Description
This reading comprehension guide and literary analysis for “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl includes structured before-reading, during-reading, and after-reading activities designed to support close reading, critical thinking, and engagement.
Students begin the lesson with a before-reading word sort that activates prior knowledge and introduces key concepts from the story. Instruction is supported with academic vocabulary, presented through a PowerPoint lesson and reinforced with a graphic organizer to build comprehension before reading.
As students read the story, they complete during-reading comprehension questions that guide understanding of plot, character actions, and key details, with answers provided for instructional support. After reading, students engage in cooperative learning literary analysis questions that require discussion, inference, and the use of textual evidence. A unique component of this lesson includes an analysis of the biblical verses alluded to in the story, helping students understand how allusion deepens meaning and irony. The lesson concludes with creative writing options that allow students to respond imaginatively while still grounding their work in the text.
Throughout the lesson, students practice essential literary skills, including point of view, theme, allusion, symbolism, dramatic irony, situational irony, suspense, characterization, inference, conflict, and dialogue.
This resource includes teacher guides and answer keys in PDF format, student activity pages available in both editable Word document and print-ready PDF formats, and a vocabulary lesson PowerPoint presentation. It is well suited for middle school or high school ELA and works especially well in units focused on short stories, irony, and Roald Dahl’s dark humor.