Shooting an Elephant

• Engels
• Further Education (Key Stage 5)

Shooting an Elephant

Rate the word 1 to 4

1. I do not know the word, and I have never seen it before. 

2. I've heard or seen the word before, but I'm not sure what it means. 

3. I know the word and can recognise and understand it while reading, but I probably wouldn't feel comfortable using it in writing or speech. 

4. I know the word well and can use it correctly in writing or speech. 

Homonym

Word of the day

Homonym (n)- One of two or more words that are spelled and pronounced the same but carry different meanings.

You can remember the word homonym from its word elements. Homo means “same,” and oynm is from the Greek word meaning “name.” Thus, homonyms are words that have the same “name”—the same spelling and sound—even though they have different meanings.

 

Can you write down three pairs of homonyms in English? 

address, bat, die, pound, pole, ring, stalk, tender, well etc. 

Shooting an Elephant

This "essay" was written by George Orwell and published in 1936. It is unclear whether Orwell actually did shoot an elephant when he was in Burma in 1922 - 27.  Therefore, we should read the essay as fiction based on experiences and knowledge that the author had. We refer to the first person as the narrator. 

Shooting an Elephant

1. Identify the setting of the narrative 

2. What is the main internal conflict of the narrator? 

3. Explain the function of the narrative involving the football match. 

4. How does the narrator personally feel about the treatment of Europeans in Burma? 

Goals for today 

Complete consideration of "Shooting an Elephant" and make links to 1984

Definition Bingo 

Extract annotation and consideration of what has changed for Winston 

Paper 1 summative - 2nd October (unseen) 

Rate the word 1 to 4

1. I do not know the word, and I have never seen it before. 

2. I've heard or seen the word before, but I'm not sure what it means. 

3. I know the word and can recognise and understand it while reading, but I probably wouldn't feel comfortable using it in writing or speech. 

4. I know the word well and can use it correctly in writing or speech. 

Acronym 

Word of the day

Acronym (n) - a word or abbreviation formed from the initial letters of each of the successive or major parts of a compound term.

 

 

Acro comes from the Greek word , which can mean “topmost or highest” but can also refer to the “tip” of something. You can think of an acronym as consisting of the “tips” of several words.

Word of the day

There are some words that started as acronyms, but have become words now used in their own right. 

RADAR

SCUBA

LASER 

What do you think the words are that these acronyms are made up of?  

RADAR: radio detection and ranging

SCUBA: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus

LASER: light amplification by stimulated emissions of radiation

Shooting an Elephant

5. What motivates an elderly woman to disperse a group of children? 

6. Explain the irony associated with the narrator's shooting of the Elephant. 

7. Make an inference. Why does the narrator run away before his task has technically finished? 

Shooting an Elephant

8. If the narrator had chosen not to shoot the elephant, what is the implicit message he would have sent to the community? How does his profession inform your answer? 

9. What provides the narrator some sense of relief in the resolution? 

10. What ideas, explored in 1984, do we see in this essay? 

Find, and write in your exercise book, the definition for the following words: 

Aimless 

Alter 

Despotic 

Feebly 

Futility 

Garish 

 

Invariably 

Mahout 

nimble 

Preoccupied 

Prostrate 

resolute 

sneer 

squalid 

vague 

wander 

Definition Bingo

Draw a table 4 x 4 

Write your vocabulary in your bingo card. 

Your teacher will read a definition. 

You cross off the correct word. You can call BINGO if you have a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line of 4 

Your card will be checked.