Workshop: Time Travellers

Overview Summary:

In this session pupils will explore, develop knowledge and understanding of the life and times of people living in the nineteenth century using extracts from Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.

The workshop explores:

• Customs and way of life in Regency era England.
• Language changes over time. Defining meaning from key words, supporting trickier nineteenth-century words.
• Letter writing – personal and formal.
• Irony and humour
• Difference and inequality
• Social and historical context to support their personal arguments about power, reputation, and scandal.
• Context of Jane Austen’s life, and it’s influence on her writing. For example: relationships, conflict, class, and inheritance.

Pupils have pre-activities to complete, post session extension activities to re- enforce the message of each session.

By the end of the session pupils will:

• explore personal and formal letter writing
• explore classic literature
• develop their independent and imaginative interpretations of Jane Austen’s work
• develop critical viewpoints substantiated with evidence and explore her linguistic and creative material exposing her messages
• understand the influences of Jane Austen’s writing
• pupils begin to form and articulate a critical understanding of complex texts and ideas
• interrogate words and meanings that have changed over time
• reveal the intended depth of meaning from small extracts from novels, supporting pupils make connections across their reading
• discuss and explain their understanding and ideas
• extend communication skills
• debate inequality, fairness, dependence, and power
• enhance their use of evidence to inform their view and strengthen their opinion