Year 10 - English
Comparing texts about drug misuse: 'Confessions' (1821) and 'A letter to' (2014)
Non-fiction: crime and punishment
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Study Guides
This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit, pupils develop their non-fiction reading and writing skills by reading and responding to a selection of nineteenth century and modern non-fiction texts on the theme of crime and punishment. They practise summarising and comparing texts before writing an article and information text.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to read two texts about the same topic - drug misuse - and begin to compare the perspectives of the writers who wrote them.
Key Notes
- Using predictive reading skills before you read a text can help you understand more complex texts.
- When reading a text for the first time, you won't necessarily understand every word and idea.
- Making short annotations as you read can help you develop an understanding of a text.
- Summarising a text after reading it for the first time can help you feel secure in your understanding of its main ideas.
- Comparing writers' perspectives involves exploring their point of view and feelings as expressed in the text.
Vocabulary To Learn
- opium: an addictive drug
- perspective: the way someone thinks or feels about a particular thing; their point of view
- open letter: a letter written to a particular person or group but which is published in a newspaper or journal so the public can read it
- defensive: anxious to avoid criticism
- passionate: showing strong or intense feelings
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- That perspectives are simply positive or negative.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.
Using predictive reading skills before you read a text can help you understand more complex texts. When reading a text for the first time, you won't necessarily understand every word and idea.
2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'opium'
an addictive drug.
3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.
Mistake: That perspectives are simply positive or negative. Correction: Positive and negative can be useful words to initially consider a perspective, but then you must become more nuanced and use specific adjectives to identify feelings and perspectives.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Developing a summary of a non-fiction text by including inferences Study Guide
- Planning an open letter using single paragraph outlines Study Guide
- Planning and writing website content Study Guide
- Reading an opinion article and creating rhetorical questions Study Guide
- Reading and comparing two texts about prisons: London (1862) and Norway (2013) Study Guide
- Revising and editing non-fiction writing Study Guide
- Summarising a non-fiction text: 'a letter to my son' (the Guardian, 2014) Study Guide
- Using credible statistics in a piece of non-fiction writing Study Guide
- Using figurative language in non-fiction writing Study Guide
- Using structural features effectively in non-fiction texts Study Guide
- Using the conventions of website content creatively Study Guide
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