Week 1 Activities: ‘Boy’ by Roald Dahl

As I explained in the introductory video for this unit of work, over the next six weeks, we are going to be exploring selected extracts from Roald Dahl’s autobiographical book ‘Boy – Tales of Childhood’.

Below is a copy of the front cover. Look at it carefully. What images has Dahl chosen to use? Can you work out or predict what some of the stories from his life might be about by looking at the pictures? Make some notes to explain your thoughts.

Extension: What conclusions can you draw about the types of events that Roald Dahl has chosen to include in his writing, based on the images here?

For this week’s task, you are invited to plan and write an extract from your own ‘Tales of Childhood’. To help you decide what to write about, take a few minutes to think back over the events of your life so far and make some notes under the following headings:

First memories:

Funny Moments:

Achievements:

Challenges:

Friendships:

Your life since lockdown began:

If you find it helpful, copy this table into another word document and fill it in with notes about your life.

Once you have finished your note-making, select ONE EVENT from your life so far that you feel is the most appropriate to write about.

Remember to write in the past tense and first person (‘I’), as you are describing an event that has already happened to you personally.

Try to include descriptive language and focus on the most interesting details from the event that you are writing about and any feelings that you experienced at the time, as this will help to make your writing really engaging for your reader.

There is no recommended or minimum word count for this piece of writing – just make sure that you write about the event in enough detail to describe it accurately and interestingly.

To help you focus even more specifically on the type of event from your own life to write about, here is the preface to Roald Dahl’s book where he describes the sorts of events he chose to include in ‘Boy’ : An autobiography is a book a person writes about his own life and it is usually full of all sorts of boring details. This is not an autobiography. I would never write a history of myself. On the other hand, throughout my young days at school and just afterwards a number of things happened to me that I have never forgotten. None of these things is important, but each of them made such a tremendous impression on me that I have never been able to get them out of my mind. Each of them, even after a lapse of fifty and sometimes sixty years, has remained seared on my memory. I didn't have to search for any of them. All I had to do was skim them off the top of my consciousness and write them down. Some are funny. Some are painful. Some are unpleasant. All are true. RD

This short video has some useful tips for how to plan, write and review your work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FKr_fcPJY8

And here is a short extract from chapter 3 of ‘Boy’ where Roald Dahl describes a memorable event from his childhood: When I was seven, my mother decided I should leave kindergarten and go to a proper boy's school. By good fortune, there existed a well-known Preparatory School for boys about a mile from our house. It was called Llandaff Cathedral School, and it stood right under the shadow of Llandaff cathedral. Like the cathedral, the school is still there and still flourishing.

But here again, I can remember very little about the two years I attended Llandaff Cathedral School, between the age of seven and nine. Only two moments remain clearly in my mind. The first lasted not more than five seconds but I will never forget it.

It was my first term and I was walking home alone across the village green after school when suddenly one of the senior twelve-year-old boys came riding full speed down the road on his bicycle about twenty yards away from me. The road was on a hill and the boy was going down the slope, and as he flashed by he started backpedalling very quickly so that the free-wheeling mechanism of his bike made a loud whirring sound. At the same time, he took his hands off the handlebars and folded them casually across his chest. I stopped dead and stared after him. How wonderful he was! How swift and brave and graceful in his long trousers with bicycle-clips around them and his scarlet school cap at a jaunty angle on his head! One day, I told myself, one glorious day I will have a bike like that and I will wear long trousers with bicycle-clips and my school cap will sit jaunty on my head and I will go whizzing down the hill pedalling backwards with no hands on the handlebars!

I promise you that if somebody had caught me by the shoulder at that moment and said to me, "What is your greatest wish in life, little boy? What is your absolute ambition? To be a doctor? A fine musician? A painter? A writer? Or the Lord Chancellor?" I would have answered without hesitation that my only ambition, my hope, my longing was to have a bike like that and to go whizzing down the hill with no hands on the handlebars. It would be fabulous. It made me tremble just to think about it.

Notice that he writes in 1st person and the past tense, explains when it happened, where he was and what happened and that he also describes his emotional reaction - how the event made him feel. I have highlighted the relevant phrases / sentences in yellow.

Good luck and, if you feel you would like to, it would be fantastic to see some of your autobiographical extracts on either Padlet or email. My address is lbaker5@educ.somerset.gov.uk

Week 1 Extension Tasks:

Finished and keen for another challenge?! How about writing a preface for your own ‘Tales of Childhood’ in the style of Roald Dahl? Or designing a front cover for your own book about your life? If you’re looking for further learning challenges this week, then these are the activities you could try 