Meet Roald Dahl

Overview

This is lesson 1 of 13 in Twists, Tropes and Tension. Students build contextual knowledge about Roald Dahl and make informed predictions about how an author’s life, historical era, genre, and intended audience may shape Lamb to the Slaughter. They are introduced to dark humour, surprise, and the unexpected before reading the short story in a later lesson.

Learning intentions

• WALT develop relevant contextual knowledge about Roald Dahl and Lamb to the Slaughter.
• WALT identify features of Dahl’s characteristic writing style.
• WALT explain how author, era, genre, and context can influence a text.
• WALT make predictions supported by evidence rather than guesswork.

Success criteria

• I can identify important influences and stages in Dahl’s life and writing career.
• I can explain what dark humour and an unexpected twist may do to a reader.
• I can make a prediction about Lamb to the Slaughter and justify it using contextual clues.
• I can distinguish between a supported prediction and an unsupported assumption.

Curriculum links

• English — Language Studies: Crafting Texts, Literary essays: using contextual knowledge to support discussion of an author’s choices.
• English — Year 9–10 texts: engaging with texts that have accessible narratives and challenging language, conflict, development, plot, or viewpoints.
• English — Year 9–10 texts: identifying and discussing themes, character choices, and moral dilemmas.
• The New Zealand Curriculum Refresh — developing critical, creative, and communicative language practices through discussion and written interpretation.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–7 min · Provocative hook. Open with the hook and mystery image: display the question, “Can something be funny and disturbing at the same time?” alongside an ordinary domestic object presented in an unsettling way. Students complete a quick think-pair-share, then write one sentence explaining what makes a situation unexpectedly funny or frightening.

2. 7–18 min · Meet the author. Use the Roald Dahl biography sequence to introduce selected facts: Dahl’s childhood and schooling, his work as a pilot during the Second World War, his career as a writer, and his writing for both children and adults. Clarify that he wrote Lamb to the Slaughter in the early 1950s, when short stories for adult audiences often explored marriage, social expectations, crime, and moral unease. Students record three facts and one question on the author, context, and prediction worksheet.

3. 18–28 min · Style investigation. Present the Dahl style examples and discussion prompts. Explain dark humour as humour arising from uncomfortable, threatening, or morally troubling situations; emphasise that readers may respond differently. Discuss how surprise, understatement, contrast between ordinary settings and shocking events, and carefully withheld information can create tension. In pairs, students match each feature to a likely reader effect on the worksheet, using terms such as “uneasy”, “curious”, “amused”, “shocked”, and “suspicious”.

4. 28–40 min · Context connections. Hand out the Context Connection Cards. In groups of five, students each take or select a context type, such as Historical, Social, Authorial, Genre & Form, Ethical, or Contemporary. Groups discuss: “What might this context make an author notice, question, or choose?” Students then complete the relevant boxes on the worksheet, distinguishing between a fact, an inference, and a prediction. Circulate and challenge unsupported claims with, “What makes you think that?”

5. 40–51 min · Predict the story. Reveal only the title, author, publication period, and genre on the title and prediction task. Do not confirm plot details. Students independently predict the setting, relationship between characters, possible source of tension, and type of twist. They must include at least two contextual clues and one cautious modal phrase, such as “may”, “could”, or “is likely to”. Students compare predictions with a partner and revise one prediction after hearing an alternative viewpoint.

6. 51–57 min · Share and evaluate. Use the prediction discussion and class synthesis to display the question, “Which prediction is best supported, and what evidence supports it?” Invite several pairs to share. Record recurring predictions and assumptions on the board, then model improving a vague idea such as “Something bad happens” into a supported prediction linked to genre, title, and Dahl’s use of surprise.

7. 57–60 min · Exit check. Students complete the final prompt on the author, context, and prediction worksheet: “Before reading, I predict that Dahl will use ______ to make readers feel ______ because ______.” Collect responses to identify students who need further support with context or literary vocabulary.

Resources

• the Meet Roald Dahl and prediction slide deck
• the author, context, and prediction worksheet
• the Context Connection Cards
• Projector or interactive display
• Whiteboard and markers
• Pens or highlighters
• A copy of the unit reading schedule for student reference

Assessment

• Listen for students using contextual evidence rather than unsupported plot guesses during pair and group discussion.
• Check worksheet responses for accurate understanding of author, era, genre, and context, and for appropriate use of “may”, “could”, or “is likely to”.
• Use the exit response to group students for the next lesson: secure contextual understanding, developing explanation, or requiring vocabulary and sentence support.

Differentiation

• Provide a word bank on the worksheet: authorial context, historical context, genre, dark humour, tension, twist, expectation, audience, and moral dilemma.
• Offer sentence frames: “Because Dahl wrote for ______, he may choose to ______”; “This could make the reader feel ______ because ______.”
• Read key slide text aloud, allow speech-to-text or oral recording, and pair students strategically; provide a partially completed timeline for students who need reduced writing load.
• Extend confident students by asking them to explain how a 1950s audience might respond differently from a contemporary audience, while acknowledging that audience responses are not identical.