Year 8 information evening…

1. Year 8 information evening… • The English curriculum content • Level descriptors and assessment • Exemplar work • Key skills • ExL • The bigger picture

4. Success criteria • Use interesting vocabulary to fit the purpose (to frighten the reader) • Vary sentences structures and starters • Use different techniques like similes, metaphors and other devices • Be detailed and don’t let too much time pass • Show don’t tell

5. Interesting vocabulary… • In a dark and gloomy forest, a foreboding house stood tall against the midnight sky. It looked as though it could contain the souls of the dead. The door to the house was eight feet high and towered over any visitor unlucky enough to stand before it. As the rain pelted down, a young man approached the fearsome building and glanced nervously over his shoulder as he raised his hand to knock. His clenched fist made contact with the ancient wood as a bolt of lightning shook the trees around him. He trembled. The enormous wooden door swung open with a terrifying CREEEEAAK…

6. Range of sentences structures… • In a dark and gloomy forest, a foreboding house stood tall against the midnight sky. It looked as though it could contain the souls of the dead. The door to the house was eight feet high and towered over any visitor unlucky enough to stand before it. As the rain pelted down, a young man approached the fearsome building and glanced nervously over his shoulder as he raised his hand to knock. His clenched fist made contact with the ancient wood as a bolt of lightning shook the trees around him. He trembled. The enormous wooden door swung open with a terrifying CREEEEAAK…

7. Range of sentences starters… • In a dark and gloomy forest, a foreboding house stood tall against the midnight sky. It looked as though it could contain the souls of the dead. The door to the house was eight feet high and towered over any visitor unlucky enough to stand before it. As the rain pelted down, a young man approached the fearsome building and glanced nervously over his shoulder as he raised his hand to knock. His clenched fist made contact with the ancient wood as a bolt of lightning shook the trees around him. He trembled. The enormous wooden door swung open with a terrifying CREEEEAAK…

8. Literary techniques… • In a dark and gloomy forest, a foreboding house stood tall against the midnight sky. It looked as though it could contain the souls of the dead. The door to the house was eight feet high and towered over any visitor unlucky enough to stand before it. As the rain pelted down, a young man approached the fearsome building and glanced nervously over his shoulder as he raised his hand to knock. His clenched fist made contact with the ancient wood as a bolt of lightning shook the trees around him. He trembled. The enormous wooden door swung open with a terrifying CREEEEAAK…

9. Be detailed… • In a dark and gloomy forest, a foreboding house stood tall against the midnight sky. It looked as though it could contain the souls of the dead. The door to the house was eight feet high and towered over any visitor unlucky enough to stand before it. As the rain pelted down, a young man approached the fearsome building and glanced nervously over his shoulder as he raised his hand to knock. His clenched fist made contact with the ancient wood as a bolt of lightning shook the trees around him. He trembled. The enormous wooden door swung open with a terrifying CREEEEAAK…

10. Show don’t tell… • In a dark and gloomy forest, a foreboding house stood tall against the midnight sky. It looked as though it could contain the souls of the dead. The door to the house was eight feet high and towered over any visitor unlucky enough to stand before it. As the rain pelted down, a young man approached the fearsome building and glanced nervously over his shoulder as he raised his hand to knock. His clenched fist made contact with the ancient wood as a bolt of lightning shook the trees around him. He trembled. The enormous wooden door swung open with a terrifying CREEEEAAK…

11. A man is chased through the woods. • He arrives at a haunted house. • He meets a ghost. • The end

12. Targets… • Vary sentence starters. • Can you give a clue that he has been running…perhaps he arrives out of breath? • Use wider range of punctuation such as brackets, exclamation marks and semi-colons).

16. Key skills… • Reading underpins everything. • Practice what you know you need to focus on. • Revise your targets and feedback. • Check understanding and ask questions. • Recognise parts of speech such as adjectives, adverbs and verbs and think about why the writer has used them for what purpose. • Have purpose in your own writing.

17. ExL • Non-completion of Exl equated to half the concern slips in the first half term. • 10% of learning is completed as Exl tasks. • It could equate to a whole level of progress over the three years at KS3. • Tasks will always feed straight back into the next lesson; be linked to assessment targets or consolidate learning from previous learning. • They are never spurious, un-related tasks. • There are few excuses which are acceptable reasons for not completing tasks for ExL.

18. The bigger picture… • This year is the preparation for Year 9 and GCSE English. • If the skills are not in place, the content cannot be accessed effectively. • Don’t find yourself playing catch up next year to reach target levels.