Twelve weeks · coursework component

Scheme of work

A sequence that follows the structure of the play and lands on the coursework: context first, close reading with running quotation collection from week three, and a planned, drafted, redrafted essay at the end.

Wk	Focus	Reading	Teaching content	Outcome	Site resources
1	Pre-reading: history and prediction	None	The dilemma discussion (a mother deciding to send her child away); Kindertransport and Kristallnacht research quiz; prediction from the pp. 83–84 extract; propaganda poster analysis and The Eternal Jew review; the Pied Piper legend.	Context research quiz; prediction paragraph from the extract.	Context
2	Openings: the cast list and the stage	pp. 3–9	Character list and the doubling (Ratcatcher’s four roles; Eva/Evelyn not doubled); the three types of stage direction; the attic set; the button lesson; the polishing; the abyss; survivor’s guilt (pp. 8–9).	Stage-directions information hunt; open the motif and abyss trackers (run all unit).	Act 1 Scene 1 guide
3	The parting	pp. 10–21	Packing against unpacking; the toy train; the jewels; Faith and Helga reading the Ratcatcher simultaneously; the station monologue; the Border Official (doubling in action); the border crossing.	Guided annotation of pp. 10–15; introduce the three coursework focuses and start quotation-collection tables.	Act 1 Scene 1 guide Quotation bank
4	Arrival and the two mothers	pp. 22–30	Liverpool Street and the Organiser; translanguaging and failed communication; the letter Faith reads; Lil established; contrasting reactions to trauma; the watch.	Analytical paragraph: how Samuels stages Eva’s foreignness.	Act 1 Scene 2 guide
5	Becoming English	pp. 31–46	Objects as carriers of memory; the changed birthday; the language conflict; Lil’s temper; the failed permits and guilt; the end-of-act confrontation: Faith, the box, ‘Eva Schlesinger’.	Comparison table: Helga’s and Lil’s mothering, with methods; extract response on the Act One ending.	Act 1 Scene 2 guide Themes: mothers
6	War from the attic	pp. 47–63	The jewels speech; the Postman and casual prejudice; Passover; second evacuation and Operation Pied Piper; the Ratcatcher resurfacing; Evelyn destroying the letters.	Stage sketch of the Act Two opening; guided annotation of the letter-destruction sequence.	Act 2 Scene 1 guide
7	The newsreel and the rejection	pp. 64–77	The Station Guard; the news that the parents will not come; the Star of David removed; the Bergen-Belsen newsreel (handle with care, distress warning); the rejection scene as the play’s hinge.	Full analytical paragraph on the rejection: claim, evidence, method, audience effect, structural placement.	Act 2 Scene 1 guide
8	The last parting and the whole play	pp. 78–87	‘I wish you had died’ / ‘I wish you had lived’; the monumental/personal exchange; the cyclical ending and Faith’s inheritance; whole-play structure review: dual timeline, doubling, motifs.	Technique checklist audit of quotation tables; tension graph of the whole play.	Act 2 Scene 2 guide Themes
9	Choosing and planning the coursework	Whole text	The five set questions unpacked; success criteria and the four examiner pitfalls; evidence gathering across both acts and time-frames; essay skeleton (intro, three body paragraphs, conclusion); bibliography and formatting rules; the integrity declaration discussed openly.	Completed planning organiser: question, thesis, six–eight quotations with methods and page refs.	Coursework guide Assessment
10	Drafting	Whole text	Supervised writing; open-book quotation accuracy; theatrical terminology; audience positioning; word-count discipline (650–800 as a guide).	Complete first draft submitted, ‘as good as the student can make it’, with accurate word count.	Coursework guide
11	Feedback fortnight	–	Teacher reads and annotates first drafts within the rules for coursework feedback; revision activities meanwhile: Faith’s anger graph, the Evelyn mask, still images with thought-tracking, talk-show interviews, comprehension quiz.	Drafts returned with compliant feedback.	Assessment
12	Final drafts	–	Redrafting from feedback; final checklist: language, form AND structure addressed; drama treated as drama; quotations referenced; bibliography complete; declaration signed.	Final coursework submitted.	Coursework guide

The long game: quotation collection

The single highest-leverage habit in this unit is the quotation-collection table, opened in week three and fed every lesson: three columns (memory, family, conflict), each entry with page number and dramatic method. Students who arrive at week nine with full tables plan in one lesson; students without them spend the planning week rereading.

Handling the material

Weeks one and seven contain Holocaust material that needs careful framing: the propaganda analysis works best taught as how language dehumanises, and the Bergen-Belsen newsreel requires a distress warning and an opt-out. The play itself models the register: unflinching, and never gratuitous.