Topic: Much Ado About Nothing Ability: Mixed ability KS3 Number of lessons: 19 fully planned + 5 for feedback and assessment This scheme guides KS3 students through a study of Much Ado About Nothing. Lessons include Act/Scenes to read and all relevant line numbers. I have included all necessary resources which can be adapted to suit your specific school’s needs. The focus of the scheme is attitudes towards women. Students will explore this theme through structured talk and written responses. The structured talk encourages development of ideas, strong vocabulary and development of discussion skills. Students will learn how to use “Whereas” sentences as a way of explaining contrasts between characters. There are 19 lessons fully planned with resources that will take you to the start of Act 5 and preparing for an assessment. I have left those latter lessons unplanned because different schools build up to assessments in different ways.

GCSE: AQA but easily adaptable Lessons: 20 Ability: High ability, as it introduces some critical theory ideas This scheme has been designed for a first read through with a top set Yr10 and 11. It makes time for reading the play; analysing characterisation and plot; and, towards the end, supports essay writing. It introduces some critical theory, borrowing from AS Level Literature. Students will apply deconstructive criticism (contrasting characters), feminist theory (assessing gender dynamics) and Marxist theory (characterisation). These are introduced as low stakes note sheets that students will keep referring back to. There is also a focus on higher level vocabulary to describe the characters.

Year Group: Year 9-11 Ability level: Grade 7-9 Video length: 13 mins In what ways is An Inspector Calls a morality play? The narration defines ‘morality play’ and introduces the key concepts. The main section of the video analyses four main points in An Inspector Calls, building a detailed essay plan. Finally, the video offers four tasks for further revision. We use this video for home learning, revision, pre-reading and cover work.

Lessons: Five (mini unit to support A Midsummer Night’s Dream) Ability: KS3 Our Faculty outperforms the national average for creative writing: in 2021-22, we had a P8 score of 0.83 on creative writing. The focus of the lessons is on fundamental writing skills: sentence variation, creativity and successful atmosphere. Students have time to read a WAGOLL before creating a setting and character. The tasks then build skills as they write an opening description for a novel.

Lessons: 31, including lessons for assessments Ability: KS3, KS4, low and mid ability Updated for 2023-24. The scheme guides students through their first read through of the play. The play is broken into manageable chunks over 31 lessons, alongside extract tasks that will build their knowledge of plot/character and their exam skills. There are many ‘structured talk’ tasks to encourage good vocabulary and phrasing. There are two or three blank lessons in the middle to create space and time for an assessment (e.g. we test Year 9 on their understanding of Tybalt once we have read Act 3).