I'm currently the head of English and raising standards leader at a secondary school in Birmingham. I'm passionate about my subject and passionate about ensuring that the young people we serve leave education with a high competency in English.
Prior to teaching I worked in the radio industry as a presenter for 7 years and so when I became a teacher I enjoyed the opportunity to teach Media studies.
You'll find hundreds of English and Media studies resources.
I'm currently the head of English and raising standards leader at a secondary school in Birmingham. I'm passionate about my subject and passionate about ensuring that the young people we serve leave education with a high competency in English.
Prior to teaching I worked in the radio industry as a presenter for 7 years and so when I became a teacher I enjoyed the opportunity to teach Media studies.
You'll find hundreds of English and Media studies resources.
Over 16 lessons that are ideal for KS3/KS2 students to develop grammar skills through creating an autobiography
Topics covered:
- Sentence structure
- Paragraphing
- Tenses
- Word classes
- punctuation
22 fully differentiated lessons (by colour) that enable students to explore a wide variety of poetic forms. Opportunities to create poems of a variety of forms.
These lessons are meticulously planned and are ready to go. Lessons are numbered for ease of use. Assessment opportunities and homework tasks also included.
Poetic forms explored:
- Villanelle
- shape
- ballad
- Elegy
- love poetry
- war poetry
- free verse
- limerick
- haiku
- dramatic monologue
- song and rap
- blank verse
- dialect poetry
- simile poems
- culture poems
Featured poems/poets:
- Carol Ann Duffy
- John Agard - Half Caste
- The Chimney sweep
- This is this six o'clock news
- Alone
- Daffodils
- London
- Declaration of need
- William Blake
- Robert Graves
- Blessing
Resources provide opportunities for students to:
- analyse language, structure and form
- create their own anthology of poetry
- explore context
- explore the relevance of poetry
Differentiation:
purple = low ability
blue = middle ability
yellow = higher ability
red = most able
A higher and lower ability revision guide to allow students to revise Romeo and Juliet.
These would be ideal as ongoing homework projects as students read the play.
Resources to support the teaching of Edgar Allan Poe short stories. (Gothic literature) Lessons are numbered for ease of use.
Short stories resourced:
- Masque of the red death
- The pit and the pendulum
- The tell tale heart
Resources provide opportunities for students to:
- write imaginatively
- analyse language
- develop speaking and listening skills
- explore context - black death
- explore structure
20 full differentiated (by colour) and meticulously planned lessons to support the teaching of reading and writing skills. These lessons are ready to go.
Ideal for transition from KS2 to KS3, for year 6, year 7 or year 8 classes.
Within these lessons students are exposed to a wide range of fiction, non fiction and literary non fiction texts and will use these as a stimulus for creating their own texts.
These lessons allow students to develop skills for accessing the new English language and English literature 9-1 specifications.
Students will explore the following texts/extracts:
- Article on bats
- Extract from the Twits & BFG - Roald Dahl
- Extract from Frankenstein
- Extract from A Christmas Carol
- Extracts from autobiographies
- Extract from Bill Bryson - travel writing (non-fiction literary)
- Extract from Bleak house
- The Lion the witch and the wardrobe
- blogs
- poetry - Sister Maude, Mother any distance
- articles about Friendship
Students will develop the following skills in preparation for accessing new 9-1 GCSE
- Synthesis
- Comparison
- Language. structure, form analysis
- Theme exploration
- Analytical writing
- Imaginative writing - narrative and descriptive
- Transactional writing
Assessment opportunities and homework tasks also included
A wide variety of starter activities and warms to get students engaged and awake.
Included in this wide variety of starters and warm ups are:
- optical illusions
- ice breakers
- Taboo games
- Brain gyms
- homophones
- metaphors and similes
- double negatives
- imperatives
- punctuation practice
- spellings
- inference
- describing games
and many, many more!
Fully differentiated (by colour) resources to support the teaching of poetry on the theme of power to KS3 or GCSE.
The poems make up 8 of the poems that need covering for the AQA 9-1 poetry component. These resources could equally be used for KS3 to prepare students for GCSE poetry if a different exam board is being used for GCSE.
Resources cover context, language, form and structure.
Poems covered:
- Tissue
- Emigree
- Checkin out me history
- London
- Ozymandias
- Extract from the Prelude
- My last Duchess
- Storm on the island
Differentiation:
purple = lower ability
blue = middle ability
yellow = higher ability
Fully differentiated resources (by colour) to support the teaching of war poetry. Poems covered form 7 of the 15 poems that need to be covered for the AQA 9-1 English literature poetry component but can be taught in KS3 if a different exam board is being taught.
The lessons will prepare students for analysing poetry at GCSE if chosen to use at KS3 these would be ideal preparation.
Poems covered:
- Exposure
- Kamikazee
- War photographer
- Bayonet charge
- Poppies
- Charge of the light brigade
- Remains
Differentiation:
purple = lower ability
blue - middle ability
yellow = higher ability
Fully differentiated (by colour) resources to support the teaching of war poetry.
Poetry covered:
- Exposure
- August 6 1945
- The Drum
- O what is that sound?
- Invasion
- Conscientious objector
- Belfast Confetti
Resources explore language, form, structure and context.
Differentiation:
purple = lower ability
blue - middle ability
yellow = higher ability
Differentiated resources to support the teaching of poetry that deals with discrimination.
Poems covered:
- Half Caste - race
- The class game - social class
- Your dad did what
- Hitcher
- Cousin Kate
- Our Sharpeville
- Parade's end
Differentiation:
purple = lower ability
blue = middle ability
yellow = higher ability
Over 31 fully differentiated (by colour) and meticulously planned lessons to support the teaching of The Edge by Allan Gibbons. Lessons are numbered for ease of use.
Differentiation:
purple = lower ability
blue = middle ability
yellow = higher ability
Resources provide opportunities to:
- explore an analyse characters and themes
-explore racism and make links to other literature including John Agard poetry
- explore bullying and create anti bug texts
- explore perspectives
- write agony aunt letters
- explore and analyse the creation of tension
- study news reports and create reports
- study and create police reports
- develop narrative writing
- develop persuasive writing
- explore dramatic irony
Resources to support the teaching of speech writing.
Resources provide opportunities to:
- structure speeches using the 6 part structure
- develop persuasive skills
- write speeches on the theme of the increase in legal driving age
- write speeches on the theme of TV talent shows
Students will study speeches by the following people as a stimulus:
- Winston Churchill
- Elizabeth I
- Earl spencer tribute to Diana
- Barack Obama
- George Bush
- Martin Luther King
- Nelson Mandella
Resources to support the teaching of 'twisted' for lower ability.
Homework project also included.
Differentiation:
purple = lower
blue = middle
yellow = higher
Resources provide opportunities to:
- explore stage directions
- understand and create monologues
- explore characterisation
- develop empathy skills
- explore and create flash backs
- create narratives
- develop speaking and listening skills through role play
- create tableau
- explore the theme of bullying
- analyse anti bullying posters and create own
- write letters to an agony aunt
- performs scenes
18 fully differentiated lessons that use the theme of family holidays to analyse and compare non-fiction texts. (All texts included) Lessons are numbered for ease of use.
Differentiation by colour:
purple = low ability
blue = middle ability
yellow = high ability
These resource re ideal for KS3 or KS4 in preparation for tackling non-fiction texts at GCSE. They are meticulously planned and ready to go. Download and use.
Texts:
- Butlins promotional video
- Practical caravan article
- Information leaflet - Holidays matter
- Extract from PGL - Family adventures
- Guardian online article
- Centerparcs blog
Resources provide opportunities to:
- Analyse language
- Analyse graphological features
- Analyse perspective
- Analyse audience and purpose
- Compare texts
Resources to support the teaching of reading skills. Useful resources for KS2/3 transition.
Lessons are numbered for ease of use.
Students develop the following skills:
- skimming and scanning
- reading for meaning
- note making
- summarising
-making sense of difficult texts
- understanding character, mood and setting
Students explore a range of texts on varying topics including:
- hurricanes
- Christianity
- Harry Potter
- Shakespeare
- Hunger Games
- Animals
A booklet of the texts (and many more) is included which was taken from the national literacy strategy
8 fully differentiated lessons that allow students to plan, prepare and create non fiction texts on the theme of family holidays.
Differentiation by colour:
purple = lower ability
blue = middle ability
yellow = higher ability
Opportunities to:
- develop persuasive writing skills
- research existing family holidays articles, leaflets etc.
Card sorts also included with all planning sheets and assessments provided.
At least 8 lessons worth of resources to support the teaching of creative writing (narrative and descriptive) and take stimulus from the following texts/events:
- Castaway
- The London riots
- The Edge
These resources provide opportunities to:
- Describe using the senses
- watch clips from Castaway and use as a stimulus for own writing
- up level vocabulary
- identify figurative and use in own writing
- develop characterisation
- develop narrative structure
- assess against GCSE criteria
- create tension and suspense
Differentiated resources to support the teaching of chapter 4 of 'Of Mice and Men.'
Differentiation:
purple = lower
blue = middle
yellow = higher
Resources provide opportunities to:
- write to argue (200 word challenge)
- explore context of segregation
- explore the characterisation of Crooks
- Analyse writer's methods
- work as a group and give presentations on contextual information
- read actively