I am Head of Humanities and teacher of English, Media, Drama, Geography and History (specialising in Shakespeare and Autism). I've worked for private schools, mainstream and special needs. Currently I tailor my resources to suit mid-ability students but with differentiation allowing teachers to easily adapt to suit higher/lower groups. I make SOWs where the resources are all in one easy to access place, as well as providing learning objectives (even if just overviews) to help with observations.
I am Head of Humanities and teacher of English, Media, Drama, Geography and History (specialising in Shakespeare and Autism). I've worked for private schools, mainstream and special needs. Currently I tailor my resources to suit mid-ability students but with differentiation allowing teachers to easily adapt to suit higher/lower groups. I make SOWs where the resources are all in one easy to access place, as well as providing learning objectives (even if just overviews) to help with observations.
A COMPLETE SCHEME of work on a 350+ slide powerpoint. All resources/worksheets are included and can be printed as single slides from the ppt. Lesson objectives are given (using the Assessment Focuses from the National Curriculum wording, but easily adjusted).
Each lesson includes multiple tasks and chapter by chapter questions that allow students to engage with the text (characters, plot, themes, locations, quotations etc.) whilst also considering non-fiction, context, and a range of language devices.
Originally made for YEAR 8, this is easily adjusted and differentiation is included (see notes for how to use some slides and alternative methods for higher/lower ability). It has been taught to Year 7, Year 8, Year 9 and even at GCSE successfully (both mainstream and Special Needs).
The students really loved this unit and it has achieved ‘outstandings’ from observed lessons several times. I’ve also included a digital copy of the text for ease of printing extracts should you want additional ones not in the ppt. (Plus SEN often benefit from a copy of the text that they can draw on or highlight).
I hope you enjoy teaching it and that the students gain something from this.
Thanks for looking!
:)
This is a Power-Point with over 100 slides on Shakespeare's The Tempest. There are resources and activities included within this. It is aimed at low ability KS3 and was made for special needs groups (Autism, Dyslexia and ADHD, predominantly) but easily differentiated. Whilst a text can be read alongside, this unit focuses on very short extracts to help students understand character and theme - whilst making it as accessible as possible to those who struggle. It is recommended students watch the play initially to help develop their visual understanding and then re-watch clips to support what they read. The activities are included and worksheets can be printed as individual slides. This can easily be adapted to challenge students further - and some suggestions are made in the notes section.
A simple started activity - students learn the basics of Primary and Secondary sources by matching some images to the definition. This was made for low ability, SEN students, so uses visual and simple explanations. It could make a quick fire activity for more able students. Students can draw lines to connect or cut out and paste in their exercise books. As an extension, they can think of other examples. This uses a couple images of Queen Victoria for example purposes.
This scheme of work was originally made for a SEN group but has since been differentiated for KS3 and taught at year 8 and year 9 to a range of abilities. Though it suits lower to mid for some activities, most lessons are easily adaptable to suit a higher ability class - particularly the Jack the Ripper case file section at the end.
It has lessons on the history of Victorian Crime and Punishment, covering topics such as the Queen, the bloody code, Sweeney Todd (truth/fiction), Robert Peel, and the development of new detection methods (such as: finger prints and mugshots). Some a bit creepy or gory, so know your audience!
Finally at the end is a case study of Jack the Ripper, which uses a range of original sources and offers students the chance to deduce who they think Jack was based on several possible suspects. This is themed around Sherlock Holmes for fun.
There are over 200 slides and all worksheets are included.
This has been a popular unit for several years at my school. There are notes on how to apply each worksheet and most slides have explanations. I’ve spent a long time developing this and the vast majority is my own work - I hope you and your students enjoy it!
This makes a good starter activity for low-mid ability but could be a quick recap even for higher ability in KS3. It was originally made for special needs as a starting point for a lesson on punctuation and they worked through it well independently and enjoyed doing the word search.
There are two sheets that shouldn’t take too long to do - enjoy!
This is a step-by-step explanation of how to use apostrophes. I work through it with them putting more examples on the white board and explaining as we go.
My Autistic students found that knowing the historical reason for why possessive apostrophes are used helped them see where to put them. Others found the idea of just adding 's worked best for them.
It helps if they have a good understanding of plurals generally first.
We used this with year 8 all the way through to Sixth Form. Some of our staff even found it useful (we had a few ‘oooh oh I see’ moments!)
Worked well with ours for revising for GCSE exams. Made a good starter for revision but I often use for a whole lesson with lots of examples and practising as a group.
Aimed at KS3 to help them develop annotation skills. The source is differentiated so students can complete annotation labels, write them themselves or cut and paste the labels around the source. There is an additional cloze exercise to be completed (or copied out) to help students learn to make notes and then write up their ideas. Whilst made for SEN (Autism/Dyslexia), this would work well as a starter for other ability levels.
This is an end of unit test on the Stuarts. It could be used as an assessment or as a research task - with students trying to find the answers, perhaps on PCs.
They’d done the Tudors before and then covered the Stuarts by looking at:
Monarchs
Catholicism and Protestantism
Puritans
The Witch Frenzy
Source analysis
The English Civil War
Oliver Cromwell
Plague
Great Fire of London
The assessment is differentiated THREE times. The three sets of questions all include some source questions, some option questions, and some open/closed questions. The questions for each set demonstrate the skills needed for Level 3, 4 and 5 in the History NC.
If students are lower ability, I start them with the first sheet ‘Aiming for Level 3’ - if they complete this they can move onto ‘Aiming for Level 4’. If they are more able they can start with the Level 4 sheet and then do 5, or start with the Level 5. If they finish Level 5 (which has more thought provoking questions so does take longer, I let them go back to the Levels 3 and 4 sheets to recap. Sometimes it works to start all on Level 3 and see how far they can go (builds confidence when they can see they are literally progressing).
Please feel free to edit or move questions based on what you have covered, but there’s a fairly good mix in here.
A lesson (or easily a week’s worth) on National Park conflict issues. This is based around a ‘case study’ looking at a map of a local farming area (which I made-up) to get students to consider the problems created by proposed changes in UK National Parks. Includes maps, questioning tasks, letter writing cloze exercise, word search etc.
All of the worksheets are included in the powerpoint and I’ve added some notes about how I used this. Additional ones could easily be made as needed by editing slides. Initially made for an interview lesson and then adapted for teaching (once I got the post - yay!)
It was made for low ability SEN students in year 9 but I think could be easily adapted (and I’ve used it with year 7 since as well so quite flexible).
I found it took 2-3 lessons with mine to do it nicely.
Thanks for looking :)
This has been one of my favourite schemes of work to teach. It was originally developed for a year 8 group, but has been taught to top set year 7, middle set year 9 and a range of KS3 special educational needs groups.
There is a complete ppt. that can be added to and adapted but includes notes and activities/worksheets (ppt. has nearly 200 slides). There is also a separate PDF with detailed lesson plans (since writing those, I’ve made a few subtle changes on the ppt. but mostly they follow). The poems can be printed into a student anthology booklet (see end of ppt.)
The unit has 12 lessons but I often find I spend longer on some so this can easily be extended, or, with a few poems dropped, shortened. Poems covered include Jabberwocky, The Walrus and the Carpenter, The Hunting of the Snark, and Carroll’s riddles.
Most lessons include a reading focus and a writing task. Some cover non-fiction (from leaflets to CD covers). This could be easily extended to suit your focuses.
Every time I have taught this, students have loved it and really enjoyed the lessons and activities. It has also been used in 3 observed lessons and earned ‘outstanding’ each time! I hope you enjoy it too!
Thank you for looking :)
This can be used for just a class or a whole school! Hide the images of famous actors who have played a Shakespearean character around the school. There are 3 different quizzes that can be used to help students engage with the actors and the plays, from a simple 'Where is each picture hidden?' location quiz to a more thought-provoking quiz on well-known films the actors have been in to engage student interest!
Great for a competition between groups!
Three activities on witch hunting that can easily be extended or developed. A short cloze exercise, a handwriting task (that also allows for students to select pertinent information), and two sources that can be explored - Matthew Hopkins' book and a Salem lithograph produced late in 1892. Notes included.
Some worksheets and activities to help distinguish between Catholics and Protestants following the reformation. It would work for KS3 or GCSE (Elizabethan's unit). There is a cloze exercise, a venn diagram activity, a quiz, a short comprehension task and a word search. This section focuses on the changes at the start of Queen Elizabeth's reign but references the reformation. Some of the activities are differentiated to account for SEN students or those who need challenging. Basic teacher notes included. Everything is in one powerpoint for ease and can be easily added to and adapted. Thanks :)
This is part of a series of lessons I made but one that stands well alone as either a full unit on India, a cover lesson or a dip-n-dive activity. Originally made for SEN students, it is quite straightforward with differentiated sheets and, I’ve found, easily adaptable to most levels. The LO is Level 3 skills, but again easily stretched for 4-5 if needed (and by using harder version of Geographical Features sheet.
Activities include:
A facts cloze task
Locating country/capital
Geographical features (differentiated) - chance to use Atlas/Google Maps
Word Search
Thank you for looking and I hope it works for you :)
Students read the information (sourced from BBC) and answer the questions. Some of the questions involve selecting information from the source. Some of the questions require students to apply their knowledge and consider primary sources. Marked out of 20. Allow 40minutes - 1hr to emanate the exam experience.
I made this for an SEN group. It is effectively the same task differentiated 4 times. Two are ‘access’ or slightly easier, and two versions are slightly more ‘challenging’. This worked well where I had a range of abilities within one group so could give them all the same task and learning aim but a different version of the sheet to stretch/support as needed.
Works well as a starter or recap and would be good for cover lessons as well as an easy go to task.
To extend they could research more about the Kings and Queens, work out how long they were on the throne for and find out about Lady Jane Grey and why her ‘reign’ was so short.
A short scheme of work on Indonesia. Targeted at low ability (SEN) year 7 but easily adapted (with some differentiation worksheet options included and suggestions offered). It could work well for primary students as well as KS3. This covered about 10 lessons and was easily extended by using additional tasks - again, some suggested. The unit explores the basic physical geography of Indonesia and looks at tectonic plates leading to a bit of research on the 2004 tsunami. The created some lovely work from this that resulted in a colourful display. The students also read Running Wild alongside completing this task.
I made this for a SEN sixth form group struggling with poetry. It could be easily adapted and isn’t exactly ‘simple’. They had the chance to research and try writing about the poem (with close textual analysis) as well as completing some activities on structure and form. The activities are included in the powerpoint. Hopefully it will be a good starting point for your own session - enjoy :)