The best way to introduce 'An Inspector Calls'

I absolutely loved loved loved doing this lesson!

It’s super basic, but a really engaging way to get students thinking about the central issue of social responsibility.

By rooting the lesson in a modern day example before revealing anything about the play itself, it helps students to appreciate the message and continuing relevance of not just this piece of work, but literature and drama in general.

The lesson is centered around the Notre Dame fire and gets students to consider whether the money raised for it can be justified when there are people going hungry. Thus, pupils contemplate Priestley’s message in the context of today’s world before even reading the play, and reflect on their own sense of morality and justice, as well as how society today is behaving.

The main activity is more of a non-fiction/transactional writing task ( I like to sometimes interweave skills from different topics) but you could scrap this and have the main activity be something totally different such as a debate.

Anyway, its fun and the kids absolutely love talking about this concept