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Year 9 - English

'Small Island': creating topic sentences and using quotes in essays

'Small Island'

Unit Summary

In this unit, pupils explore the playtext adaptation of Andrea Levy's novel 'Small Island'. They first explore the transition from novel to stage, before reading the playtext in full and exploring key scenes in detail. They then plan and write an essay on the theme of 'hope' in the text.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to create effective topic sentences and select main and supporting quotes.

Key Notes

  • A thesis statement is a clear, overarching argument.
  • Topic sentences give focus to individual paragraphs.
  • Select main quotations and supporting quotations to include in an essay.
  • Main quotations should be analysed; supporting quotations don't need to be analysed.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • thesis: the overarching argument to an essay, supported by the entire text
  • topic sentence: the first sentence of a paragraph- it states the paragraph's main idea
  • main quotations: these are quotations which support your topic sentence, and that require analysis
  • supporting quotations: these are quotations which support your topic sentence, but don't require analysis
  • marginalise: to treat someone or a group of people as if they are not important; to place them outside of society

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • Planning is not necessary to write an effective response.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.

A thesis statement is a clear, overarching argument. Topic sentences give focus to individual paragraphs.

2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'thesis'

the overarching argument to an essay, supported by the entire text.

3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.

Mistake: Planning is not necessary to write an effective response. Correction: Not only is planning an efficient way to consider different questions and arguments, it also leads to more cohesive, well sequenced responses.

More Lessons In This Unit

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