Year 8 Comprehension - Great Expectations - teaching resource

Year 8 Comprehension – Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)

This two-lesson mini-unit is based on the opening scene of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations and is designed to help Year 8 learners strengthen their comprehension and exam-style reading skills. With a 58-slide editable PowerPoint, printable worksheets, and a full comprehension assessment task, this resource provides everything needed to develop core reading skills in an engaging and structured way.

Lesson One:

• Introduction to comprehension in English

• Strategies for approaching comprehension exam papers

• Practising inference and deduction skills

• Answering questions on language and technique

Lesson Two:

• Analysing how writers use structure for effect

• Using quotations effectively in extended responses

• A timed 40-minute comprehension assessment (PDF format)

• Post-assessment review of sample responses and examiner-style feedback

This resource helps students build confidence with key reading skills, from inference and deduction to close language analysis and extended written responses. Perfect for preparing Year 8 learners for future assessments and bridging towards GCSE-style comprehension tasks.

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