United Kingdom · National Curriculum Attainment Targets
Year 9 English
This course prepares Year 9 students for the rigors of GCSE by exploring complex texts across genres and centuries. Students develop critical lenses for literary analysis while refining their own voices through persuasive and creative writing.
The Art of the Gothic
An exploration of 19th century Gothic fiction focusing on suspense, the supernatural, and the architectural settings of terror.
Identifying the recurring tropes and motifs that define the Gothic genre from the sublime to the uncanny.
Analyzing how first-person perspectives in horror and Gothic fiction can manipulate the reader's perception of truth.
Applying linguistic devices such as pathetic fallacy and sensory imagery to craft original Gothic descriptions.
Power and Conflict in Shakespeare
A deep dive into one of Shakespeare's tragedies or history plays to examine the corruption of power and the weight of ambition.
Examining the characteristics of the Aristotelian tragic hero and the role of the fatal flaw or hamartia.
Analyzing how Shakespeare constructs scenes to maximize tension through the audience's superior knowledge.
Decoding the metaphorical language and recurring imagery patterns in Shakespearean verse.
The Rhetoric of Revolution
Studying influential speeches and protest literature to understand how writers use language to incite change and challenge authority.
Mastering the use of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in historical and contemporary political speeches.
Evaluating how loaded language and bias are used in media and political messaging to manipulate public opinion.
Crafting an original persuasive piece using advanced rhetorical devices like anaphora, antithesis, and tricolon.
Dystopian Worlds
An investigation into speculative fiction and how dystopian novels critique contemporary societal issues.
Examining how dystopian authors depict the loss of privacy and the rise of totalitarianism.
Analyzing how authors create believable future worlds that act as exaggerated mirrors of our own society.
Exploring the conflict between personal identity and the demands of a uniform, state-controlled society.
Poetry Through the Ages
A chronological study of poetic forms from Romanticism to contemporary spoken word, focusing on technique and voice.
Exploring the works of poets like Wordsworth and Keats and their focus on nature, emotion, and the individual.
Contrasting the patriotic idealism of early war poetry with the gritty realism of later trench poets like Wilfred Owen.
Analyzing the rhythm, dialect, and performance elements of modern poetry and its role in identity politics.
Voices of the Margins
Evaluating diverse perspectives in literature, focusing on post-colonial voices and stories that challenge the traditional canon.
Examining how writers from diverse backgrounds explore the complexities of dual identity and cultural heritage.
Critically analyzing whose stories are traditionally told in literature and why some voices have been historically silenced.
Analyzing the structural precision of the short story form and its ability to capture a single transformative moment.