Mind the Characters

Mind the Characters is a journey into the world of English language fiction through the analysis of short stories and modern fables . The authors of the texts include Oscar Wilde, Isaac Asimov, James Thurber and Fredric Brown. Each of the ten units looks at the relationships between the characters and their worlds – both real and imaginary. The characters include Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf, a little girl and a talking snail, a little boy and a star, a man and a computer and a pair of vampires and an alien.
In the texts the student will see English language in use, and they will learn and analyse the characteristics of short stories and re-use the language in the ‘creative labs’ through the writing of letters, newspapers, articles, stories etc. The activities which accompany each story combine the study of language and literature. They aim to improve all four language skills – listening, reading, speaking and writing – and to develop numerous secondary skills – predicting, problem solving, scanning, note taking, summarising and interpreting.