LRU-2150, kull-12/13

LRU-215O Assignment 2

Characters in Matilda:

The main character, Matilda, is a little girl who you follow from she’s around 3 years old and until she starts preschool. She is a very smart little girl. She’s especially good at math and reading. Matilda is also a very kind and precious little girl, but she doesn’t take abuse from anyone, and if she does, she plots her revenge immediately. The name Matilda means: Strong in battle, so she’s no pushover. Matilda is a dynamic and a round character, which means she has both good sides and naughty sides, and her character changes in the story. For example, she transforms from being a sweet little girl to a smart powerful girl who is not afraid of anyone.

Matilda is the protagonist of the story, and every protagonist needs an antagonist. In the book, Miss Trunchbull is the main antagonist in the story. Miss Trunchbull is the headmistress of the Crunchem Hall Primary School where Mathilda attends. She is a big, mean and scary looking woman. She hates children she says in the book and she will go great length to discipline the children. At one point in the book, she flings a little girl by the hair. The character of Trunchbull is static; she does not change during the story.  

To enhance The Trunchbulls character she has a character foil in her niece Miss Honey. Miss Honey is Matilda’s teacher at the Crunchem Hall Primary School. She discovers that Matilda has unusual attributes in reading and math, and she is the complete opposite character vise of her aunt. Miss. Honey is smart, kind, pretty and loves her pupils. These two characters enhances each other character traits in an appropriate way.

How can the book Matilda be used in relation to K06?

Matilda is a great book to use for teaching in the classroom, in my practice period we showed pupils in seventh grade the movie, and they really like the movie. I think that shows that the story still relates to children in all ages. Personally, I would really like to use Readers theatre as a teaching scheme in accordance to Matilda. The reason why is because there’s a lot of plays already made that’s available on the internet, and it’s a good method to work with a lot of skills in accordance to K06, for example: “Express himself/herself creatively, inspired by English literature from various genres and media (Culture, society and literature, after 7^th. grade). “(fremmedspraksenteret.no). In the classroom I would divide class in different groups and have them rehearse different plays and then perform for the class. Reader’s theatre is also great because the pupils do not have to memorize the lines, so they can use more time on the pronunciation instead.

Sources:

Gamble, Nikki. (2013). Exploring Children’s Literature (text book)

http://fremmedspraksenteret.no/nor/fremmedspraksenteret/larings---ressurser/leseveiledning-i-engelsk/methodological-approaches/readers_-theatre?lang=nor#Competence%20aims%20in%20K06