Grade 7/ English

Unit 2

Unit Title
Creative Solutions

Unit Question
How do we solve problems?

Area of Interaction
Approaches to Learning (ATL)

Significant Concept

If you really want something you can figure

out how to make it happen. A problem
solver is a thinker who focuses on the
problem as stated and tries to synthesize
information and knowledge to achieve a
solution

Student Name:..

Academic Year: 2012-2013

1
 DANNY
The Champion of the World

By Roald Dahl

.
Stories, like other types of writing, have an introduction, a body (in several parts) and a conclusion. Let us look
at the way this is done in a story.

Introduction - provides the setting of the story, introduces the main characters and sets the tone.

Inciting Cause - In all stories there is some kind of problem which the main character or protagonist must face.
This problem is called the central conflict. It is introduced early in the story and gets the action moving. The
inciting cause drives the story forward as the protagonist struggles to resolve the conflict.

Rising Action - This is a series of events that build up the plot and keep the readers attention. Along the way
the protagonist faces many obstacles that get in the way of solving the main problem.

Crisis or Climax - This is the one event that changes the whole course of action in the story. It is a point where
the protagonist must make a very important decision that will effect the outcome of the plot.

Falling Action - Once the decision is made, another series of events occur, and the plot begins to unwind. The
mystery unravels, and important questions get answered leading to the...

Resolution - Here the conflict is resolved. This also can usually be associated with one important event in the

2
story.

Conclusion - This is the final outcome of the story.

In Brief

Nine-year-old Danny discovers his father has a secret: he loves poaching pheasants. Together they devise a plan
to outwit the mean local landowner, and poach a record-breaking 200 pheasants in one go. All they will need
are some sleeping pills, loads of raisins, and a large pram.

Why you should read it?

A delightful book that brings the idyll of a childhood in rural England to life. A magical plot that is witty and
captivating for adults and children alike.

Introduction to the novel: Danny the Champion of the World is told from the first person point of view by Danny, the
main character. It is interesting that when the book begins, it is like Danny is talking directly to the reader. In fact, Danny
says This is how I looked at the time and under those words on the page is a baby picture (Dahl 1). It is as if Danny is
sitting in the room with the reader, talking directly to them, telling them the story of his life. The book concludes with the
statement What I have been trying so hard to tell you all along is simply that my father, without the slightest doubt, was
the most marvelous and exciting father any boy ever had (Dahl 205). The way that Danny talks directly to the reader
draws them in and gives the story a realistic feel; like Danny was a real person and this experience really did happen to
him.

One of the main themes of this book is the strong relationship between a father and a son. Danny has a very good
relationship with his father, as the reader can tell by what he says at the end of the book (Dahl 205). Danny spends more
time with his father than he does with any other person. In fact, Danny would rather hang out with his father than with his
friends (111). They fly kites together, make a hot air balloon together, and fix cars together. They even go poaching
together. In the few scenes where Danny is not around his father in the book, he mentions his father. For example, when
Danny goes to school, he mentions what his father thinks of the headmaster (110). Throughout the book, Danny never
makes a negative comment about his father. He instead describes his dad as the most marvelous and exciting father any
boy ever had (8)

3
 DANNY
The Champion of the World

By Roald Dahl

CHAPTER 1 - "The Filling Station"

VOCABULARY: champion - lavish - spokes - kerosene - gypsy scruffy- rickety - bunk - caravan - engineer - bough

1. Who is telling the story?

2. Where do Danny and his father live?

3. What kind of job does Dannys father have?

4. Find three (3) sentences in Chapter One that describe how Danny feels about his father.

a)

b)

c)

5. Based upon the description in this chapter, draw a picture of the inside of Dannys house.

CHAPTER 2 -"The Big Friendly Giant"

VOCABULARY: marvelous - stern - enormous - wheelbarrow - cavern - occasionally stride- mysteriously - shrill -
prowl - blowpipe - tremendous - gait - hedge

1. How can Danny tell if someones smile is for real?

2. Create a timeline and storyboard showing the activities of the "BFG in Chapter 2.

4
 CHAPTER 3 - "Cars and Kites and Fire Balloons"

VOCABULARY: mechanic - grindstone - amazing - majestically - inevitable- interval - swoop sapling-compliment -

soar - sterno - stilts - meadow - tangled - crouch - boomerang

1. Why did Dannys dad decide to wait two more years before sending
him to school?

2. Describe Dannys world.

3. List seven (7) things Dannys dad taught him how to do, and draw a picture of each.

4. What is "Soapa"?

5. Why is Danny impatient to be nine?

CHAPTER 4 - "My Fathers Deep Dark Secret"& CHAPTER 5 - "The Secret Methods"

VOCABULARY: complicated - doze - aghast - ravenous - quirk - yearn - fetch - mania - faint - poach - rear - filthy - panic
- pheasant - disgusted sheepish

1. What is Dannys fathers deep dark secret?

2. What do the keepers do?

3. What is poachers bottom?

4. What are the beaters hired to do?

5. How does Dannys dad feel about the rich men who rear pheasants?
( How do you know that? )

CHAPTER 6 - "Mr. Victor Hazell" & CHAPTER 7 - "The Baby Austin"

VOCABULARY: brewery - smug - precisely - indicate - estate - superior - wriggle - dread - snob - inspect - prickly -
swerve - glimpse - cozy - stealth(ily) - ruin - inflamed - twilight - petrified - immense

5
1. Who is Mr. Victor Hazell?

2. Why doesnt Dannys father like Mr. Hazell?

3. What is meant by decarbonizing?

4. Explain why twilight is the best time to catch pheasant.

5. Why did Dad wear the navy blue sweater and peaked cap to go poaching?

6. What did Danny think when he woke up at 2:10 in the night?

CHAPTER 8 - "The Pit"

VOCABULARY: queer - collapse - knuckles - accelerator - roost - shiver - jar (v.) - speedometer ankle-tangle - support
- approach - grasp - presumably - agony - anesthetic

1. How did Danny find his father?

2. Describe the trap that the keeper made to catch poachers.

3. Why was it important that Dad get out of the trap before sunrise?

4. How did Danny get his father out of the trap?

5. Why did Dad let Danny drive the car back home?

6. Why would Dannys father need to have an anesthetic?

CHAPTER 9- "Doc Spencer" & CHAPTER 10 - "The Great Shooting Party"

VOCABULARY: retired - mooch - injection - plaster - patient - flabbergasted loathsome-brood - astonished - surgery -
blunt - infuriating - trousers - trout -stretcher - sneer - ambulance - diabolical - parcel - triumph

1. Describe Doc Spencers method of catching trout?

2. What is Docs attitude about poaching?

3. How did Doc Spencer get even with Victor Hazell for kicking his dog?

6
4. How does Doc show kindness toward Danny?

5. What is the big event that Mr. Hazell holds every year?

6. Why does that make Dannys dad "madder than a mackerel"?

7. What does Dad wish to do?

CHAPTER 11 - "The Sleeping Beauty"

1. Describe Dannys idea about how to catch all 200 pheasants.

2. What does Dad mean when he says, "If this thing works, it will revolutionize poaching."?

3. Do you think the plan will work? Why? Why not?

4. What does "quarter the dose" mean?

5. What did they decide to call Dannys method of catching pheasants?

6. Why did they decide to wait until Friday to carry out their plan?

7. Make a timeline and storyboard to show their plan of action.

CHAPTER 12 "Thursday and School"

VOCABULARY: autumn - erect - moustache - platoon - fascinating - commemorate - scarlet repulsion-naturalist -

coronation - corridor - insolent - vast - nectar - pact - apologetic horde - butler - encourage - fury - expedition - aniseed -
eclair - revolting

1. What does Danny mean when he says that his dad is a true countryman?

2. What are skylarks, nightingales. partridges and grouse?

- What do they all do alike?

(Choose four 4.)

4. Describe the "drag hunt"

5. What is Mr. Snoddys deep dark secret?

7
6. Why do Danny and his friend make a pact not to tell the other children about Mr. Snoddy?

7. Why wouldnt Danny ever bring his friends home to play?

8. What horrible thing happened to Danny at school?

9. How did Dad react when Danny told him what happened? Leave .the clss !

CHAPTER 13 "Friday" & CHAPTER 14 "In the Wood"

VOCABULARY: knitted/knitting - squint - clearing - trance - extraordinary - anxiously -nudge - flurry - saucepan - swap -
transfixed - investigate colossal- game - ecstasy - pungent - bulge - murky - swivel - conscious

1. At the beginning of Chapter 13, Danny said. "I had snakes in my stomach the moment I opened my eyes on that Friday
Morning." What do you think he means by this?

2. What extraordinary piece of news did Danny learn about his mother?

3. What is toad-in-the-hole?

4. What time were they planning to leave for Hazells Wood?

5. What does the law say about wild birds and other wild game?

6. Create a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast how Dad felt and how Danny felt as they were in the wood planting
the raisins.

CHAPTER 15 - "The keeper"& Chapter 16 - "The Champion of the World"

VOCABULARY: hover - incredible - nuisance - peculiar - superbly - Labrador - eerie - limp - suspended - pomegranate -
suspicious - sacks - plummet - loiter - lurking - taxi

1. Write the lines that tell how Dad was feeling as he and Danny waited for the darkness to fall.

2. What is a Cox Orange Pippen ?

3. Who is Mr. Rabbets?

How did Dad react when he saw Mr. Rabbetts?

8
4. Once they were back in the wood, Dad began to wonder about their plan. Why did he say, "I should have tested it with
the rooster." ?

5. Soon they found out that their plan did work. How many pheasants did they collect, and how did they carry all of those
pheasants?

6. Who is Charlie Kinch, and why did he come to the wood?

CHAPTER 17 - "The Taxi" & CHAPTER 18 - "Home"

VOCABULARYL: astounded - vicar - prance - equipment - crafty - vicarage -roasted - parsnips - aghast - survey -
succulent - freezer

1. Why did Dad call Danny The Champion of the World ?

2. What did Dad plan to do with all of those pheasants?

3. Who is Enoch Samways, and why is Danny afraid of him?

4. Who is Mrs. Grace Clipstone?

5. What does she have to do with the poaching of pheasants?

6. Why did they have to leave the pheasants at the coal shed instead of taking them home to the filling station?

7. Why did Dad decide to buy:

a) an oven?

b) a deep freezer?

8. What three (3) things must you always have with roasted pheasant?

a)

b)

c)

CHAPTER 19 - "Rockabye Baby"& CHAPTER 20 - "Good-bye Mr. Hazell"

9
VOCABULARY: genius - frantic - hush - constable - ridiculous - shriek - dismount -scoundrel - convert - lubricate -
neutral - absurd - conjuror - squat -rogue - infernal - cargo - resplendent - entice - uproar

1. Read the whispered conversation (on page 163) between Dad and Doc Spencer.

a) What did Dad tell the Doctor?

b) How did Doc Spencer react to the news?

2. How did Mrs. Clipstone plan to deliver the pheasants?

3. What went wrong with the plan?

4. Write a paragraph describing this event from the point of view of

the baby
the pheasents

5. Make a timeline and storyboard for Chapter 20.

CHAPTER 21 - "Doc Spencers Surprise"& CHAPTER 22 - "My Father"

VOCABULARY: astonishing - varmint - luscious - thoroughbred -mare - porch - terrace - lounge

1. Why was Mrs. Clipstone upset?

a)

b)

2. What was Doc Spencers surprise?

3. How did Dad and Danny decide to spend Saturday?

a) First go to ______________ in order to _________________.

b)Then go to ______________ in order to _________________.

10