This study guide is a complete unit made up of ten pages of varied activities. It is a practical resource for educators who want self-explanatory, stimulating analysis and well targeted questions presented in a visually interesting handout. For the teacher with a classroom with a variety of reading and writing aptitudes, this study guide takes the student through the plot, characters and ideas of “A Christmas Carol” so that they can progress at their own pace. The handout is intended for approximately two to three weeks work. It is made up of 1 Background context to Dickensian England 2. Dicken’s purpose in writing / the process he followed in composition 3. Activities and close analysis of the plot and characters of each stave 4. Vocabulary and spelling tests throughout 5. Close reading comprehension testing at varying levels 6. Grammatical exercises using the text Those who have taught “A Christmas Carol” are well aware that engaging students can be a challenge - the story is so well known yet the original text requires application. For learning purposes, this guide gives step by step instruction in reading for meaning, enabling students to grasp Dickens’ plotting, comprehending characters, and appreciating the Victorian era style. This handout provides the necessary background to give students the social context, class issues, and the concept of mass poverty and its implications. Using a chronological stave-by-stave analysis with detailed comprehension, the study guide provides plenty of back up explanation in vocabulary and terminology, and practice in identifying word meanings and applications for usage.

This is a practical study guide for Roald Dahl’s “Boy.” It is an 8 page handout* that will guide students through the plot, characters and themes of the autobiography, and is presented in a visually appealing way to make the analysis enjoyable, while building vocabulary (significant words and their meanings are provided), challenging deeper reading of the text and creative exercises. The emphasis in this resource is a practical comprehension and vocabulary unit that is self-working for students who read ahead, and is able to be immediately used without teacher explanation because of direct, clear activities. The activities are comprehension questions for each chapter vocabulary and meaning for each chapter grammatical exercises to identify parts of speech creative questions to develop the ideas in the memoir the pages are numbered - a pet issue with me to avoid time wasting “where are we?” questions and immediate “go to” in giving class instructions

THE POETRY OF WAR - COMPLETE UNIT In Depth Power Point (one lesson)- overview of the evolution of attitudes and representations in war poetry, from the Victorian patriotic versifiers to the oppositional school of World War One, and up to the the poetry of the nuclear age and the anti-war poems of the Vietnam War era. Focus is on the values and assumptions of the different time periods, and how poetry reflects the time in which it is written. The presentation is composed of fifty slides, introducing the key poetic terms, ideological disposition of each generation, the landmark poets and their achievements, and how poets can be social legislators, not just reflecting their times but influencing them. STUDENT STUDY GUIDE (completely self contained unit of work - approximately 3 weeks - 18 strongly illustrated pages of activities, with comprehension activities for each poem, exemplar essays on two of the poems, a practice essay rubric providing a paragraph by paragraph structured response, and discussion stimulus pages. Poems covered - “The Charge of the Light Brigade” - Tennyson “The Soldier” - Rupert Brooke “The Rear Guard” - Siegfried Sassoon “Dulce Et Decorum Est” / “Exposure” - Wilfred Owen “The Grave”* - Don McLean “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda”* - Eric Bogle “Men in Green” - David Campbell “Your Attention Please” - Peter Porter “I Feel Like I’n Fixin’ To Die Rag”* - Joe Macdonald Items marked with an asterisk are verses that have been used as song lyrics - students will further engage with the material if the easy-to-find Youtube clips of these being performed are used as part of the instruction. For those wishing to go beyond a reading study of the handout text, the items set to music will enhance enjoyment and the visual presentation in the clips will give contextual clues so that students can connect the poetry to social information.

As a weekly projected screen image to greet the week as the students enter class, or as a study resource to examine the language of inspiration and uplifting aphorism, this 56 slide power point is aimed to engage students with proverbs centered on themes like persistence, life long learning, planning and tolerance. The quotes are accompanied with visually arresting art, photography and animation, and are good discussion starters for talking about ethics, responsibility and the individual’s relationship to society. The level of language is aimed at secondary students in middle and senior school. I personally find that it is particularly effective in humanities, philosophy and legal studies classes, and have used some of the visuals for creative writing stimulus, in which the students respond to the moral and ethical point of the proverb with a narrative or personal reflection that reflects the idea. As a long term debating coach, I have used the material for end - of - week classroom debates, with the students contesting the ethical / logical implications of the nominated proverb.

This is a middle school creative writing lesson and (practice / homework?) assessment task. The power point and student diagrammatic handout gives an outline of main techniques in creative writing. The exemplar and comprehension task provides a rich example of descriptive writing and the questions tied to targeted concepts which are themselves explained (Justify, Explain etc). The assessment task provides for a range of student abilities, with an outline of suggestions about what to write about in the descriptive passage. The criteria for the writing task is explained in simple language to provide student feedback.

Fifteen Power Points, each containing nine letters in cells, the objective being to make words from the nine letters. The quiz is effective as a lesson starter, and can be incorporated into language skills lessons to vary the class routine of doing whole lessons from the textbook. Each power point contains up to fifty answers, alphabetically listed, covering the words that can be constructed from each of the letter sets. Rules of the Quiz Students can’t form words by doubling up and using a single letter twice Each time a word is made all nine letters can be used again for constructing the next word All words must be English language - no nic-names or abbreviations Useful to set a time limit of 3 to 5 minutes. Differentiated learning possibilities include Encouraging strong students to be competitive in demonstrating vocabulary and word construction skills, achieving over the average score (provided on each power point) for each quiz Goal setting for less able students - set an objective within their reach for the number of words they can find (usually a dozen) and also encourage them to beat their previous score from the last quiz if used on a regular basis Vocabulary enhancement for all students - new words can be entered into vocabulary list (each of the 15 activities have some challenging words that will represent new vocab for most students)

Handout sheet for discussion and analysis on Oscar Wilde's chief character quotes in "The Picture of Dorian Gray." Useful for analysing Wilde's witty inversion of the superficial and the profound, and the tragic perspective of the character's doomed efforts to retain that which is impossible - the lustre of youth and the invincible appeal of physical beauty.

Here is a resource parcel for your senior students aimed at giving them extensive practical help in responding in essay form to the characters and themes of Arthur miller's THE CRUCIBLE. It consists of six items which can be used together as culmination of a unit on the play prior to students writing their own analytical response. This is practical material aimed at enabling your students to practice their writing skills using stimulating exemplars and scaffolded handouts with construction guidelines and content prompts. 1. A closely annotated exemplar of a top standard formal essay on the themes of THE CRUCIBLE, with explanatory pointers on structure, content and wording 2. A powerpoint containing do's and don'ts when students write their essay - it contains specific parts of THE CRUCIBLE to make the points 3.Four scaffolded practice essay handouts - two on characters and two on themes. These are colour coded to guide construction, and have prompt points to assist in the content

Suited to Years 10 to 12, this four page activities handout examines specific advertising that is sexist and features representations based on stereotyping and narrow gender roles. It contains 1. exemplar analyses of print advertisements displaying gender bias 2. student responses to common gender stereotypes 3. guidance on paragraph writing 4. exercises in paragraph responses to sexist advertisements

Punctuation and Spelling Powerpoints - with answers * Homophones * Antonyms * Spelling tests * Direct and Indirect Speech

Four items to use with the film JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS 1. Assessment task with exemplar film review 2.Comprehension handout 3. Crossword handout 4. Word search handout

Three part resource analyzing the distinctive elements of Australian humor. The focus is on the comedic techniques of satire and parody, using the hit television series, “Kath and Kim,” as the focus. The powerpoint is a colorful animated presentation covering (i) the premise (ii) analysis of characters (iii) conflicts and relationships as a source of comedy and social comment (iv) the satire as a slice-of-suburban life /mockumentary sending up ignorant consumerism, cultural insensitivity and small mindedness. (v) the main comedic techniques with examples from the dialogue and plotting (vi) use of idiomatic language The handout presents a character summary of the powerpoint findings, and uses the episode OLD as a case study to examine the elements of the humour. The third item is an annotated exempar of an analystical essay about the episode OLD, discussing characterization, dialogue and themes in the satire. It explains the social targets and the cultural assumptions.

Powerpoint covering 1. What distinctive elements make up the distinctive Australian sense of humour - irreverence / class difference / city and country perspectives 2. Case Study - Classic Australian cartoon (“Stop Laughing this is serious!”) 3. Case Study - The Bush Comic (George Wallace) 4. Political correctness and Australian humour The material can be used in whole or part as the basis of a single lesson. There are lots of opportunities for direct note taking practice, class discussion and debate over whether there really is an Australian style of humour, and whether political correctness has eroded its distinctiveness

For English and historyteachers and values educators, this power point resource is a pre-timed examination of how we perceive the world, containing stills, animation and challenges for the class to respond to. It is approximately four minutes in length, featuring some of history's best examples of visual illusions, and examines how we see the world in ways that can be inaccurate and distorted. The final slides cover stereotyping and false judgements. The presentation will be useful as a stimulus / starter, getting students to consider how perception and reality are not always the same. Useful for literature studies on racial attitudes, discrimination based on perceived difference and flawed thinking leading to injustice. For example - "To Kill A Mockingbird," "1984," "Brave New World," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" Useful for values classes in social studies, philosophy and ethics classes.

This is a power point presentation intended to create a reflective response from studetns. It can be used for history teaching, although I find it works effectively as part of English teaching of war poetry and war fiction. Of course, if the class is doing John Hersey's Hiroshima, it fits perfectly.

Here are two handout items on the anti-war poem / song lyric AND THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA by Eric Bogle. The first contain the text of the poem / lyric which use has shown works best by playing the video version from Youtube to being to life this immensely powerful and moving lyric. There are a series of comprehension questions which can be used for formal assessment or group discussion. The letter writing task contains an example of a letter to the editor about the thematic relevance and literary qualities of the poem. The student is then provided with a question task of their own to complete on a war poem of their choice.

This is a student handout providing an annotated exemplar of an analytical essay on The Soldier by Rupert Brook (sorry but this site will not allow publication of his proper spelling). On the same page is a set of guidelines for the student to then respond to Wilfred Owen's It Is Sweet and Honourable Et Decorum Est.

This ten page study guide covers all the elements of plot characters and themes in the play. It is envisaged as all the teacher will need for a two to three week unit. The activities invite close reading and reflect on social conscience issues, and are presented in a visually stimulating setting with the emphasis on depth of comprehension of plot, characters and themes. There is an analytical essay provided as an exemplar which summarises the work covered on character relationships and the theme of social responsibility.

A four page handout on the original film, containing close exercise on the plot, comparing and contrasting John Hammond and Victor Frankenstein, and an enquiry of central quotes, who said them and their significance.

This is a unit that would cover approximately four to five weeks, involving reading the S E Hinton novel, viewing the film, and completing the study guide questions on plot, characters, theme. There are a number of practice tests that would take a lesson each, in which students practice the core skills of justifying, comparing, contrasting and drawing their own conclusions. An oral assessment task is also included, with an exemplar (annotated) of a student script.