The English Department Website

 

Year 9

 

Year Nine is the final year before GCSE and students consolidate skills introduced in the two previous years whilst being encouraged to write in increasingly complex ways for a range of different audiences and purposes. 

 

Their reading becomes more complex both in terms of subject matter - Shakespeare and pre 1900 prose and poetry - and the way in which style and themes are identified and analysed. Students are encouraged to develop confidence in speaking and in synthesising ides through participation in formal debates.

 

Aims & Objectives

 

Reading - students evaluate in increasingly complex ways the use of language. They study poetry, looking at sound patterns and the use of imagery, identifying similes, metaphors and personification and also how diction is used to create tone which reflects authorial intention. Students are introduced to Shakespeare through group performance of selected extracts and to Victorian poetry via monologues. They should be able to analyse ways in which different cultural contexts and traditions have influence language and style and relate major writers to their historical context.

 

They should be becoming more sophisticated readers able to recognize layers of meaning in the writer’s choice of words e.g. connotation, implied meaning etc and to recognise how lines of thought are developed and signposted through the use of complex connectives.

 

They should be able to synthesise information from a range of sources, shaping material to meet readers’ needs and take swift and accurate notes.

 

Writing - students continue to write in an ever more demanding range of formats, including advertising, non-fiction writing and formal essays. They should use a range of punctuation to clarify and emphasise meaning and shape ideas rapidly into cohesive paragraphs. By now, students should be able to apply a range of spelling strategies and be taking responsibility to apply these as new terms are encountered.

 

They should be able to exploit the creative and aesthetic features of language in non-literary texts and write within the discipline of different poetic forms. They should be able to presnt their case effectively and make a counter-argument to a view that has been expressed.

 

Speaking & Listening - students develop interview techniques, compare different points of view, discuss and evaluate conflicting evidence and contribute effectively to group activities. They present their own ideas persuasively, especially through collaborative activities and the use of formal debates

 

Language Study - In Terms of language awareness, students revise word classes - nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. They should be able to use a range of terminology to analyse language such as phrase, clause, conditional verb etc. They also research in depth the origins of the English language and look at the use of language patterning to produce Persuasive Speech in advertising and public speaking.