Interactive "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" Lesson Plan & Discussion Ideas

Preparing the Stations

Divide the number of students in your class by four, and put the resulting number of desks in four clusters, one in each corner of the room. At each station, include a piece of paper with one of the following questions:

1. Which character has the worst “flaw”? Defend your answer.

2. Was it right for Willy Wonka to give Charlie the factory? Why or why not?

3. Was the “punishment” of the other characters “fair”? Why or why not?

4. Would you want to be friends with Willy Wonka? Why or why not?

Divide the students into four groups. Explain to students that they will be rotating from one station to the next, and that they will be answering “opinion questions” about the book. At each station, they will discuss the question and come to a conclusion in five minutes. Then they will spend two minutes writing up their responses on the paper. (They might choose one member of their group to write all of the responses, or they might rotate the job.)

Encourage students to keep their responses concise, and emphasize the importance of coming to a conclusion that the majority of the group agrees with. After they have written their response, have them fold over the paper so that the next group will not read it. During the exercise, keep time and warn students when the five minutes or two minutes is almost up.

Discussion

After the four groups have circulated through the stations, have them return to their seats for a discussion. Gather the papers at the stations, and read through one question and the four responses. Give students from various groups a chance to respond to the other answers on the paper. Repeat with the remaining three papers.

This Charlie and the Chocolate Factory lesson plan will help students use higher-level thinking to evaluate different aspects of the book. You can follow up this lesson plan with some fun Charlie and the Chocolate Factory activities.