The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Define allegory, parable, and fable. What are the similarities and differences between them? What are some examples of each?

Teaching Suggestion: As this novel is an allegory, it can be useful to spend some time introducing students to that type of narrative. For example, you might explain that an allegory is a story with two levels of meaning—one that is literal, and an additional one that is often political, philosophical, or religious. Then, offer time to investigate the other genres and compile examples. Encourage students to focus their research to understand how allegories, parables, and fables each aim to illustrate lessons but do so through different strategies.

• This article helps distinguish among these three types of narratives.
• This resource page offers the definition, usage, and examples of allegory.

Short Activity

Working in small groups, visit “The Evacuated Children of the Second World War” resource from the Imperial War Museum and research the following questions:

• Why were children evacuated?
• Why did some families elect to stay in cities or return to them early?
• What was life like for children during the war?

When you’ve finished discussing the questions above, consider the emotional impact on families and children involved. Write about the feelings families involved likely experienced in your reading journal or notes; then, return to the group and discuss information you found.

Teaching Suggestion: Each group could also research a specific part of the evacuation of children. One group could do a timeline, another could select two or three photos to show the class and explain why they chose those images, and a third could research what the return home was like for children and their families.

• “Operation Pied Piper: The Evacuation of English Children During World War II” from the Defense Media Network provides additional photos and information about the evacuation.
• This discussion post from the National Archives of the United Kingdom is about child evacuees, and it explicitly references The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners and students with learning differences, consider providing a graphic organizer to help students organize their thoughts about what Operation Pied Piper was, how many children were evacuated, and what the timeline was.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Think about a time when you let your friends down. How did you make up for it? What does their forgiveness mean to you?

Teaching Suggestion: The Significance of Love, Sacrifice, and Redemption is one of the central themes of the novel, and so encouraging students to think about what forgiveness and redemption mean can help them to understand the significance of Edmund’s redemption arc and his transformation (as well as his Journey to Adulthood).

Differentiation Suggestion: For visual learners, encourage students to draw what “forgiveness” means to them. Then, have them draw “redemption,” comparing and contrasting what is similar and different between those two ideas and how they are interconnected.