Welcome. My resources include CPD self-study units for teachers as well as whole units of work specifically designed for the English classroom. Whole units come with detailed teacher notes, teaching PPTs and all student resources. I hope you enjoy using them as much as I have. Questions are very welcome and I can be contacted at roseandmay2@virginmedia.com.
Best wishes, Sam
Welcome. My resources include CPD self-study units for teachers as well as whole units of work specifically designed for the English classroom. Whole units come with detailed teacher notes, teaching PPTs and all student resources. I hope you enjoy using them as much as I have. Questions are very welcome and I can be contacted at roseandmay2@virginmedia.com.
Best wishes, Sam
This bundle includes six self-study CPD units which cover major areas of the English secondary curriculum and are ideal for PGCE students, SCITT trainees, NQTs and recently qualified teachers. The units are as follows:
Bringing Shakespeare to Life
How to Teach Imaginative and Descriptive Writing
How to Teach Poetry
How to Teach the Class Novel
How to Teach Non-fiction
How to Improve Boys’ Writing
I have also added a generic unit called ‘Creating the Positive Classroom’ to help you create a positive learning environment from the start of the year.
Each unit is designed for self-study with opportunities for trying out new and practical ideas in your own classroom and reflecting on their success. It introduces a wide variety of active approaches to learning to help engage your pupils. All units are relevant for both Key Stage 3 and 4. Please note these units have also been published by Anspear as a mobile app and on-line via their web portal.
Australian curriculum-aligned resource - Narrative and Descriptive Writing for Years 9-10
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 and identifying successful features before moving to composing their own imaginative responses. A well-presented 60 slide teaching PPT is included as well as a set of detailed teacher’s notes with suggested approaches and all eleven classroom resources in both Word and PDF formats. I enjoyed teaching this unit and hope you do too.
This very nicely presented unit of work is based on Sean Tan’s graphic novel ‘The Arrival’. It consists of 14 lessons which guide students through the novel chapter by chapter. It is discussion based and there are lots of opportunities for paired, group and class discussion with thinking points and scaffolds to support. It teaches students how to analyse images closely looking at aspects such as layout, character illustrations and colour. Written outcomes include creative responses as well as a final, analytical piece which can be formally assessed. There are also opportunities to read real and fascinating accounts from immigrants across the globe and consider how these help our understanding of the family’s story in ‘The Arrival’. All PPTs and lesson resources are included as well as a set of detailed teacher’s notes based on my experience of teaching this unit.
Please note that all files are in PDF format.
This unit is specifically designed for English teachers who wish to develop their teaching of poetry in the secondary or upper primary classroom. It takes you through a wide range of practical, active approaches to promote engagement with poetry as well as ways of developing pupils’ own poetry writing. It includes tasks and opportunities for personal reflection and is ideal for teachers preparing to teach poetry in the English classroom. This unit has also been published by Pearsons as part of a CPD mobile learning platform.
English Teaching Poetry Unit: Seamus Heaney’s 'Follower’
This short GCSE unit is designed to introduce and explore Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Follower’ as well as develop students’ ability to write analytically using a specific, taught paragraph structure. This unit is collaborative in nature with lots of opportunities for paired, group and class discussion. It includes a very nicely presented 32 slide teaching PPT as well as all 16 student resources and a set of detailed teacher’s notes explaining how you can deliver the unit. Outcomes include an analytical PETAL paragraph which could be extended into a longer essay using the structure provided. Please note that all resources are provided in PPT and Word as well as pdf format. Ideal for GCSE Anthology study.
You may also like the following poetry units:
You might also like:
William Blake’s ‘London’
Seamus Heaney’s ‘Storm on the Island’
Seamus Heaney’s ‘Digging’
Wilfred Owen’s ‘Exposure’
Australian curriculum-aligned resource - Narrative and Descriptive Writing for Years 6-7
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 Year 6-7 class. 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.
I enjoyed teaching this unit and hope you do too.
English Teaching Poetry Unit: Carol Ann Duffy 'War Photographer’
Perfect for teaching the AQA Poetry Anthology ‘Power and Conflict’ cluster, this short unit explores Duffy’s ‘War Photographer’ and develops students’ ability to write analytically using a specific, taught paragraph structure. It is collaborative in nature with lots of opportunities for paired, group and class discussion. It includes a well presented 41 slide teaching PPT as well as all 13 student resources and a set of detailed teacher notes explaining how you could deliver the unit. Outcomes include an analytical PETAL paragraph which can be extended into a longer essay using the structure provided and a comparative essay as an extension activity. Please note that all resources are in both Word and pdf formats with the teaching Powerpoint in PPT and pdf formats.
You might also like:
William Blake’s ‘London’
Seamus Heaney’s ‘Storm on the Island’
Wilfred Owen’s ‘Exposure’
Ted Hughes’ ‘Hawk Roosting’
This short sequence of lessons is designed to help GCSE students revise descriptive writing in the run-up to the GCSE Paper 1 exam. After a reminder of AQA’s exam requirements and revising key literary techniques, they will explore two models of good texts (‘Edgar Sawtelle’ and ‘Mosquito Coast’) and identify successful features before moving to composing their own based on a choice of two tasks and using the box planning method. This is an excellent method to help them plan in the exam itself. It comes with a fully editable PPT and all five resources as well as a set of notes for teachers.
Seamus Heaney’s ‘Death of a Naturalist’
This short unit is designed to introduce and explore Seamus Heaney’s poem as well as develop students’ ability to write analytically using a specific, taught paragraph structure. This unit is collaborative in nature with lots of opportunities for paired, group and class discussion. It includes a very nicely presented 39 slide teaching PPT as well as all 14 student resources and a set of detailed teacher’s notes explaining how you could deliver the unit. Outcomes include an analytical PETAL paragraph which can be extended into a longer essay using the structure provided. Please note that the teaching PPT is fully editable and all resources are in pdf and editable word format.
You might also like:
William Blake’s ‘London’
Seamus Heaney’s ‘Storm on the Island’
Seamus Heaney’s ‘Digging’
Wilfred Owen’s ‘Exposure’
This is a collection of resources for colleagues teaching the AQA Step Up to English course. Both teaching units come with well-presented teaching PPTs and all student resources.
Creative Writing Unit
This highly engaging and enjoyable unit of work is designed to help Step Up to English students prepare for the AQA Component 2 writing section with a particular focus on narrative writing. It supports students in actively exploring and enjoying narrative extracts, looking at models from a range of literature and identifying successful features before moving to composing their own creative responses in the style of the writing assessment.
Grammar and Punctuation Starters
This resource was designed as a series of starters for my Step Up to English group. It focuses on sentences structure and punctuation and provides opportunities for students to apply new skills. It takes a visual approach to teaching simple, compound and complex sentences and provides texts and writing activities which help provide a context rather than the more traditional method of writing out individual sentences. As well as sentence structure, it covers punctuation including use of commas and punctuating direct speech.
I have also added a set of Step Up creative writing tasks and a CPD unit on how to teach creative writing for Entry Level English.
Please check current list of NEAs with AQA and note that information, guidance, support and resources are available from AQA.
More Step Up to English Resources
Complete courses and individual teaching units on all component 1 and 2 topics are available. They include teaching PPTs, all student resources and a set of detailed teacher’s notes and can be found at:
RoseandMay’s TES English Classroom Resources
New individual units:
AQA Step Up to English: Component 1 STYLE Unit
AQA Step Up to English: Component 2 CRIME Unit
New Complete Course
AQA Step Up to English: Complete Course (Leisure, Crime and Style Units)
AQA Step Up to English: Complete Course
This bundle includes everything you need to teach the full AQA Step Up to English course. It contains two practice units (The Next Step and Myths and Legends) plus two component 1 units (Hobbies and Music) plus one component 2 unit (Science Fiction). Each of the three units contains a teaching PPT, all resources in word and pdf formats and a set of detailed teacher’s notes. The bundle also includes four self-study CPD units on how to teach entry level English.
Please check current list of NEAs with AQA and note that information, guidance, support and resources are available from AQA.
More Step Up to English Resources
More complete courses and individual teaching units on all component 1 and 2 topics are available. They include teaching PPTs, all student resources and a set of detailed teacher’s notes and can be found at:
RoseandMay’s TES English Classroom Resources
New individual units:
AQA Step Up to English: Component 1 STYLE Unit
AQA Step Up to English: Component 2 CRIME Unit
You may also like:
AQA Step Up to English: Grammar and Punctuation Starters
AQA Step Up to English: Component 2 Creative Writing Unit
This practice unit of work will familiarize students with the style of assessment questions on the AQA assessment papers. It is designed to prepare pupils for the style of questions on the Gold award but I have also included reference to the Silver award tasks if, like me, you have students who are doing both within the same class. It should last around 4-5 weeks depending on the number of English lessons you have. I have not broken it down into individual lessons as all classes are different and some will need longer on some activities than others. It is designed in a way that classes can build confidence in tackling the Step Up style of questions.
Please check current list of NEAs with AQA and note that information, guidance, support and resources are available from AQA. Please note that ‘Leisure’ is intended solely as a practice unit and this topic is not a current NEA.
