Y8: Lesson 1 (2021) | Introduction to the Novel

Happy New Year, Year 8!

 

Welcome back to Downstairs in H Block, the English Department’s Key Stage 3 blog! Unfortunately, it’s remote learning for the next half-term. We’re looking forward to seeing you all again as soon as possible. Here’s our plan for the next few weeks at least:

• we carry on with our normal curriculum, using a range of resources, including lessons from Oak National Academy
• we’ll send out work 2/3 times a week (this week, it will be on Tuesday and Thursday)
• your teacher will be available to help if you need to get in touch with them
• you should send your teacher pictures of your work

 

Let’s review where we are up to in our curriculum journey (click to enlarge):

 

Now that we’ve finished Much Ado About Nothing (for now – there will be a quiz soon!), we’ll be moving on to ‘An Introduction to the Novel’. In this unit, you will learn about when and how the novel emerged as a literary form, you’ll look what some of the first novels were like, you’ll look at the opening chapters of a novel by Charles Dickens, and then we’ll move on to our full novel study on John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.

 

Here’s your work for the first part of this week:

1) Write a title: Introduction to the Novel

Add the date and make sure you underline. You can write on paper if you don’t have your book with you.

 

2) Watch this video on YouTube and make notes about:

• what a novel is
• when the novel emerged as a form
• features of novels
• examples of early novels

If you like, you could make your notes in the form of a poster or leaflet or timeline, but just a page of notes in your book or on paper is fine. The more detail, the better.

You'll find more information in this powerpoint:

 

Further study (optional extras):

• Have a read of this article from the British Library.
• Find out about some early novels, like Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels
• There’s a video summary of Gulliver’s Travels here.
• Find out more about Robinson Crusoe island.
• Why not get a taste of the books themselves? Robinson Crusoe | Gulliver’s Travels

 

That’s it for today. We’ll be back on Thursday with another English lesson, this time on the style and content of early novels.

 

Remember to get in touch with your English teacher if you need any help with your remote learning.

 

THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT