New
New
Year 7

Contrasting the everyday and the unknown settings in Baum's 'The Wizard of Oz'

I can understand and analyse the way different settings are presented.

New
New
Year 7

Contrasting the everyday and the unknown settings in Baum's 'The Wizard of Oz'

I can understand and analyse the way different settings are presented.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Baum describes the everyday setting of Kansas as dull and predictable.
  2. Baum describes the unknown setting of Oz as wondrous and beautiful.
  3. The contrasting use of colour in the descriptions depicts Kansas as a lifeless place and Oz as one of vitality.

Common misconception

That the unknown is always scary.

While we typically think of the unknown as something scary and overwhelming, it can also be something exciting and refreshing.

Keywords

  • Everyday - encountered or used routinely or typically: ordinary

  • Semantic field - a group of words or expressions that are related in meaning

  • Unknown - a place, situation, or thing that is not known about or understood

  • Contrast - to compare two people or things in order to show the differences between them

  • Present - to give, show, provide, or make known

As an extended task you could ask the students to draw pictures of Kansas and Oz based on the descriptions to help them see the contrasts between them.
Teacher tip

Equipment

You will need a copy of the extract from 'The Wizard of Oz' which is availble in the additional materials.

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering

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).

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6 Questions

Q1.
What is 'the everyday'?
something unknown and unfamiliar
Correct answer: something familiar and known
something new and exciting
Q2.
What is 'the unknown'?
somewhere familiar
Correct answer: somewhere not understood
somewhere safe
somewhere not safe
Q3.
Which of the following might we use to describe 'the everyday'?
Correct answer: predictable
chaotic
Correct answer: familiar
not safe
Q4.
Which of the following do we typically associate with the colour grey?
vitality
Correct answer: dull
Correct answer: lifeless
vibrancy
Q5.
A simile is...
a comparison where something is something else
Correct answer: a comparison where something is like something else
where non-human things are given human emotions
Q6.
A contrast is...
similarities between two or more things
Correct answer: differences between two or more things
the repetition of two or more things

6 Questions

Q1.
In L. Frank Baum's 'The Wizard of Oz', Dorothy's 'everyday' is...
Oz
Correct answer: Kansas
Canada
Q2.
In L. Frank Baum's 'The Wizard of Oz', which colour is repeatedly associated with Kansas?
"red"
"blue"
Correct answer: "gray"
"yellow"
Q3.
A semantic field is...
giving human emotions to non-human things
saying something is like something else
Correct answer: a group of words with a similar meaning
Q4.
To present something means...
to provide evidence for something.
Correct answer: to show something or make it known.
to express something without saying it explicitly.
Q5.
In L. Frank Baum's 'The Wizard of Oz', the sun in Kansas is described as...
comforting
warming
Correct answer: blistering
summery
Q6.
In L. Frank Baum's 'The Wizard of Oz', the use of the simile to describe Oz suggests...
that Oz is easy to comprehend
Correct answer: that Oz is something extraordinary
that Oz is somewhere dangerous

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