I have shared with you all of my best lessons I have developed over the last 11 years. I'm a Teacher of English with excellent achievement rates making me among the top 2% of the GCSE English team and a consistent strong grade 2 in observations. I have taught a wide range of English qualifications within FE including Functional Skills (English and Maths) and GCSE. I hope you find these resources as useful to your students as I have.
I have shared with you all of my best lessons I have developed over the last 11 years. I'm a Teacher of English with excellent achievement rates making me among the top 2% of the GCSE English team and a consistent strong grade 2 in observations. I have taught a wide range of English qualifications within FE including Functional Skills (English and Maths) and GCSE. I hope you find these resources as useful to your students as I have.
Great bite sized assessment created to recreated question 4 from paper 1 on the AQA GCSE English Language exam. This assessment is based from the short story "Glass, Bricks and Dust". These bite sized assessments are a perfect tool for tracking individuals progress and for gaining a clear picture of which questions a student will have the most difficulty with come exam time. Hope it helps
Independent study resource to help students with identifying and using inference in their answers for paper 1 question 2. This resource uses extracts from The Hunger Games and Harry Potter, it helps students to break down the extract and to examine the language an author has used whilst also supporting students to use a structured answer format (point, quote, infer). Hope it helps
This is a L2 activity based around the idea of a bucket list. This activity has 3 parts to it which include creating a list, researching activity and a writing activity. This activity has been created in order to be flexible with your teaching style and can be used as an extension, homework or form the main part of your session. It can also be amended underpin a specific topic. Please keep in mind that TES previews can distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps
This is a E3 resource for functional English. This activity has 3 parts to it which include creating a list, researching activity and a writing activity. This activity has been created in order to be flexible with your teaching style and can be used as an extension, homework or form the main part of your session. It can also be amended underpin a specific topic. Please keep in mind that TES previews can distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps
This is a short lesson to help students understand inference. I especially find that this lesson is useful with second language learners or lower level learners. This short lesson break down the concept of inference and shows how it can be used in various forms, such as speech, images and in fiction. The final task is to take an image of a wrecked house and “sell” the property in writing as an estate agent would, using language to mislead and infer. This can be used with any exam board and with L2 Functional Skill learners. Hope it helps
This is a very simple break down of how to use speech marks suitable for Functional skills students or lower level students. There are 3 pages worth of examples and tasks with a small vocab builder task. This could work well as a piece of homework / extension activity or as a starter for the higher level students. Hope it helps
This is a simple card matching activity that can be used as a starter to help students with simple spellings by using mnemonics. This is great to use with lower level Functional Skills students or students with dyslexia. Feel free to use in a way which works with your students. Hope it helps
This is short and fun lesson based around the theme of music festivals. The aim of this lesson is to introduce students to the idea of writing to persuade and the mnemonic DAFOREST for writing techniques. Students have activities such as reading for information, writing to persuade and the chance to design their own music festival. TES previews often distorts the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps
This is a simple read and obtain worksheet based around an article talking about celebrity. It is a resource which allows room for development into areas such as bias, inference and debate. It is designed for students who struggle more than most and I found it works well with speakers of second language. Please keep in mind that TES previews can often distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps
This is a L1 activity based around the idea of a bucket list. This activity has 3 parts to it which include creating a list, researching activity and a writing activity. This activity has been created in order to be flexible with your teaching style and can be used as an extension, homework or form the main part of your session. It can also be amended underpin a specific topic. Please keep in mind that TES previews can distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps
Tracking, individual targets and positive / developed and exam driven feedback all seem to be high priority for Ofsted and can be a daunting task to aim to fulfill. It required mass amount of regular , time consuming marking which is difficult to do on top of a full teaching timetable. I have found that by condensing all that down on to one handy sheet helps to make this task more manageable. This feedback sheet is designed to be used with the AQA exam board but can be used and altered in a way to suit you and / or the exam board you are using . I use this sheet once a term and stick it in the students folders so they have a regular feedback on their progress. It has gone down very well with management and Ofsted inspectors.
The feedback sheet includes:
Where they started - initial assessment scores - to show distance traveled.
Where they aim to be - exam target
Score for each question on the exam, including SPAG - I personally do 1 - 2 questions per term to show regular progress and tracking throughout the course.
Space for written feedback and space for student feedback - to show student input into their own learning.
Space for written feedback on overall behaviour and attendance per term.
overall mock paper scores.
I have found that by making all these areas fit on one sheet very useful in managing my time and feedback but also for the students to know they are on a journey and to have ownership of their learning.
Be advised the TES previews do often distort the look of resources and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.
This booklet is full of motivational, inspirational and confidence building quotes. I like to have this booklet in my classroom for students to look at, or use its in my classroom displays. This can be used either way depending on your needs. Hope it helps
Great support/guidance booklet for those students who struggle with the PEE / PEA /PQI and structure. Many students particularly struggle with the explain / inference section of this structure. This fun booklet comes with word banks and starter sentences for those who find this structure a challenge. It also comes with examples of high level answers and developed PEE /PEA/PQI answers to stretch and challenge more able students. Great handout to give to students or have casually on their desks to allow them to freely access whenever they need to, promoting independence in their own learning. Feel free to use in which ever works best for you and your learners.
This is a simple activity which can be used to encourage students to proofread. It can be used with students of all levels, GCSE or Functional Skills, as it can be used as a starter, plenary, homework or as an extension activity. Please be advised that TES previews can often distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps
This is a simple A4 sheet which shows a break down of each question of the AQA exam (both papers). Students can keep in a folder or fold up and keep in their pockets and use for revision. It is very useful as it reminds student of the main elements of each question, times, marks and skills the question is testing and how they need to structure their answers. This helps students to gain in confidence, promotes independent learning and active revision. Hope it helps.
I support at risk student with 1 hour support sessions in GCSE English, my materials are simplified and designed to be used in a 1-2-1 capacity. These materials are easily adaptable to suit your own cohort and timetable.
This resource is a small section of text taken from the Hunger Games book and I have structured questions which reflect those found on paper 1, questions 2, 3 and 4. This is a quick and easy revision tool, can be used as homework or self study or in support sessions. Hope it helps
I have created a series of writing prompts for learners of L2 functional English in response to limited past papers / mocks. I teach in an areas where learners are offered multiple resits and so need a wide range of practice materials. Tasks range from full 35 min writing tasks to starters where the learner is asked to write only the opening paragraphs. Types of question covers persuasive letter writing, formal and informal writing, report writing, online forums, letters of complaint and articles.
Please keep in mind that the TES preview often distorts the look of the materials and is not always a true reflection. I hope it helps.
This resource is designed for revision workshops and focuses on structural features to be used for question 3 of the AQA GCSE English exam, however it can be altered to suit an alternative exam board. As the exam draws closer I find spending a half hour at the end of each session as a “quickie workshop” very useful and have developed these short, sharp revision activities. To teach structural features I use the mnemonic “ROW OF CLONES” ( available in the powerpoint) to help with some of the more common structural features used. This quickie workshop uses an extract from Chocolat in order to practice identifying structural features, this can be a individual or group activity depending on the needs of your class. It can also be used as homework. Please note that TES previews distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.
I like to encourage reading in my classes, and one of the ways I like to do that is with a visual display of books which became blockbuster movies to help grab students attention. This resource is my collection of visuals that I use in different ways to create these displays. It includes 14 different movies which includes a range of diversity and genres, contains images of the book and movie cover with still from the movie itself. You can print these, play with the sizes, layouts and be creative as you feel to suit your learning environment, I like to laminate to provide a glossy look and drape a red cloth over the boards in my classroom to create a old school cinema / theater curtain to create some drama.
Images include:
Eat Prey Love
War Horse
Divergent
The Hobbit
Memoirs of a Geisha
Atonement
The Colour Purple
The Help
Brighton Rock
Feel free to play with and tinker with this resource, these are just image templates to help you get going and create amazing in class displays of your own. Be advised that the TES preview does not always truly reflect the resource. Hope it helps
The text for this resource is based around healthy eating, looking at the pros and cons of eating chicken. This paper is based on the questions you would find in the edexcel reading paper and designed as a starter/taster, rather than a mock, to help support less able students achieve.
This resource can be altered to suit your cohort, please keep in mind that the TES preview sometimes distorts the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps