Thank you for visiting my shop. My aim is to provide high quality teaching resources that reduce the
need for hours of planning and help learners to achieve their potential in English and English Literature.
Please feel free to email me at sdenglish18@gmail.com with any queries, requests or comments.
Thank you for visiting my shop. My aim is to provide high quality teaching resources that reduce the
need for hours of planning and help learners to achieve their potential in English and English Literature.
Please feel free to email me at sdenglish18@gmail.com with any queries, requests or comments.
An Active Inspire mind map that explores the presentation of women in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’.
UPDATE: this Active Inspire file and the other Jekyll and Hyde mind maps are available as screenshots on PowerPoint and as PDFs. If this is a more convenient software choice for you, please download/purchase this resource/bundle and then email me using the address on my store front. Just click on ‘More about this author’.
A PowerPoint that demonstrates the structure of GCSE Language Paper 2, Section A (AQA 8700/2) and the skills that examiners are looking for.
Source A is an article entitled ‘London’s Pauper Children’ in which Charles Dickens describes his visit to the Norwood Pauper School in the summer of 1850.
Source B is a ‘Guardian’ article about Ian Mikardo School in London’s east end, published in 2014. Link provided on slide.
This PowerPoint covers Section A only but there are sample answers included for each question, 1-4.
If you can obtain a copy of the 8700/2 mark scheme, you may wish to encourage learners to mark the sample responses.
Appropriate for middle-upper ability learners.
A PPT that teaches Owen’s ‘Exposure’. Aimed at middle-upper ability GCSE. There is a dictionary activity to begin with, followed by some contextual background and then an annotated copy of the poem. The PPT concludes with tasks for group work.
A lesson for lower ability KS3. It covers:
A short punctuation starter
Paired discussion: what is the difference between a sentence and a group of words?
What is a subject and a verb? Learners then read and identify ten statements and identify the sentences.
Making simple sentences interesting using adverbs and adjectives. Learners use a table of words to create a range of sentences with suggested structures (increasing difficulty).
Review
Estimated time: 1 hour.
NB: These lessons increase in demand through the series.
A ready-to-go lesson on ‘Remains’ in the P&C Anthology. It is aimed at low ability learners whose primary goal is understanding the poem.
The lesson includes:
A starter that encourages learners to think about PTSD and how they might advise someone who is showing symptoms of PTSD
Feedback slide
What is trauma? What events could be considered traumatic? Discuss in pairs.
Feedback slide with link to YouTube video
A storyboarding activity in which learners read the poem and then label the nine scenes with quotations from the poem. This comes with two additional challenge tasks.
A straightforward comparison table with ‘Poppies’, by Jane Weir, on the subject of internal conflict.
Review.
A free lesson on ‘Poppies’ can be found here:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/poppies-for-lower-ability-12073600
You may wish to undertake this lesson before moving onto ‘Remains’.
A lesson on ‘The Prelude’ for lower ability learners. It includes:
Multiple choice starter based on the Romantic Movement
What is ‘The Prelude’?
Context sheet + tasks
Suggested annotations for lower ability learners
True or false to test understanding
Comparison task with ‘Storm on the Island’
Review
A straightforward lesson on the homophones there, they’re and their. It is part of the lower ability skills series and follows on from this lesson on ending sentence correctly:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/lower-ability-ks3-ending-sentences-12066805
It could stand alone but assumes some knowledge of when to use a full stop.
This lesson includes:
A starter (see cover image) with feedback slide
What is a homophone?
Homophone identification challenge
The differece between there, they’re and their
There, they’re and their worksheet
Learning Review
A lesson aimed at KS4 pupils that focuses mainly on comprehension and inference-making.
The text is a 19th century letter describing entry into the Wolstanton & Burslem Union Workhouse at Chell.
Please feel free to use either as a remote learning task or literacy for students coming into school during this difficult time.
An article-based lesson aimed at KS4 pupils that gives an insight into life before the NHS in England.
Please feel free to use either as a remote learning task or literacy for students coming into school during this difficult time.
These are two comprehension-focused worksheets based on 19th century non-fiction texts.
The first extract is from ‘The Dictionary of Daily Wants’ and gives advice on selecting an appropriate apprenticeship.
The second extract is entitled ‘The Dreadful Life and Confession of a Boy Aged Twelve Years, Who was Condemned to Die at last Old Bailey Sessions’.
Please feel free to use as a remote-learning task or as an activity for those coming into school at this difficult time.
This lesson is aimed at middle-upper ability learners and focuses on broadsheet article writing for AQA English Language 8700/2. The questions is:
“Those who are obese have nobody to blame but themselves.”
Write an article for a broadsheet newspaper in which you explain your point of view on this statement.
The lesson includes:
Do Now Task: learners use their general knowledge to match seven health-related terms to their definitions. Teacher answers provided. Extension task included.
Feedback slide
For the following slides, learners use a designated note-taking sheet to record information on:
Key points about AQA Question 5, Paper 2
What an AQA Paper 2, Question 5 will look like
The basic differences between broadsheets, tabloids and the middle-market dailies
The difference between an article and a news report
Broadsheet readers
Layout features of an article (heading, strapline, lead photo, by-line and date + main body)
Basic language requirements of a broadsheet article
From this point on:
Learners look at the question again and come up with arguments for and against the statement.
Feedback slide
They then consider what makes a good heading, with several made-up examples
What is the strapline? (Example provided)
The internal structure of an article e.g. introduction, main body with PEC (point, evidence and comment) paragraphs, counterargument and conclusion. Learners take notes on a designated sheet
A WAGOLL
The writing task is set for homework (basic planning sheet included)
Review
Initially, I wrote one WAGOLL and it turned out to be too long, so I shortened it! Both are included.
The shortened version has been broken up into sections on PPT slides, which you can print out and use as a carousel and group work activity, if you wish.
An article-based worksheet aimed at KS4 pupils that gives an insight into child labour in the Industrial Revolution.
This could work as a remote learning task for students studying A Christmas Carol at GCSE.
A lesson ‘Storm on the Island’ for lower ability learners. It includes:
Do Now task: learners examine an image of storm in a coastal area, identifying how it represents power and conflict.
Context sheet with corresponding tasks
Quotation hunt
Comparison with Exposure in terms of 1) power and 2) conflict
Review
A lesson on John Agard’s ‘Checking Out Me History’ aimed at lower ability learners. It includes:
Do Now task (shown on cover slide)
Contextual information regarding the historical figures and events referenced in the poem, with corresponding worksheet.
Link to relevant video + the meaning of ‘Eurocentric’
Quotation Hunt + Challenge Task
Imagery in the poem worksheet
Comparison table to complete with ‘My Last Duchess’ in terms of the presentation of the abuse of power.
Review learning with challenge question.
A four-week, fully-resourced unit of work on Roald Dahl’s ‘The Twits’.
There are 12 powerpoints, each intended to last about an hour each. Each lesson is aimed at low ability Year 7 students but could be appropriate to a Year 5-6 group.
It was designed as an end-of-year unit of work to be used by cover staff.
Please note that the novel ‘The Twits’ is not included and will need to be obtained separately.
An extended lesson that follows on from this introduction to speech writing for KS3:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/an-introduction-to-speech-writing-for-ks3-12049010
This lesson can stand alone but assumes some pre-teaching of AFOREST.
A starter tasks invites learners to examine a range of images relating to plastic waste (see cover image).
They then examine a list of keywords and attempt to match them to the correct definition. This is accompanied by a challenge task for more able learners, in which learners attempt to make connections between the keywords. The answers to the definitions tasks are provided.
After this, learners discuss in pairs whether there is a need to ban plastics in the UK. A YouTube video link on the ‘plastic problem’ is also provided but optional.
Learners then read the arguments for and against a plastic ban and transform these onto a summary sheet of six boxes. The aim is for each box to contain one point, one relevant image and one piece of evidence.
They go on to thinking about how they could apply their knowledge of AFOREST to this debate.
There is a sample GCSE question (AQA style) with a WAGOLL for annotation according to 5 success criteria.
Learners then write their own speech in relation to the plastics debate.
The lesson ends with learners peer assessing each other’s work.
The material is aimed at middle-ability KS3 but could be used with KS4 with some tailoring.
An unseen poetry lesson that looks at the lyrics of Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times they are A-Changin’. It includes:
A poetic methods multiple choice quiz with answers
A short bio of Dylan with comprehension tasks
Annotation task
Learning Review
A 46-slide PowerPoint that provides a short course in narrative and descriptive writing for GCSE. It is aimed at middle-ability KS4 and is oriented towards AQA English Language 8700, Paper 1, Question 5.
The PowerPoint covers:
The writing AO’s, unpacked and turned into 7 ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions
The structures of 8700 Papers 1 & 2
The difference between narrative and descriptive writing
Descriptive techniques organised into the acronym MRS VAN SOAPS
Descriptive writing success criteria
Sample descriptive writing tasks (students choose 1 of 2)
A teacher-written response (presented as an extract from a full response)
Peer assessment
Short story structure (Freytag’s Pyramid)
Exploring Freytag’s Pyramid in relation to ‘A Christmas Carol’
Sample narrative writing tasks with planning activity
Narrative writing success criteria
Showing and telling in fiction
4 showing tasks with sample responses
DIRT tasks
Narrative choice: 1st or 3rd person with picture prompt activity
Self-assessment
Final writing tasks (descriptive or narrative)
Peer assessment
Reflection opportunity.
This resource incorporates others that have previously been on sale in my shop, either in their current form or slightly tweaked. If you already have these but wish to purchase this unit of work, please contact me at and we’ll try to work something out.
Resources also sold separately:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/descriptive-writing-techniques-match-up-activity-11749389
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/descriptive-writing-techniques-summary-mat-11747011
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/short-story-planning-flow-chart-11747165
These files were last saved in Office 2016.