Lesson Plan on "Atonement" by Ian McEwan (PDF)

Unterrichtsentwurf aus dem Jahr 2010 im Fachbereich Didaktik - Englisch - Pädagogik, Sprachwissenschaft, , Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The following lesson plan will refer to the novel Atonement by Ian McEwan and the movie of the same title directed by Joe Wright. The story is about a 13-year-old girl named Briony Tallis who has a vivid fantasy and one day sees her older sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner, the son of a family servant, at the fountain in front of the house. She does not understand what is going on between Cecilia and Robby, misinterprets the scene and a series of misunderstandings is set in motion that causes lasting repercussions for all of them. After the fountain scene, Briony reads a letter from Robby to Cecilia, that has a sexual overtone, and so she concludes that he must be a maniac. Then she sees Robbie and Cecilia in a dark corner of the family's library having sex, which disturbs her still more. When her cousin Lola is raped, Briony, under the influence of fear and disappointment, tells the police that it was Robby who committed the crime. Robby is immediately arrested. The actual rapist is a visitor to the estate who later marries Lola. Both hide behind the lie and Briony is left to atone for her sin.
I will generally refer to the novel's key scenes (fountain scene, Robbie's letter, library scene, scene in the wood, interrogation scene, Briony as an adult) and two movie trailers. The lesson is designed for the Oberstufe, more precisely for the 12th class (Leistungskurs) because the text is relatively long and the language is rather sophisticated. I would cover this topic in the second semester because it fits very well to the content of "Extreme Situations", which covers the issues "love and happiness", "initiation", "fight for survival", "tragic dilemma" and "the troubled mind" (Hessisches Kultusministerium 8) which are all contained in the novel.