National Curriculum

English

97 lessons across 8 units

Drama10 lessons

Analysing how a Shakespeare character is presented to an audience

Identifying themes in a Shakespeare comedy: love, power, disorder

Performing a short extract — using voice, pace and pause for effect

Reading *A Midsummer Night's Dream* — plot, world, comedy

Reading a short *Romeo and Juliet* extract — love, conflict, fate

Reading an *An Inspector Calls* extract — responsibility and class

Shakespeare's theatre — the Globe, the audience, the staging

Tracking how a Shakespeare character is presented across acts

Tragedy as a form — the tragic hero, hubris, catharsis

Writing a paragraph that uses a quotation as evidence (Point–Evidence–Explain)

Grammar & punctuation15 lessons

Active and passive voice — what changes and why a writer would switch

Apostrophes for possession and contraction

Building vocabulary: prefixes, suffixes and root words

Dialect, idiolect and Standard English

Identifying word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs

Language and power — how word choice shapes who speaks and who listens

Semi-colons to join two related clauses

Standard English vs informal English — register and audience

Subject–verb agreement in Standard English

The history of English — how the language has changed over time

Using a range of clauses for sophisticated effect

Using colons and semi-colons to structure complex analytical writing

Using commas accurately in lists and after fronted adverbials

Using subordinate clauses to add detail to a sentence

Writing simple, compound and complex sentences for effect

Media5 lessons

Analysing a newspaper front page — image, headline, lead

Analysing a print advert — how it persuades the viewer

Analysing how a film or TV trailer is constructed to attract an audience

Analysing how a news story is framed — what's chosen, what's left out

Looking at a film poster or advert — identifying who it's aimed at and how

Non-fiction15 lessons

Analysing language in a non-fiction extract — word choice and effect

Comparing two non-fiction texts on the same topic

Persuasive writing — ethos, pathos, logos

Reading a magazine article and summarising it in your own words

Reading a short newspaper or magazine article and identifying its purpose

Reading a Victorian non-fiction text — adjusting to vocabulary and tone

Reading and analysing a women's rights speech or article

Rhetorical devices: rhetorical question, anaphora, tricolon, direct address

Writing a clear, formal letter for a real purpose

Writing a formal letter for a serious purpose (complaint, application)

Writing a newspaper opinion article on a real issue

Writing a persuasive speech for a real audience

Writing a short newspaper-style report

Writing a speech of your own on an issue you care about

Writing a travel article — sense of place, voice and detail

Poetry15 lessons

Analysing imagery in a single poem

Analysing patriotism in Rupert Brooke's *The Soldier*

Comparing two short poems about the same theme

Comparing two WWI poems — perspectives on war

Identifying poetic devices: simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration

Performing a poem aloud — voice, pace, pause

Reading a poem closely — what it's about and how it makes you feel

Reading a WWI poem — patriotism, propaganda and reality

Reading Gothic poetry — atmosphere, the supernatural, dread

Recognising and analysing more advanced terms: caesura, enjambment, sibilance

Recognising rhythm, metre and rhyme in a poem

Studying a single poet in depth — Maya Angelou

Writing a comparative analysis paragraph on two poems

Writing a short poem in a chosen form — sonnet, ballad, free verse

Writing your own short poem about a place or feeling

Reading fiction17 lessons

A myth or legend — tracking how an old story carries meaning today

A short pre-1914 prose extract — adjusting to older vocabulary and sentence rhythm

Allegory — when a story stands for something else

Comparing two characters in a novel — similarities and differences

Detective and mystery fiction — genre conventions and reader expectations

Gothic fiction — conventions: setting, atmosphere, the supernatural, the monstrous

Identifying themes in a novel and tracking them across chapters

Inference: working out what a writer suggests but doesn't state

Reading a dystopian novel — society, control and the individual

Reading an opening chapter and tracking first impressions of a narrator

Reading and analysing an unseen extract — language, structure, effect

Recognising narrative structure — exposition, rising action, climax, resolution

Tracking a character's development across an extract

Tracking how a writer builds tension and atmosphere across a passage

Tracking how structure creates meaning across a whole novel

Writing a full-essay introduction and conclusion

Writing a Point–Evidence–Explain–Link (PEEL) paragraph for an essay

Spoken language7 lessons

Analysing a recorded speech — how a speaker holds an audience

Delivering a formal presentation with rehearsed structure and visual support

Giving a short, planned spoken presentation on a topic you know well

Listening actively — summarising and building on what others say

Participating in a structured debate — proposition, rebuttal, summary

Slam poetry — performance, voice and rhythm

Taking part in a structured class discussion — listening and building on others

Writing fiction13 lessons

Crafting a controlled, atmospheric short story ending

Improving a piece of writing by editing for vocabulary and accuracy

Planning a short story — character, setting, problem, resolution

Using ambitious, precise vocabulary instead of common, vague words

Using dialogue with correct punctuation in a story

Using show-not-tell to describe a character

Using varied sentence lengths and structures for effect

Writing a piece of descriptive writing inspired by an image

Writing a vivid setting description — using the five senses

Writing a vivid story opening using setting detail and tension

Writing extended descriptive writing under timed conditions

Writing the opening of a Gothic story — setting, atmosphere, tension

Writing the opening of a malevolent or villainous character