I had a lot of fun with a bottom set, boy heavy year 9 group with this. They took to the story well and did OK with their reading assessment. Enjoy and let me know how it goes.

Three quick and easy tasks with supporting images. Ideal for quick and easy filler lesson, or as building into a larger scheme.

To make effective use of this scheme I suggest you have a copy of the most recent RSC version of As You Like It (It is quite marvelous…) else a lot of the images I use will make little sense. There are five “lessons” that each last around the two hour mark. Each of the assessments is available, so the whole package is a self-contained unit of work. We had a lot of fun with this unit, and I inter-spaced the learning with periods where the class would act out elements of the play. You don’t necessarily need a copy of the play to teach this unit either.

SPAG lessons can get a little flat at times. These are the worksheets I’ve designed to use with my own SPAG group. It is designed to be taught in tandem with a Dystopian Fiction SoW that ends with a reading assessment. Specifically, these lessons focus on an extract taken from Michael Grant’s “Gone” - all extracts taken from the first chapter. The aim is to develop an increased understanding of each text through the asking of more and more complex questions. The tasks can be sat as part of a lesson (I reckon they’ll take most groups between 10-30 minutes depending on the groups setting), or make ideal homework and/or extension tasks. At the moment, the resources are set up to be taught to lower set year 7 students. But, it won’t be too hard to change the tasks to more suitable ones for any set. UPDATE: I’ve included some versions that are more suited to be printed out. They have some basic RAG feedback grids on the back with some generic targets.

A lesson take from a collaborative scheme of work. The lesson focuses on the quite excellent Born A Crime by Trevor Noah. The focus is developing an initial understanding of South Africa, then Trevor Noah himself, before focusing in on the context surrounding the story itself. After, the focus switches to analysing the structural choices made in the extract. Additionally, I’ve included a useful little follow up lesson where the focus ins to build a piece of creative writing that follows a specific structural path.

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 opening of My Polish Teacher's Tie.

A summer spent playing word games with my kids lead me to this idea. The idea is that the students are supplied with a grid of letters. They use these letters to build words which cause damage to a cartoon monster. The bigger the word, the more damage done to the monster. I’ve made it more and more difficult as the monsters develop - you have to use certain letter types for example. I plan to give each child one grid per week to complete and have their peers mark it. So you are completely aware, I have left all of the grids blank apart from on a few. You will need to fill these in yourself. Also, I have left the challenge component blank too. This will allow you to create challenges that reflect the specific types of spellings you are looking at - double damage awarded for homophones for example. There’s massive scope for differentiation in here too. I’ve included a whole class version of the spelling levels, as well as a photocopy friendly version too. I have long believed that making school a little more like computer games can be helpful - this is my first attempt at exploring Gamer Theory as I have dubbed it. Watch this space for more. Have to figure out how to do something similar with the other components of SPAG and Reading now… ADDITION: I’ve included some completed versions of the pack to give you an idea of what they could look like. Pay attention to the NOTES section of the power points too. These grids have been designed to be used in tandem with the Escape From Kraznir scheme of work. ADDITION: I’ve also added a new powerpoint that works as a whole class exercise. You don’t need the sheets, just paper and the will to go on…

I used a similar approach with the Paris Anthology section and my class found it to be very useful. The issue they were having focused on incorporating enough AO1 terminology appropriately. This lesson is designed to talk them through an approach to an essay question, starting with the poetic voice, moving on to selecting relevant areas and then placing each level of language as a different starting point before exploring ideas across the language levels. It seemed to work… Hope others find this useful as a starting point.

My third lesson. This is designed to be a lesson where I as the teacher give less and the students give more of their own ideas - the group is reluctant to communicate. As a result, it is less "idea heavy" and far more task focused - you'll get a lot of markable material out of this.

A series of lessons that can easily be expanded out to around 12-13 lessons that do the following: Establish an understanding of the plot over 4 lessons Gets the students to act out the plot via story whooshes (you will need a summary of the play to do this - I use a copy of the play with summaries of each page and get the kids to read certain key parts of the dialogue out loud) Explore language and structure as methods Build on the ability to analyse extracts Develop a contextual understanding Rather pleased with these to be honest. Hopefully you guys will feel the same too. PS - I've chucked in a load more stuff too. Extract Analysis 3 was a lesson where I received "GOOD" for my observation. There is also a Creative Writing Lesson that may prove useful too.

A resource dump for my first attempt at preparing a middle set year 9 class for the rigours of the new GCSE - some success, but the class dynamic was more of a problem than the lesson resources themselves. Some editing may be required, but if you are wondering about how to approach the Section B parts of the exams, this covers a lot of bases.

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…

PREMISE: You are going to enter the Castle of Terror to save Santa Clause. He has been kidnapped by the evil Necromancer, Alan. His devilish plan is to suck the Xmas spirit out of Santa, and use it to power his horde of undead. He has banded together with the Orcs and Goblins of the nearby Dark Forest. They will protect him whilst he finishes his experiments. You must hurry. The fate of Christmas rests with you… A mission pack that builds on the free D6 Dungeons and Dragons lesson I created. Print this off (delete the first slide though) for students, or set it up as a power point for the Dungeon Master. All the kids I tried it with loved it. Some of the quotes: "Voldemorts stolen my nose! Give me back my Magic Dagger!" "You are the worst re-animated corpse EVER!" "I use my Staff of Uncertainty to turn you into a Gibbon." A seriously creative lesson. Enjoy. PS - I've also added the initial lesson (Lesson 1) as a starting point for the kids - gets a bit complicated otherwise.

Dyslexic friendly resource aimed at EBD children. An initial foray into the problems occurring in Northern Ireland.

I pulled together a lot of thinking from a lot of different websites and have shaped it into these lessons. Not all of the content is mine.

I teach a very low ability year 7 group and they are missing a large amount of spelling and comprehension knowledge of the simplest words. These work sheets are designed to be printed out back to back, taken home and completed. They will allow you to identify which of your students is able to accurately spell and use these first 100 words. VERY useful for EAL students.