How many times have you heard someone say you should never judge a book by its cover? Well, this book cover lesson plan ignores this advice and does exactly that...
This simple but transferable lesson allows pupils to ‘get things wrong’ without fear of recrimination. It builds their confidence in making assumptions about texts and encourages them to justify their ideas.
Book cover lesson plan
Getting pupils to make predictions from their front covers is hardly a revolutionary idea, but my lower group struggled to make many substantial inferences from the packaging and presentation of the latter title, even with several lessons worth of context mapped in.
These are pupils who find writing difficult. Unless I spell things out step-by-step for them, it is challenging for them to conceptualise ideas and put them into coherent sentences and/or paragraphs.
The element of competition in the classroom helps here because the onus is placed back on the child to try and ‘outdo’ their peers on both their ideas and descriptions.
The pace of the task provides motivation to complete the work and not get left behind. It can be stressful for pupils, working under strict timed conditions, but dressing it up as exam practice, making them feel like they’re a lot older than they actually are, has seemed to prove an incentive.
Stuart Davis studied English at the University of Southampton before completing a PGCE in English. He is Lead Practitioner for English at The Toynbee School. Browse more KS3 English reading and writing lesson plans.
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