You say “To use a material that many children and youngsters believe is fun when one also has to touch upon grammatical structures and work with language proficiency, which many pupils believe is less fun, is paramount I think.” You claim that this is paramount, I am curious on how you integrated this to the “weaker” pupils if you had the experience of teaching a class where there are some who have a lower understanding of English language, then how would you integrate the grammatical structures and language proficiency? I believe that it to some extent could work depending on the class situation and which pupils you have. You write that the majority of the people have developed a fondness of the story, but what about the minority, how did motivate them?
That being said, I really like the idea of being able to “help” or integrate grammar or word order through reading books, I believe that just by reading a lot one can get an expansion of the vocabulary to some extent English language understanding. But I am curious on how you would motivate or assess the pupils on the expansion on the media, social media, TV, Radio, Computer and misc IKT accessories where they feel they feel they can rather watch the movie then read the book (if it has been made into a movie that is). By reading your text I assume that it is giving them a reward (the movie of Mathilda) wouldn’t that rather to some extent help the problem then solve it (if it is a problem in your class that is…).

Kim