This week, we continue to make
progress through Oliver Twist and we’ll reach the climax just after
half-term. I’m really pleased to hear from more of you who are reading the full
novel for yourselves. And some of the work I’ve seen in recent weeks has been superb.
Well done!
Thank you for getting last week’s
assignment done. If you still need to do it, it’s here.
On with the novel! Last week,
Oliver met Bill Sikes, a brutal and villainous character who was brought up in
Fagin’s gang. This week, Oliver gets tangled up further in Bill's criminal world.
Below, you’ll find the lessons
for this week.
But first, here are some useful
resources if you want to really push yourself and enjoy Oliver Twist in
more detail:
An online copy of Oliver Twist, with audio recordings of
each chapter so you can listen along.
A pdf copy of Oliver Twist which you can download.
Here are your lessons for this
week:
Lesson 1:
Do the next lesson on Oliver Twist from Oak National
Academy: A Burglary Goes Wrong
Optional extension task for lesson 1:
Watch this scene
(watch for 6
minutes, until the gunshot) from the 1982 TV movie, Oliver Twist. Apologies, the film I linked to last
week was removed from YouTube. Note:
most film versions I’ve seen make the burglary take place at the Brownlow’s
house, rather than the Maylie’s, which makes the story a bit simpler, but is quite
confusing for us!
Lesson 2:
We’re
going to skip an Oak lesson here, but it would be useful for you to get to know
the key words from the lesson we’re skipping by flicking through this powerpoint and
writing down the two definitions.
Now, read this explanation of what happens to Oliver next:
- After Oliver is shot, Bill Sikes pulls Oliver back through the window. He flees with the bleeding Oliver. But the locals give chase, and Bill leaves Oliver in a ditch and makes his escape.
- Later, Oliver awakens delirious. He gets up and stumbles over to the same house Sikes tried to get him to rob. Oliver’s feeble knock at the door frightens everyone. When the servant opens the door, he finds Oliver lying on the doorstep. They exclaim that Oliver is one of the thieves and drag him inside.
- They call for a doctor and carry him upstairs. Mrs. Maylie, the mistress of the house, is a kindly, old-fashioned elderly woman. Her niece, Miss Rose, is an angelic beauty of seventeen. Upon seeing Oliver, Miss Rose exclaims that he cannot possibly be a burglar unless older, evil men have forced him into the trade.
- Miss Rose was an orphan like Oliver, and was adopted by Mrs. Maylie, and she seems to understand Oliver’s situation perfectly. She passionately convinces Mrs Maylie that Oliver deserves kindness, and doesn’t deserve to go to prison.
- Oliver stays there for months. Not only does his health improve, but so do his reading and writing skills too. Oliver and the Maylies become very attached to each other.
Finally, do our next lesson on Oliver Twist from Oak
National Academy: A Mysterious Stranger
Lesson 3:
Do the next lesson on Oliver Twist from Oak National
Academy: Nancy alerts Rose
That’s
the end of this week’s work. Well done!
As you
may have gathered, the full novel (it’s over 400 pages long) is much more complicated
than any film version or the story we’re getting from these extracts. So, read
it if you can! But we now only have three lessons to go in our unit on Oliver
Twist. We’ll get to the exciting climax after half term!
I’ll
post this week’s assignment on Wednesday.
Have a
great half-term and a well-deserved break from school work!
Mr M
P.S. Remember, the BBC’s two-part adaptation of Oliver Twist is on
iPlayer until the end of February.
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