This unit is deigned for secondary and key stage 2 teachers across the curriculum who wish to develop and improve the quality of writing in their classrooms, a challenge increasingly important for exam success which is so dependent on writing. There is now a significant amount of research into what works and this unit seeks to present guidance as well as practical ideas and examples that can be taken straight off the page and into your classroom.This unit has also been published by Pearsons as an interactive mobile app.

When designing effective lessons, there are a number of factors to consider, all of which feed into the planning stage. Models of teaching, the learning objectives and specific teaching strategies as well as the climate for learning within a particular classroom are all part of that process. In this unit you will explore these key aspects of planning and how they can support you in preparing lessons which move the learning forward in an inclusive and engaging way. This resource has also been published by Pearsons as part of a mobile learning platform.

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 secondary or upper primary 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 Key Stage 3 or GCSE class.

This self-study unit offers support and guidance in teaching the speaking and listening component of English entry level courses in an interesting and engaging way, helping to ensure your programmes of study and lessons are relevant, motivating and develop the key skills necessary for success at this level. It is full of practical teaching approaches to key aspects of speaking and listening including group work, role-play and teaching the individual presentation - it is relevant to all exam boards.

This self-study unit offers support and guidance in teaching the creative writing component of entry level courses in an interesting and engaging way. It will help ensure your programmes of study and lessons are well-pitched, relevant and motivating and develop the key skills necessary for success at entry level. Suggested approaches can be easily differentiated for entry level 1 and 2 students making it ideal preparation for planning an entry level course and schemes of learning. It is generic and relevant to all main exam boards who offer this qualification.

This self-study unit offers support and guidance in teaching the non-fiction writing component of these courses in an interesting and engaging way, helping teachers ensure their programmes of study and lessons are well-pitched, relevant and motivating and develop the key skills necessary for success at entry level. Suggested approaches are practical and can be easily differentiated for entry level 1 and 2 students making it ideal preparation for planning an entry level course and schemes of learning. It is generic and relevant to all main exam boards who offer this qualification.

This self-study unit offers support and guidance in teaching the reading fiction and non-fiction components of entry level courses in an interesting and engaging way. It will help ensure your programmes of study and lessons are well-pitched, relevant and motivating and develop the key skills necessary for success at this level, making it ideal preparation for planning an entry level course and schemes of learning. Suggested approaches can be easily differentiated for entry level 1 and 2 students by simplifying texts, reducing the amount of content and having one clear objective per lesson. The skills referred to are relevant to all exam boards.

This sel-study CPD unit explores some of the most effective approaches and practical strategies that English teachers can take directly into the classroom to create a stimulating and engaging learning environment in which boys can flourish as writers. Although the strategies focus on how you can engage boys with writing, they represent good practice which can improve the learning for both boys and girls.

Developing Literacy is a clearly a key element of a TAs role. In this unit you will explore how best to support pupils with reading. As we live and work in an environment in which the printed text is so important, the skill of reading is vital in helping pupils to make progress and ensure they don’t fall behind their peers. This unit aims to provide lots of practical strategies which TAs can use in the classroom or during intervention work with individual or small groups of students to help them become more experienced readers and ultimately more independent learners.

The aim of this unit is to support teaching assistants in developing a set of key strategies for teaching pupils how to learn and retain spellings, though teachers wanting to develop their skills in teaching spelling would also benefit. Some pupils find spelling a real challenge - your role as a TA is to reassure them, provide them with spelling rules and support them with active approaches to learning spelling. Pupils should then be able to choose the appropriate strategy to help them to learn new spellings as they arise. This unit will also help you, as a TA, to provide support for pupils in using and developing a subject-specific vocabulary which is vitally important in writing successfully in different subject areas. This unit has also been published as a mobile CPD course.

This self-study CPD unit will explore and develop practical strategies to help pupils access and interact with texts in a way that supports thinking skills and develops reading comprehension. The strategies covered are cross curricular in nature, promote a collaborative approach to reading text and are aimed at secondary and upper primary pupils. Please note this unit has also been published by Pearsons as part of a mobile learning platform.

Speaking and listening activities in the classroom are an important part of the learning process, helping to develop key communication skills required not only at school but also by colleges and employers. In the classroom, this will involve pupils participating in whole-class discussion, group work (with perhaps three or four pupils working together), paired work and in making individual presentations to the class. By promoting inclusion, teaching assistants can have a major impact on the success of these activities and a pupil’s learning outcomes. In this unit you will explore a range of activities which help you consider how best to support the teacher in explicitly teaching about spoken language and developing a pupils’ critical thinking skills and confidence as participants. This resource has also been published by Pearsons as a mobile CPD app.

Intervention involves supporting pupils who for a variety of reasons may have fallen behind their peers in order to make rapid progress. It is, and always has been, a significant issue for schools but is particularly pertinent given recent disruption to children’s education. We also know that in 2019, 27% of students began secondary school without having reached expected standard in their Key Stage 2 SATs Reading assessments and that in 2018 fewer than 1 in 5 of those who entered secondary school not having reached expected standards in reading went on to achieve a level 4 or above in English. Intervention is therefore particularly important in relation to literacy skills as these will limit progress not just in English but across all subjects which require good skills in reading and writing. This unit focuses on how you can, as a teacher responsible for intervention, design a strategy to improve the progress of targeted pupils who are underachieving.

Intervention is, and always has been, a significant issue for schools but is particularly pertinent at the present time given recent and significant disruption to children’s education. This unit has been developed to support senior staff in thinking about their current provision for under performing pupils and to help them action plan a whole-school approach to intervention designed to support those who have been identified as underachieving and who are at risk of not fulfilling their potential.

This unit is aimed at 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 secondary or upper primary 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, improving reading fluency, developing key reading skills, writing about the novel and drama approaches. It is an ideal unit for a teacher preparing to teach a novel to a Key Stage 3 or GCSE class. This unit has also been published as part of a CPD mobile learning platform.

This unit of work is focused on developing the skills of reading between the lines and is based around extracts from the novel ‘Deep Water’ by Ann Turnbull. It is aimed at a first year Junior Cycle class and covers key skills such as inference and deduction, questioning the text, prediction and visualising the text. All short extracts are provided so you do not need a copy of the novel though you may wish to buy one to read and enjoy other sections with the class. I have included a 47 slide teaching PPT, all nine resources in word and pdf formats and a detailed set of teacher’s notes. Learning outcomes (from Junior Cycle Specification) addressed in this unit include: Reading 3. Use a wide range of reading comprehension strategies appropriate to texts e.g to retrieve information and to link to previous knowledge. 7. Select key moments from their texts and give thoughtful value judgements on the main character or a key scene. 8. Read their texts to understand and appreciate language enrichment by examining an author’s choice of words. 11. Identify and comment on features of English at word and sentence level using appropriate terminology. Writing 3. Write for a variety of purposes e.g to imagine, explore, narrate. I hope you enjoy teaching the 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 aimed at a first year Junior Cycle class and may also be a suitable unit for a second year class depending on ability. A well 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. Learning outcomes (from Junior Cycle Specification) addressed in this unit include: 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, explore, engage, amuse, narrate. Engage with and learn from models of oral and written language use to enrich their own written work Reading 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. I enjoyed teaching this unit and hope you do too.

This half-termly unit of work is designed to help prepare students for SQA National 5 English with particular focus on the Component 3 creative writing task. The unit will help explore and develop key writing skills such as narrative voice, openings and endings, writing dialogue and effective description. Students will explore good models of texts and identify successful features before moving to planning and composing their own piece of creative prose fiction for their portfolio. I have included a 52 slide teaching PPT plus all eleven resources in both word and pdf formats. This unit is accompanied by a detailed set of teacher’s notes. I hope you and your students enjoy this unit.

This half-termly unit of work is designed to help prepare students for AQA’s English Language GCSE Paper 1 with particular focus on section B creative writing. I have written it with my own lower attaining GCSE class in mind. It supports students in developing some of the key skills required to write their own engaging pieces such as writing effective openings, writing dialogue, varying sentences, creating characters and planning responses. It supports and leads them towards the creative writing task (either narrative or descriptive) required for section B which they complete at the end of the unit. The 75 slide teaching PPT is included as well as a detailed set of teacher’s notes with suggested teaching approaches and all eleven classroom resources in both Word and PDF formats. I have also included extra creative writing tasks based on images in the AQA format. I hope you enjoy teaching the unit.

This engaging, student-friendly home learning unit is designed to help Grade 9-10 students develop their narrative and descriptive writing skills. It is intended for home learning and includes lots of interactive and practical tasks to help students embed key skills. It includes a work booklet with accompanying resources including planning frames, narrative extracts and creative writing tasks for exam practice. I have included a standard PDF and a version with text boxes which can be filled in by your students. It will be invaluable for teachers who wish to set an extended unit of work or revision activities for their classes or for parents who wish to support with learning and exam preparation.