Reading Activities
There are more than 9,000 books at Scott's library at Abbotsford- clearly, he was an enthusiastic reader! Reading gave Scott both information and inspiration. These reading activities aim to develop pupils' understanding and analytical skills in both factual and creative pieces of writing. One of the reading exercises uses a short passage written about Scott, his life and works, and invites pupils to answer questions and give opinions through close reading of the text. The other activity takes a section of one of Scott's poems to explore and enhance pupils' understanding of poetic and literary techniques.
If you use a screen reader, please be aware that the reading order is better in the PDF versions of the activities.
'Who was Walter Scott?' (Upper primary nonfiction reading):
Once one of the most famous writers in the world, but with nicknames such as 'The Great Unknown' and 'The Wizard of the North'; who really was Walter Scott? This reading activity invites teachers and pupils to delve into the detail of Scott's life, and to begin to gain an understanding of the man behind the masterpieces.
This worksheet, available as both Word and PDF, has both the reading passage and questions. The fourth page shows the answers, and so this would need to be removed before printing and giving out to pupils.
View 'Who was Walter Scott' as a Word document: Who Was Walter Scott - Reading Activity WORD
View 'Who was Walter Scott' as a PDF document: Who Was Walter Scott - Reading Activity PDF
'The Bard's Incantation' (lower secondary):
This reading activity is based on three stanzas of poetry by Walter Scott. There are two sets of questions. The first should be possible for most pupils to answer, and the second are more challenging. The final page has the answers, so please delete this page before giving the activity to pupils.
If you are using a screen reader, please be aware that the poem is spread over pages 1 and 2, but the questions start on page 1. You will, therefore, hear the questions for lines 16-24 before you read this part of the poem.
Click here for 'The Bard's Incantation' in a Word document.
Click here for 'The Bard's Incantation' in a PDF document.
We would be grateful if you could fill in this evaluation form after using these readings.
This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council Grant Number AH/V011111/1.
It is part of The Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott's Poetry: Engaging New Audiences. It was developed by Dr Anna Fancett as part of the Walter Scott Research Centre at the University of Aberdeen with the support of Abbotsford, Scott's home in the Scottish Borders and The Association for Scottish Literature.
