Foster by Claire Keegan is a short story set in Ireland during the Troubles. This page contains links to study guides, worksheets and summaries of the novella to support teachers and students of this text.
You may find the resources here particularly useful if you are studing this text as an option for CCEA’s GCSE English Language Unit 2 Study of Written Language Controlled Assessment task.
Foster: Teach Along With Me
Foster by Claire Keegan Chapter 1 summary, analysis, character study, questions and a free gift at the...
Why study 'Foster'?
- The short story is a great genre for CCEA’s GCSE English course, especially for those teaching English Language and Literature within one timetabled class: its length lends itself to the time pressures we all face at GCSE.
- It is written by an Irish writer and set in Ireland. It is important to teach texts from our own as well as from other cultures. For many students, life in rural Ireland is another world, and yet only a stone’s throw away. I think this is a valuable cultural learning point.
- The time setting of the story, in the 1980s, is another world for our students: not Shakespeare’s day, not an ancient past, but recent history which our current students have heard of, but not experienced. Their own parents are probably children of the 80s. This recent history is alien in many ways: a time before hand held devices, iphones and social media. It is also different generation in terms of politics, values and political correctness. Things that were ‘acceptable in the 80s’ are no so any more.
- The subtleties of Foster allow opportunity for discovery and discussion.
Resources for students and teachers of 'Foster'
More resources, study guides and updates are coming to support this section of ThinkLit on Foster by Claire Keegan.