Key Stage 3 – Recommended Texts and Tasks for Core Units
Unit 1 –
Story Telling and Narrative
Three assessed pieces of
extended narrative writing based
on these suggested texts in each
year.
Unit 2 –
Analytical Writing and Language
Awareness
Three assessed pieces of
analytical writing in each year.
Unit 3 –
Argument / Persuasive Writing
One persuasive writing task and
one analysis of spoken language
in each year.
Unit 4 – Literary Heritage
One novel, play, poetry and
Shakespeare analysis in each
year.
Year 7
 Boy by Roald Dahl
 The Daydreamer by Ian McEwan
 The Witches by Roald Dahl
 Two Weeks with the Queen by
Morris Gleitzman
 Skellig by David Almond
 Horowitz Horror by Anthony
Horowitz
Year 8
 Stone Cold by Robert Swindells
 The Machine Gunners by Robert
Westall
 Holes by Louis Sachar
 Small Steps by Louis Sachar
 Going Solo by Roald Dahl
 Horowitz Horror 2 by Anthony
Horowitz
Year 9
 James Bond unit – extracts from
Casino Royale
 One Good Turn by Chris Ryan
 The Grey Man by Andy McNab
 Now is the Time for Running by
Michael Williams
 The Curious Incident of the Dog in
the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
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Feature journalism
Travel writing
News reports
Autobiographical writing
Extracts from fiction texts
Feature journalism
Travel writing
News reports
Autobiographical writing
Extracts from fiction texts
Feature journalism
Travel writing
News reports
Autobiographical writing
Extracts from fiction texts
 Estate agent advertisement
 Circular letter for a good cause
 ‘Screen Burn’ style TV review
 Spoken Language analysis – Martin
Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’
speech
 Spoken Language analysis– Severn
Cullis-Suzuki’s speech to the UN
 Spoken Language – Malala
Yousafzai’s speech to the U.N.
or
 King George VI - King's Speech,
September 3, 1939
Prose:
 A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines
 ‘The Withered Arm’ by Thomas
Hardy
 The Magician’s Nephew by C.S.
Lewis
Prose:
 Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee
 Lord of the Flies by William Golding
 The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
 ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ by W.W.
Jacobs
Drama:
Drama:
Prose:
 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
 The Thirty-Nine Steps by John
Buchan
 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
by Arthur Conan Doyle
 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
(Trial scene)
These texts are suggestions.
Other texts can be used but not
those suggested in other years.
 An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley
 The play of Kes by Barry Hines and
Allan Stronach
Poetry:
Ballads:
 ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyes
 ‘The Ballad Of The Dark Ladie’ by
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
 ‘Annabell Lee’ by Edgar Allen Poe
 ‘Hyena’ by Edwin Morgan
Extended Metaphor Poetry:
 ‘Books Make Good Pets’ by John
Agard, ‘My Sister is a Crow and
‘The Poison Tree’ by William Blake
Shakespeare:
Hamlet – Theatrical context –
opening scene + final scenes
 Absent Friends by Alan Ayckbourn
Poetry:
 Shakespeare’s Love Sonnets
 Animal Poetry: ‘The Flea’ by John
Donne, ‘The Thought-Fox’ by Ted
Hughes and ‘The Lamb’ by William
Blake
Shakespeare:
 Romeo and Juliet
 The Tempest
Drama:
 The Crucible by Arthur Miller
 Journey’s End by R.C. Sherriff
Poetry:
 Wilfred Owen
 Simon Armitage
Shakespeare:
 Othello
 Macbeth