Themes

Last lesson in English we moved on from looking at genre to looking at theme. It is quite a tricky word to define, but we decided that it referred to what a story is about on a very general level. We also agreed that themes are universal, meaning they come up again and again, so, for example, there are lots of stories where love is a theme. Listed below are some of the themes we discussed in the lesson, but there are loads more:

Love

Fear

Sacrifice

Good vs. evil

Family

Crime and punishment

Standing up for what you believe in

We also talked about the various themes that crop up in popular books and films. We decided that crime and punishment, fear, family and dictatorship were all themes of Hunger Games, whereas love, family and standing up for what you believe in were all themes in Romeo and Juliet.

It is important to think about what themes we want to deal with when writing short stories, as we want our readers to have a clear idea of what the story is about, and this is something we will talk more about over the next few lessons. 

 

Homework, Thursday, 17th September, 2015

This week I would like you to rewrite the comedy short story Robin Hood Takes a Bath in the horror genre. In your homework folder you will find a copy of the story and a prompt sheet to help you, which I have copied and pasted below. Unfortunately I am not allowed to post the story itself, due to copyright laws, but if you lose it, it's not the end of the world; you just need to write a horror story about Robin Hood taking a bath, using some of the conventions of horror. 

Your story should be around 300 words and can be done on lined paper or on a computer. 

It due on Friday, 18th September. 

HORROR

Events
A zombie bursts out of a cupboard Someone dying Torture The stupidest character dies first There is a villain who lives in an evil lair Some kind of killer animal Evil psychopaths
Vocabulary
Adjectives	Verbs	Nouns
Bloodthirsty Quickly Horrific Terrible Terrifying Scary Bloody	Gutting Slitting Chopping Slicing Running Crushing Burning	Knife Camera Gun Needle Body parts Meat hooks

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to Mr Q's Year 9 English blog!

I will update this blog every so often - usually once a week - and it will contain information about what we are covering in lessons. It will also tell you what the homework tasks are each week, so if your son/daughter tells you there is no homework, this is the place to check to find out if they are telling the truth!

Homework will start next week, but for now I can tell you that we will be covering creative writing. We will begin by focusing on genre, theme and plot, before moving on to the nuts and bolts of short story writing: creating settings and characters, looking at the various literary techniques writers use to make their writing more interesting, learning the rules of writing dialogue and learning how to structure a story. We will also do some work on spelling, punctuation and grammar.  

By the end of the unit, which will run until October half term, all the pupils will hopefully be able to write a short story of around 500 words. They will then revisit creative writing in Year 10 and build on what they learn this half term, with a focus on making their writing more sophisticated and mature. 

So make sure you check back every week to keep up with what we are doing and if you have any questions, you can email me in the usual way via the school office.