HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE
Teacher's pack
lesson plan and student worksheets
written by: Esmeralda van Turnhout
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:
Contents:
level: Lower-Intermediate (VMBO g/t 2)
lesson stages: pre reading activities
while reading activities: task 1-6
post reading activities
student worksheets
Duration:+/- 4 weeks
Aims/objectives
-The students will be able to discuss in a different language than their mother tongue.
-The students will be able to work together to form a complete picture of the book.
-The students will learn to support their character analysis with specific information from the
text.
-The students will be able to write a formal letter in English
-The students will be able to use different resources to find the translation of words needed.
-The students will be able to categorize words.
-The students will be able to use their own creativity
-The students will be able to read, write and talk about a book and film in depth
for +/- 4 weeks.
Materials needed:
Smart board/ blackboard/whiteboard
USB stick
A Classroom where you can form small group-settings using the tables
Worksheets/workbook for each student
Handout on character traits and when to use quotation marks
Computers
Paper/ powerpoint/collage/poster
Glue, markers, scissors etc.
Articles on paper or online
Kitchen and ingredients for the recipe of a Knickerbocker glory
jelly beans
Pre- reading activities:
Introduction: What do we know about Harry Potter and the Philosopher’sStone?
It is said that the Philosopher’s Stone is capable of turning base metals, especially lead, into gold!
(see explanation on Wikipedia).
We’ll make a word-web together on the smart/black- board.
Just to find out what the students know about this book/film.
Afterwards( If possible)we’ll show a film trailer of the first Harry Potter film the smartboard .
(you could use this as a quick reminder for the students
and to add a few more words to your word web)
What if….. you were a wizard and everything you touched would turn into gold……?
You'll hand out the worksheets for the students.
On the first page the students will write a short story to answer the question asked above
for about 15-20 minutes.
Then the students will take turns to tell their own story in groups of 4.
Discuss what you've come up with in this group
You’ll get 10 minutes to listen to each other.
I’ll pick one of your co-students to summarize what you have come up with
to tell the rest of the class. (so we’ll all hear about 5/… stories)
This will only take about (another)5-10 minutes.
While- reading activities:
We’ll read page……..till………together.
Quotations…………
Listen to the chapters on (all the chapters are being read by …..)
You ,as their teacher, can decide how you want to organise this. To make a suggestion anyway…you can read parts in class and parts at home.
Task 1. Use the additional handout on character traits and quotations
We’re still working in ( the same) groups of 4 students.
Everyone(whatever the teacher prefers) will analyse one of the main characters out of the book according to this worksheet/ format. While they are reading this book they add to their character. (If they aren’t able to decide which character to choose from, you as their teacher will assign one to them).
Points to discuss after completing the worksheets:
Do you think they have picked the right character to play this/the part in the film?
How would you like to have seen/her portrayed or to act/play her part?
What would you have done differently had you been given the chance to do so?
Objectives
- Students will complete an analysis of one character from Harry Potterand the Philosophers'stone.
- Students will learn to support their character analysis with specific information from the text.
- Students will practise using quotation marks correctly
Materials
- Unlined paper
- Pencils
- Quotation Marks reference article
- Copies of the Character Traits handout
- Several copies of Harry Potter and the philosophers'stone and /or the rest of the Harry Potter books.
- Poster board
- Markers or crayons
Procedures
1. Allow students to select their favourite character ( or randomly assign characters to students ) ensuring that the class chooses a variety of characters from the book(s).
2. Distribute one sheet of unlined paper to each student and ask them to fold it into quarters, creasing the folds tightly.
3. Tell students to unfold the paper and draw lines in the folds. The paper should now be divided into four equal squares.
4. Instruct students to write their character's name in the centre of the paper
5. Distribute the Character Traits handout and ask students to think about which traits apply to their characters.
6. At the top of each square have students write a different personality trait for their character. For instance, Hagrid is impulsive, loyal, simple-minded and strong.
7. Encourage students to think carefully and select specific traits that can be supported by examples from the book.
8. Distribute the Quotation Marks handout.
9. Go over it with the students and explain that they will be gathering evidence about their characters from the book(s).
10. Tel students they must find one strong quotation to support each characteristics they have selected. It must be a quotation that shows the character displaying the personality trait.
11. Once students have found examples, tell them to record the exact quotations in the appropriate boxes on their paper along with the title of the book and the page number where each quote was found.
12. Explain that students may not use the same scene to demonstrate more than one trait.
13. Once students have found and recorded the exact quotations, break them up into partners. Ask each set of partners to make sure that the personality traits are truly reflected in the examples selected.
14. If a quote is not specific enough, ask the student to select a more descriptive passage or piece of dialogue.
15. Explain that each student must now use these quotations in paragraphs.
16. Students must write one paragraph for each personality trait. Each paragraph must explain and describe the personality trait and include a ( proper punctuated ) quotation from the book.
17. Distribute the poster board and ask students to write the name and draw a picture of their character in the middle of the poster board.
18.In each of the four corners, students should write the personality trait as a title and underneath it copy the paragraph they just wrote.
19. Display the posters around the classroom and allow students to spend time viewing tem as if they are in an art gallery.
20. As a culminating activity, conduct a class discussion using the following questions:
0 Did you learn anything new about any of the characters from the Harry Potter book(s)?
0 Which examples do you remember from the posters?
0 Why were those the most memorable?
reference:
Task 2.
harry potter and the dutch wizards.nl
potter and the dutch wizards.nl
Aims and objectives:
The students will be able to writea formal letter in English
The students will be able to use dictionaries online
And they will be taught new skills in a different setting.
This web quest will explain, as well as show examples of, how to write formal letters in English.
The students are applying for a part in the next Harry Potter film, finding out about Harry Potter words and will give them lots of ideas.
Extra
They might even like to fill in a questionnaire and to be sorted in a team like Harry Potter using the activity with the sorting hat online.
Task 3
aims/objectives:
- The students are able to describe different tastes and textures.
-The students are able to categorize ( Harry Potter) words.
Introduction:
Jelly beans : The students name each one before eating it- or after, depending on the taste.
WORD CATEGORIES
The words on this list may be new to you. Work in groups of 4 to place as many of these words as you can into five ( 5 ) different categories of your own choosing. You will be asked to present your work to the class. This activity is a one-day-only activity and must be done by the end of today's class. Chart paper and makers will be provided.
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beefy giver cinema stalactite prefect riffraff cauldron nettles petrified
fungi tailcoat tawny knickerbockers apothecary ravine alchemy lurched
ensnaring
flitted hygienic burly gruff tantrum amber swarthy minuscule sidled
swaggered
asphodel tainting confiscated berserk holidaying rummaging gargoyle hurtled
emporium tripe treacle bezoars luminous abysmal parchment scruff specimen
ruefully gruff stalagmite yew tinge subtle aconite biased warlock twang
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Task 4.
As we promote ‘No tolerance for violence’ at all times in class, this newspaper clipping might be a great introduction…..”Potter bevordert brildragen”
Talk about this in class using a mind map.
Anyway there are lots more to choose from on this website.
For any more suggestions, see the added list later on in this package.
Each student now chooses an article from this site and makes a mind map individually.
After 10 minutes, they have to talk about this in groups of four students.
Swap groups after 10 minutes and let everybody summarize their group discussions.
Group ABCD
Student 1234
2341
3412
4123
Task 5
Let the students read the followingtext/recipe of a Knickerbocker glory
Knickerbocker Glory
When you love ice cream, as I do, you get to know all sorts of variations on a theme and here's one that no-one can fail to ignore: THE KNICKERBOCKER GLORY! There's no set recipe for a Knickerbocker Glory as far as we know. Essentially it's a British 'ice cream parlour' dessert, first made popular in the 1930s.
Served in a tall ice cream glass, it's a mixture of fresh fruit in the base with optional liquor for adults, 3 scoops of ice cream (usually vanilla and strawberry), peach melba sauce, whipped cream or squirter cream and a cherry (glace or fresh) on top. Variations can include jelly in the layers, different fruits, a different sauce or extra toppings such as flaked almonds; a wafer is also optional.
In Britain you can still enjoy a Knickerbocker Glory in many ice cream parlours and restaurants - or of course you can even make your own at home.
Ingredients:
- Fresh strawberry slices, black grapes, melon pieces in the base
- 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream and 1 scoop of strawberry ice cream
- strawberry sauce poured over
- squirter cream on top
- fan water
a glace cherry to crown it off
"One of my fondest childhood memories growing up in England was to be on family holiday at the seaside (Scarborough was a favourite) and go looking for an ice cream parlour that served my father's favourite dessert: a Knickerbocker Glory. Once inside the parlour my father would place the order with great anticipation and then, whilst my mother and I enjoyed a simple ice cream cone or small sundae, we would watch him quietly relish every bit of that Knickerbocker Glory. Served in a tall glass it usually it took some time to eat, yet he never rushed and he never left any of it! Today, some 40 years later, he still loves the dessert and sees it as a special treat – a glorious tribute to magic of ice cream!''
The 1930s saw a significant rise in the popularity of ice cream and development of flavours - see also Ice Cream Comedy where I have a special article on Laurel and Hardy in a 1931 sketch featuring ice cream.
Discuss this article and explain some of the vocabulary in class.
What's the relevance of this article/ recipe to Harry Potter?
As a teacher you are able to adapt this article to your own needs. (i.e. make a gabbed text of it etc.)
Let the students look for a different variety of a knickerbocker glory recipe on line.
They have to write this recipe down.
The students will have to use a dictionary to look for words they don't know yet.
When finished they will get the opportunity to make these delicious recipes themselves.
Task 6
Activities of choice:
Create a new book cover/ poster/ collage/ power point (any one of these will be fine) for a Harry Potter book/film et.
Use your own creativity but include special features of……i.e. a book/ film poster.
They will have to include their character chosen and do make sure they’ll show some of the characteristics they have written down onto the worksheets previously back into their artwork.
After +/- two weeks they will present their work towards each other and they will be graded accordingly. (Art gallery)
The students, as well as you (the teacher), will mark each others work on the following:
1 Originality
2 Special features used of a i.e. Book cover / film poster etc. ………
3 English used in written text.
4 Teamwork
5 Evaluation
Post-reading
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Roling
Summary
Wizards and Hogwarts! Muggles and Mudbloods! Quidditch and Broomsticks! None of those things mean anything to Harry Potter, a small, skinny, bespectacled boy with an unusual lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead – until his eleventh birthday. That's when he starts receiving letters inviting him to The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry learns hat his parents did not die in a car crash but were killed by Voldemort, the Lord of Darkness, and that he himself is famous in the world of wizardry. So Harry leaves the home of his Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and their hateful son Dudley, who are mere muggles ( humans without one drop of magic in them), and embarks on a new life. And the changes continue as Harry spends year after year at Hogwarts, a place where he not only learns about being a wizard, but also about friendship and loyalty and fear and courage, and about his own past and future, his family, and his destiny.
Speaking exercise
Warning! some of the questions contain key elements of the plot. Do not read if you don't want to know what happens! The students will discuss these questions in groups of four ( 4 ) and will write the answers down on the worksheets.
1. What was Harry's home life like before finding out about his secret past?
2.Why do you think the magic community allowed him to live with Muggles for so
long? Why not take him in themselves?
3.What are your impressions of Dudley?
4.Why do you think J.K. Rowling depicts the Dursley's as being so terrible?
5.What are the advantages to Harry not having known how special he is before he starts
school?
6. What are your first impressions of HogwartsSchool? What about it makes it seem special and different?
7.If you could have on magic companion, what would it be and why? Rat, cat, owl, dragon, unicorn……………
8.What does it say about Lord Voldemort and his followers when Quirrel tells Harry that, '' There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it.''
( p.291). Find other examples throughout all three books where the author helps us understand characters by telling us what these characters believe.
9.What event brings Harry and Ron together with Hermione that makes them such good friends?
10.Consider the professors at Hogwarts, including Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Quirrel -what does each character stand for? What does Harry learn from each one?
11.The Harry Potter series is the most popular children's book series ever written. Why do
think it is so popular? Why do you think adults and kids both like it?
12.What do you predict might happen in future books?
After the students have discussed all these questions,
Watch the film together.
Note!!!!!! Activity plans:
Every English lesson, for about three /four weeks, will partially take up some time for
* the pre reading activity
* the while reading activities 1 /2/ 3/4/5/6
* the post reading activity
This to create some variety during your lessons while reading the book:
Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone.
Before you start a new lesson you let the students add to their character poster from task 1 every time. This to check they have understood the book as well as they are actually reading the book. If you have decided to read a part in class you'll have to use some of your time to add to this poster afterwards.
You might even prefer to let the students work independently in their 'workbook' for some of the tasks.
If you need some extra ideas, here are a few suggestions so you can even differentiate: