English Non Fiction KS3 / KS4 Victorian Workhouse Comprehension, Analysis and Writing Tasks

This resource has been created for Victorian England themed lessons. This lesson gives students a simplified and broken-down way of accessing non fiction text. The lesson includes vocabulary building, comprehension and analysing language features. There are opportunities for students to share their prior knowledge and incorporate this into their understanding of the text.
There are two writing tasks. First a transactional writing exercise which gives students an opportunity to write persuasively about workhouses. Secondly, a creative writing task allowing students to imagine they are an ‘inmate’ of the workhouse.

This lesson is suitable for KS3 students, but it can easily be adapted to suit KS4 students, particularly those who are less able.

This resource can also be used to inform history lessons, looking at social history of workhouses

As the focus is on Victorian themes, this lesson can be used as pre-reading material for Victorian texts such as ‘A Christmas Carol’.