Year 9 - English

Unit 1 - Novel study

Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black or Stone Cold by Robert Swindells

Students will start by learning about the Gothic genre, before revising and practising descriptive writing skills. When they come onto studying the novel, they will learn about the social, cultural and historical context of the novel; they will read for meaning, practising comprehension skills, understanding the text and the writer’s ideas, techniques and viewpoint; we will consider narrative structure and perspective, character and theme. Talking and listening opportunities include debate, role play and discussion.

Unit 1

• Writing: Descriptive writing - a gothic scene
• Reading: IGCSE style question on theme, focusing on understanding how it runs through the novel and linking it to context.

Unit 2 – Persuasive and Argument Writing

Students will revisit and build on their knowledge of these key IGCSE writing types, reading different examples and practising the use of features of the writing.

Unit 3: IGCSE Poetry

Students will begin to study the named collection of poems from their GCSE course. They will build on their existing knowledge and be introduced to more complex terminology about both language and structure use in poems. Key skills of reading for meaning, inference and analysis will be used and linked to a contextual understanding of the poems; Students will learn how to write a comparison of two poems.

Unit 2:

• Writing a persuasive argument in the style of an IGCSE response

Unit 3:

• Assessment: An IGCSE style analytical response comparing two studied poems.

Unit 4 – IGCSE Drama Study

Students will study their first IGCSE drama text, building on prior knowledge and learning more about the context of the play, becoming familiar with the plot, characters and themes, whilst studying the language and structure of the play.

Unit 4:

Assessment: Literature reading response: IGCSE style analysis