A fully sequenced, exam-targeted 25-lesson A-Level scheme of work on Shakespeare’s Othello, built specifically for AQA English Literature A (7712), Paper 1: Love Through the Ages, Section A. The scheme drives towards the closed-book, passage-based Section A question and focuses on the assessment objectives that carry the marks: AO1, AO2, AO3 and AO5. Because Shakespeare is out of copyright, this scheme quotes the play directly and teaches close analysis of his own language. Five Gamma-ready lesson decks plus five richly detailed companion Word documents.

Full 25 Lesson Scheme of Work

• Lessons 1 to 5: Foundations, context and the opening. The text and the Section A task, the assessment objectives, contexts (race and the Moor, Venice and Cyprus, patriarchy, the Cinthio source), genre and the tragic hero, the opening of the play, Othello and Desdemona in Venice
• Lessons 6 to 10: Love at its height and Iago’s poison. Iago as antagonist (the malcontent, the Vice figure, “motiveless malignity”), the reunion at Cyprus, the temptation scene in two parts, the handkerchief and Emilia
• Lessons 11 to 15: Methods, the descent and exam writing. The “Othello music” and imagery, structure and stagecraft (double time, drama for the stage), Othello’s degradation in Act 4, writing the Section A essay, mid-unit assessment
• Lessons 16 to 20: Gender, race, the ending and criticism. The women and the willow song, Emilia’s defiance, race and otherness, the murder and Othello’s final speech, critical perspectives (Bradley, Leavis, feminist, post-colonial)
• Lessons 21 to 25: Synthesis, Love Through the Ages, exam mastery and assessment. The kinds of love in the play, building a conceptualised argument, exam technique masterclass, final assessment preparation, final assessment and reflection

Five companion Word documents:

• Medium Term Plan (landscape): full 25-lesson table with objectives, sequenced Rosenshine activities, outcomes and the dominant AOs per lesson, plus an accurate note on the Section A mark allocation
• Knowledge Organiser (portrait): play in brief, ten characters, six themes, seven methods, a twelve-quotation closed-book bank, contexts, a critical interpretations table, terminology, and the Section A answer method
• Retrieval Practice Grids (portrait): three interleaved grids with a full answer key, spanning plot, method, context, interpretation, quotation and terminology
• Critical Perspectives and Wider Reading pack (portrait): the major critical debates in depth, a worked escalation in deploying interpretation, conceptualised essay questions, and independent study tasks for AO5
• Assessment and Mark Guidance (portrait): best-fit band descriptors reflecting the Section A mark scheme, the analysis-versus-identification lever, the closed-book context, an annotated A-Level model answer, a two-response comparison, and AO-mapped success criteria