New
New
Year 9

Letter writing: planning, using Wilfred Owen’s 1917 letter as stimulus

I can plan an imaginative letter that recounts an experience in the trenches of World War One using Wilfred Owen’s 1917 letter to his mother as stimulus.

New
New
Year 9

Letter writing: planning, using Wilfred Owen’s 1917 letter as stimulus

I can plan an imaginative letter that recounts an experience in the trenches of World War One using Wilfred Owen’s 1917 letter to his mother as stimulus.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Letters were a vital form of communication during World War One.
  2. Receiving and sending letters brought small moments of joy to those on the front, and those at home.
  3. Owen is best remembered for his poetry about World War One, but he also sent many letters home.
  4. Owen’s letters are different in structure, audience and tone from his poems, but still convey the horrors of war.
  5. Arguably, Owen’s letter is structured into three sections: scene-setting, recounting an event, conveying his attitude.

Keywords

  • Recount - to describe something that happened, to tell its story

  • Court-martial - to be tried for a crime in which you are deemed to have broken military law

  • Execrate - curse, hate, detest

  • Structure - how something is put together; the most basic structure in a text is its beginning, middle and end

  • Tone - a writer’s attitude or emotional stance; encompasses the mood, feeling and overall atmosphere

Common misconception

Poems are carefully crafted and use methods, but nonfiction letters won't have a structure or include methods.

Almost all writing follows some sort of structure even, for example, a shopping list. Methods are tools writers use to convey their messages. Every single word, technically, is a method.

In LC2, consider how long you wish your pupils to spend discussing their ideas for their letter. Consider what you want this discussion to look like - 'Think, Pair, Share' is just one example. Consider if your pupils might need an additional stimulus - an image, a clip - to support their planning.
Teacher tip

Equipment

A copy of Wilfred Owen's 1917 letter to his mother is available on the worksheet for this lesson.

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering
  • Depiction or discussion of mental health issues

Supervision

Adult supervision required

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
A writer’s attitude or emotional stance is also known as their .
Correct Answer: tone
Q2.
Before his death in 1918, how did poet Wilfred Owen communicate with his mother?
Correct answer: letter
telegram
through his poetry
Q3.
Another way of saying a writer's attitude is...
Correct answer: their viewpoint
their methods
their intent
Q4.
Wilfred Owen's poetry is known for its __________ portrayal of trench warfare during WWI.
Correct answer: graphic
patriotic
Correct answer: realistic
Q5.
What are we looking for when we focus on writer's use of structure?
the figurative language they use
Correct answer: the organisation of their ideas
their tone and attitudes
Q6.
What does the term 'front line' mean?
the people who stay in their own country during a war
Correct answer: part of an army that is closest to the enemy
the place where the German and French armies met

6 Questions

Q1.
Match the keywords on the left with their definitions on the right.
Correct Answer:recount ,to describe something that happened

to describe something that happened

Correct Answer:execrate ,curse, hate, detest

curse, hate, detest

Correct Answer:structure ,how something is put together

how something is put together

Correct Answer:tone ,a writer’s attitude or emotional stance

a writer’s attitude or emotional stance

Q2.
A text's most basic structure can be considered as a beginning, middle and end.
Correct Answer: clear
Q3.
In Owen's letter to his mother he write about a soldier being "court-martialled". How did Owen feel about this?
Correct answer: angry
relieved
apathetic
Q4.
Starting with the first, put the structure of Owen's letter to his mother in the order it appeared in the letter.
1 - establishes his relationship with his mother and overall tone/mood
2 - a recount of a particularly horrifying event
3 - Owen’s feelings and attitudes
Q5.
brought small moments of joy to soldiers as well as their loved ones at home.
Correct Answer: letters, sending letters, receiving letters, getting letters
Q6.
In his letter to his mother, Owen describes that he as "suffered seventh ".
Correct Answer: hell