A Marvellous Machine – KS3 Creative Writing Mini-unit

This mini unit of work encourages students to imagine, design, and write about a currently nonexistent technology or pattern of behaviour that would solve a problem they are passionate about.

Devise a Marvellous Machine that doesn’t currently exist but would solve an important problem (or at least one students think is important). What would it solve? How would it work? What would be involved in its running (down to the most excruciating details)? What could go wrong?

In each lesson, students will exercise an essential skill for KS3:
* Lesson 1 think critically about a reference text and connect it to current technology
* Lesson 2 generate an original idea based on research
* Lesson 3 consider story tone and implications for meaning
* Lesson 4 create a story plan

Learning outcomes
Critical thinking – Using a short story written in the 1950s, Roald Dahl’s The Great Automatic Grammatizator, students will compare his grammatizator invention to the rise of AI in our modern society. The technology is eerily similar, along with its accompanying ethical concerns.

Text comparison – Through examining Dahl’s text and AI, students will come to their own conclusions about the benefits and the potential for misuse – an introduction to the essential skill of comparing across eras for GCSE.

Research-enhanced impact – After considering the pros and cons of new technologies, students will create a blueprint for their own invention to solve a problem. Using their imagination and factual details, they can choose to make this design a success or failure.

Plan and draft – Develop a story plan, including character descriptions, setting, plot