A Time to Dance

Aims To discuss characterisation To share mind maps To identify themes in the story

Mind Maps We have studied closely the characters of Mrs Skelly (Nelson’s mum) and Nelson. Let’s look a little deeper into what we have found!

Using Evidence from the Text… Do you think Mrs Skelly is a bad mother? Do you think she loves Nelson? Do you think Nelson knows what his mum does for a living? What effect does the eye patch have on our opinion of Nelson? How do you feel about Nelson’s decision to go blind at the end of the story? Would he be as well to go blind? Explain why you think this.

Themes A Theme is a message or point the author is trying to make. What do you think is an important theme in this story? Provide Evidence to support your answer.

More Themes Themes in this story could be: Loneliness Single parent families Living in Poverty Human Relationships

In Groups Each group will be given a different theme from loneliness, living in poverty, single parent families and human relationships. You will collate information on how this theme is used/showed in the story, with the use of quotations and some comments. Tomorrow you will be working as a group to ‘teach’ the class the theme you have been looking at – so make sure every member of your group is prepared!

An Example The writer discusses single parent families throughout the story. “I’ll kill you if you don’t go back. I’d take you myself only I’ve my work to go to. I’m late as it is.” This quotation highlights the struggle Mrs Skelly has to deal with on her own – she has a son that refuses to go to school, has been threatened with jail (Saughton) and is trying to hold down a job. She threatens to “kill” Nelson but she has his best interest at heart – or is she more concerned that she will be the one in trouble?

Prizes I am going to award prizes based on the following: Working well as a group (all members contributing) Detail on display ‘Teaching’ the class the theme you have looked at. Prizes will be edible. (You will also get a sticker.)

Displaying Information Each group should have knowledge of all four themes. Create a display/poster on theme and how it is shown in this story. These will go onto the wall to help remind you when it comes to writing your essay!