No happy ending?

Dear students,

we have already finished our unit on Lamb to the Slaughter, by Roald Dahl. I have really enjoyed your enthusiasm about it and the contributions you have made to the blog.

I woud like to carry out similar activities due to your positive response, so keep an eye on this blog as there may be updates soon!

In order to finish our unit, I would like you to discuss about Mary Maloney's decision and to imagine how her future will be. Will she ever be caught? Does the story have a happy ending?

Leave your feedback below, your comments are highly appreciated!

And remember:

(Image by Conrad Knutsen)

Guilty: to be or not to be, that is the question

Dear students, you have all carried out your different tasks quite well, since you have:

• expressed your views on the story and the video
• shared links with us of Lamb to the Slaughter pictures and films
• shared links with us of Roald Dahl's stories

First of all, I would like to thank you for your participation, I hope that you are all enjoying this unit. Let me share with you some of the pictures which some of you have found:

Now that we know what Ms Mary Maloney did to her husband, let's think about what took place next. Do you believe that the policemen did a good job? Was Mary much more clever than them or not? You can answer both questions by giving your own opinion in comments below or by voting in the surveys that appear on the right side of the blog.

P.S.: Have a look at both pictures. Which one do you like the most? Look at the second picture and the letter that appear: they form the word betrayal. Do you know what does betrayal mean? Think about other situations that take place in the story related to human feelings and human behavior.

(Illustrations courtesy of Unsmoking-Cigarette [deviantART user] and of Felicia Hildebrant, www.feliciahildebrandt.com/lamb.html)

Lamb to the Slaughter: the film

Dear Students,

take a seat, welcome to the cinema!

Here they are: Ms and Mr Maloney, in a 1958 film adaptation by Alfred Hitchcock for his TV series 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' (Season 3, chapter 28). Watch and enjoy it!

Please, give your feedback once you have watched the video.

What do you think about Mary's reaction?

P.S.: You may watch the video as many times as you like, since more questions will be featured in a new entry.

A short story by Roald Dahl

The time has come, dear students, for you to really meet Mary and Patrick. For you to unravel what sort of misteries does their story hide.

Mary and Patrick are the main characters of a short story by the famous Roald Dahl. Let's read their story here: http://onyourmarks.free.fr/lamb.pdf (copy and paste to your browser, and download the pdf document, courtesy of Onyourmarks.org).

Post-reading reaction: What do you think about the story? Did you expect something like that to happen?

Food for thought: try to think about other similar stories or short stories, or about similar films

Food for thought: do you know who Roald Dahl was? Have you read any of his books? Did you know you may have watched some of the film adaptations of his stories? Is this story similar to his most famous stories?

Surf the Internet to find out more and discuss with your partners. Google may be a really useful tool to do so.

What about Mary?

So here we are. You have already met Mary and Patrick and you have been able to think about their lives, their hopes, their fears. Some of you have even given your opinion about couples and marriage, and about the importance of becoming parents. Some others have stated that they are likely to think that something is going to happen in the Maloney's story.

Let's have a look at Mary:

Could you tell Mary's feelings from her facial expression? Try to describe them using your own words

Introduction: meet the Maloneys

Dear Students,

Welcome to our new blog, home to the Lamb to the Slaughter story. Come in and greet the Maloneys: Mary, a six-months pregnant woman, and her husband Patrick, a detective for the local police.

Do you think they are a happy couple? What do you expect about their story?

Please comment and become an active member of the blog, your feedback will be welcome!