This unit prepares students for their National 5 Speaking and Listening assessment (presentation task) on a specific topic agreed with their teacher. It guides students through the process by looking at aspects of effective talks such as openings, rhetorical devices, endings, use of cue cards to structure a talk and responding to questions. Strategies include exploring good examples of talks as well opportunities to try out a variety of techniques to help make their own talks lively and engaging. A 41 slide PPT is included as well as all eight resources in both word and pdf formats. I hope you enjoy teaching this unit.

This highly engaging and enjoyable unit of work is designed to help students write creatively with a particular focus on narrative and descriptive writing. It supports students in actively exploring and enjoying both descriptive and narrative texts, looking at excellent and varied models from a range of literature and identifying successful features before moving to composing their own creative responses. It is ideal for a Grade 7-8 class. A beautifully presented 83 slide teaching PPT is included as well as a detailed set of teacher’s notes with suggested approaches and all thirteen classroom resources. Common Core Standards include: CCRA SL1, W3,4,5, R4 I enjoyed teaching this unit and hope you do too.

This student friendly guide is designed to support GCSE students in developing their skills in preparation for the AQA English Language GCSE Paper 1 Section B: Creative Writing exam. It is intended for use at home and includes lots of interactive and practical tasks to help them embed the key skills required at this level. It was written with my own mid to high ability GCSE group in mind. It includes a work booklet as well as accompanying resources in Word and PDF formats including planning frames, narrative extracts and creative writing tasks for exam practice. It will be useful for teachers who wish to set revision tasks for their classes or for parents who wish to support with exam preparation.

Research suggests that AfL or formative assessment, can have a significant impact on the motivation, behaviour and attainment of students as well as their ability to work independently. This very practical unit is intended for self-study and can also be used by teachers working together to support each other’s professional development and reflection. It includes questions and tasks throughout and focuses on some of the key aspects of AfL such as setting learning objectives and outcomes, peer and self-assessment, helping pupils recognize the standards they are aiming to achieve, written and oral feedback and target setting. I hope you enjoy working though the unit and applying some of these strategies in your classroom. Please note it has also been published on the nimbl platform by Pearsons.

This is a set of seven well-presented graphic organizers or planning frames to scaffold and support narrative and descriptive writing. Four of the planning frames are included in digital format which students can fill with text, ideal for setting work to be completed at home. It is accompanied by a detailed set of teacher’s notes on how to teach planning in the secondary classroom and ensure students see it as an important part of the writing process. In addition, there is a set of fifty creative writing tasks (narrative and descriptive) which can be used together with the graphic organizers.

This unit is specifically designed for English teachers who wish to develop their teaching of non-fiction in the secondary or upper primary classroom. It takes you through a range of active approaches to promote engagement with non fiction texts such as travel writing, news reports, feature articles,speeches and formal letters, as well as ways of linking reading with pupils’ own writing. It includes tasks and opportunities for personal reflection and is ideal for teachers preparing to teach non-fiction in the English classroom.

This unit is specifically designed for English teachers who wish to develop their teaching of Shakespeare in the secondary or upper primary classroom. It takes you through a range of active approaches including practical drama activities to promote engagement with the themes, characters and ideas of the plays as well as suggestions for writing creatively about Shakespeare. This unit will support you in developing a repertoire of teaching strategies which you can apply to any of Shakespeare’s plays. They are based on the principles of ‘Active Shakespeare’ and includes lots of activities and advice which will help make the learning both enjoyable and effective. It includes tasks and opportunities for personal reflection and is ideal for teachers preparing to teach a Shakespeare play.

The aim of this training session is to support secondary teaching assistants in developing a set of key strategies for teaching pupils how to learn and retain spellings. It contains lots of paired activities and could be led by the SENCO or an English specialist. It is designed for a training session lasting approximately 1 hour 15 minutes. Some pupils find spelling a real challenge - the role of a TA is to reassure them, provide them with spelling rules and strategies and support them with active approaches to learning spelling. This training package will help them to achieve this. It will also help TAs to provide support for pupils in using and developing a subject-specific vocabulary which is vitally important for their writing.

This is a self-study Professional Development unit for Early Career Teachers. As teachers, committed to pupil progress and well-being, we want to create classrooms which provide a thriving and welcoming environment. This is an area where your actions can make a difference as a positive classroom rooted in mutual trust and respect can have as significant impact on the learning. This self study unit explores practical ways in which you can achieve this and ideas which you can try out immediately with your own classes.

This self-study professional development unit is designed for English teachers and departments who wish to develop their practice in relation to teaching the whole class novel. It is a self study unit which includes lots of practical ideas for the high school or secondary classroom as well as opportunities for reflection and activities to help translate what you have learned into practice. The unit covers how to choose and introduce the novel, improve reading fluency, develop key reading skills, write about the novel and integrate engaging drama approaches. It is ideal for those preparing to teach the class novel to grades 6-10. Please note this has also been published as a mobile learning unit by Pearsons.

This unit is specifically designed for English teachers who wish to develop their teaching of Shakespeare in middle or high school. It takes you through a range of active approaches including practical drama activities to promote engagement with the themes, characters and ideas of the plays as well as suggestions for writing creatively about Shakespeare. This unit will support you in developing a repertoire of teaching strategies which you can apply to any of Shakespeare’s plays. They are based on the principles of ‘active Shakespeare’ and includes lots of activities and advice which will help make the learning both enjoyable and effective. It includes tasks and opportunities for personal reflection and is ideal for teachers preparing to teach a Shakespeare play.

This unit is aimed at English teachers and departments who wish to develop their practice in relation to teaching narrative and descriptive writing. It is a self study unit which includes lots of practical ideas for the Middle and High School classroom as well as opportunities for reflection and activities to help translate what you have learned into practice. The unit covers approaches to teaching key elements of narrative and descriptive writing including planning, structure, sentences and vocabulary as well as specific techniques such as ‘show not tell’. It is an ideal unit for an English teacher preparing to teach creative writing to a class.

This highly engaging unit guides students to delivering an individual spoken presentation on a topic of their choice for the Junior Cycle English Oral Communication Classroom-based Assessment. It guides students through the process by looking at aspects of effective presentations such as openings, rhetorical devices, endings, use of cue cards to structure a talk, delivery and responding to questions. Strategies include exploring good examples of talks as well as group discussions and opportunities to try out a variety of techniques. Students then research, plan, and rehearse their talks before delivering their presentations to the class. A nicely presented 43 slide PPT is included as well as all seven student resources in both word and pdf formats. I hope you enjoy teaching this unit. Best wishes, RoseandMay

This engaging and enjoyable Junior Cycle English teaching unit is designed to develop key skills in reading fiction and non-fiction as well as writing creatively. It is based on the topic of Heroism with lots of activities and great texts to help students develop key reading skills such as locating information, inference, commenting on structure and comparison as well as key narrative writing skills such as opening and ending a story, writing direct speech, varying sentences, improving vocabulary and planning. Texts include extracts from non-fiction and fiction texts including 'Pat Barker’s ‘Regeneration’, Remarque’s ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ and Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’. It is ideal for a First or Second Year Junior Cycle class. All 17 well-presented student resources are included in word and pdf formats as well as a 68 slide teaching PPT and a set of detailed teacher’s notes. Junior Cycle Learning Outcomes include: Reading 3. Use a wide range of reading comprehension strategies appropriate to texts. 7. Select key moments from their texts and give thoughtful value judgements on the main character. 8. Read their texts to understand and appreciate language enrichment by examining an author’s choice of words, the use and effect of simple figurative language, vocabulary and language patterns, and images. Writing 3. Write for a variety of purposes, for example to imagine, explore, engage. 5. Engage with and learn from models of written language use to enrich their own written work. 7. Respond imaginatively in writing to their texts showing a critical appreciation of language, style and content, choice of words, language patterns, tone, images.

This engaging and enjoyable unit of work is designed to help build the skills necessary for success in both group discussions and in making a presentation to the class. It is a discussion based unit and explores skills such as asking questions, leading a discussion, researching and planning a presentation. It leads to two activities, a ‘meeting’ in which students discuss setting up a series of lunchtime clubs for other students followed by an individual presentation in which students showcase their own plans for a school club. I have included a set of detailed teacher’s notes, a well-presented 44 slide teaching PPT and all student resources in both word and pdf format. I hope your students enjoy taking part in this unit. Junior Cycle Learning Outcomes include: Know and use the conventions of oral language interaction, in a variety of contexts, including class groups, for a range of purposes, such as asking for information, stating an opinion, listening to others, informing, explaining, arguing, persuading. Engage actively and responsively within class groups in order to listen to or recount experiences and to express feelings and ideas. Listen actively in order to get the gist of an account or presentation noting its main points and purpose. Deliver a short oral text, alone and/or in collaboration with others, using appropriate language, style and visual content for specific audiences and chosen purposes. 7.Choose appropriate language, style and visual content for specific audiences and chosen purposes.

This unit is designed to teach key reading and writing skills in the context of travel literature and to help build some of the key skills required when studying non-fiction texts. It moves from reading to writing and is based on the study of a number of short travel extracts from writers such as Paul Theroux, Jonathan Raban and Dervla Murphy. Outcomes include analytical as well as creative writing. All ten resources including key texts are included as are a set of detailed teacher’s notes and a nicely presented 42 slide PPT. Learning outcomes (from Junior Cycle Specification) addressed in this unit include: Reading 3. Use a wide range of reading comprehension strategies appropriate to texts. 8. Read their texts to understand and appreciate language enrichment by examining an author’s choice of words, the use and effect of simple figurative language, vocabulary and language patterns, and images, as appropriate to the text. 11. Identify and comment on features of English at word and sentence level using appropriate terminology, showing how such features contribute to overall effect. Writing Demonstrate their understanding that there is a clear purpose for all writing activities and be able to plan, draft, re-draft, and edit their own writing as appropriate. Discuss their own and other students’ written work constructively and with clear purpose. Write for a variety of purposes, for example imagine, explore, engage, amuse, narrate, inform, explain. Respond imaginatively in writing to their texts showing a critical appreciation of language, style and content, choice of words, language patterns, tone, images. I hope you enjoy teaching the unit as much as I did.

Creative Writing and Reading - Gothic Horror Unit This highly engaging and enjoyable unit is designed to develop key skills in reading fiction and non-fiction as well as writing creatively. It is based on the topic of Gothic Horror with lots of activities and great texts to help students develop key reading skills such as inference and comparison as well as key writing skills such as opening a story, writing direct speech, using narrative voice and varying sentences. Texts include extracts from non-fiction and fiction including W W Jacobs’ ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ and information texts on the London Burkers (body snatchers!) All 12 student resources are included in word and pdf formats as well as a nicely presented 50 slide teaching PPT and a set of detailed teacher’s notes. I hope you enjoy teaching the unit. Junior Cycle Learning Outcomes include: Reading 3. Use a wide range of reading comprehension strategies appropriate to texts. 4. Use an appropriate critical vocabulary while responding to literary texts. 8. Read their texts to understand and appreciate language enrichment by examining an author’s choice of words. Writing Demonstrate their understanding that there is a clear purpose for all writing activities and be able to plan, draft, re-draft, and edit their own writing as appropriate Write for a variety of purposes, for example to imagine. Engage with and learn from models of oral and written language use to enrich their own written work. Use and apply their knowledge of language structures, for example sentence structure, paragraphing, grammar, to make their writing a richer experience.

This half-termly unit is based on the idea of a media campaign with a focus on healthy living. It seeks to develop a range of skills including discussing and presenting, exploring and responding to a range of texts including advertising posters and a feature article as well as writing both analytically and creatively. It is ideal for a First Year English class but could equally be used for a Second Year class depending on ability. A very well-presented teaching PPT is included as well as a set of detailed teacher’s notes and all seven students resources in both word and pdf formats. Junior Cycle Learning Outcomes include: Oral Language Know and use the conventions of oral language interaction, in a variety of contexts, including class groups, for a range of purposes. Deliver a short oral text, using appropriate language, style and visual content for specific audiences and chosen purposes. Reading Use a wide range of reading comprehension strategies appropriate to texts, including digital texts. Read their texts to understand and appreciate language enrichment by examining an author’s choice of words, vocabulary, language patterns, and images. Writing Write for a variety of purposes, for example to analyse, engage, inform, explain and persuade. Write competently in a range of text forms, specifically a blog, using appropriate vocabulary and tone.

This is a 3 week unit which is designed to prepare students for their AQA spoken presentation on a topic agreed with their teacher. The unit guides students through the process by looking at aspects of effective presentations such as openings, rhetorical devices, memorable endings, use of cue cards to structure a talk, delivering the talk and responding to questions. Lessons include exploring good examples of famous speeches and student talks as well as group discussions and opportunities to try out a variety of strategies. A 37 slide PPT is included as well as all six resources in both word and pdf formats and a set of teacher’s notes. I hope you enjoy teaching this unit.