This Gothic setting description lesson plan will encourage students to take their creative writing to a whole new level…
Creative writing lessons need to stimulate all of the senses and inspire students. Creative writing in the Gothic genre – spooky stories – offers a wonderful opportunity for this.
This is a topic that always manages to enthuse pupils and one of the most exciting aspects is that the outcome is completely different with every group.
Giving students time for thinking and the creation of ideas is essential. This plan provides the stimulus from which a number of sessions can be developed. Subsequent periods can also focus on the development of different writing skills as required by the individual needs of a group.
Gothic setting description starter
Close the blinds, turn off the lights, play spooky music and display an image on the whiteboard of an old, decrepit, haunted-looking house.
Seat learners in small table groups – this is a buzzy lesson with lots of group discussion and sharing of ideas. Display a map/floor plan of a house with a cross in one of the rooms on each table, so that each table focuses on a different room.
Display an instruction card on each table. This should say:
As a group create a word wall of spooky words to describe the room you are in. Be as ambitious as possible! You have 5 minutes.
Complete this on A3 paper or on post-it notes. This vocabulary bank will help students in the later part of the lesson.
Claire Sheffield is director of literacy at Quinton House School in Northampton. Browse more free KS3 English reading and writing lesson plans and KS3 creative writing resources for teaching plot and setting.
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