'Twisted Tales' (short stories) KS3 booklet

This is a 65-page student resource booklet for a KS3 scheme of work (intended for Y8) on short stories. The scheme has been branded as ‘Twisted Tales’ - based on the text titles provided by Douglas Wise (@ DoWise on X).

The seven featured stories are:

• The Man with the Yellow Face
• The Landlady
• Lamb to the Slaughter
• Poison
• Ruthless
• The Story of an Hour
• The Tell-Tale Heart

Curriculum Intent:
Students will read seven thrilling short stories, beginning with the most modern, in order to examine and understand some of the major techniques writers use when constructing concise but exciting narratives. Students will continue to craft their textual annotation skills to develop their analysis of language and structural choices. Students will have regular opportunities to imitate and experiment with writing in the style of each author as they draft their own beginnings, middles and endings for a variety of story tasks.

Every page is carefully and consistently formatted for maximum accessibility with all students.

Each story has side-by side targeted annotation activities (comprehension; analysis; discussion points). This is then followed by 4-5 main task activities. I have planned each story to be taught over a sequence of 3 lessons meaning the scheme should provide enough content for approximately 21 lessons.

Students will encounter one or two key writer’s techniques within each text and will complete some activities that will target their understand of these. Students are then encouraged to experiment and imitate each writer’s style with given writing tasks.

Featured writer’s techniques include:
Dialogue
Irony
Foreshadowing
Zoom out / zoom in
Sensory imagery
Structural endings - plot twist and cliffhanger.