Who is 'The Woman in Black'? Scheme of Work for KS3

Capture students' imaginations and assesses their language skills. A fun, unique 7-lesson unit based on Susan Hill's macabre novel.

Students play detective to unravel the 'clues' and produce a police file of 'evidence' showing they have solved the mystery. The 'clues' are varied, stimulating activities based on extracts from the text. Everything you need in one pack!

Fun, engaging and pacy - perfect for the 2-3 weeks at the end of a term when everyone is flagging!

S Owen, HoD and ZigZag Customer
  • Flexible lesson plans
    • Starters, mains, homework and differentiation
    • Linked to KS3 curriculum
  • Creative worksheets
  • Well-chosen extracts
  • Helpful suggested answers

  • It enhances learning by engaging pupils with some really interesting and relevant material... The resource contains meaningful and importantant questions and offers good opportunity for assessment for learning

    C Kelly, Teacher and Peer Reviewer
     
    Students play detective and answer:
    • Who is the woman in black?
    • What is her story?
    • What does she do?
    • Why does she do it?
    Students solve the 5 clues which assess skills on:
    • Comprehension
    • Sequencing
    • Punctuation of speech
    • Prepositions and conjunctions
    • Inference and deduction

What do teachers say about this resource? (3860)

I think it is excellent. I thought that it was engaging, interesting and clear. A really great resource for the end of a hard term — but still challenging and worthwhile. I liked the subject matter and think that the resource offers a lot of opportunity for differentiation. It enhances learning by engaging pupils with some really interesting and relevant material. The resource contains meaningful and importantant questions and offers good opportunity for assessment for learning.

C Kelly, Teacher and Peer Reviewer

Excellent. A terrific way for pupils of all ages to read parts of a challenging and well-written text. The whole of yr 8 got very excited as they tried to piece the clues together... The more able pupils asked to read the whole book! The differentiated sheets helped everyone to engage with the resource... Excellent SPAG focus... It's fun, it's engaging, it's pacy - perfect for the 2-3 weeks at the end of a term when everyone is flagging!

S Owen, HoD and ZigZag Customer

The resource has proved to be an original and innovative unit that students will love. Any unit that requires independent work, creative thinking and problem solving skills from the pupils is sure to be a success. The resource explicitly targets the NC levels for this key stage and identifies the AFs covered. The lesson plans are extremely detailed, outlining exactly each step, yet flexible in that the teacher has the option of how to introduce the resource themselves. It ticks all the boxes for active pupil-centred learning: students must work collaboratively, use thinking and problem solving skills, and are required to process and synthesise information to uncover the mystery. In addition, each lesson plan details the framework objectives and assessment focuses that the session targets. Overall this is an inventive scheme of work and I'm looking forward to trying out some of the ideas at Halloween.

A Kane, English Teacher, Independent Reviewer

The story is engaging and challenging enough for more able Year 8's and most Year 9s. It will be popular because of the current interest in Gothic themes too. I like the amount of independent work it encourages — that is often lacking in many schemes. It's also sufficiently engaging in terms of reading skills — as the students (hopefully) have the impetus to read closely for meaning because they are keen to solve the mystery. I feel it is totally appropriate for the Key Stage it is aimed at. It's also pitched well as an 'end of term (summer)' task as it's engaging but not too 'heavy' for this point in the year.

S Johnson, Teacher and Peer Reviewer

I found this material very accessible for my low ability SEN pupils who are doing GCSE but require a lot of scaffolding. This makes a challenging text accessible for weaker pupils.

K McLoughlin, Teacher & ZigZag Customer

Excellent organisation - easy for bright students to follow on their own, I would think. An interesting approach to take to the text and would make a good post-examination unit which I am confident students would enjoy.

V Denman, HoD and Peer Reviewer