I am a teacher of secondary English, providing resources and lesson plans in this domain. My lessons are on the interdisciplinary side and as such can at times also be applied to other subject areas, such as history or drama. I hope you find them useful! Please don't hesitate to provide constructive feedback as I am always keen to improve my resources and ensure that you get the very best value for money.
I am a teacher of secondary English, providing resources and lesson plans in this domain. My lessons are on the interdisciplinary side and as such can at times also be applied to other subject areas, such as history or drama. I hope you find them useful! Please don't hesitate to provide constructive feedback as I am always keen to improve my resources and ensure that you get the very best value for money.
**PLEASE NOTE: These lesson plans pertain to the 'old', outgoing Lang/Lit course (final exams in 2020). While a lot of the material will still be usable in the new course (first exams 2021), please bear this in mind when purchasing and, subsequently, using the plans yourself (whether as written or to make your own). Thanks for your understanding!**
This file contains at least 50 hours of lessons pertaining to Part 2 (Language and Mass Communications) of the English A: Language and Literature IB program. This would normally last you at least one academic year when interspersed with set text study and Part 1 (Language and Cultural Context) lessons (this equivalent pack is also available via TES). This is based on a schedule of 4 hours a week at standard level, with a supplementary hour per week at higher level. Topics include the analysis of social media and online language, advertisements, past paper practice lessons, persuasive speeches, journalistic texts, and historical and geographical contexts. Texts used are diverse and include texts from The Economist, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and The Financial Times, as well as texts by writers such as Dave Barry, Camilla Long, and Earl Spencer. Tasks are differentiated and activities are suggested to support students in relation to TOK and other official IB assessments. Extra resources can be supplied upon request at no extra charge to support you as far as possible; where possible these are already free to download on TES. Created by an experienced IB teacher and examiner.
This column by Dave Barry can be used by secondary English students to understand cultural context, as well as how humour is created and used in writing.
It can also be used by French classes for a tongue-in-cheek insight into French culture.
The comprehension questions are as follows:
How far does Dave Barry exaggerate? Is some of what he says true? Explain your answer.
Give an example of how Dave Barry uses language in a humorous way. EXTENSION: What technique(s) does he use and why?
Dave Barry also makes fun of Americans. How?
This text can be used by secondary students of all ages to understand how humour is created and used in writing. Comprehension questions are included.
This is designed for use by English students, but could also be used in French classes for some tongue-in-cheek insight into French culture.
This information sheet can be used by secondary students of all ages who need guidance on how to write a feature article. It encourages the use of statistics, illustrations and vox pops for the more mathematically and artistically minded English and media students.
This text can be used to help A-Level, IB and (I)GCSE students analyse context, audience, purpose and style. Particularly valuable is the subtext that it doesn't just inform but also advertises/persuades.
This advertisement was kindly supplied to me by Save The Children Supporter Care.
It can be used to help A-Level, IB, and (I)GCSE students analyse advertisements through the lenses of context, audience, purpose and style.
These Christmas ads can be stuck to the wall so that your students can react to them in relation to context, audience, purpose and style.
If laminated on first printing they can be used for years to come. Students can annotate using Post-It notes.
If you are in a rush, then just print them and have students write on them directly.
Colour printing is highly recommended.
These posters are mainly of use to A-Level/IB students, but could also be used for (I)GCSE language and media courses.
Note: one of the posters is appropriate for 16+ only.
This 16-lesson (4-week) unit explores a prescribed selection of stories from volume 2 of Songs of Ourselves, as determined by Cambridge International Examinations. It helps students to analyse a variety of texts, techniques and historical and cultural contexts via a number of different media. Their studies will culminate in the production of a critical essay in line with CIE's requirements for official coursework.
This unit was designed for students working towards CIE's IGCSE in World Literature, but could also be used for pupils (at GCSE, IGCSE, A Level, IB...) studying any of the short stories listed below:
The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman)
The Contest (Annie Proulx)
On Her Knees (Tim Winton)
Her First Ball (Katherine Mansfield)
A Horse and Two Goats (RK Narayan)
The Bath (Janet Frame)
Journey (Shirley Geok-Lin Lim)
The Third and Final Continent (Jhumpa Lahiri)
The Moving Finger (Edith Wharton)
The Open Boat (Stephen Crane)
This 16-lesson (4-week) unit explores a variety of poetry from the 1500s to the present day. It examines several aspects of poetry, including specialist structures, rhythm, rhyme and meter, as well as techniques common to several types of literature, including personification, alliteration, and onomatopoeia. An effort is made in the unit to encourage text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text connections in the pupils' readings. Contextual information about the lives of the poets studied is introduced as and when it is relevant, as opposed to systematically. Pupils consider the links between style, context, content and purpose. Their studies of poetry culminate in the production of a piece of official coursework – an essay addressing a key theme across several poems studied.
The unit was designed for students studying the Cambridge IGCSE in World Literature, but could easily adapted for (I)GCSE, IB or A-Level students studying the same poems.
The poems for which there are lesson plans in this unit are as follows:
Futility (Wilfred Owen)
The Death Bed (Siegfried Sassoon)
First March (Ivor Gurney)
Last Sonnet (John Keats)
If thou must love me (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
lion heart (Amanda Chong)
I years had been from home (Emily Dickinson)
Homecoming (Lenrie Peters)
The Border-Builder (Carol Rumens)
Rhyme of the Dead Self (ARD Fairburn)
The Caged Skylark (Gerard Manley Hopkins)
Song (George Szirtes)
The Road (Nancy Cato)
This 16-lesson (4-week) unit plan for Alain-Fournier's novel, Le Grand Meaulnes, explores characterisation, setting, themes, techniques, and text-to-self connections, as well as the context of the author's life and the influence of these on the text. The unit is enhanced by the usage of other fictional and non-fictional texts, such as The Great Gatsby and articles from The Economist. Pupils consider the links between style, context, content and purpose. They also create their own directed writing task based on the story, which is designed to demonstrate empathy and their understanding of plot and character, as well as command of authentic language appropriate to the text.
The unit plan was designed for use with students of IGCSE World Literature, but could also be adapted for other (I)GCSEs in literature, as well as (I)GCSE, IB French B, or A-Level French.
This weblog pack consists of a compilation of blog entries which appeared online on a variety of websites after certain Enid Blyton books were reissued with changes to characters' names (e.g. Jo-> Joe) and actions (Dame Slap apparently only snaps now). The blog pack can be issued in its entirety to each child or it can be divided up and individual blog entries given to students according to their level of English (the entries vary in length and complexity). The blog entries also present a variety of viewpoints. A great way to discuss language change with secondary students of all ages alongside other topics such as revisionism. Possible questions for students include: Why are people so demonstrably upset by the changes? Is their protest reasonable (why/why not)? Is it right to change parts of an author’s work once it has been published (why/why not)?
PLEASE NOTE: These lesson plans pertain to the ‘old’, outgoing Lang/Lit course (final exams in 2020). While a lot of the material will still be usable in the new course (first exams 2021), please bear this in mind when purchasing and, subsequently, using the plans yourself (whether as written or to make your own). Thanks for your understanding!
This file contains at least 50 hours of lessons pertaining to Part 1 (Language and Cultural Context) of the English A: Language and Literature IB program. This would normally last you at least one academic year when taught alongside a minimum of 2 IB set texts (based on a schedule of 4 hours a week at standard level, with a supplementary hour per week at higher level). Topics include spoken language, censorship, translation, metalanguage, and historical and geographical contexts. Texts used include Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Amy Tan’s Mother Tongue, Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, and Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal. Tasks are differentiated and activities are suggested to support students in TOK and with their extended essay, as well as to support you in the event of your absence from school. Extra resources can be supplied upon request at no extra charge to support you as far as possible. Created by an experienced IB teacher and examiner.
This worksheet encourages students to identify key sonnet features (iambic pentameter, volta, syllabic count), give examples of these, and comment on effects.
This 28-lesson (7-week) unit plan explores Shakespeare's classic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, via examination of several of the playwright's specialist structures, including the sonnet form, rhythm, rhyme and meter, as well as techniques common to several types of literature, including antithesis, hyperbole, and juxtaposition. An effort is made in the unit to encourage text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text connections in the pupils' readings. Contextual information is introduced as and when it is relevant, as opposed to systematically. Pupils consider the links between style, context, content and purpose.
This information sheet contextualises Ibsen's origins and family relationships as well as the theatrical movements by which his drama abides (naturalism/realism). The sheet also encourages students to link these to his plays.
This 16-lesson (4-week) unit plan for Henrik Ibsen's play, Hedda Gabler, explores characterisation, setting, themes, techniques, and text-to-self connections, as well as theatrical movements and practitioners and the influence of these on the play, and is enhanced by the contrasting cultures of production and reception via study of historical context. Pupils consider the links between style, context, content and purpose. They devise their own adaptation of the play to form a 1-hour staged reading of the production.
The text file is taken from the Financial Times and talks about climate change in Tibet. Students should read this in advance and come to class with a list of vocabulary questions, which could be worked through in groups for speediness if there are many questions. If there are only a few questions, this could be done as a class.
The comprehension questions help to gauge student understanding of the content and begin to assess their critical thinking skills.
This exercise can be used for students aged 14-18 in subjects such as Geography and Global Perspectives.
The attached questions about obesity can be used in social studies, PSHE and Global Perspectives lessons to explore the themes of the human body, health and disease. The questions encourage students to consider how society influences how we see overweight people, to identify the differences between underweight/healthy/overweight/obese/morbidly obese, to question whether someone can be healthy and overweight, to explain why we need fat in our bodies, and to research hereditary disorders such as Prader-Willi and Cushing's syndromes. All tasks could be completed by all students, or you could divide students into groups and give each group a different question which they then research/consider more thoroughly.