KS3 ENGLISH
We aim to provide Key stage 3 students with a varied curriculum that allows them to go into depth on a variety of topics and to establish the key principles of writing, reading and analysing a text. They experience to different narrative voices, themes and eras across the year. Furthermore, an essential part of the English curriculum is fostering a love of reading and developing literacy.
KS3 topics by year
Year 7
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Non-Fiction, Autobiography: Reading extracts of autobiography
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Writing with clarity about personal experience and memories
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Paragraphing
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Historical Novel: Developing a personal response to the historical novel through active reading strategies
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Introduce the BIG Ideas essay writing structure
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Introducing writer’s methods of characterisation
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Introducing the relationship between the text and context
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Creative writing: Understanding elements of story structure
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Planning a story with structural features. Understanding narrative perspective
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Writing and proof reading
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Poetry: Introduce key poetic techniques
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Using the BIG Ideas essay writing structure
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Develop analysis and a critical response to the poem
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Understanding the context of the poem
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Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
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Introduction to Elizabethan theatre and the features of a play
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Introducing the playwright and the historical and social context of Shakespeare
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Modern Novel
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Developing a personal response to the modern novel through active reading strategies
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Consolidate the BIG Ideas essay writing structure
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Explore the writer’s methods that covey the key themes
Year 8
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Literary Heritage: Hound of the Baskervilles or Coram Boy
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Exploring a personal and critical response to the historical text
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Crafting an essay and commenting on the writer’s methods of characterisation or setting
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Considering the relationship between the text and context
Non-fiction, Travel Writing:
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Introduce rhetorical techniques
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Understanding the crafting of a persuasive piece of writing
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Create a piece of travel writing that conveys a travel experience and a sense of place. Use the rhetorical features to entice the reader to visit.
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War poetry: To consider the relationship between the poem and the context of WWI.
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Develop the BIG Ideas essay writing structure for poetry
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Develop understanding of the writer’s craft and consider the structure and form of the poem
Writing:
- Using short stories as a stimulus to explore short stories with a twist. Develop a sense how writers engage the reader. Write an engaging story with a twist.
- Writing for purpose. To introduce register and different purposes of writing.
Modern Novel
- Develop a personal response to the modern novel through active reading strategies
- Consolidate the BIG Ideas essay writing structure. Practice the crafting of an essay
- Explore writer’s methods of structure and theme. Link and apply contextual features
Shakespeare The Tempest.
- To understand the form of the comedy
- To consider the role of women and elements of the supernatural in the play
- Understand the writer’s methods for characterisation, setting and theme
- Draw links between the historical and social context and apply them to the meanings and ideas
Year 9
Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet
- To understand the social and historical context focussing on gender roles, love, family and conflict
- To develop a personal response to the play
- Explore, stage craft and characterisation. Understand the structure of form of the sonnet.
- How to write a critical response about an extract and the whole play using the Big Ideas format
Novel
- To understand the social and historical context focussing on The Great Depression of 1930’s America, isolation, marginalisation, outsiders and power.
- Develop a personal, critical response to the book
- Explore and understand the writer’s purpose for characterisation and setting. To develop an understanding for the writer’s intentions.
- To understand the term ‘symbolism’ and the ‘allegory’
Non Fiction
- Reading and experiencing a range of non-fiction texts from different time periods. To develop effective reading skills: summarising and making connections across the text.
- Identifying and commenting on the writer’s methods of language and structure
- To understand the writer’s viewpoint
- To apply the perspective to draw on comparisons
Writing
- Using short gothic stories and 19th century non-fiction texts as a stimulus to explore different types of writing
- To write a gothic story and develop narrative voice, register and different purposes of writing
- To revisit and extend crafting vocabulary and literary devices. To organise, sequence and structure writing for coherency and effect.
Short stories for critical literacy
- Develop a personal critical response to short stories with diversity
- To debate, listen and respond to opinions inspired by the story. To consider cultural themes
- Consolidate analysis of writer’s methods of language
- To consolidate skills of evaluation and making a judgement about the writer’s craft
Poetry
- Read, understand and form a personal opinion on a selection of poems
- Consider the big ideas and be able to identify key references in the poem
- Explore the writer’s methods and comment on language, form and structural features
- Apply the contextual background to the poem to interpret the meanings. To consider themes across the poems.
Key Contact
If you would like any more information about this subject, please contact:
- Head of Department Denise Whitley: denise.whitley@thebicesterschool.org.uk
- 2nd in Department Catherine Allenza: catherine.allenza@thebicesterschool.org.uk
- 3rd in Department Cynthia Davila: cynthia.davila@thebicesterschool.org.uk