Clockwork
Why the book was selected
Clockwork is a tale filled with suspense and holds great appeal for readers who enjoy their reading matter to give them a fright. Reading the story together is a supportive way of introducing this genre to more sensitive readers. The multiple narratives and sophisticated themes make this short book a challenging read. Philip Pullman is an expert craftsman, and his mastery of the written word makes this an excellent novel for language study. The complex structure and interlocking narratives provide plot twists and turns which are revealed through close reading and reflection.
About the author
Philip Pullman worked as a teacher both of children in middle schools and trainee teachers and has maintained a passionate interest in the world of education ever since. He writes mostly for children and is probably best known for ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy of fantasy novels. He has won many awards for his writing; most notably The Amber Spyglass was the first children’s book to win the Whitbread Book of the Year.
About the illustrator
Peter Bailey is known for his timeless monochrome line drawings and has illustrated over 140 children’s books working on books for authors such as Allan Ahlberg and Dick King-Smith. His long term collaboration with Philip Pullman has been recognised as one of the great illustrator/writer partnerships.
A note about lessons
Our lessons are organised as meaningful chunks of learning. Most of them will fit a standard 45 minute to 60 minute session. However, some of them are shorter and others will run for a series of linked sessions. It is anticipated that you will not teach all the lessons. Select those that suit the needs of your class and add them to your personalised plans.
Text potential
Lessons for this book
Before Reading
Hook
Welcome to the White Horse Tavern
Setting the scene for the story and establishing genre.
Orientation
Call My Bluff
Playing a game to learn new vocabulary which is introduced in the preface.
During Reading
First Encounters
What Would You Do?
Using drama to explore Karl’s dilemma and consider the consequences of actions.
Pages 27-45
How Will the Story End?
Posing questions about the story so far before making predictions.
Pages 47-65
How They All Wound Up.
Reading to the end and using a literature circle to explore personal response to the story.
Required reading: Whole book
Digging Deeper
Plotting Clockwork
Summarising and sequencing the key events of the story.
Required reading: Whole book
Who is Telling the Story?
Exploring the role of the narrator and identifying the different narrative voices in the story.
Required reading: Whole book
Investigating Punctuation
Using Echo Reading to support understanding of multi-clause sentences and investigating the use of punctuation.
Required reading: 11-12, 17, 50-51, 83-4
What’s in a Name?
Investigating the meaning and significance of character names.
Required reading: Whole book
‘He’s not a cheerful fellow at the best of times.’
Digging deeper into the character of Karl with Readers Theatre.
Required reading: 16-17, 37-40, 70-73, 78-81
Character Inference
Exploring how we can make inferences about characters from the way they are described.
Required reading: Whole book
After Reading
Review and Reflect
Evil or Genius?
Exploring the question of whether Dr Kalmenius is evil or a genius.
Required reading: Whole book
Writing Opportunities
Meanwhile Karl had been preparing the place in the mechanism of the great clock…
Writing a missing scene.
Required reading: 29, 83-5
Finishing Fritz’s Story
Writing the end of Fritz’s story.
Writing in Role
Writing about the events of the story in role as one of the townspeople.
Pages 86-92
Wider Learning Opportunities
The Flowers of Lapland
Exploring staff notation through the melody in the story.
Required reading: p38
Resources
Strange Star
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The Wolves of Willoughby Way
Long ago, at a time in history that never happened, England was overrun with wolves. But as Bonnie and her cousin Sylvia discover, real danger often lies closer to home. Their new governess, Miss Slighcarp, doesn’t seem at all nice. She shuts Bonnie in a cupboard, fires the faithful servants and sends the cousins far away from Willoughby Chase to a place they will never be found. Can Bonnie and Sylvia outwit the wicked Miss Slighcarp and her network of criminals, forgers and snitches?
The Dark is Rising
It’s Christmas-time in the Stanton family house: presents, carol singing, good cheer. But for eleven-year-old Will Stanton, something sinister has begun, inching round his subconscious, shouting silent warnings he can’t decipher. Then on Midwinter Day, Will wakes up to a different world: silent, covered in snow and ancient forest, a world of another time. A world where evil lurks.
Because Will is not the ordinary boy he always thought he was. He is the last of the Old Ones and the power to vanquish the evil magic of the Dark lies within him.
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Uncle Montague lives alone in a big house and his regular visits from his nephew give him the opportunity to retell some of the most frightening stories he knows. But as the stories unfold, another even more spine-tingling narrative emerges, one that is perhaps the most frightening of all. Uncle Montague’s tales of terror, it transpires, are not so much works of imagination as dreadful, lurking memories. Memories of an earlier time in which Uncle Montague lived a very different life to his present solitary existence…
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So insists Roger. Maybe it’s true. But what is he NOW?
Only three people believe this version of the story. Only one of them knows who Roger really is. And luckily a story about her can sell even more newspapers than one about a rat-boy …
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