Two powerpoints (both alike in dignity…); the larger of the two covers the deconstruction of an English Language Paper 2 Section A mock exam - we go through common mistakes, areas of concern and identify how to improve on what we’ve done. I’ve provided the sources too, so you could use this as the basis of a Section A walking-talking mock; the smaller powerpoint covers speech writing, an area my lot particularly struggled with. Happy hunting…

One power point per poem and some associated skills. I teach the poems in the order in which they appear in the anthology (except Tissue; I put that one at the end). I follow a pattern with the lessons and source the contextual information from the BBC Bitesize website (and a couple of other places when I get bored of them) - it makes sense as any student that misses out on something can go and find what they need relatively quickly. The material is readily available elsewhere, hence the relatively low price for so many lessons. NOTE: I have upgraded these lessons now. I’ve moved away from endorsing the PEEL style responses - the exam reports indicate clearly this is the thing to do. Additionally, I have included much more of a focus on the POWER themes. Lastly, I have used these poems as a springboard to discuss gender issues - part of this is my attempt to narrow the gender gap at the top end of GCSE English achievement by trying to get the lads to be more engaged with the material. These lessons are designed to work in tandem with my own version of the poetry anthology. At the moment, I have yet to upload the edited version but I shall do so soon. That being said, the power points wouldn’t take much editing to use them with the traditional AQA version. All of the original lessons are included just in case you are still using the PEEL method of building a response.

I've found another use for all that knowledge we have about the old AQA English Lit anthology (The Sunlight on The Grass anthology). I have started to turn them into English Language Paper 1 Section A Mock Exams! This is one of them. There is no mark scheme, but if you use the Paper 1 mark scheme from the AQA website you should be fine. This one uses the start of On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning. I've taken one paragraph out but don't worry, it doesn't take away from the creepiness of the narrative voice.

A series of lessons and resources designed to introduce year 9 students to the wonders of the AQA English Language Exam. In these lessons, I deconstruct the Assessment Objectives in relation to each question on English Language Paper 1 Section A. I use the old Sunlight on the Grass story “Anil” as the source text (strictly speaking, this falls outside of what the exam could focus on, but I figure in using these stories as I have all this knowledge about them that isn’t being used!). 06/06/19: I’ve updated this to include a workbook that mirrors the activities in the powerpoint. Just fed up of dishing out lined paper and/or exercise books that’ll only get used for a few weeks.

A reintroduction lesson that should be taught with the understanding that the students have read the text beforehand. Designed as an entry point into year 13; ideal for new teachers looking to get the measure of a new class (as in my case). I found this lesson particularly useful when combined with FAR marking the material surrounding the quotations. You should view this as a starting point - future lessons will get much more specific.

A bare bones SoW that focuses on introducing the Literature aspect of study at KS3, but assesses the students on a piece of creative writing. The lessons assume you have a copy of the text for students to follow. Look at this as a starting point. Designed with a bottom set in mind.

An introductory unit suitable for Year 7 students - I taught it to top and bottom set (with differentiation) classes. It is designed to get kids using the basic PEE style structure to create a reading assessment-worthy response. I don't include all of the extracts I used - I photocopied straight from the texts in all honesty - but this is more than enough to get going. Hope you find this useful.

A thematic exploration of Violence within Othello - focusing specifically on Act 4. Also, the power point starts with a little revision of characters and quotations from across the play. I found this a fun lesson.

One lesson that focuses on getting the students to use more technical vocabulary. Another lesson that tests their understanding and hits them with an exam question at the end. All material is based upon the AQA terminology guide (not included in this pack).

These resources assume prior knowledge on the part of the students - they will have covered the greater majority of the texts before hand. The lessons go back and fill in the gaps. I try a few different things here in terms of approach. The "Mike and Sophia" extract guide is a guided annotation lesson; I'd be interested to see how classes respond to this.

Lessons designed to engage and interest my year 10s as they step into GCSE-land for the first time. They enjoyed the analysis of the song lyrics a lot. I found that my previous classes found it very hard to engage with the poetry element. These lessons (combined with a couple of others that don't belong to me) worked well.

I've found another use for all that knowledge we have about the old AQA English Lit anthology (The Sunlight on The Grass anthology). I have started to turn them into English Language Paper 1 Section A Mock Exams! This is one of them. There is no mark scheme, but if you use the Paper 1 mark scheme from the AQA website you should be fine. This one uses sections from Compass and Torch - I've stitched together two sections and omitted the bit about the horses (for those who remember) so that the extract focuses only on the relationship between the boy and the man.

There doesn't seem to be much out there for DNA, which is a shame really as it's a great text to study. Attached are ALL of the DNA resources I have created; hopefully this will give you a few different ideas and starting points. This is a mish-mash of resources from three years of teaching this text across two schools. Some organising and sifting-through is needed here.

A complete unit of work including source poems, videos and mp3 versions of poets reading their poems. Differentiated for higher, middle and lower ability classes (each lesson back ground has a slightly different colour for an easy visual guide), this is a unit of work I designed with my Head of Key Stage 3 hat on at my last school - an entire year group was successfully taught this unit. A real success.

I had a lot of fun with this unit of work. The premise is simple: to explore the Shakespearean Sonnet form and to create your own Shakespearean Sonnet. There is a also a focus on spelling too. Included in this pack is a lesson I have also sold elsewhere - just saying!

I wrote these lessons a while ago, but I remember getting some positive responses to the story AND the creative writing tasks. For this, you will need some of those old AQA anthologies (the one that came BEFORE Sunlight on the Grass) - one of the short stories was called "My Shoes". The content, for those who don't remember, is rather more orientated towards KS4 than KS3, but the creative writing that comes from this resonates with the kids I taught at the time. Hopefully you'll find this useful.