Literacy Intervention Booklet – ‘The Cobweb’: Proofreading, Vocabulary Development & structure

A teacher-created literacy intervention booklet based on the short story The Cobweb by Saki, first published in 1914. This resource is designed to strengthen proofreading accuracy, vocabulary comprehension, inference skills, and narrative structure awareness for secondary learners and adaptable for GCSE-level study and literacy catch-up sessions.

The booklet combines a variety of purposeful writing and analysis tasks to reinforce key literacy fundamentals while stretching students through structured non-fiction planning and prose interpretation.

Resource Includes:

Session 1: Spelling Test Template (10 untitled lines for teacher-selected differentiation)

Extended Proofreading and Error Correction Task
Students rewrite a deliberately flawed passage, correcting spelling, punctuation, grammar, homophone errors and missing capitals (with 15+ possible errors)

Glossary Gap-Fill Activity (students research and define 20+ Tier 2/Challenging vocabulary items)

Examples include: casement, chintz, coveted, latticed, musty, parlour, trussed, wan, wattles

Builds contextual vocabulary decoding and dictionary confidence

Comprehension and Inference Questions aligned to the text, exploring:

character motives

setting contrast

emotional interpretation

superstition and suspense cues

Bubble Diagram Task analysing what we learn about the character Martha (lines 44-62)

Narrative Structure Breakdown
Students map the 5 stages of a suspense-driven cyclical narrative (equilibrium → rising action → peak → falling action → new equilibrium)

Planning prompts to trace how Saki builds suspense across key moments

Designed for teacher-led, small group or independent intervention use

Skills Developed:

Spelling and word accuracy

Identification and correction of common literacy errors, including homophones

Vocabulary comprehension and research skills

Inference and textual evidence selection

Character analysis and summary diagram creation

Narrative structure understanding (including cyclical and suspense arcs)

Planning skills for transactional and creative writing

Ideal For:

KS3/secondary English lessons

GCSE English (Literature or Language transfer)

Literacy intervention and catch-up groups

Whole school literacy support or reading mentoring programmes

Homework or independent literacy skill building

Older learners and adult education literacy sessions

Format & Delivery:

Digital download

Fully editable and printable DOCX

Structured booklet layout ready for quick deployment

Easy to adapt for ability, terminology level or intervention cycles