-Extending short stories- Gothic
(Poe, Lovestonecraft, Gothic reader anthology, or other stories)
Students will be extending their learning to analysis in this unit, building on their work in year 8 with short stories. The focus of the Gothic genre allows the teacher reign to select a number of appropriate short stories or extracts for the class, depending on interests and needs. Texts might include comparative work on Poe and Lovecraft, exploration of the Penny Dreadful genre of periodical fiction, MR James short works, or extracts from historical novels such as ‘The Monk’, ‘Frankenstein’, ‘Dracula’, ‘The Castle of Otranto’, and others. Students will address the whole-text literary concepts of production, analysing aspects of plot, narration, tense, structure, theme, and character, as well as looking in-depth and applying close reading skills to interpret a writer’s of of language and structure. Students will be learning the conventions of the gothic genre in terms of literary context and as such, will be making connections across the range of texts they have studied. They will have opportunities to write creatively, applying their understanding of the genre to craft their own gothic short stories using elements such as pathetic fallacy and the uncanny. In addition, students will develop a contextual understanding of the branch of Romantic artwork which intersects with the Gothic period. Students will consider how tension and suspense are managed when they create and perform their own gothic tales. This is extend their speaking and listening skills. This unit is crucial for developing the skills necessary for Literature and Language at GCSE. Students will be engaging in a meaningful way with literary context and will be interpreting a range of challenging 19thc texts considering aspects that will set them in good stead for their GCSE texts. In addition, students will be looking in depth at aspects of language and structure by applying critical reading and creative writing skills which are assessed in the Language GCSE.
-Extending the novel-
(Steinbeck, Lee, Golding or other similar novels)
Building upon work on the novel in year 8, students will be looking in more analytical depth at a novel which will extend the skills and learning of the previous two years. The sophistication of the novel will provide additional challenge and will address a topic which the students can relate to in contemporary society. The text choice is open to the class teacher and will vary depending on the needs and interests of the class, but will allow scope for discussion of major topical issues, ranging from racism, to identity. This extension of exploration into the novel requires a new level of maturity from the students and sets them up with the right mindset to approach the themes and ideas of the GCSE texts. Whilst the content will be more challenging, many of the core concepts which relate to the skills will be the same as in the previous years of the Key Stage, but will be dealt with in more depth and with a more critical eye. Plot, genre, characterisation, theme, setting, and language use, will all require students to apply the existing range of terminology and concepts (both literary and linguistic) that they have covered so far but will have a greater emphasis on increased quality of exploration. Students will move into the analytical phase of their development by extending their interpretations, balancing the requirements of close analysis with that of whole-text commentary. In addition, students will be required to apply their knowledge of precise and specific contextual factors to their reading and to integrate this understanding into their analyses. These are all invaluable skills and intersect the requirements of paper 1 of the Language GCSE, and Paper 2 of the Literature GCSE.
-Extending poetry- WW1.
(selected works of Owen and Sassoon and/or other poets)
This unit requires the summation of poetry learning for the students and will challenge them with an emotive and powerful topic which requires profound and mature contemplations. The students will look at a range of war poetry, chronologically from the start of the conflict to its aftermath and will consider questions of patriotism, nationalism, identity, love, war, conflict, power, loss, and grief. The ‘real-world’ context of the poetry lies at the heart of the unit and students will be expected to call upon their cross-curricular understanding to make sense of the conflict. There are countless opportunities for wider learning with the unit and the intention is that it draws the focus on to the idea that literature has a role as a way of expressing and understanding the human condition in its most extreme forms and that literature has a connection to the reality of modern life. The students will be able to make synchronous connections with poetry of the period, comparing how poetry was used to convey shifting attitudes throughout the course of the war. In order to make these connections and comparisons, students will have to apply their independent skills and lateral thinking ability to join their prior knowledge with research on the topic. They are required to have a detailed understanding of the historical, social, biographical, and literary context of the war poetry and poets being studied. This is a skill that will prepare them for a key component of the Literature GCSE. The students will also be required to bring to bear the entirety of their understanding of poetic forms and devices, as learned through years 7 and 8. Their glossaries will be extended to consider methods such as the poetic conceit, allegory, elegies, allusion- but also to consider that the poetry itself was changed in form by the era as modernism took hold. This unit prepares students directly for the interpretation, analysis, and application of wider understanding and ability to make lateral connections required of the Literature GSCE; specifically, the work in the Power and Conflict cluster of the anthology.
-Extending world literature- American drama.
(Arthur Miller plays or other literature)
This unit has the students interact with non-Shakespearean drama, applying their learning from the previous years in a new context. The unit satisfies the requirement of a vary canon dealing with English from other cultures, specifically that of the USA in the 20th century. Students will be able to compare how the stage plays of this context differ from those they may have come across and will be able to make some comparison and contrast with the Shakespeare plays they have studied. Extending their learning, students will consider the conventions of the realist and naturalist genres and will be able to comment on the impact of the writer’s choices. Students will consider the use of dialogue which mimics speech, for instance, alongside considerations of mise-en-scene in the modernist theatre. Students will develop their existing understanding of character and plot and will be able to apply and extend their dramatic glossaries. The students’ learning will further be extended with the focus on applying contextual understanding to the text in order to support their analyses. Students will be considering mature themes such as race, identity, and gender and will be able to engage and discuss these in a way which will broaden their cultural experience and develop their critical thinking. The students will consider key questions relating to theme and apply these through the ages to relate them to the current day. Students will have many opportunities to hone their speaking and listening skills through performance. Additionally, students will use the learning around dramatic methods to create their own realist explorations of relationships, ideas, or themes. The creative writing element may have students learn through changing of extending the narrative into a different genre. The reading skills element requires students to analyse how meaning is created both at extract and whole-text level. This unit will develop the necessary diversity of scope in relation to drama needed for the students to engage with the modern drama component of their Literature GSCE.
-Extending Shakespeare.
(‘Othello’ or other Shakespeare)
Students will have had two years experience of interacting with Shakespeare plays and this culminates in their studying of a final play at KS3 which requires a deeper level of understanding in order to support analysis. Students will be drawing on and extending the technical glossary of terminology introduced and developed in years 7 and 8 to analyse key extracts of the chosen play. They will have a more detailed and nuanced understanding of the plot, character, and themes, and must apply this understanding using textual detail to support their increasingly perceptive and thoughtful interpretations. Students will also be learning to make close connections between text and context and will learn to integrate this into their analyses to improve their academic style. Students will be expected to make lateral connections between given extract and wider text and will be learning to extend their analytical skills by connecting these two. The skills demonstrated in this unit are directly relatable to the skills required in paper 1 of the Literature GCSE, but more importantly, the students will by now be confident working with sophisticated ideas and challenging language and will have the tools and expertise to make supported and critical comments on the effect of the writer’s choices. They will be able to discuss and interact with the wider thematic ideas brought up by the chosen play and use these ideas as a springboard to formulate their own views on contemporary society. The students, through their analyses and interpretation, will be able to use the Shakespearean play as intended, as a mirror by which they can illuminate and reflect upon aspects of their own lives, and the human condition more broadly.
-Extending journalism- Advertising.
This unit is a culmination of the work done with non-fiction and the media throughout KS3 and has students applying their learning on journalism and rhetoric to decode, interpret, analyse, and produce adverts which use language for form to entice and persuade. The unit develops vital skills of communication required both at GCSE, but more importantly in life in general. Students will call upon their glossaries of rhetorical language features and will extend their inference skills to analyse a range of adverts, both modern and historical. Students will consider the role that advertising has in their lives and track the changes to the industry over the decades. Students will debate the wider ethical implications of advertising and explore the implications of the form in an age of increasingly targeted advertising. Students will consider social aspects to advertising, such as how gender and race have been used historically to advertise. They will consider the context aspects of advertising and how social trends and mores can be used to influence consumers through the use of language, image and form. These skills are of practical use as they overlap with the skills required in paper 2 of the Language GCSE at KS4. Alongside the reading and comprehension skills associated with understanding and decoding advertising, students will craft their own adverts in an extended project, developing both the team-working/research skills and independence required for KS4 learning whilst also practising the language crafting required for the GCSE creative writing component. Students will call upon their year 7 learning in an extended project, which requires them to produce an advert in multiple forms. The radio/TV advert elements here require students to extend their speaking and listening skills. After studying how adverts function and the methods used to create them, they will be able to apply that learning for themselves in the creative writing extended project. This forms an important link to the skills required at GCSE for the spoken component of the Language qualification.