English, English Language and Literature

Intent

In Year 8 our students continue their second year of the Language and Literature curriculum within the International Bachelorette’s Middle Years Programme. Students continue to explore a variety of texts from different time periods and geographical locations. These texts are intended to broaden our students’ perspectives, helping them to question the world around them and their place within it. The themes Year 8 students focus on are: Conflict, Responsibility, The Roles of Power and Change/Becoming’.  

Much of our work originates in and leads to students developing their ability to communicate confidently and clearly through a range of individual and collaborative tasks; students are taught to use Standard English from Year 7 and continue this in Year 8. Using these texts we nurture students’ personal and collaborative development through their linguistic competence through writing in a variety of forms for a range of purposes and audiences, and to increase their awareness of the writing process itself – from planning to proofreading and correction. A strong emphasis is placed upon linguistic and structural text conventions and upon the accuracy and presentation of written work. The rigour and diversity of the work in these early years provides a solid foundation continuing the MYP programme and for examination in English Language and English Literature in Key Stage 4. Students can be helped to develop emotionally and intellectually through reading, and we encourage them to establish, from Year 7, a habit of regular and independent reading for pleasure, which we then further encourage by Years 7 and 8 having an hour of in-school reading each week. All students in Year 8 still follow the Accelerated Reader Intervention Programme. We teach our students how to understand and evaluate the author’s craft and how to make an informed personal response to what they read. We aim to develop students’ ability to read, enjoy and analyse a wide range of texts: contemporary and classic literary texts from a variety of cultures and traditions, non-literary texts and moving image texts. Students are taught how to read for different purposes and to understand the way meanings are made. Equal Opportunities issues are addressed through reading, and we aim to encourage empathy so that each student approaches issues of race, culture, gender, ability and disability with tolerance and insight.

Schedule of Learning

• Module 1: Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo
• Module 2: Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo (continued)
• Module 3: The Tempest by William Shakespeare
• Module 4: The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Module 5: The Giver by Lois Lowry (continued)
• Module 6: Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Implementation

Students will read

• at least one Shakespearean text
• at least one contemporary text
• at least text from another country
• One dystopian genre text
• One unit of poetry as prose

Reading comprehension and reading critically

• literal and inferential comprehension: understanding a word, phrase or sentence in context; exploring aspects of plot, characterisation,
• events and settings; distinguishing between what is stated explicitly and what is implied/inferred; explaining motivation, sequence of events, and the relationship between actions or events
• critical reading: identifying the theme and distinguishing between themes; supporting a point of view by referring to evidence in the text;
• recognising the possibility of and evaluating different responses to a text; using understanding of writers’ social, historical and cultural
• contexts to inform evaluation; making an informed personal response that derives from analysis and evaluation of the text
• evaluation of a writer’s choice of vocabulary, grammatical and structural features: analysing and evaluating how language (including figurative language), structure, form and presentation contribute to quality and impact;
• using linguistic and literary terminology for such evaluation (such as, but not restricted to, phrase, metaphor, meter, irony and persona, synecdoche, pathetic fallacy)
• comparing texts: comparing and contrasting texts studied, referring where relevant to theme, characterisation, context (where known),
• style and literary quality; comparing two texts critically with respect to the above.

Writing

• producing clear and coherent text: writing effectively about literature for a range of purposes such as: to describe, explain, summarise, argue, analyse and evaluate; discussing and maintaining a point of view; selecting and emphasize key points; using relevant quotation and using detailed textual references
• accurate Standard English: accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar.

Intent

In Year 9 our students complete their third year and final of the Language and Literature curriculum within the International Bachelorette’s Middle Years Programme before commencing their GCSE studies. Students continue to explore a variety of texts from different time periods and geographical locations. These texts are intended to broaden our students’ perspectives, helping them to question the world around them and their place within it. The themes Year 9 students focus on are: Relationships, Oppression/Equality, Stereotypes/Fairness and Growing Up.  

Much of our work originates in and leads to students developing their ability to communicate confidently and clearly through a range of individual and collaborative tasks; students are taught to use Standard English from Year 7 and continue this into Year 9. Using these texts we nurture students’ personal and collaborative development through their linguistic competence through writing in a variety of forms for a range of purposes and audiences, and to increase their awareness of the writing process itself – from planning to proofreading and correction. A strong emphasis is placed upon linguistic and structural text conventions and upon the accuracy and presentation of written work. The rigour and diversity of the work in these early years provides a solid foundation for continuing the MYP programme and for examination in English Language and English Literature in Key Stage 4. Students can be helped to develop emotionally and intellectually through reading, and we encourage them to establish, from Year 7, a habit of regular and independent reading for pleasure. We teach our students how to understand and evaluate the author’s craft and how to make an informed personal response to what they read. We aim to develop students’ ability to read, enjoy and analyse a wide range of texts: contemporary and classic literary texts from a variety of cultures and traditions, non-literary texts and moving image texts. Students are taught how to read for different purposes and to understand the way meanings are made. Equal Opportunities issues are addressed through reading, and we aim to encourage empathy so that each student approaches issues of race, culture, gender, ability and disability with tolerance and insight.

Schedule of Learning

• Module 1: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare 
• Module 2 & 3: Boys Don’t Cry by Malorie Blackman 
• Module 4: Poetry – various poets from 18th century to contemporary
• Module 5 & 6: Night by Elie Wiesel 

Implementation

Students will read:

• at least one Shakespearean text
• at least one translated text
• at least one contemporary text
• at least text from another country
• at least one unit of a poetry genre

Reading comprehension and reading critically

• literal and inferential comprehension: understanding a word, phrase or sentence in context; exploring aspects of plot, characterisation,
• events and settings; distinguishing between what is stated explicitly and what is implied/inferred; explaining motivation, sequence of events, and the relationship between actions or events
• critical reading: identifying the theme and distinguishing between themes; supporting a point of view by referring to evidence in the text;
• recognising the possibility of and evaluating different responses to a text; using an understanding of writers’ social, historical and cultural
• contexts to inform evaluation; making an informed personal response that derives from analysis and evaluation of the text
• evaluation of a writer’s choice of vocabulary, grammatical and structural features: analysing and evaluating how language (including figurative language), structure, form and presentation contribute to quality and impact;
• using linguistic and literary terminology for such evaluation (such as, but not restricted to, phrase, metaphor, meter, irony and persona, synecdoche, pathetic fallacy)
• comparing texts: comparing and contrasting texts studied, referring where relevant to themes, characterisation, context (where known),
• style and literary quality; comparing two texts critically with respect to the above.

Writing

• producing clear and coherent text: writing effectively about literature for a range of purposes such as: to describe, explain, summarise, argue, analyse and evaluate; discussing and maintaining a point of view; selecting and emphasising key points; using relevant quotations and using detailed textual references
• accurate Standard English: accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar.

Schedule of Learning

• Module 1: English Language GCSE preparation 
• Module 2: English Language GCSE preparation (English Language Mock)
• Module 3: English Literature Revision – 19th Century text and Shakespearean text 
• Module 4: English Literature Revision – Post-1914 text
• Module 5: English Language and English Literature Revision 
• Module 6: GCSE examinations