'The Cellist of Sarajevo': expressing a personal and critical response to a text
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can express a personal and critical response to a text.
Key learning points
- In order to evaluate, we should form a personal and critical response to the text.
- To form a personal response, we can reflect on how a text made us feel, what stood out and what we like/dislike.
- Each reader can form a different opinion on the same part of a text.
- We can use superlatives to help us express our judgements on a text.
- We can use tentative language to express that our opinions are ideas, not facts.
Keywords
Evaluative - to be evaluative is to judge something carefully
Critical - being critical means judging the quality of something
Superlative - a word to express the highest or lowest quality of something
Tentative - expressing possibility rather than certainty
Common misconception
Students may think that being critical means to talk about the negative aspects of something.
We can be critical by judging something positively or negatively.
Teacher tip
You may want to show pupils a model paragraph using superlatives and tentative language in Learning Cycle 2. Alternatively, you could write one together as a class.
Equipment
You will need access to Chapter 1 of 'The Cellist of Sarajevo' by Steven Galloway for this lesson.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering
Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of the below is an evaluative comment?
Q2.What is a personal response?
Q3.What does it mean to be critical?
Q4.Which of the below contains tentative language?
Q5.Which of the below contains a superlative?
Q6.What is one defintion for the word 'gravity'?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.In order to successfully evaluate, what type of response do we need to form?
Q2.Which of the below is a critical comment?
Q3.What type of word expresses a judgement on something?
Q4.What type of language expresses a possibility rather than certainty?
Q5.Which of these sentences does not use a superlative?
Q6.Why is it important to use tentative language in evaluative writing?
To help you plan your 10 English lesson on: 'The Cellist of Sarajevo': expressing a personal and critical response to a text, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 10 English lesson on: 'The Cellist of Sarajevo': expressing a personal and critical response to a text, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 English lessons from the Fiction: read around the world unit, dive into the full secondary English curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.