ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Words can be like x-rays. If you use them properly - they'll go through anything. You read and you're pierced.

- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

Contact

Head of English: Ms C. Parkinson

Email: parkinsonc@harpergreen.net

Subject overview

In the English department, we believe in the power of words. We want our students to leave Harper Green School with an excellent control of the English language, whether they are speaking, listening, reading or writing. We teach both English Language and English Literature through set texts, and all students are given access to a broad range of writers, including canonical novelists, poets and playwrights. Throughout both Key Stage 3 and 4, students will build upon the skills developed in primary school.

Speaking and Listening

Students are encouraged to make plenty of contributions in lessons, to listen carefully to the ideas of others, and to critically reflect upon contributions. We explicitly teach learners the appropriate ways to talk and listen in different contexts.

Reading

Students are encouraged to read regularly at home, and to learn to enjoy a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books. We actively teach reading strategies, and for students with reading ages that are below their chronological age, we tailor in-class support to ensure that everyone is able to access rich and challenging material.

Writing

Learners will become increasingly competent in using language for deliberate effect to interest a reader. They learn to critically evaluate, proof-read, and redraft their work, reflecting on others’ suggestions. They will develop their own clear style as a writer, which we will teach them to employ across a range of contexts.

Key Stage 3 Overview

We follow the National Curriculum for English at Key Stage 3.

We read whole texts (rather than extracts), because we firmly believe that it is important for students to experience and enjoy books in their entirety. In our schemes of work, we include high quality novels, short stories, poems and plays with a wide coverage of genres, historical periods, forms and authors.

Year 7	Half Term 1 and 2	Half Term 3 and 4	Half Term 5	Half Term 6
About this unit (Literary Heritage)	Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens	A Midsummer Night’s Dream	Poetry Anthology: William Blake, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Langston Hughes, Richard Kell, Karl Sandburg and others	Ancient Tales
Knowledge	Life in Victorian London; Victorian Crime; the form of the novel; Bill Sykes, Fagin, The Artful Dodger, Oliver; morality	Life in Elizabethan England; life in ancient Athens; Shakespeare’s life; the four lovers; the love potion; Elizabethan family relationships; the form of a play	Poetic structure; use of metaphor; poetic forms	What Ancient Tales are; the oral story tradition; what the morals of stories are; ‘The Cheetah’s Whisker’; ‘Hansel and Gretel’; ‘Two Dinners’; ‘The Giant’s Causeway’; ‘The Wicked King’; ‘1001 Nights’
Analytical Writing	Topic sentences: Expressing a clear idea in response to the text using simple / compound sentences and pre-planned Tier 2 vocabulary.	+ Selecting and embedding a quotation effectively; choosing relevant quotations independently; + exploring effects of dramatic conventions.	+ exploring how writer’s choice of poetic language creates meaning, including using terminology accurately (*not feature spotting)	+ exploring how writer’s structural choices create meaning.
Mastery Writing	Mastery Writing 1 and 2 Grammar content includes: writing in complete and full sentences; identifying the action and verb; subject-verb agreement for ‘to-be’, regular and irregular past simple verbs, avoiding fragments; avoiding fused sentences; using capital sentences accurately; using pronouns; sentence structure; paragraphing; speech punctuation. Writing content includes: telling what happened; opening a story, writing about up to four images, writing with no images, structuring a story.
Assessment	Learning checkpoints: fortnightly quizzes + exam	Learning checkpoints: fortnightly quizzes + exam	Learning checkpoints: fortnightly quizzes + exam	Learning checkpoints: fortnightly quizzes
Key vocabulary	Villain, victim, vulnerable, corrupt, naïve, orphan, moral	Soliloquy, severe, conflict, unrequited love, to mock, chaos	Metaphor, literal language, metaphorical language, tenor, vehicle, ground	Quest, enunciation, ingenuity, out-wit, relatable, comeuppance, repentant

Year 8	Half Term 1 and 2	Half Term 3 and 4	Half Term 5	Half Term 6
About this unit	The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes	The Tempest by William Shakespeare	Animal Farm by George Orwell	Descriptive Writing and Poetry
Knowledge	Scientific developments in the Victorian era; class and society in Victorian England; the detective genre; duality; periodicals	The Elizabethan age of exploration; colonialism; nature / nurture; the form of a comedy; subplots; soliloquy and monologue; Italian city-states	Allegory; Orwell’s life and times; the Russian Revolution; recurring imagery; irony and corruption	Making a description emotive, using imagery, sequencing a piece of descriptive writing, Poetry: Emily Dickinson, Ted Hughes, Grace Nichols, Seamus Heaney
Analytical Writing	Topic sentences: using complex sentences to express complex ideas or express more than one idea in topic sentences + linking ideas from one paragraph to another (topic sentences/janus sentences) + embedding quotations + using tier 2 vocabulary to show knowledge of text & context + using terminology accurately (*not feature spotting).	+ Selecting and embedding multiple, linked quotations effectively; using dramatic terminology accurately to explore meaning of writer’s choices of dramatic conventions. + Memorising key knowledge and quotations for a closed book assessment + character change / development .	+ exploring how writer’s choice of literary form and structure, as well as language, creates meaning; + linking close textual analysis to contextual analysis (context of production) – how to write about historical context effectively	+ comparison of poetry and prose narrative
Mastery Writing	Mastery Writing 3 Grammar content includes: clauses; subordinate clauses; sentence demarcation; speech; apostrophes; possessive pronouns. Writing content includes: problem solved stories; love stories; action stories; fantasy quests; horror stories; poetic justice, Chekov’s gun; avoiding deus ex-machina.
Assessment	Learning checkpoints: fortnightly quizzes + exam	Learning checkpoints: fortnightly quizzes + exam	Learning checkpoints: fortnightly quizzes + exam	Learning checkpoints: fortnightly quizzes
Key vocabulary	to enlighten, deduction, scandal, periodical, introspective, dual nature, observation	colonialism, to usurp, tempest, treason, callous, pathos, nurture, tragicomedy	allegory, tyrant, rebellion, harvest, propaganda, cult of personality, treacherous; authorial intent	Extended metaphor, personification, sacrifice, narrative poem, allegory, characteristics, characterisation.

Year 9	Half Term 1 and 2	Half Term 3 and 4	Half Term 5	Half Term 6
About this unit	The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde	Othello by William Shakespeare	Unseen Poetry	Non-Fiction Reading and Writing.
Knowledge	The form of the gothic novel; the human condition; the Victorian double and duality; the class system; vanity explored through the story of Narcissus	Hierarchy, social and political structures, the form of a tragedy, Machiavelli, villainy, Aristotle’s triad of rhetoric.	The form of a poem; poetic structures; metaphor in poetry; poetic techniques.	Persuasive techniques Manipulating the structure of a piece of non-fiction writing. Features of a speech. Rhetoric.
Analytical Writing	Topic sentences: using complex sentences to express complex ideas or express more than one idea in topic sentences + linking ideas from one paragraph to another + writing an introduction.	+ How to analyse structure through a whole text + character change	Comparative topic sentences for poetry comparison.
Writing Skills	Using vocabulary precisely to describe a setting.	Using persuasive techniques in non-fiction writing.		Adopting a persona. Structuring an opening paragraph. Structuring a closing paragraph. Structuring an explanatory paragraph.
Assessment	Learning checkpoint x 2	Learning checkpoint x2	Learning checkpoint: June exam	Spoken language presentation.
Key vocabulary	Gothic, supernatural, allusion, doppelganger; duality; hypocrisy.	Hubris, antagonist, soliloquy, rhetoric, duplicity.	Resonates, emblematic, pensive, despondent, wistful, nostalgic.

Key Stage 4 Overview

We follow the AQA specifications for both English Language and English Literature. All students are entered for both GCSEs at the end of Year 11.

Years 10 and 11 are spent developing skills in:

Reading
Writing
Speaking
Listening

English Language

Students will be assessed through two papers, each assessing reading and writing in an integrated way. GCSE English Language will have an endorsed component, covering Spoken Language. This endorsement will be reported as a separate grade (PASS, MERIT, DISTINCTION, or not classified) and will not contribute to the result of the GCSE English Language qualification.

English Literature

Students will be assessed through two papers, each assessing understanding and analysis of a wide range of different texts and literary forms (novel, play and poetry). Students will be expected to make links between the text and its context and there will be marks awarded, on each paper, for technical accuracy.

We study the set texts for Literature throughout both years, and place heavy emphasis on students revisiting and revising previously-learned content throughout the duration of the two year GCSE course.

Year 10	Autumn 1	Autumn 2	Spring 1	Spring 2	Summer 1	Summer 2
About this unit	An Inspector Calls by J. B Priestley	Jekyll and Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson	Narrative and Descriptive writing- Paper 1 Section B	Unseen poetry	Non-Fiction Writing- Paper 2, Section B	Spoken Language / Literature Revision and Mastery.
Knowledge	Dramatic devices Socialism and capitalism Priestley’s life and times. 1912 vs 1945 The presentation of key characters. The structure of a play. Priestley’s ‘big ideas’	Life in Vıctorian England The gothic tradition Mental illness Science and experimentation Duality Repression Reputation Secrecy and silence The structure of a novel	Non-linear structures. Cyclical structure. Withholding information. Characterisation. Settings.	Poetic forms, structures and language devices.	Adopting a persona Hooking a reader with an engaging opening Cyclical structure Writing with a particular tone Students will also revisit crafting a sentence using rhetorical devices, using vocabulary appropriately, varying sentence types.	Speaking confidently and audibly. Listening to and building upon the contributions of others. Organising information and ideas effectively.
Principles, generalisations AND concepts	Authors’ beliefs may be influenced by the context in which they were writing. Priestley’s beliefs may have been influenced by his ideals surrounding socialism.	Authors may be influenced by genre and context. Stevenson may have been influenced by the gothic genre and Victorian values.	The aim of this unit is to build upon students’ prior knowledge of descriptive and narrative writing by focusing on how to manipulate the structure a piece of writing for effect.	Authors may be influenced by their feelings.	The aim of this unit is to build upon students’ prior knowledge of writing to persuade by focusing on how to manipulate the structure a piece of writing for effect and in different forms.	The aim of this unit is to build upon students’ prior knowledge of writing to persuade by focusing on delivering a speech to a group of peers whilst demonstrating listening and responding skills.
Analytical Writing	Topic Sentences: purposeful crafting of topic sentences using vocabulary precisely + selecting relevant quotations in response to a specific question focus + understanding how to contextualise and embed quotations in an analytical paragraph.	Writing a conceptualised introduction: + selecting judicious quotations from an extract and the wider text to support topic sentences, in response to a specific question focus.		Selecting purposeful methods from an unseen text + developing detailed analysis of the relevant meanings.		Revision of analytical writing skills developed in Autumn and Spring terms. Revision strategies • Mind maps- theme and character • Cue cards. • Review of critical theory/critical reading. • Essay planning • Timed exam responses.
Writing Skills			Use of descriptive techniques for effect. Use of key tier 2 vocabulary. Creating a story arc. Creating a convincing character. Manipulating structure for effect, including sentence structure and punctuation.		Use of persuasive techniques for effect. Use of Tier 2 vocabulary. How to adopt a persona in writing. Manipulating structure and form for effect, including sentence structure and punctuation.	Application of non-fiction writing skills developed in Summer 1.
Assessment	Learning checkpoint x 2	Learning checkpoint x 1 + Feb exam.	Learning checkpoint x 1 Feb exam	Learning checkpoint x 1	Learning checkpoint x 1
Key vocabulary	Socialism, Capitalism, Bourgeoisie, Affluent, Proletariat, Egocentric, Hubris, Exploitation, Unrepentant, Petulant	Atavism, Darwinism, Depraved; Epistolary; Hubris, Inhuman; Juggernaut. Morality, oxymoron, Physiognomy, Repression, Reputation, Troglodytic	Adorned, tormented, radiated, regarded, lacerating, descend, compelling, darted, enveloped, flickered, obliterated, contemplated.	Injustice, Cherished, Poignant, Reconcile, Impassioned, Apprehension, Bewilderment, Unscrupulous, Polarised, Exasperation	Adorned, Tormented, Radiated, Regarded, Lacerating, Descended, Compelling, Darted, Enveloped, Flickered	Revision of vocabuary covered in previous units.

Year 11	Autumn 1	Autumn 2	Spring 1	Spring 2	Summer Term
About this unit	Macbeth by William Shakespeare (7 weeks)	Reading and writing fiction texts: Paper 1 (7 weeks)	Non-fiction reading and writing- Paper 2 (6 weeks)	Power and Conflict Poetry / Mastery and Revision (6 weeks)	Mastery and Revision (7 weeks) Lit Paper 1 Revision (Macbeth and Jekyll and Hyde) Revision of English Language Paper 1 and Paper 2. *GCSE Examinations begin*
Knowledge	Tragic conventions The role of women in Jacobean society The beliefs of King James 1^st The concept of a hero Witchcraft/the supernatural. Hubris Ambition Fate and free will. Good and evil.	Language features. Structural features. The form of a novel.	Language features. Persuasive/rhetorical devices. Writers’ viewpoints and perspectives.	Prejudice  Colonisation  Immigration  N.Ireland (60s-90s) Life in the trenches  The French Revolution  Gender inequality in mid 1800s  Romanticism  The Japanese Empire Crimean war	Revision strategies • Mind maps- theme and character • Cue cards. • Review of critical theory/critical reading. • Essay planning • Timed exam responses.
Principles, generalisations AND concepts	Authors may be influenced by both genre and context. Shakespeare may have been influenced by the conventions of a tragic hero and the preferences and opinions of King James I.	The aim of this unit is to allow students to apply their analytical skills to an unseen extract. This unit draws upon their knowledge of structural analysis, language analysis and evaluation. It breaks down each threshold concept separately, rather than asking students to create one essay.	The aim of this unit is to allow students to apply their analytical skills to non-fiction texts. This unit draws upon their knowledge of comparison of viewpoints and language analysis. It breaks down each threshold concept separately, rather than asking students to create one essay.	Authors may be influenced by their experiences and the experiences of others. Poets may be influenced by their experiences and the experiences of others particularly surrounding identity, conflict and nature.
Analytical Writing	Writing purposeful analytical paragraphs, driven by a relevant, conceptualised introduction + analysis which is driven by ideas and concepts.	Analysis of language + exploring quotations in a clear / detailed way. Identifying explicit / implicit information in an unseen fiction text. How to analyse structure throughout a whole text + character change. Evaluating a writer’s choices in relation to a specific question focus.	Analysis of language + exploring quotations in a clear / detailed way. Identifying explicit / implicit information in unseen non-fiction texts. How to summarise information from two sources. Identification and comparison of writers’ perspectives. Writing comparative topic sentences.	Comparative topic sentences driven by relevant thematic links between texts.
Writing Skills		Use of descriptive techniques for effect. Use of key tier 2 vocabulary. Creating a story arc. Creating a convincing character. Manipulating structure for effect, including sentence structure and punctuation.	Use of persuasive techniques for effect. Use of Tier 2 vocabulary. How to adopt a persona in writing. Manipulating structure and form for effect, including sentence structure and punctuation.
Assessment	Learning checkpoint x 2 November exam	Learning checkpoint x 1	Learning checkpoint x 1 March exam	March exam
Key vocabulary	Prophesying, Dichotomy, Deceitful, Manifest, Manipulative, Sacrilegious, Corroborate, Ambivalent, Erratic, Antagonise.	Tone, mood, cyclical structure, flashback, motif, tone, characterisation, figurative language	Rhetoric, tone, cyclical structure. Persona, perspective.	Transcend, Existential, Belie, Subservient, Menacing, Egotistical, Patriotism, Fleeting