Year Plan 2014-15

SHAKESPEARIAN DRAMA – Romeo and Juliet

Throughout this programme we will be reading this play as a class. We will be enacting key scenes. We will be modernising scenes from the play. Shakespeare’s language will be an important focus for us – particularly his use of the poetic devices of rhythm, rhyme, metaphor and alliteration. We will delve into the universal themes that are implicit in all of William Shakespeare’s works and explore how these apply to our lives today. We will also be running, in parallel, a comparative study of the Baz Luhrmann film Romeo + Juliet and considering how the film re-interprets the symbolism and dramatic devices.

There will be many moments where students skills as readers, writers, viewers, performers and researchers will be tested and extended. Some assessment of these functions will be informal, and some formal – including a literary essay, an enacted modernisation and a visual presentation.

POETRY

A sample of sonnets will also be read as part of this project, extending the students’ appreciation of Shakespeare’s use of Language and allowing for the comparative analysis essay that concludes the project

Comparative Analysis Essay – Macbeth, The Film and Sonnets [Autumn]

Tolerance for Ambiguity Addressing the paradoxical nature of the conversation arising in Macbeth about the suspension of disbelief necessary for the pathetic fallacy to function

Informal Debate Focus on the internal mind of Lady Macbeth. What were her true motives?

Extension Recreate and film a scene from Macbeth in a modern context replacing the language devices with their equivalent modern counterpart.

Wide Reading Project A multi-modal ‘reading project’ that will culminate in a spoken or visual presentation in Term 5

Film Enhancement Macbeth – studied, in conjunction with the play, as a literary text with an emphasis on comparing setting, symbolism, characterisation and pace

EXTENDED READING: Animal Farm Read as a political text – exploring text themes, the genre of allegory and cross-curricular research into the Cold War context of its writing.

Blooms Taxonomy Project – Self-devised project of selected tasks from a blooms taxonomy matrix

A range of “Synthesis” level tasks are available in the Bloom’s-based matrix

Metaphor, Allegory and Defamiliarisation  –  Exploring the ability we have in language and story to tackle subjects and make people look at things differently.

Extension

Recreate own allegory, this time based in the school, exposing some of the inequities that students experience.

Wide Reading Project An on-going multi-modal ‘reading project’ that will culminate in a spoken or visual presentation in Term 5

FILM STUDY: Hotel Rwanda Studied as a visual text, with an included exploration of cinematography, mis en scene and montage followed by a piece of analytical writing and and ethical debate

Analytical Writing – A written scene  analysis demonstrating a sophisticated understanding of the links between cinematographic choices and audience interpretation.

Formal Debate – Addressing in a formal debate, the role of the UN in the 1992 Rwandan Genocide

Political Problem Solving Engaging in the complex international politics surrounding the Rwandan Genocide in 1992 and exploring the role of the UN at the time, and at present.

Extension Write and deliver a political speech convincing the UN to act even without a universal mandate

Create a short filmed scene using equivalent film techniques to those in a studied scene in Hotel Rwanda

Wide Reading Project A multi-modal ‘reading project’ that will culminate in a crafted spoken or visual presentation exploring the connections between the texts