Do you have a 12/13 year old?

[weebleswaddle]

What texts and grammar are they doing in English/English Literature at the moment and are they doing any creative writing at school?
Thank you!

Which ones? We do a few Michael Morpurgo at KS2- Y3 and Y4

DD is year 8 (12/13 year olds). This year so far they’ve done Macbeth, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (translated I think, not in Middle English!!), and Spies by Michael Frayn. She’s at a selective private school if that makes any difference, but they follow the national curriculum (obviously) as they do GCSE’s etc.

Midterm break in particular is a good one for younger readers I think, the speaker begins the poem in school, waiting to be taken home to a funeral that we learn in the final line is for his four year old brother (it's a true story from Heaney's adolescence) . It's very moving and it gives a sort of jolt when you realise what is going on, it's not stated outright so you have to pay attention to the language and if you do you get the reward of a big reveal. Also it's very real and not patronising, allows them to explore very weighty themes in an idiom that is deceptively simple. I read it as a kid and it's always stayed with me and definitely fuelled a love of poetry.

Sorry my mistake! Was thinking of The Outsider (L'Etranger) mainstay of A level syllabi