Could KS3 English lesson plans featuring zombies help your learners become better writers, readers and speakers?
Like all schools, we are increasingly under pressure to improve learners’ skills in a range of different areas. In order to address improving oracy, reading and writing in our lessons, we have started to develop ‘rich task setting’.
These are KS3 English lesson plans that include activities across all three attainment targets, and aim to engage students with topics that genuinely appeal to them. In this case, it’s the supernatural.
What learner doesn’t want to take part in a lesson about zombies, right? The subject matter engages younger KS3 learners from the start. Use it to deliver skills related to oracy, reading and writing.
Pupils will learn to:
- understand increasingly challenging texts through learning new vocabulary
- relate new vocabulary to known vocabulary
- understand new vocabulary with the help of context and dictionaries
- write accurately, fluently, effectively and at length for pleasure and information
- summarise and organise material
- support ideas and arguments with any necessary factual detail
Starter activity
Start with a ‘vocabulary snowball’. Give learners six words from an exposition text about zombies. Students should discuss where they may have seen various words before, or if they seem to have anything in common with vocabulary they already know.
Ask more able learners in the group to use the words in a sentence to demonstrate understanding. This allows learners to make the thematic link (hopefully!) and also to build their vocabulary range.
Claire Meynell is assistant subject team leader for English at Newport High, in South Wales. Take a look at our Year 8 English worksheets.
