Introductory Lesson

Learning Objective: To initiate class discussion in order to introduce a text.

Whole class discussion – “Imagine you’ve just walked in through your front door at home. What’s the worst thing you could find inside?”

After students have discussed it in pairs, each student writes a single idea on a whiteboard or slip of paper. Gather them all together, sharing them in a list.

Get the students to classify them however they wish. Choose some ideas – how are they awful in different ways? Could they put them in order from least to most awful? Have any of them ever happened to people they know? Why might we have different opinions about what constitutes awful? Are there different kinds of awful?

Afterwards, read the opening page of the book. How do Michael’s problems compare to theirs?

Extension activity

Choose one of the ideas from the list and write a diary entry about it as themselves.