Travel Writing Unit - Year 8 / Year 9

This unit is appropriate for Year 8 or Year 9 students and is made up of 12 lessons, an assessment preparation lesson, and an assessment lesson.

Extracts range from Mary Shelley’s diaries to diary entries from NASA astronauts.

Lessons and activity focus on the following reading skills:

• Understanding a variety of 19th 20th and 21st century non-fiction and fiction texts focusing on different types of travel
• Understanding the positive and negative parts of texts
• Understanding different forms of travel writing – diaries, journals, blogs, information leaflets, fiction, articles
• Understanding the difference between the author / journalist and the subject within the text, and the difference between their opinions and the reason for their crafting
• Analysing writers’ language and craft
• Writing analytical paragraphs
• Selecting and using effective quotations
• Comparing main ideas and writers’ use of language
• Comparing the authors in the text, their positionality and contexts
• Understanding how writers adapt their craft to the interests of their intended audience and purpose

Lessons and activities focus on the following writing skills:

• Structuring information leaflets and blogs / articles
• Using content, language and tone to appeal to a desired reader

There are two reading outcomes that can be marked ahead of the assessment, and two writing outcomes.

The assessment focuses on reading and comparison skills.