5 Implicit meaning: character

Assessment objectives IGCSE examination

AO1 Reading • Paper 1 all questions
R2 Demonstrate understanding of implicit meanings and • Paper 2 all questions (in particular, Question 2)
attitudes. • Paper 3 both sections
R4 Demonstrate understanding of how writers achieve • Component 4 Coursework portfolio (Assignment
effects. 3)

Differentiated learning outcomes Resources

• All students must be able to select some key implicit information • Student Book: pp. 20–3
from a text and comment on what it suggests about character
(Grade E/D). • Worksheet:
1.5 Implicit meaning:
• Most students should select appropriate information and use it to
character
infer meaning about character (Grade D/C).
• Some students could select and link the most appropriate
information and analyse how it conveys meaning about
character (Grade B/A).

Exploring skills
As a class, read through this opening section of the Student Book on p. 20. Make sure
that students understand the five bullet points about character.
Check understanding of the term ‘implicit meaning’ and explain that ‘inferring’ is a
skill we use every day. Then ask pairs to complete the spider diagram task in Q1.
Afterwards, ask the students what other things they have inferred today, for example:
• how your family and friends are feeling
• what the weather might be like later
• what a passer-by might be like from how they dress, move, etc.

Building skills
Revisit the five bullet points about character. Then ask students to complete Q2 on
implicit meaning.

Give extra support by selecting a certain phrase (for example: ‘the photographs of
elaborate cakes’) and asking students what it might suggest about Sasha or her
mother.

Invite class feedback. Responses may include:

• It appears that Sasha’s mother has been trying to convince her.
•
Key reading skills
Chapter 1

Sasha clearly doesn’t like the unnamed girl.

• Mother wants to be nice to her daughter but is disturbed by her behaviour.
• Mother is going to invite the unnamed girl anyway.
• Sasha appears to have a short attention span; she also seems greedy.
• Mother has been planning her party for a long time.
• Sasha is spoiled and used to getting her own way.
Encourage students to explain which particular words or phrases suggested the
implicit meanings that they have written down.

14 • Lesson 5 © HarperCollins Publishers 2013

 Developing skills
As a class, read through the extract from Great Expectations. Then hand out Worksheet
1.5 and ask students to complete the character table for Pip and Magwitch in Q3.
During class feedback, responses on each character might include the following:

Pip
• ‘you little devil’ suggests Pip is young
• ‘sir’ implies Pip is quite respectful
• ‘terror’ shows how scared he is
• ‘nothing in them but a piece of bread’
might suggest poverty
• ‘not strong’ suggests he doesn’t exercise or
is badly fed
• ‘expressed my hope that he wouldn’t’
conveys that he doesn’t understand the
man is not speaking literally.
Magwitch
• ‘you little devil’ suggests he doesn’t like children
• ‘cut your throat’ shows he is violent and immoral
• ‘coarse grey... great iron’ indicates that he is an escaped
convict
• ‘soaked in water’, etc., implies he has been sleeping
rough and travelling across country
• ‘limped and shivered’ suggests he is ill and injured
• ‘glared and growled’ makes him sound mentally ill
• ‘Show us where you live’ and other orders convey his
dominance
• ‘turned me upside down’ demonstrates strength
• ‘ravenously’ suggests he hasn’t eaten for a long time
• ‘Darn me if I couldn’t eat em’ suggests that the man is
not well-educated or of a high class.

Ask students to complete Q4, using their notes from Worksheet 1.5 to write a
paragraph about each character.

Give extra support by giving students sentence starters, for example: Magwitch
seems like a violent person when... or The phrase ‘ravenously’ suggests that...
Give extra challenge by encouraging students to link phrases together and
comment in detail on the effect of Dickens’s language choices.

Applying skills
As a class, read through this section of the Student Book. Ask students to complete
Q5, answering the two questions. Remind them to make use of their notes from
Worksheet 1.5 and to comment on the effects of the language being used in the text.

Give extra support by giving students sentence starters, for example: It is clear that
Pip is scared when Dickens writes... or When Dickens describes Magwitch as a
man who ‘limped and shivered, and glared and growled’ this makes the character
seem...
Give extra challenge by encouraging students to explore implied meanings, not
just select literal ones. Students should try to group their ideas, link phrases from
the text together, and comment on the effect of specific features of language, such
as the use of verbs and adverbs.

Feed back as a class, encouraging students to build on any underdeveloped points

Key reading skills
Chapter 1

about the effects of language. Then ask them to assess their work in pairs, using the
Sound progress and Excellent progress criteria on Student Book p. 23 to see how well
they have done.

Towards To achieve the highest marks for reading, students need to select a range of the
A/A* most relevant implicit meanings. They need to link information together and analyse
how language is being used to create different effects that convey information about
character.

© HarperCollins Publishers 2013 Lesson 5 • 15