The Dogs

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• mavo
• Leerjaar 3

Welcome M3C

Week 5  - Lesson 1

PTA 3

Twee toetsen:

• Woordenschat (Build-up vocabulary, chapter 21 - 30)
• Literatuur ("iBoy", "Everything, Everything" & "The Dogs")

De komende weken gaan we ieder boek bespreken en met de woordjes van het Build-up vocabulary oefenen.

The Dogs, Allan Stratton

Look at the title, cover and summary of the book.
What do you think it will be about?

What is the genre of the book?

Having read the summary & watched the book's trailer, would you read the book in your spare time?
Why?/ Why not?

Skim through the first chapter (p. 1-4).
What happens?

Welcome M3C

Week 5  - Lesson 2

Whose telling the story?

What is the name of the town where they'll be living?

Skim through pages 12, 13 & 14.
How does Cameron describe the house?

What does Cody mean by "Sinclair's dump" (p. 24)?

Welcome M3C

Week 6  - Lesson 1

What do you think about the book so far?
1. Do you like it or not?
2. Why is that?

Cameron finds several drawings of the McTavish-family: Jacky, his mother and his father:

“The top drawings are mostly of Jacky and his mother and father at the farm. His father is huge – even bigger than the barn. He has enormous black eyes, without any whites, and a mouth of yellow teeth. Plus he’s almost always got a pitchfork, a hammer or a saw. Jacky and his mother are way smaller and mostly off to the side, holding hands. Her eyes are empty circles; sometimes she doesn’t have a mouth.” (chapter 9)

What are the relationships in this family like, do you think? Describe the relationships between Jacky, his father and his mother.

On the move

In the book Cameron has to move house a lot.

Watch the video.

The video is about people who move a lot.
What does it do to people when you move around a lot?

What would you miss most if you were to move to the other side of the country?

The video ends with the words: "You know your travels have made you who you are."
What does that mean? (own opinion)

What is your home life like? What things happened in your life that really changed you?
Think about your family, your house, your school.

Welcome M3C

Week 6  - Lesson 2

Bullying

In the book, Cameron is bullied by Cody and his gang. In real life, bullying also plays a big part in the lives of many teenagers. Watch the video and answer the questions.

The boy also has a solution to do something about cyberbullying. He mentions three steps: stop, block and tell. What does he mean by that?

The boy asks the viewer three questions:
1. ‘Have you ever cyberbullied anyone?’
2. ‘Have you ever been cyberbullied?’
3. ‘Have you ever witnessed cyberbullying?’
What answer does the boy in the video give? Use your own words.

What does it do to a person who experiences cyberbullying, do you think?

How can you fight cyberbullying?

Does the atmosphere in the video match how you felt when you were reading the book?
Why?/ Why not?

What element of the video supports that feeling the most?

Promoting the book

English cover                   Dutch cover

Which cover do you like best?
Explain your answer.

If you were to do a remake of the video, what would you change?

Welcome M3C

Week 7  - Lesson 1

The Dogs

Comparing books

In The dogs, Cameron goes to his English class where they read the book To kill a mockingbird.

The main character of that book is Scout Finch. In a summary of the book this is said about Scout:

Comparing books

At the beginning of the novel, Scout is an innocent, good-hearted five-year-old child who has no experience with the evils of the world. As the novel progresses, Scout has her first contact with evil in the form of racial prejudice. A black man is wrongly accused of rape and is sent to prison for it. The question throughout the book is if Scout will keep her optimism and belief in humanity or whether she will be bruised and hurt by bad experiences, and will lose her faith in humanity. She is a girl who grows up in a loving environment. Thanks to her father Atticus’s wisdom she learns that humanity has both evil and good sides. And so you always have to be open-minded. Scout develops into an optimistic human being, who, whatever evil she encounters, stays strong without becoming cynical. Though she is still a child at the end of the book, Scout’s perspective on life develops from that of an innocent child into that of a near grown-up.

Can you see similarities between the way Cameron’s character develops in The dogs and Scout’s development in To kill a mockingbird?

Do you also see any differences?

How would you describe Cameron's character/personality?

How would you describe Cameron's development in The Dogs?

The Dogs: Cameron

• He is not happy to constantly move from place to place.
• He is affected by the life he's lived on the run and by things he remembers from his past. He's grown up with a mom who is paranoid that his father is going to catch up to them.
• Confused, frightened and all alone with only his gut, the impossible stories of a boy long dead and his keen sense of curiosity and determination.
• He deals with issues such as bullying, domestic violence, mental illness and maturity.
  

Welcome M3C

Week 7  - Lesson 2

The Dogs

Look at the picture.
What do you see?
Describe what you see in as much detail
as you can. Describe what you see, not what you think.

The writer

At the end of the book, there is an interview with the writer. He talks about growing up in a similar situation to Cameron's. His father was also very violent to his mother.

Answer the questions on the next slides.

Do you think his own experience helped the writer to write the book?
Explain your answer.

Could another writer, who'd had a happy childhood, also have written such a book?

You can call "The dogs" a psychological thriller.
Try to explain why you think that is.

What is a psychological thriller?

• A subgenre of thriller that explores the psychology of its characters, who are often unstable.
• What makes a thriller psychological is that the biggest questions revolve around the minds and behavior.
• They often incorporate elements of mystery and include themes of crime, morality, mental illness, substance abuse, multiple realities or a dissolving sense of reality, and unreliable narrators.
• Psychological thrillers generally stay away from elements of science fiction, focusing on events that could take place in real life.
  

Recap: The Dogs

The Dogs, Allan Stratton:

• Psychological thriller, mystery, crime
• Young male teenager (Cameron) and his mother are on the run from his violent father.
• End up in an old farmhouse in which a murder is supposed to have taken place years ago.
• Cameron starts hearing and seeing things and eventually questions everything.