The Road KS3 or KS4 Prose Reading and Writing Assessment Lessons

A mini-scheme of work, taking three or four lessons, focused on The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

Students develop their skills for GCSE by finding quotations, developing their ability to comment on the environment, characters, relationships and then tackle questions in timed conditions. Each lesson has a starter and self- or peer-assessment plenary.

My students loved the plenary for the environment question where they had to make a mask (outline provided) which would protect them from the dystopian world The Road is set in. Their creativity and ingenuity, putting their learning into practice was wonderful to behold. Please don't miss out on it.

I found that this lesson was highly accessible for middle ability students and wonderful for high achievers or G&T learners, giving them the range of language and intrigue to explore possibilities and methods. My less able students (predicted 2 or below) achieved expected results and understood what was happening. With them we watched the trailer for the movie first before we read the first chapter together (popcorn!) and then slowly tackled the straightforward questions.

I have included answers to the quotation finding exercises and an extra lesson on writing stories associated with dystopian or apocalypse fiction .

This was the end of term assessment for reading and writing dystopian fiction. If you want to see more, check out my huge Dystopian Futures SOW at my shop.