Skellig: Reading Comprehension

This set of Year 6 Skellig Comprehension lessons based on David Almond's book will challenge your class to explore and discuss different aspects of this thought-provoking story, with a particular focus on the skills of inference and deduction.

Throughout the seven lessons, children are encouraged to explain the thoughts, emotions and motives of the characters, and explore the similarities and differences between them. They will be challenged to locate evidence to support or refute statements, make predictions based on the text, and finally identify the main themes of the book.

Included with this Year 6 Skellig Comprehension Lesson Pack are detailed plans, informative slideshows for the teaching input, and differentiated, printable worksheets and activity ideas.

Character's Thoughts and Feelings

In this Skellig Characters lesson, children read the first seven chapters of the book together before discussing what they have found out so far.

Your class will look carefully at the words and phrases the author has used to convey a character's thoughts, feelings or emotions. In their independent activities, they will further analyse the text in relation to Michael's emotions, or in the alternative activity, children will focus on the man in the garage, and his possible thoughts and feelings.

This downloadable Skellig Characters lesson pack contains everything you need to develop your class's knowledge and understanding of the characters in Skellig: a detailed plan, an engaging slideshow, and differentiated, printable worksheets.

View Lesson 1

Locating Evidence in the Text

In this Skellig lesson plan, which focuses on developing your class's skimming and scanning skills, children explore how to locate evidence within the text to support or refute a given statement.

Including a detailed lesson plan, an engaging set of slides for the teacher input, as well as differentiated, printable worksheets and activity ideas, this Skellig lesson plan has everything you need for a successful, enjoyable English lesson with your Year 6 class!

View Lesson 2

Making Predictions

In this Making Predictions KS2 Skellig lesson plan, children are first encouraged to share their opinions about the characters and events so far, before being challenged to discuss and explain their predictions for the rest of the story. In the alternative activity, children are challenged to create a short role-play based on how they predict the meeting between Michael, Mina and the man in the garage might unfold.

Download this complete Making Predictions KS2 Skellig planning pack, which contains everything you need for a successful English lesson - a detailed plan, a set of informative slides, and differentiated worksheets.

View Lesson 3

Character Description

In this Character Description KS2 Skellig lesson, children begin to think more deeply about characters' thoughts, feelings and motives, and how these are portrayed through their words, behaviours and actions.

As a class, your Year 6 children will look at how to analyse short extracts from the text and discuss what they reveal about a character. They will continue to apply this skill in their independent activities, which include a variety of tasks, including answering questions, writing character descriptions, hot-seating and discussion.

This downloadable, ready-to-teach Character Description KS2 Skellig lesson includes a detailed plan, an informative slideshow, and a range of differentiated printable worksheets and activity ideas.

View Lesson 4

Comparing and Contrasting Characters

Use this Skellig lesson to encourage your children to compare and contrast characters within the book, and explore the effect that their interactions have on each other.

In their independent activities, children are challenged to explore the similarities and differences between different combinations of characters, as well as to infer their opinions of each other by referring to events in the text. In the alternative activity, children create a role-play of the four young characters all meeting together.

This downloadable Skellig lesson pack comes complete with a comprehensive plan, engaging slides and differentiated activity ideas.

View Lesson 5

Character Analysis

In this Skellig Character Analysis lesson, children will focus on specific events or things that have been said or thought by a character, and discuss how this furthers our knowledge and understanding of the story.

Your class will be challenged to discuss some thought-provoking questions and encouraged to share their thoughts and opinions about them. In their independent activities, they will further discuss specific events or quotes from the book.

Instantly download this ready-to-teach Skellig Character Analysis lesson pack, complete with a detailed plan, a comprehensive slideshow, and printable, differentiated worksheets.

View Lesson 6

Themes

In this final Skellig Themes lesson, children will explore and discuss the main ideas in the book.

They first discuss the closing events by answering questions on the slides as a whole class, before beginning to explore what a 'theme' is, and discussing the themes they think appear in the book. In their independent work, children are challenged to choose a specific theme and find evidence for it within the book. In the alternative activity, they work in groups to create a short presentation on a theme of their choice.

This Skellig Themes lesson pack is ready-to-teach and comes with a detailed plan, an engaging set of slides for the teaching input, and printable, differentiated worksheets.

View Lesson 7