Year 9 English Curriculum
Scheme of Learning Crime Why does crime fiction pay?
The American Dream Can dreams become reality? Macbeth Does ambition always pay off?
Poetry What is it good for?
Justice Who decides what’s right or wrong?
Where in the year? Autumn 1
What will you be learning?
Using Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes as a starting point, you will investigate how writers present the crime genre and you will look at famous fictional and nonfiction crime. Autumn 2 We will read John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men and consider how it fits within the American Dream through its presentation of race and women in the 1930s. Spring 1 We will read together Shakespeare’s &2 Macbeth, a tale of murder and ambition set in Scotland. You will use a combination of drama and mini-Harkness discussion to build on your knowledge of Shakespeare’s language and stagecraft. Summer 1 We will be reading a variety of poetry including some Victorian, WW1 and modern poems- learning how to analyse a poem in-depth whilst also forming a personal response. Summer 2 After looking at the crimes of the last unit, we will study the idea of the process of justice and how it is presented in texts like To Kill a Mockingbird and short stories, as well as real-life campaigns for justice publicized by organizations such as Amnesty International.
How will you be assessed? You will write an opening chapter for your own crime story. You will also give a presentation that shows your own analysis and research of a short crime story of your choice. You will complete a whole-text question in the form of an analytical essay about a theme, character or setting from the novel. You will use Harkness to help you to come up with your own question about the text and you will write an analytical essay in response. You will prepare for and sit your Y9 ARK English assessment, which will be a formal paper comparing two poems. You will use debate and Harkness to discuss cases of justice for Speaking and Listening assessments. You will also develop your non-fiction writing from the previous unit to include the judicial process that follows it.