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Great Escape Stories of the Second World War
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English Lesson Plans
(Copyright © Ruth Marshall 2005)
These are the plans for 5 (or 8) weeks'
worth of English lessons for three of my sons, ages 13, 11, and 9.
Related Links:
Great Escapes (Exhibition at the Imperial War
Museum):—
Colditz:—
Stalag Luft III:—
(Stalag Luft III consisted of
several compounds, including East Camp from which the Wooden Horse escape
took place, and North Camp from which 76 prisoners escaped by tunnel in
March 1944).
Background:
Watch the DVD, The Great Escape (starring Steve
McQueen). This includes related interviews and background commentary.
Assigned Reading:
1. Books on which this course is based
 | (13-year-old) – P.R. Reid, The Colditz Story |
| (11-year-old) – Eric Williams (ed.), Great
Wartime Escape Stories |
| (9-year-old) – Eric Williams, The Wooden
Horse |
2. Extra reading (if time and interest allow)
| Paul Brickhill, Reach for the Sky |
| Ian Serraillier, The Silver Sword |
| P.R. Reid, The Latter Days at Colditz |
| Eric Williams, The Tunnel |
| Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place |
| … plus anything else related to World War 2, which
the boys find in our book-shelves |
Written Assignment:
| Choose one of the following topics:
 | Write a narration of the book you have read. |
| “The One That Got Away” |
| Use this as the title for a story of an allied officer who escaped from
a prison-of-war camp and made it safely home. This can be either fact or
fiction. |
| You are an Escape Officer in a prison camp. As
Escape Officer you are unable to escape yourself, but you have the
responsibility to assist other men to escape. You have heard many
different plans for escape: some are elaborate schemes, while others are
much simpler. Tell of the various preparations needed for one or two of
these escapes. |
| You are an allied prisoner in ________________ [either
Stalag Luft III, or Colditz Castle], in 1942. You have a plan
for escaping from the prison camp, which you need to present to the
Escape Officer.
What is your plan? You need to be specific, showing your proposed route,
and providing answers to the questions the Escape Officer is sure to
ask.
You may mark your escape route on a plan of the prison camp. |
| About twenty years after the war, two men emigrate
from Europe to Australia with their families. They eventually settle
down as neighbours in suburban Sydney, where they meet and become
friends. When they first meet, each thinks that he recognises the other,
but can not be sure. However, they finally discover that they had
previously met in a German POW camp. One was a British airman, while the
other was one of his German guards. The Englishman had been involved in
an unsuccessful escape attempt. One afternoon, the two men sit on the
back veranda of one of their homes and remember the incident… |
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The first week –
simply choose the topic and allow plenty of time for reading and other
research. After that, write daily – 15 minutes a day for 11 & 13 year-olds;
10 minutes a day for 9-year-old – until the child has completed his first
draft. Don’t despair if the end result of the first draft is “terrible”! |
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Work on editing this
assignment together – allow plenty of time for this. More than one
draft may be necessary before completing the final version. Once it
is finished, find an audience who will enjoy reading the story. |
Copy Work and Dictation:
For an 8-week plan, assign copy work and dictation on alternate
weeks.
For a 5-week plan, skip the copy work weeks.
| Copy work – Each child is expected to choose a
passage to copy each day. He has the option of copying a passage from the
reading assigned for this unit, or verses from the Bible. Can he tell you
why he chose that particular passage to copy? |
| Dictation – Plan to spend one week on each of
the assigned passages. Follow Julie Bogart’s suggestions for French
Dictation (see The Writer’s Jungle, p12-13), and discuss each passage
orally, using the accompanying notes as a guide. Don’t try to cover all of
the language activities in just one day (you have a week to cover them all)! |
Weekly Lesson Plans:
Week 1 – Dictation
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“Why do we always stand in fives?” Peter complained. “It used to be
threes in the last camp.”
“These are army goons,” David said. “The others were air force
goons. Army goons can only count in fives.”
The Wooden
Horse (p. 18) |
Oral discussion:
| Note punctuation for quotations:
| New paragraph for each new speaker. |
| Beginning and ending punctuation. Note the use of the comma after
“army goons” (it’s the end of David’s sentence, but “David said” is added by way
of explanation, and is another clause in the same sentence). |
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| If you were to present this as a dialogue with two people, what
would each one say? |
| This passage is an example of direct speech, where the actual
words of each speaker are included. Can you suggest how it might be written in
indirect speech? There are a number of possibilities. |
| The word “goons”. To whom is David referring? At best this is
slang, and at worst quite derogatory. Certainly not polite speech! |
Week 2 – Copy Work
| See copy work suggestions above. |
Week 3 – Dictation
(The 9-year-old should write the first two paragraphs from dictation; the other boys
write the whole passage).
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We stood motionless, fully dressed as German officers, and waited
with pounding hearts. Pat Reid spoke in a hoarse whisper:
“I’m afraid I can’t get it open!”
He continued turning the wire in the lock. I could hear the wire
rasping against the rusty metal as he tried again and again to open
it. Ten minutes passed in terrible suspense. Through the cobwebbed
window I could see the snow falling. I folded my arms and waited.
Suddenly there was the noise of old hinges creaking. A quick snap
and the door swung open, showing us the dim interior of the attic.
“Good luck,” said Pat Reid, and shook hands.
Great Wartime
Escape Stories (p. 99) |
Oral discussion:
| Vocabulary:
| motionless |
| hoarse |
| rasping |
| suspense |
| interior |
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| Suspense in this passage. What helps to create this? (Not just “We
waited in great suspense for ten minutes while Pat Reid tried to open the
door.”)
Suggestions:
| “waited with pounding hearts” |
| “in a hoarse whisper” (not just “Pat Reid said”, or “Pat Reid
whispered”) – why is “hoarse” a good adjective here? |
| 3rd paragraph – Sentences inserted between “He
continued turning the wire in the lock” and “Suddenly ...” – tells what the men
could see and hear. Give an idea of the passage of time |
| Alliteration: “wire rasping against the rusty metal” – helps to
convey the sound. What other “sound effects” do we find in the passage? |
| This passage, written by Airey Neave, is in the first person.
Change it into the 3rd person.
Suggested beginning:
“The men stood motionless…” (The direct quotation from Pat Reid may be left as
it is). |
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Week 4 – Copy Work
| See copy work suggestions above. |
Week 5 – Dictation
(The 9-year-old should write from the beginning to the word "honesty", from dictation; the other boys
write the whole passage).
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“What does all that imply?” queried Billie.
“It means,” I said, “that I don’t think it’s such a tall order. Once
outside the camp, a suitcase becomes the hall-mark of respectability
and honesty. How many people travel long journeys on main-line
expresses in wartime with nothing at all in their hands? Only
fugitives and railway officials. And the Germans know this well.
They know that to look out for an escaped prisoner means to look out
for a man travelling light, with no luggage—without a suitcase.”
“I see your point, Pat,” agreed Billie.
The Colditz
Story (p. 194) |
Oral discussion:
| Vocabulary:
| imply |
| hall-mark (Note the compound word – which other word in the
passage is also a compound word?) |
| fugitives |
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| Note punctuation for quotations, especially at the beginning of
the 2nd paragraph. “It means” is not the end of the sentence, so
“that” does not begin with a capital letter. |
| Who is the narrator in this passage? |
| Words used for “said”. Look back at the previous two dictation
passages and find others used. Can you think of any other synonyms for “said”?
How can using some of these help to make your writing more vivid? |
| This passage is in direct speech (i.e. we are told the exact words
spoken by each speaker). How could we re-write it in indirect speech? |
Week 6 – Copy Work
| See copy work suggestions above. |
| Preparation for next week: Have each child choose a
passage from one of the books he read, which he thinks would be suitable for
dictation. Explain that he is going to have to tell why he chose this
passage. |
Week 7 – Dictation
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Have each child suggest a suitable passage for
dictation. (Announce this ahead of time, so he can be thinking
about this). Discuss one of the chosen passages each day. |
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Why has he chosen this one?
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Does it record a particularly exciting incident? If
so, discuss some of the things that help to make a narrative
exciting |
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Is it a humorous passage? What helps to make it funny?
Would it be so funny if the author had written it using different
words? |
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Does the child particularly like some aspect of the
language in the passage? If so, what? (Don’t worry if he can’t
explain! Talk about it together). |
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Have the child read aloud the passage, for others
(including mother!) to write from his dictation. |
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Week 8 – For Fun…
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