National Curriculum
97 lessons across 8 units
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)
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
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
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
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
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
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
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