Lesson Plan

Cambridge
Lesson plan Discovery
Level 4  Intermediate  CEF: B1  PET Readers

Robinson Crusoe  Retold by Nicholas Murgatroyd

Aims Then ask Do you think first person narration is a
good choice for this book? Why? Why not?
■ To make students interested in the book.
3 Ask students to read Extract 2 again. In pairs,
■ To give students the opportunity to do some
students discuss what they have learned about
creative writing.
Robinson Crusoe’s character and make notes.
Pre-reading Activities Possible answers: He is young and has dreams of
adventure. He feels tied down at home. He tries to
1 Tell students that the title of the book is Robinson do as his parents wish but just can’t.
Crusoe, and that this is the name of the main
character of the book. Ask them to read Extract 1 Ask How do you think his parents are feeling?
(the blurb of the book). Talk about what students Possible answers
have learned from the blurb. Mother: worried, trying to please everyone, still
Suggested answers: Robinson Crusoe is the only sad after the death of her other son. Father: angry,
person who hasn’t died after a shipwreck. He has worried, has decided that Robinson won’t go
been living on an island far from anywhere and has travelling.
built a home there. But now he has found a footprint 4 Tell students that Robinson Crusoe does leave
and he’s afraid. England and doesn’t return for thirty-five years.
Elicit what genre students think the book is from Ask them to imagine a conversation between his
the blurb. If necessary write a list of genres on the parents after Robinson has been away for ten years.
board and ask students to choose which one they Students should make notes about how they think
think it is. his parents feel. Ask Are they sad? Angry? Do they
Answer: Adventure. blame each other? Have they done their best to forget
Robinson? When they are ready, students write the
2 Ask students to read Extract 2. Ask Who is telling us conversation using just dialogue. Now put students
this story? into pairs and ask them to act out their pieces of
Answer: Robinson Crusoe. dialogue.
Tell students – if they haven’t realised – that the 5 Ask students to read Extract 3 (a description of
story is written in the first person and teach them Robinson Crusoe’s dramatic arrival on his desert
about ‘narration’, where a book is written as if the island). As a class, discuss how the events in the
character is speaking to the reader. Ask What do you extract could be turned into a part of a screenplay
think the equivalent is in films? for a film. (NB If you wish, you could download and
Answer: ‘voice-over’. photocopy examples of how screenplays are laid out
Discuss the benefits and disadvantages of character from the Internet and give these out to students.)
narration. Ask Would you include any dialogue? Would you just
show Robinson Crusoe’s experience or would you cut
Possible answers
to other things and back to Crusoe?
Advantages: The book or film comes to life.
We really get to know the main character well 6 Tell students that the island Crusoe lands and lives
and we can feel as if we’re in the story and it’s on has no name. Ask them to think of a name for
happening to us. the island. Write their suggestions on the board and
hold a vote for the best name. (NB Students are not
Disadvantages: It may only work if we like the
allowed to vote for their own suggestion.)
narrator and are interested in what’s happening
to them. We can only see the story through that 7 Tell students that Robinson Crusoe makes a raft
character’s eyes - we can’t see what is going on (teach ‘raft’ if necessary) to go back to his wrecked
anywhere else. ship to fetch some useful things from it before it
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 sinks. Elicit what items they think he might find and
why they would be useful on the island.
Suggested answers: food, guns, tools, a sail, rope,
clothes, animals.
  8 Ask students to look at Illustrations 1 and 2 and
elicit what they think Robinson Crusoe has done in
order to make life more comfortable for himself on
the island.
Possible answers: He has made clothes and shoes,
an umbrella to keep the sun off him, a home and
cooking pots. He has captured goats for food and to
use for clothing.
  9 Ask students to read Extract 4. Elicit the meaning of
‘cannibals’. Ask Do you agree with Robinson Crusoe’s
opinion about the cannibals?
10 Ask students to continue writing after the end
of Extract 4. Prompt them by asking questions –
e.g. What happens? Does Robinson come face-to-face
with the cannibals?
Post-reading Activities
  1 Ask students to think of a new title for the book.
Share these with the whole class, and if you wish,
hold a vote to find the most popular title choice.
  2 Ask students to write a time line for the book,
showing when important events take place during
Crusoe’s life.
  3 As a class, discuss how different the book would be
if it were set in the present day. Ask What would
need to be changed? Why?
  4 Tell students that in the United Kingdom, there
is a radio programme called Desert Island Discs.
Someone – usually someone famous – is interviewed
about his or her life. During the interview they have
to imagine they have been shipwrecked on a desert
island and to say which eight records or pieces of
music they would like to have with them. They are
also allowed to choose one book and one luxury
item. Teach ‘luxury’ if necessary (e.g. an object
that makes life nicer but is not a necessity). Now ask
students to choose their own eight pieces of music
and their own book and luxury. Share these with the
whole class.

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Extract 1 My notes
I couldn’t sleep all night long. I didn’t know whose footprint
it was. How had they got to the beach? Had another sailor
been shipwrecked? Was it a cannibal? Or a monster?
Robinson Crusoe is the only survivor of a shipwreck
and is left on a remote island. He gradually builds a lonely
but comfortable life for himself in his new home. But then he
realises he is not alone.
Extract 2
My parents wanted me to go to university and become a
lawyer, but I told them I wanted to become a sailor and see
the world. I was sure I’d be able to travel and make money at the
same time, but my father wanted me to stay at home.
He said, ‘Why do you want to do such a dangerous thing?
I told your brother to stay at home, but he never listened. He
wanted to be a soldier and now he’s dead. Travel won’t make
you happy. Everything you need for happiness is here in
England. And it’s safe here.’
Seeing that my parents didn’t want me to travel, I promised
to stay in England. However, making promises is much easier
than keeping them. After a few weeks I forgot all the promises
I’d made and went to speak to my mother about wanting to
travel. I knew it would be easier to persuade her than my father,
so I waited until we were alone together. I told her that I wanted
to travel, but I promised her that I would return. I said, ‘If
I don’t like travelling, I will come home and become a lawyer.’
My mother was worried, but she still asked my father if
I could go.
My father said, ‘He’ll be happiest if he stays at home. If he
travels he’ll be very unhappy. He mustn’t go.’

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Extract 3 My notes
We dropped one of the ship’s small boats into the wild sea
and jumped into it. The boat had no sail and the waves were
so powerful we thought we’d sink, but there was no choice.
Working together, we managed to row about seven kilometres
before a wave as high as the highest mountain on earth started
coming quickly towards us. We knew it would destroy us. It
took the boat and threw it into the air like a ball.
I fell into the sea. Water filled my mouth. I could hardly
breathe. I looked for the other sailors, but before I could find
them, another huge wave came. I couldn’t fight against it. I
thought I was going to die. But then I suddenly saw that I was
close to the shore. Another wave came and carried me even
closer. My feet touched sand. The waves continued to push me
and throw me against the rocks, but I eventually managed to
reach the beach. Exhausted, I moved on my hands and knees
to a place where the waves couldn’t reach me and sat on the
grass.
Extract 4
When I got to the beach, I saw a terrible sight. The beach was
covered with human bones: arms and legs and skulls. They
must have been cannibals! I was thankful the cannibals hadn’t
come looking for me, but I was also very angry. How could
men eat other men? It made me feel sick even to think about it.
I returned home, but I stayed angry for many days. I couldn’t
believe cannibals had eaten men on my island. I was sure they’d
return one day and I started to make plans. I thought of ways I
could hide in the forest and shoot them all when they arrived
on the beach. Then I started to change my mind. I wondered
what my life would have been like if I’d been born in the same
village as the cannibals. I realized that I’d probably have become
a cannibal too. They ate other people because they thought it
was natural, not because they were awful people. It wasn’t their
fault that they hadn’t had the good education I had.

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Illustration 1 My notes

Illustration 2

Cambridge Discovery Readers    © Cambridge University Press 2010     www.cambridge.org/elt/discoveryreaders PHOTOCOPIABLE