Year 10 - English
Exploring and emulating Galloway's use of symbols in 'The Cellist of Sarajevo'
Fiction: read around the world
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Study Guides
This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit, pupils read extracts from four novels from around the world, and use them to develop their narrative writing. In particular, pupils explore writers' use of structure. At the end of the unit, pupils consider their own use of paragraphs for effect and write an engaging narrative.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to analyse the use of symbols in fiction and craft a symbol in your own writing.
Key Notes
- In narratives, objects can symbolise key themes or ideas.
- Galloway's key symbol is the cello which could represent hope, joy or defiance.
- You can craft a symbol in your own narrative through the use of an important object, colour, weather or event.
- Using adjectives to describe the object can help the symbol take on its intended meaning.
- The way in which a character treats or interacts with an object can help bring the meaning of your symbol to life.
Vocabulary To Learn
- symbol: something that represents intangible ideas; for example, a rose as a symbol for love
- defiance: behaviour in which you refuse to obey something or someone
- mundane: ordinary, everyday, or not special or exciting
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Pupils may use objects to symbolise ideas but the object may not quite match the idea e.g. violence represented by a flower.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.
In narratives, objects can symbolise key themes or ideas. Galloway's key symbol is the cello which could represent hope, joy or defiance.
2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'symbol'
something that represents intangible ideas; for example, a rose as a symbol for love.
3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.
Mistake: Pupils may use objects to symbolise ideas but the object may not quite match the idea e.g. violence represented by a flower. Correction: Thinking about the feelings that an object makes us feel might help us to decide whether it will be an appropriate symbolic object.
More Lessons In This Unit
- 'After Dark': exploring Murakami's extended metaphor Study Guide
- 'After Dark': selecting evidence to support language analysis Study Guide
- 'Suite Française': evaluating ideas about a writer's craft Study Guide
- 'Suite Française': forming opinions on fiction Study Guide
- 'The Cellist of Sarajevo': expressing a personal and critical response to a text Study Guide
- Analysing images of hope and destruction in Galloway's 'The Cellist of Sarajevo' Study Guide
- Analysing Saramago's use of structural devices in 'Blindness' Study Guide
- Crafting an engaging narrative Study Guide
- Developing reading skills by responding to Murakami's 'After Dark' Study Guide
- Emulating Murakami's craft to write a descriptive opening Study Guide
- Emulating Saramago's use of structure in 'Blindness' Study Guide
- Exploring structure in Murakami's 'After Dark' Study Guide
- Exploring the use of time in Galloway's 'The Cellist of Sarajevo' Study Guide
- Structuring paragraphs effectively in creative writing Study Guide
- Using inversion and asyndeton to craft interesting sentence structures Study Guide
- Using onomatopoeia and alliteration to craft interesting sound imagery Study Guide
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