While studying English at Philip Morant School and College, we aim to ensure our students are exposed to a wide range of challenging, stimulating and thought provoking fiction and non-fiction materials to inspire a curiosity for and provoke a love of learning. Students are encouraged to consider their world and the wider world around them as they read, discuss and explore novels, plays and poetry from a number of different perspectives across a variety of cultures and countries from different centuries. Guided sensitively, students are encouraged to appreciate texts through the lens of others while developing an intriguing insight into the broad spectrum of the human experience and condition. While reading such materials, students will analyse and evaluate a writer’s skill and expertise, as they explore the masterful use of language and literary methods of great writers throughout different literary and artistic movements as they begin to recognise patterns and develop their ability to further contextualise the progression of forms of Literature and the English Language itself.
Students begin their time at Philip Morant by studying John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ a novel, carefully chosen by the English department, in its entirety. While studying the novel as a class, students will learn to interpret questions and ideas while supporting their opinions with quotations and textual reference.
Students will explore writer’s craft and appreciate a range of methods used by a writer to achieve a desired response from their reader. Intertwined with this, will be the teaching of socio, economic and literary context such as The Great Depression, The American Dream, segregation, racial and gender prejudices and their relationship with the novel, as students will learn to become critical thinkers surrounding text production and reception.
Throughout the first half term, emphasis is given to reading skills as the students will complete a variety of questions to develop their ability to critically analyse and explore material in depth. In the second half term, emphasis is given to the students’ writing skills across a range of forms: from creative writing: descriptive and narrative; to transactional writing: articles, letters, speeches, leaflets and essays.
For some parents it is a struggle to get children to love reading and to experience what it is like to get lost in a book, particularly since our children live in a digital age where there are so many other attractive alternatives! Here are some suggestions that may help:
– Make connections between reading and real life: Take an interest in the book that your child is reading. Ask them to tell you what it is about and talk to them about how what is happening in the story could link to their own experience or events that are happening locally or globally.
– Visit your local library: Libraries are an excellent resource. Enrolling is free and libraries do not charge when lending books. You can also get access to free e-books and audio books using your ELAN library card online.
– Let your child see you read: Being a role model is important. Share with them what you are reading. If it is age appropriate, why not ask them to read it after you and you can have a discussion about it afterwards.
– Read together: It doesn’t have to be a fiction book, it could be a newspaper article, a page from a magazine or you could read an online article together. Build stronger reading skills by sounding words out together, talking about the story, looking up unfamiliar words. Why not listen to an audio book together in the car on the way to school?
– Mix it up: Try reading a graphic novel one day, a cool app the next, a novel on the third day, or a poem or a play.
Students continue their study of Literature and creative explorations through Shakespeare’s tragedy ‘Hamlet’ as they explore the themes of grief, death, friendship and revenge. While studying their play in class, students will learn to interpret questions and ideas while supporting their opinions with quotations and textual reference, building on the skills acquired in the autumn term. Students will explore Shakespeare’s craft as a playwright and appreciate a range of drama and language methods used to achieve a desired response from the reader/audience. Intertwined with this, will be the teaching of socio and political context of the Elizabethan period and its pertinence in understanding the action, characters, themes and authorial intentions in the play.
Throughout the first half term, emphasis is given to reading skills to build familiarity with Shakespeare’s language. There is also a focus on critical thinking skills, where ‘big questions’ posed through the text are explored and debated. Oracy is further developed through the teaching and use of analytical terms and subject specific vocabulary when speaking about the text in class, and may be assessed through presentation. In the second half term, emphasis is given to a range of interpretations explored through class discussion and through film and stage adaptations. Students are encouraged to use creative writing as a medium in which to express their ideas and interpretations.
450 years after his birth, Shakespeare plays a unique role in English education. No doubt in the depths of your memory, you can probably recall a quotation or two from when you were taught Shakespeare at school. Perhaps the main barriers to accessing Shakespeare is the language, the complex plots and the distant settings of the plays. These are easy barriers to break down. Here are some suggestions that may help.
Overcoming the language barrier: Children delight in the discovery of new words and this is the first stage in getting them to feel that Shakespeare’s language is ‘theirs’ to explore, use and own.
– read a short extract of the play together and talk about any words that you both particularly like and why this is.
– research some of the words in the extract, their meaning and how they are used / could be used in a variety of situations today.
– experiment and have fun using these words in ‘your world’.
Overcoming the distant world of the play:
– Watch films, dramas or documentaries that bring Shakespeare’s world to life. Upstart Crow; Shakespeare in Love; The Virgin Queen; Black Adder; Horrible Histories. The students have access to productions through Digital Theatre.
Overcoming the complexity of plot:
Shakespeare’s plots have inspired many novelists and film writers.
– summarise the plot of the play and get your child to retell it from memory.
– make links between the plot and other fiction books or films you have read and seen.
Poems and short stories could be described as miniature forms of literary ‘art’. In this unit, students will be exposed to a rich ‘gallery’ of literary works and students will ‘walk’ this gallery pausing to reflect on which of these works particularly resonate with them. Students will be encouraged to express their personal preferences based on a range of pre and post 19th century texts shared both in class and for homework. ‘Walking’ this gallery will be a further opportunity to extend their love of reading. Students will continue to develop skills in analysis, as well as broadening their knowledge on how specific choices in grammar, literary devices and vocabulary communicate meaning.
A love of poetry will be promoted through a Slam Poetry event where students will be encouraged to write and perform their own poem on a theme of their own choice.
Some of the short stories that may be chosen include: ‘Tony Kytes – The Arch Deceiver’ Hardy 1888; ‘The Tunnel’ – Doris Lessing 1955′, ‘The Phantom Coach’ – Edwards 1864; ‘The Machine Stops’ – E.M. Forster 1928; ‘The Mummy’s Foot’ – Gautier 1840; ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ – Roald Dahl 1970.
Some of the poetry in the collated anthology includes: ‘The Road Not Taken’ – Frost 1915; ‘Sea Fever’ – Masefield 1902; ‘The Poison Tree’ – Blake 1794; ‘Epitaph on a Tyrant’ – Auden 1939; ‘Invictus’ – Henley 1875.
Poetry is a great opportunity to be imaginative and expressive with language – something that many children really enjoy. Poetry can help children discover just how versatile language can be; poems teach them how to grab a silly notion or reflective moment and craft it into a miniature work of art. Here are some suggestions that may help:
– Listen to your child read poetry. Poetry isn’t just great for private reading, it’s often written specifically to be performed. Look for opportunities for dramatic pauses, changes of volume and expression.
– Memorise a favourite poem. Children recognise the power of poetry and learning a poem can inspire emotions and a special pleasure in the form. This may encourage them to write their own poems!
– Help your child to identify the elements in a poem. Rhyme, rhythm patterns, types of language such as similes, metaphors, idioms, alliteration, onomatopoeia, repetition and hyperbole are all poetic devices familiar to your children. Discuss how these, along with the words that have deliberately been chosen, help shape meaning.
– Make a slideshow poem. Photograph a series of five to ten pictures (based on a common theme or during a trip). Import the photos into a multimedia software program such as PowerPoint, iPhoto, or Photo Story and ask your child to write a poem by posting a word or two with each image. Add special effects, transitions, or music to enhance the slideshow.