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KS3 · Year 7 - Foundations · Term 2 - Voices Across Time · Week 4
Pages: The Highwayman - Alfred Noyes
A 1906 narrative ballad set on a moonlit moor. Bess sacrifices herself to warn the highwayman of the redcoats waiting in ambush.
Lesson 1
What students do
Read Part 1; track the story like a film: who, where, when.
Task
Select three quotations that build the moonlit setting ("ghostly galleon", "ribbon of moonlight").
Success criteria
Can quote three setting details accurately.
Lesson 2
What students do
Read Part 2; model the extended metaphor of moon as "ghostly galleon".
Task
Discuss why Noyes uses ship imagery on land.
Success criteria
Explains one effect of the moon-as-ship image.
Lesson 3
What students do
Model how to "zoom in" on a single word (e.g. "torrent" in "torrent of darkness").
Task
Zoom in on one word: meaning, feeling, picture.
Success criteria
Gives meaning, feeling and picture for one word.
Lesson 4
What students do
Model analysis of Bess's death: "her musket shattered the moonlight".
Task
Write a paragraph on how Noyes makes Bess's death dramatic.
Success criteria
Paragraph zooms in on at least one word.
Lesson 5
What students do
Recap zoom-in technique.
Task
How does Noyes build a tragic mood?
Success criteria
Two paragraphs, two quotations, one zoom-in each.
AI marking - try this with the English Hub feedback engine
Students can submit their independent paragraph to the AI feedback engine for AO-aligned commentary. Their teacher sees the same feedback alongside their own marking. The task is auto-loaded into the practice surface - students just write and submit.
Open the marking surface with this task pre-loaded →