Travel Writing Scheme of Work | Seven Wonders of the World | Full KS3 SOW

A complete and engaging Year 8 Travel Writing Scheme of Work based around the Seven Modern Wonders of the World. This fully resourced KS3 English unit takes students on a journey across some of the world’s most iconic landmarks while developing their ability to write for different audiences, purposes and forms.

Students explore locations including Petra, Machu Picchu, Christ the Redeemer, Chichén Itzá, the Colosseum, the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China, using each wonder as a springboard for a different style of travel writing.

Across the scheme, students learn how to write:

• Travelogues
• Travel blogs
• Guidebook entries
• Travel adverts and brochures
• Travel memoirs
• Newspaper reports
• Comparative travel articles
• Reviews
• A final travel writing project booklet

The lessons are designed to build confidence with both creative and transactional writing, making the unit ideal preparation for later GCSE English Language skills. Students are encouraged to adapt their voice, tone, structure and vocabulary depending on the form they are writing in.

What is included?

• A full sequence of visually engaging PowerPoint lessons
• Do Now retrieval activities
• Clear learning objectives
• Contextual information on each wonder
• Model texts for students to analyse
• Vocabulary development, including Tier 2 word banks
• Explicit teaching of form, audience and purpose
• Writing scaffolds and sentence starters
• Success criteria for each writing task
• Peer assessment and self assessment opportunities
• Comparative writing tasks
• A final extended project: The Ultimate Wonders Travel Book

Key writing skills covered include:

• Sensory description
• Show, don’t tell
• First person narrative voice
• Informal blog voice
• Formal guidebook tone
• Journalistic structure and the 5 Ws
• The inverted pyramid structure
• Persuasive writing using AFOREST
• Comparative connectives
• Topic sentences
• Parenthesis
• Personification
• Similes and metaphors
• Pathos and emotional appeal
• Adapting tone for different audiences

This scheme is ideal for Year 8, but could also be adapted for Year 7 or Year 9, especially as a creative non-fiction or transactional writing unit. It works particularly well as a high-interest KS3 unit because students are exposed to real-world places, rich vocabulary, varied forms and purposeful writing tasks.

The final project asks students to create their own Ultimate Wonders Travel Book, bringing together multiple travel writing styles into one polished publication. This makes the unit perfect for display work, assessment, homework projects or an end-of-term writing showcase.

This resource is suitable for: