasks to a high standard and have shown evidence of very good research skills, you are able to read and interpret information from a variety of sources and demonstrate clear understanding of it. You have shown that you work very well on your own with imagination and creativity. Your work iscompleted to a very high standard and displays a high level of maturity and planning.
Where can I get help?
Library:
There are many history books in there about WW2. Internet.
Internet: don’t rely on Wikipedia – choose reputable websites such as:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/ http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/WORLD%20WA
R%20TWO.htm
Your class teacher! Come and see me if you have any questions at lunchtime or after school.
Tasks/difficulty rating:
1. Historical context of novel (research). ★ (easy)
2. Living through an air raid (writing). ★★
3. The Spitfire (research & writing). ★★
4. Comparing characters (reading) ★★★ 5. Gretel & the Hitler Youth (writing)
★★★★
6. Who was Oscar Schindler? (research & writing) ★★★★★
6. Understanding layers of meaning (reading & writing) ) ★★★★★
My current level:
My target for this
project:
My teacher’s feedback:
WWW:
Task 1:
Historical context of the novel
•
Understanding the historical context of the novel is the key to
understanding the writer’s purpose in writing the novel and in
understanding the novel’s message and/or moral.
•
Your first task is a research task which will help you complete all of the
other tasks in this booklet.
•
Find out:
1.
When did Hitler come to power in Germany?
2.
What did he want to create/do?
3.
When did World War 2 start/finish?
4.
Which countries were involved in World War 2?
5.
World War 2 saw the use of fighter planes and bombs. How many
homes were destroyed by bombs in Britain and Germany? In
Britain this was a time known as the Blitz.
6.
How many innocent civilians died in bombing raids (air raids) in
Britain/Germany in WW2?
7.
Which countries did Germany invade and then occupy during
WW2?
8.
When did Hitler start sending people to prison/concentration
camps?
Task 2:
Living through an air-raid
The Blitz on London
On September 7, 1940, the
commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe
(German air force), Hermann Göring, launched a huge daylight raid on the East End of London which left 430 dead, over 1 600 seriously injured, and thousands more homeless. Thereafter his bombers returned to London on 76 consecutive nights, save for the 2nd November.
Bombs poured down on the dock areas of West Ham and Bermondsey, and on adjoining Poplar, Shoreditch, Whitechapel and Stepney. Thousands of tonnes of bombs had been dropped and the fires that raged were greater than the Great Fire of 1666.
This was known as the beginning of the Blitz.
Bombing of Dresden,
Germany
The bombing of Dreseden in Germany was a military bombing by the British (RAF) and the US Air Force (USAAF) as part of the allied forces attack on
Germany between 13 February and 15 February. In four raids, 1,300 heavy bombers dropped more than 3,900 tons of explosives and incendiary devices on the city. The resulting firestorm
destroyed 15 square miles (39 square kilometres) of the city centre.
In the first few decades after the war, some death toll estimates were as high as 250,000, which are now considered unreasonable. An independent
investigation in 2010 reported a minimum of 22,700 victims with a maximum total number of fatalities of 25,000.
What do you imagine it would have been like to live through one of these air raids?
How would you have survived?
Research air raids and then use your research to help you complete this writing
task:
• Imagine you are a living in either Dresden or London.
•Write a diary entry for the night of the air raid.
•Describe:
Task 3:
The Spitfire
•
The RAF relied heavily on a fighter plane known as the
‘Spitfire’.
•
Many say that without these planes, Britain and the Allied
forces would have lost the war against Germany.
•
Using the information below, create an advert persuading
people to buy a Spitfire. Use all of the facts below in your
advert and use any others you can find.
– The name is thought to have come from the plane's awesome firing capabilities
– The Spitfire’s maiden flight was on 5 March 1936. It entered service with the RAF in 1938 and remained there until1955. During this time, 20,351 Spitfires were built.
– On September 15, 1940, during the Battle of Britain, pilot Sergeant Raymond Holmes spotted a German bomber heading for central London. Having run out of ammunition, he rammed it and a large section came down over Victoria train station. Holmes bailed out safely and died in 2005.
– The Spitfire was designed as a short-range high-performance interceptor aircraft.
Remember:
Use features of persuasive language in your advert, such as:
• pattern of three
• repetition
Task 4:
Comparing characters
•
The characters of Bruno and Shmuel are on one level very
different, on another they are very similar.
•
As we read the novel in class, keep a note of the similarities
and differences between them.
Similarities
Differences
They share the same
birthday
Task 5:
Gretel & the Hitler Youth
•
Hitler said: “The weak must
be chiselled away. I want
young men and women who
can suffer pain. A young
German must be as swift as
a greyhound, as tough as
leather, and as hard as
Krupp's steel.”
•
Soon after arriving at
Out-With, Gretel joins the
Hitler Youth.
•
How does she change?
•
How do you think Bruno feels
about his sister’s
involvement with this
organisation?
•
Write the script of a
conversation (including stage
directions) between Bruno
and Gretel in which Bruno
asks her all about it.
•
Use the information the grey
box to help you with Gretel’s
answers.
The Hitler Youth catered for 10 to 18 year olds. There were separate organisations for boys and girls. The task of the boys section was to prepare the boys for military service. For girls, the organisation prepared them for motherhood.
Boys at 10, joined the Deutsches Jungvolk (German Young People) until the age of 13 when they transferred to the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) until the age of 18. In 1936, the writer J R Tunus wrote about the activities of the Hitler Jugend. He stated that part of their "military athletics" (Wehrsport) included marching, bayonet drill, grenade throwing, trench digging, map reading, gas defence, use of dugouts, how to get under barbed wire and pistol shooting.
Girls, at the age of 10, joined the
Jungmadelbund (League of Young Girls) and at the age of 14 transferred to the Bund Deutscher Madel (League of German Girls). Girls had to be able to run 60 metres in 14 seconds, throw a ball 12 metres, complete a 2 hour march, swim 100 metres and know how to make a bed.
Task 6:
Oscar Schindler
•
Who was Oscar Schindler?
–
Find out who he was and what he did.
–
Create an interesting and carefully structured fact sheet about his
work during WW2.
–
Do not just copy and paste information, show that you have read
and interpreted this information by adding your opinions about
what he did.
Remember:
You must attempt all tasks in this booklet.
Look at the level criteria on the front page for
guidance (and the pyramids in your books).
Task 7:
Understanding layers of meaning
•
Read the following quotes and turn them into PEE paragraphs
which explain what we are learning about each character.
•
One has been completed for you as an example:
Turn these three quotes into PEE paragraphs:
•
Bruno:
“his hands stayed by his sides because something made him feel very cold and unsafe”•
Pavel: “Pavel held his cap before him in his hands and nodded, which made his head
bow even lower than it already was. ‘Yes, sir,’ he said in a quiet voice, so quiet that hemay not even have said it at all.”
•
Kotler: “On most days the young lieutenant looked very smart, striding around in a
uniform that appeared to have been ironed while he was wearing it. His black bootsalways sparkled with polish and his yellow-blond hair was parted at the side and held
perfectly in place with something that made all the comb marks stand out in it, like a field
that had just been tilled.”
