Teaching Pack

Prose – Language, structure and form:

1984 by George Orwell
Cambridge IGCSE™
Literature in English 0475

Version 1
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Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4

Lesson plan – Language, structure and form: 1984 by George Orwell ........................................... 5

Teacher notes ................................................................................................................................. 8

Lesson resources.......................................................................................................................... 10

Worksheet 1: Passage from 1984 by George Orwell (Chapter 6) .................................................. 11

Worksheet 2: PEEAL table (teacher’s example) ............................................................................ 12

Worksheet 3: PEEAL table ............................................................................................................ 13

Worksheet 4: PEEAL writer’s pie .................................................................................................. 14

Worksheet 5: PEEAL help sheet ................................................................................................... 15

Icons used in this pack:

Lesson plan

Teacher notes

Lesson resources
Teaching Pack: Prose – Language, structure and form: 1984 by George Orwell

Introduction

This Teaching Pack focuses on supporting learners to explore writers’ techniques and choices of
language, structure and form in passage-based questions.
The lesson presented here is designed for learners that are reading and studying 1984 by George
Orwell. It would be useful if the text has been read by your learners before this lesson so that they
are familiar with the content of the poem, and can focus on the application of their skills.
The lesson is designed for learners that already understand what PEEAL (Point / Evidence /
Explain / Analyse / Link) is as a means of answering literature questions. Ideally, they should have
been introduced to and have used the PEEAL help sheet (Worksheet 5) before this lesson. If
learners have not used the PEEAL writer’s pie, this could be introduced in the starter activity as a
success criterion before learners begin writing a PEEAL response,
Learners will already have an understanding of how writers create and develop a sense of tension
and isolation.
In this Teaching Pack we have suggested resources and online links you may like to use as well as
some worksheets and teacher notes to print off and use in the classroom with your learners.

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 Teaching Pack: Prose – Language, structure and form: 1984 by George Orwell

Lesson plan – Language, structure and form:

1984 by George Orwell

Resources • Worksheet 1: Passage from 1984 by George Orwell

(Chapter 6)
• Worksheet 2: PEEAL table (teacher’s example)
• Worksheet 3: PEEAL table (photocopy A3 size)
• Worksheet 4: PEEAL writer’s pie
• Worksheet 5: PEEAL help sheet
• Teacher notes

Learning objectives By the end of the lesson:

• all learners should be able to: Consider some of the
effects created by the writer’s use of language devices and
narrative style in the passage
• most learners should be able to: Explore a range of
effects created by the writer’s use of language devices and
narrative style in the passage and link their ideas to the
essay question
• some learners will be able to: Analyse a wide range of
effects created by the writer’s use of language devices and
narrative style and link their ideas to the essay question in
an insightful way.

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Teaching Pack: Prose – Language, structure and form: 1984 by George Orwell

Timings Activity

Starter/Introduction
Task: Why do people keep diaries? Who are they written for? When do you
normally write them? What types of things are normally written in diaries? How
can they help us?

Extension activity: Why can it be dangerous to keep diaries? List as many

reasons as you can think of.

Mini-plenary (whole class discussion): Summarise ideas to the above

questions and draw the conversation to why Winston writes his diary in
Chapter 6 (See Teacher notes below for ideas). Why does Winston write his
diary entry in Chapter 6?
Draw upon the learners’ ideas about the extension activity. Discuss some of
their ideas, and relate it to why Winston writes his diary entry in Chapter 6.
Discuss why it is a massive risk for him to do this.

Main lesson
Hand out a copy of the passage (Worksheet 1) to each learner.
Read it aloud with the class after introducing the essay question:
How does Orwell create a strong sense of tension and isolation in the
following passage?
From Chapter 6 ‘But the rest of the story had to be written down. He wrote … ’
to ‘… The urge to shout filthy words at the top of his voice was as strong as
ever.’

Task: In pairs, learners take notes on their ideas about what they have
observed about how the passage is narrated, along with anything else they
notice about the structure of the text. Then ask learners to relate their ideas to
how Orwell’s structure helps to create tension.

Extension activity: Why is the reader made to feel sorry for Winston here?

Mini-plenary (whole-class discussion led by teacher):

• What do you notice about the narrative style here?
• How does it help to create tension?
See Teacher notes below for an analysis of the structure and form of the
passage to help direct concise feedback to learners.

Discuss some responses from the extension activity:

Why is the reader made to feel sorry for Winston at this point in the novel?
After all, he is doing something that we may consider disgusting and illegal.
Draw out how lonely he is and in need of human contact. Emphasise his
isolation and desperation brought on by the rules and order of his society. Also,

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 Teaching Pack: Prose – Language, structure and form: 1984 by George Orwell

Timings Activity
emphasise how he is alone confessing this ‘crime’ to his own diary. List these
things on the board in note form so the learners can refer to them later.
Pairwork task:
1. Learners select a total of two quotations that create a sense of tension
from the passage. Ask them to select their two quotations from
paragraphs 3 and 4.
2. Learners select a total of two quotations that create a sense of isolation
from the passage. Ask them to select their two quotations from
paragraphs 1, 5 and 7.

Plenary
Hand out a copy of the PEEAL table (Worksheet 3) to each learner.
Task: Each learner in a pair selects one quotation that creates tension and
suspense from the passage, and another quotation that creates a sense of
isolation (from the quotations that they have just selected in the last task). Then
each learner uses their quotations to complete the PEEAL table.
They will not have time to finish this table in class, but most learners should be
able to complete at least one explanation and one analysis.

Homework: Complete the PEEAL table (including the section which asks
learners to write a paragraph about how the structure and form of the passage
helps to create tension and isolation).

Starter of next lesson: Learners will begin the next lesson by exchanging
their writing and peer assessing each other by using the PEEAL writer’s pie
(Worksheet 4). The teacher will then take in the writing from every learner and
give feedback by agreeing with or altering the pie and targets that each pupil
has been given by his or her peer.

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Teaching Pack: Prose – Language, structure and form: 1984 by George Orwell

Teacher notes

Explore writers’ techniques and choices of language, structure and form in passage-based
questions. (Prose)

Key words

Key words you could highlight during the lesson, or teach before the lesson:
Language devices – How the writer has used vocabulary choices and imagery to influence the
reader’s thinking towards characters, events, settings and the sense of atmosphere being
developed.

Structure and form – How the passage has been narrated and laid out. For example, it could be
narrated in the first or third person, it could contain a flashback or it could contain a dual narrative
to achieve a particular effect.

Effect – How the reader is made to feel towards the characters, events, settings and atmosphere
by the writer’s use of language, structure and form.

Why Winston writes his diary (Book 1, Chapter 6)

Winston has become obsessed with the ‘brunette’ (Julia). He is deeply attracted to her but knows
the feelings he is having for her are forbidden by the Party. Therefore, his desire for
companionship and human intimacy put him at risk. He would be in great danger if his longings
and desires were discovered as they are individualistic and thus against the Party.

However, he cannot control himself as he wants someone to share his life with him. He longs for
love. Therefore, he turns to his diary to recount the brief moments of intimacy and human
connection that he has experienced in his life. We learn about his 15-month marriage with
Katherine and how they shared no intimacy or affection. Instead, she saw the marriage as being a
duty of the Party to procreate and make the next generation of comrades. We also learn that in his
desperation Winston visited a prostitute in 1981 as he was so desperate for human connection. He
is clearly disgusted by his behaviour and aware of his own desperation and loneliness. In addition,
he tries his best to contain his growing anger and resentment at the party.

Consequently, he writes his confession in his diary because he knows it happened and wants it to
feel real, as nothing in his life feels normal or real anymore. He knows he is putting himself at great
risk by writing these things down, but due to his anger at the Party and their rules, he does not
care. It is a private act of rebellion. An act he will regret.

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 Teaching Pack: Prose – Language, structure and form: 1984 by George Orwell

Teacher notes, continued

Notes on the structure and form of the passage

The narration of this passage is interesting as it contains the voice of the omnipotent narrator, and
Winston’s own voice through the diary entries. The switch between these two voices is effective:

• The diary entries help to emphasise Winston’s desperation and disgust at what he has
done. The entries are brutally honest and unapologetic. They shock the reader but make us
feel sorry for him rather than appalled at his behaviour.

• The halting, short entries of the diary entries help show his nervousness in what he is doing
(i.e. writing down these thoughts), and show how difficult it is for him to confront these
thoughts and admit to what he has done – admit to his own desperation.

• The narrator helps to remind us of the tension of this moment and of Winston’s actions
when he visited the woman. He took a great risk to be with her. In turn, this emphasises his
isolation as he is so desperate for human intimacy, and some kind of shadow of love, that
he is willing to risk his life to have it.

• The narrator emphasises how he is undertaking this act of writing his diary as one of
defiance to the Party. Again, this helps to create tension and suspense regarding what will
come of this moment of private rebellion.

• The narrator conveys a deep sense of isolation in his descriptions of what Winston did and
what he is doing as he writes in his diary.

The narrator cannot only see everything that's going on, but also know what everyone's thinking.

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Teaching Pack: Prose – Language, structure and form: 1984 by George Orwell

Lesson resources

Worksheet 1: Passage from 1984 by George Orwell (Chapter 6)

Worksheet 2: PEEAL table (teacher’s example)

Worksheet 3: PEEAL table

Worksheet 4: PEEAL writer’s pie

Worksheet 5: PEEAL help sheet

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 Teaching Pack: Prose – Language, structure and form: 1984 by George Orwell

Worksheet 1: Passage from 1984 by George Orwell

(Chapter 6)

How does Orwell create a strong sense of tension and isolation in the following passage from the
end of Chapter 6?

1. But the rest of the story had got to be written down. He wrote:

2. I turned up the lamp. When I saw her in the light –

3. After the darkness the feeble light of the paraffin lamp had seemed very bright. For the first
time he could see the woman properly. He had taken a step towards her and then halted,
full of lust and terror. He was painfully conscious of the risk he had taken in coming here. It
was perfectly possible that the patrols would catch him on the way out: for that matter they
might be waiting outside the door at this moment. If he went away without even doing what
he had come here to do –!

4. It had got to be written down, it had got to be confessed. What he had suddenly seen in the
lamplight was that the woman was old. The paint was plastered so thick on her face that it
looked as though it might crack like a cardboard mask. There were streaks of white in her
hair; but the truly dreadful detail was that her mouth had fallen a little open, revealing
nothing except a cavernous blackness. She had no teeth at all.

5. He wrote hurriedly, in scrabbling handwriting:

6. When I saw her in the light she was quite an old woman, fifty years old at least. But I went
ahead and did it just the same.

7. He pressed his fingers against his eyelids again. He had written it down at last, but it made
no difference. The therapy had not worked. The urge to shout filthy words at the top of his
voice was as strong as ever.

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Teaching Pack: Prose – Language, structure and form: 1984 by George Orwell

Worksheet 2: PEEAL table (teacher’s example)

Complete the following table using the quotations from the passage that you have decided upon.

Point Evidence Explanation Analysis Link

The passage ‘But the rest of the This emphasises how isolated The phrase ‘had got to be written down’ Consequently,
begins with a story had got to Winston is from the people around conveys Winston’s inner conflict and his writing this in his
very lonely and be written down.’ him and from any form of close desperation to acknowledge that this diary and
secluded friendship as he cannot talk to anyone event took place. He is ashamed about committing such
feeling. about what he did. Also, the fact that it, but the confession of this act will help an act both create
he sought comfort with this woman him feel more human in a society where tension and a
was because of the unbearable he is made to feel more and more sense of isolation.
absence of love and companionship emotionless and hollow. ‘had’
he feels in his life. A sense of tension emphasises his determination to break
is created here too as such behaviour, the law to accomplish this.
and the confessing of it, is illegal.

Even though ‘But I went ahead This creates a deep sense of isolation The phrase ‘I went ahead’ carries a As a result,
she was an old and did it just the as Winston has been so alienated self-loathing tone. It creates a sense of reading Winston’s
woman he did same.’ from himself, and normal human isolation as he is accepting his true, own shameful but
not care as he relationships, that he longs for any broken self. He realises that he was desperate words
was so form of love. It makes him seem like a compelled to be with the woman as the in his diary
desperate for very desperate and vulnerable Party has not allowed him to enjoy his conveys a deep
human character. The fact that we read his life and have relationships that he sense of isolation
connection. own words here is profound as we knows to be normal and important. This and tension.
understand the depth of the risk he simple sentence also creates tension
took and the shame he bears as a as it emphasises his guilt if his diary
result. were to fall into Party hands.

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 Teaching Pack: Prose – Language, structure and form: 1984 by George Orwell

Worksheet 3: PEEAL table

1. Complete the following table using the quotations from the passage that you have decided upon.

Point Evidence Explanation Analysis Link

2. Complete a paragraph on how the way the passage has been structured and narrated helps to create tension and suspense. You can use the
following sentence starters to help you:
• The way in which the passage is narrated and structure helps to create tension because ……………………………………………………………..
• The inclusion of a diary extract in the passage helps to create …………………………..………as…………………………………………………….
• The jump between first and third person narration also creates a sense of isolation because ...……………………………………………………….

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Teaching Pack: Prose – Language, structure and form: 1984 by George Orwell

Worksheet 4: PEEAL writer’s pie

2. Points are one

1. Introduction is no more than sentence long and state
three or four lines long and: the idea that is going to
• summarises passage be explored in each
paragraph.
• introduces essay
question. Used throughout 3. Uses useful
connectives to link
and develop ideas
(no time
connectives used).
Used frequently

10. Gives a
4. Evidence used
thoughtful and Used
sometimes is relevant to the
appropriate personal question, and
opinion in the contains
Didn’t use
conclusion. interesting
language
devices.

9. Ideas are linked to 5. Uses

the question in the ‘because’, ‘as’
final sentence of and ‘since’ to
paragraphs. explain ideas
and give
reasons.

8. When
Analysing,
specific
words/phrases are 6. Uses one or two
commented upon sentences after the
7. Uses two or three quotation to Explain
and their effects
sentences to Analyse the significance/
the effects created by importance of the
the writer’s use of ideas and events in
language techniques. quotations.

Grade this draft merits: In order to improve, I need to:

1.

2.

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 Teaching Pack: Prose – Language, structure and form: 1984 by George Orwell

Worksheet 5: PEEAL help sheet

Point Evidence Explain Analyse Link

Useful words to use when writing a PEEAL paragraph

Point:
When making your point, try to identify a technique that the writer has used, how the writer has
made the reader or audience feel at some point in the passage or what the atmosphere is at some
point in the passage.

• All of your points should be relevant to the question.

• The rest of your paragraph should explain and analyse the effects created by your
quotation (evidence), and how your quotation (evidence) proves your point.

At the beginning of the passage, the atmosphere is _______________ and ____________________

(Author’s surname) creates a strong feeling of tension and suspense when ______________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In addition, the reader is made to feel worried when _______________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

However, the audience feels a sense of hatred towards (a character) as _________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence:
Ensure that you select interesting evidence that supports the point you have just made and helps
you answer the essay question. Your evidence should also allow you to comment on a range of
effects that are created by the writer’s use of language and/or structure (e.g. stagecraft in a play,
use of flashback / narrative style in a novel). Therefore, choose your evidence carefully!

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Teaching Pack: Prose – Language, structure and form: 1984 by George Orwell

Worksheet 5: PEEAL help sheet, continued

Explain:
When you explain, explain the significance of the events taking place in relation to the question.
Also, explain any other interesting things that your evidence shows to do with character,
relationships between characters, dramatic irony, foreshadowing and themes.

Always use the words ‘because’, ‘as’ and ‘since’ to develop your ideas fully.

This shows __________________________________________ because/as/since______________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

This highlights that _____________________________________________ because/as/since _____________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

This emphasises _________________________________________________ because/as/since ______________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This helps the reader to understand that ______________________________________________________

because/as/since ___________________________________________________________________________________.

This helps the reader to understand that ______________________________________________________

because/as/since ___________________________________________________________________________________.

This reinforces the idea that _____________________________________________________________________

because/as/since ___________________________________________________________________________________.

The fact that ________________________________________________________________________________________

because/as/since ___________________________________________________________________________________.

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 Teaching Pack: Prose – Language, structure and form: 1984 by George Orwell

Worksheet 5: PEEAL help sheet, continued

Analyse:

When you analyse, analyse the effects that the writer’s use of language and structure have on the
reader. Pick out particular words and phrases and discuss how they make the reader feel and think
towards characters, events, and themes.

Always use the words ‘because’, ‘as’ and ‘since’ to develop your ideas fully.

The words ‘xxxx’, ‘xxxx’ and ‘xxxx’ suggest that / make the reader feel / give the idea
that / create a sense of____________________________________________________________________________
because/as/since ___________________________________________________________________________________.

The phrase ‘xxxx xxxx’ creates an ominous atmosphere because/as/since ________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

The writer’s use of the word ‘xxxx’ here implies that ________________________________________
because/as/since ___________________________________________________________________________________.

The phrase ‘xxxx xxxx xxxx’ gives the character a [e.g. hostile] tone as the strong
alliterated [e.g. ‘b’] sounds make him sound like he is [e.g. angry and spitting out his
words].

The word/words/phrase gives a _____________ and ________________ impression/feeling/idea

because ______________________________________________________________________________________________.

The use of simile/metaphor/personification/alliteration conveys a _________ idea/feeling

as _____________________________________________________________________________________________________.

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Teaching Pack: Prose – Language, structure and form: 1984 by George Orwell

Worksheet 5: PEEAL help sheet, continued

Link:

In the last sentence or two of your paragraph, clearly link the ideas you have discussed with the
question. In other words, show how the ideas you have discussed in this paragraph answer the
question.

Therefore, this clearly shows that ______________________________________________________________.

As a result, this means that the writer has ___________________________________________________.

Consequently, this creates a sense of ___________________________________________________________.

18 Cambridge IGCSE Literature in English 0475

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