‘Suite Française’: forming opinions on fiction
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can confidently form and justify my own opinions about a fiction text.
Key learning points
- You can begin to form a personal response to a text by asking yourself what feelings the text evoked in you.
- Opinions are personal, so each person may have a different opinion on a text.
- In order to make your opinion more credible, you should justify it.
- Appropriate justification comes in the form of evidence from the text.
Keywords
Opinion - a thought or belief about something
Justify - to give a reason for
Credible - able to believed or trusted
Common misconception
'Everyone is entitled to their own opinion', therefore there is no need to justify our opinions.
Although we are all entitled to our opinion, justifying your opinion allows people to trust and listen to your opinion more carefully.
Teacher tip
During Learning Cycle 2, you could use a visualiser to model reading a text and tracking ideas to show how one of the Oak pupils formed their opinion.
Equipment
You will need access to chapter 1 of 'Suite Française' by Irene Nemirovsky for this lesson. This lesson uses paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 4 of chapter 1.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
Loading...
Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is an opinion?
Q2.Which war took place between 1939 and 1945?
Q3.Which opinion below is justified?
Q4.Which of these is not a credible source?
Q5.What is an air raid?
Q6.Which of the settings below is the most mundane?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What happens during the opening of 'Suite Française'?
Q2.What does it mean to be credible?
Q3.In order to add credibility, what can you do when stating your opinion?
Q4.In the opening of 'Suite Française', how do most people react to the air raid?
Q5.Which of the below is not an opinion regarding the opening of 'Suite Française'?
Q6.Which of these opinions is not sufficiently justified?
To help you plan your 10 English lesson on: ‘Suite Française’: forming opinions on fiction, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 10 English lesson on: ‘Suite Française’: forming opinions on fiction, 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.