June 16, 18, 19
1. Monday Zoom link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/73980302204?pwd=SUV6TVliSWtMT3lJZzhET1J1cGtpQT09
1. Thursday Zoom class details:
Meeting id: 731 4143 3615
Password: 0AVZjW
1. Friday Zoom class details:
PrivatePeaceful text:
http://www.queenmargaret.sayr.sch.uk/uploads/9/7/5/1/9751352/private_peaceful_lp_t16.pdf
BBC Radio - Private Peaceful Chapter summary:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/pdfs/private_peaceful.pdf
Chapter 6 - Nearly five to one
1. Why does Big Joe go missing?
2. Who takes part in the search for Big Joe?
3. Why does Molly suggest that they search in the Church?
4. Write a few lines about a time when you found something that was
very important to you that you feared you had lost.
5. What do you think Big Joe means when he says ‘Ungwee. Ungwee.’?
Chapter 7 - Twenty-eight minutes past one
1. How does the first paragraph of this chapter relate to events in the
previous chapter?
2. What is the ‘broken promise’ that Tommo says was responsible for
bringing him to France?
3. Why does Tommo feel both overjoyed and miserable on the evening
when he learns that Molly is pregnant?
4. What fills Tommo with shame after seeing the soldiers?
5. How is the Colonel able to force Charlie to go to war?
6. Why do you think Tommo decides to go to war with Charlie?
Chapter 8 - Fourteen minutes past two
1. What lie do the brothers tell so that they’ll get recruited to the army?
2. What sound like ‘distant thunder’ do the boys hear at the training
camp in Salisbury, England?
3. Why does Tommo compare himself to a bee that he sees
while training?
4. How do Tommo and Charlie cope with crossing the English
Channel by ship?
5. How do you think Sergeant Hanley expects Charlie to respond
when he calls him a ‘blot on Creation’?
6. Write down five of your own words to describe Sergeant Hanley.
7. What do you think is the most difficult thing about the boys’
careers as soldiers so far? Why?
Chapter 9 - A minute past three
1. Like the other chapters, this chapter opens with Tommo staying
awake all through the night. Describe how you think he might be
feeling at this time.
2. Why do you think the soldiers are relieved to be going to the front?
3. Why does Tommo imagine that he can almost taste humbugs?
4. What kind of food do Tommo and Charlie eat at the estaminet?
5. The soldiers have a nickname for the town of Ypres in Belgium
which is being pounded by bombs. What is it?
Chapter 10 - Twenty-five past three
1. Based on the opening paragraph of this chapter, what is your best
guess as to why Tommo is spending the night alone in a barn?
2. Why does Tommo give up all hope of Charlie returning to the
dugout alive?
3. Tommo picks out two stars in the night sky. Who does he imagine
these stars to be?
4. Who makes an unwelcome return to Tommo’s life at the end of
this chapter?
Chapter 11 - Nearly four o'clock
1. In this chapter’s opening paragraph, what do we find out about the
vigil that Tommo is keeping in the barn?
2. Why are the new recruits so badly needed?
3. What sort of attack takes place as Tommo is writing his letter home?
4. What harmful effects does the gas have on the soldiers?
5. What good news does Tommo hear in his mother’s letter?
Chapter 12 - Five to five
1. What is about to happen at 6am, according to the opening paragraph?
2. Why does Charlie disagree with Sergeant Hanley’s decision to leave
the dugout and attack the German bunker?
3. How many witnesses does the British army have at Charlie’s
court martial?
4. Is Charlie’s court martial fair or unfair in your opinion? Why?
5. Why doesn’t Captain Wilkie help to support Charlie’s case in the
court martial?
Chapter 13 - One minute to six
1. How does this short, final chapter make you feel?
2. Why is Tommo ‘far from alone’ in his grieving?
3. Where is Charlie buried?
4. Why do you think the author includes a postscript after this
chapter?
5. Do you agree with the ‘conditional pardon’ granted by the British
Government in 2006? Why?/Why not?
Postscript
In the First World War, between 1914 and 1918, over 290
soldiers of the British and Commonwealth armies were
executed by firing squad, some for desertion and cowardice,
two for simply sleeping at their posts.
Many of these men we now know were traumatised by
shell shock. Court martials were brief, the accused often
unrepresented.
To this day the injustice they suffered has never been
officially recognised. The British Government continues to
refuse to grant posthumous pardons.
Vocabulary links:
https://quizlet.com/subject/Private-Peaceful/
