The document contains instructions for an activity where participants must determine the truths hidden among lies about Gothic fiction. In small groups, they will read fictional "unbelievable truth" guides about Gothic works and try to identify the 5 truths stated in their guide. The goals are to learn something new while practicing inference, deduction, and questioning information rather than accepting it at face value.

1. The Unbelievable Truth!
• In the information packs, there are 5 truths
hidden away amongst a lot of lies
• Your job as a group, is to determine what are
the 5 truths
• The truths might be a whole paragraph, a line
or even just a phrase – you need to decide and
argue about it in your groups.

2. Gothic Fiction
This genre of writing is often associated with romantic writers such as Shakespeare and JK Rowling.
Their scary writing style created fearsome characters such as Frankenweenie, Count Duckula and
even Casper the friendly ghost. The genre is a combination of romance, comedy and horror.
The reason it is called Gothic fiction is because it named after the type of architecture which was
named after a Medieval German Tribe. This tribe went onto to control most of the world through
building amazing architecture and spreading the word about this amazing new genre of fiction. The
architects who build these buildings were called Goths and is where the term for the subculture
comes from. The Goths decided to build ruined buildings to display their emotions. The ruins and
buildings that collapsed were thought to be a symbol for the decay and collapse of human
emotions and caused ruins to be created in some English landscape parks.
The first ever gothic novel was written by the son of the Prime Minister at the time in 1760 who
claimed that the novel, called The Castle of Otranto, was a medieval manuscript. This was recently
translated to the now infamous Paranorman film.
Frankenstein involved a ghost that came to life after an experiment gone wrong. The writer, Mary
Shelley, only created the novel because of a literary competition in which she was chosen as the
first to write a ghost story. The judge of that competition, Simon Cowell went on to convert this
competition into X-Factor in later years when music had overtaken reading as the country’s
favourite hobby.
Phantom of the Opera was a German novel written by Lothar Matheus. The novel was later
translated into a famous tv show, silent film and play which starred Mr Lewis’ uncle as the
phantom. A young Mr Lewis was also involved in the play in a walk-on role with his dog, Christine.

3. The Unbelievable Truth!
Create your own as a group
1. Frankenstein
2. Dracula
3. The Picture of Dorian Gray
4. The Vampire Chronicles
5. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
6. The Phantom of the Opera
7. The Woman in Black
8. Twilight

4. The Unbelievable Truth!
• Each group is going to have a spokesperson
• They will read their Gothic Fiction ‘Unbelievable
Truth’ guide out loud
• Each group will have to try and write down the 5
truths they think they can spot
• I’m attempting this as well!

5. Why do this?
• New information
• Introduction to a new topic
• Inference and deduction
• Research skills – where to look?
• To not believe everything the teacher says!

6. Gothic Fiction
This genre of writing is often associated with romantic writers such as Shakespeare and JK Rowling.
Their scary writing style created fearsome characters such as Frankenweenie, Count Duckula and
even Casper the friendly ghost. The genre is a combination of romance, comedy and horror.
The reason it is called Gothic fiction is because it named after the type of architecture which was
named after a Medieval German Tribe. This tribe went onto to control most of the world through
building amazing architecture and spreading the word about this amazing new genre of fiction. The
architects who build these buildings were called Goths and is where the term for the subculture
comes from. The Goths decided to build ruined buildings to display their emotions. The ruins and
buildings that collapsed were thought to be a symbol for the decay and collapse of human
emotions and caused ruins to be created in some English landscape parks.
The first ever gothic novel was written by the son of the Prime Minister at the time in 1760 who
claimed that the novel, called The Castle of Otranto, was a medieval manuscript. This was recently
translated to the now infamous Paranorman film.
Frankenstein involved a ghost that came to life after an experiment gone wrong. The writer, Mary
Shelley, only created the novel because of a literary competition in which she was chosen as the
first to write a ghost story. The judge of that competition, Simon Cowell went on to convert this
competition into X-Factor in later years when music had overtaken reading as the country’s
favourite hobby.
Phantom of the Opera was a German novel written by Lothar Matheus. The novel was later
translated into a famous tv show, silent film and play which starred Mr Lewis’ uncle as the
phantom. A young Mr Lewis was also involved in the play in a walk-on role with his dog, Christine.