Litteratura - quality resources for busy English teachers
I am a secondary high school English teacher, passionate about helping teachers improve their students’ engagement with literature. I’m all about teaching challenging ideas through detailed scaffolding.
If you have any questions or requests, I’d love to hear from you!
I am a secondary high school English teacher, passionate about helping teachers improve their students’ engagement with literature. I’m all about teaching challenging ideas through detailed scaffolding.
If you have any questions or requests, I’d love to hear from you!
A poster making activity focusing on the key symbols within the play. This activity is used as a jigsaw tool, to help students think critically and teach one another about the symbolism within the play in a non-threatening way. A great Friday afternoon lesson!!
These posters can be used to initiate class discussions, revision, essay ideas, paragraph writing or just as classroom decoration.
This is a “choose your own adventure” type lesson where students are able to select the type of activities they would like to complete, all based on the Stephenson’s novella “The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde”.
Teachers can choose to set a minimum number of activities or simply allocate 1 compulsory and 1 self-chosen activity per person. Alternatively, these mini activities can be used individually as opening or closing tasks.
There are 8 activities in total and each activity focuses on either: listening, reading, writing or speaking skills. This allows students to choose what they feel most confident in OR choose the skill they need to work on most.
All of these work in both in the real and REMOTE classrooms as well!!
Freshen up your classroom in the back to school season today with these ready to print posters!
Each poster includes a quote from the play with the act/scene/line number, character that speaks the line, the relevant theme and a simple symbol to trigger memory. They are also color coded according to the theme and all posters come in a high quality A2 image which can be reduced to A4.
These Macbeth quote classroom posters are perfect for those who want revision or to help their students memorise quotes.
These posters can be used to initiate class discussions, revision, essay ideas, paragraph writing or just as classroom decoration.
I personally have been looking for posters that:
Reflect the key themes of the quotes and play
Aren’t too chaotic and are easy to read
Are consistent with my personal, minimalistic style.
I couldn’t really find any, so I decided to make my own and why not share them?
Offered as a PDF for Print.
Quotes in this pack:
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand?
Act 2, scene 2, lines 55–56
Out, damned spot; out, I say.
Act 5, scene 1, lines 30–34
O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
Act 3, scene 2, line 37
Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t
Act 1, scene 5, lines 63-64–34
There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.
Act 1, Scene 4 line 11-12
Out, out, brief candle.
Act 5, scene 5, line 22
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more.
Act 5, scene 5, lines 23–25
Are you trying to get your students to think and write critically about the novel, instead of simply writing out summaries of the text?
This lesson might just be what you are looking for!!
In my class, I prioritise analysis, textual integrity and the composer’s purpose and I’ve spent HOURS carefully backward mapping the ideal essay, so you don’t have to!!!
Jasper Jones is a wonderful but lengthy text for some of our students so I’ve hand picked specific extracts to help them (and you) get the most value out of our tight 9~10 week terms.
These resources take the class through the key theme of public Vs private identities throughout the novel, Jasper Jones. We go through how elements of form, genre and the author’s purpose affect the characterisation of characters within the text.
This is a PPT and worksheet combo!!
Structurally, the slides are shaped by Bloom’s Taxonomy and build students’ understanding until they are able to develop their own ideas.
The slides include warm up activites, sample quotes and sample analysis among other tools.
The PPT contents are as follows:
A discussion around the idea itself.
The impact of setting
Links to genre
Key quotes and language devices
Strategies and breakdowns of how to analyse quotes.
The author’s purpose.
The Worksheet is a scaffolded table with the key extracts already included for you!
You are getting 25 slides and 5 pages on Word. All completely editable. This took my mixed to lower ability class about 3 x 1 hour lessons to get through, but it really depends on your class’ capacity.
This teaching pack / study guide will take your students through a critical study of Aboriginal texts/ Indigenous Australian literature.
Implicit bias
Kevin Gilbert’s ‘People Are Legends’
Paul Keating’s ‘Redfern Address’
Deborah Mailman and Wesley Enoch’s ‘Seven Stages of Grieving’: Invasion Poem and Murri Gets a Dress
If you are trying to engage your students to develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding of Aboriginal Australia, this is the bundle for you. These lessons form a part of a unit on Indigenous literature. This unit was designed to help students learn empathy through the stories and lives of others, whilst deconstructing texts to learn how language shapes the delivery of the message.
You can expect:
Helpful guiding questions
Video links
Discussion questions
Comprehension
Helpful notes on context and form
Mini writing tasks
A Seven Stages of Grieving MATRIX Task/Choose your own adventure utilising all modes. This is a self-running task, perfect for sick days and substitute teachers.
Links to secondary sources to help supplement your/your students’ knowledge.
With a total of 52 slides across the 4 sections, this took my class a total of 7 x 1 hour classes. However, since they were a lower ability Year 10 class, I adjusted the amount of time this resource would be expected to take and chose to be conservative.
How long you spend on each text really depends on the class teacher and how much discussion they would like to generate.
This is a vocabulary worksheet is a totally FREE resource to help either frontload or revise sophisticated language for your students’ critical analysis of Macbeth.
Are you sick of your students writing super simple essays?
Or are they just trying to plug in random words from the thesaurus?
Are you trying to get your students to think and write from the text as a PLAY, honour the dramatic form?
If so, let me save you some time and potential frustration. Lift the sophistication of your students’ essays through this very simple but effective document! This can be used in class or as homework!
What’s included in this worksheet:
A definition activity concerned with…
Key concepts with example sentences relevant to Macbeth
Key elements of the Aristotelian Tragic Form
Dramatic devices
Analytical language to help elevate the sophistication of students’ essays!
FOR MORE QUALITY MACBETH RESOURCES, SEE HERE:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12844947
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12844946
FIVE FILES INCLUDED
If you have a low to mixed ability Year 9~10 class like me that you need to pull an academic essay out of, then this is the resource for you!
Don’t be fooled, this heavily scaffolded resource was created for my lower ability class and is incredibly easy to follow, but the content is highly academic and may even be appropriate for selective school level students!!!
Alternatively, use this as revision or as a homework task to supplement your classwork!!
This resource is a PPT and worksheet combo bundle!!
What’s included:
Part One: A deep dive into Macbeth’s tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow speech.
We go through the key idea of nihilism, and the students are given guiding questions to deconstruct the language of one of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches!
This worksheet includes:
Extra readings to help guide student understanding.
Guiding comprehension questions
A supported analysis table at the end.
This worksheet comes in TWO VERSIONS for differentiation purposes.
**Part Two: A deconstruction of Macbeth’s final moments
**
**We discuss how he is eulogised by the end of the play and how this contrasts with our “brave and noble Macbeth” from Act 1.
We start with a dramatic reading activity to engage our kinaesthetic and active learners. We then switch to a very straight forward deconstruction worksheet.**
The students are prompted and guided with the teacher led PPT as well :)
This Act 5 bundle took my mixed ability class a total of 6 class hours to complete, but pacing may differ according to your school context.
***For a Lady Macbeth worksheet, see here:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12844946 ***
Are you trying to get your students to think and write critically about the novel, instead of simply writing out summaries of the text?
This lesson might just be what you are looking for!!
In my class, I prioritise analysis, textual integrity and the composer’s purpose and I’ve spent HOURS carefully backward mapping the ideal essay, so you don’t have to!!!
Jasper Jones is a wonderful but lengthy text for some of our students so I’ve hand picked specific extracts to help them (and you) get the most value out of our tight 9~10 week terms.
This is a PPT and worksheet combo and they have been designed to work in conjunction with one another, discussing the key theme of racism and prejudice in the novel, Jasper Jones.
We cover the contextual issues that Silvey was addressing and how his choice of narrative voice and form shape the communicating of these ideas.
Structurally, the slides are shaped by Bloom’s Taxonomy and build students’ understanding until they are able to independently write a paragraph.
Included are 19 informative slides and a full sample paragraph at the end of the lecture.
The contents of this PowerPoint are as follows:
links to context
Links to genre
An opening brainstorm to engage prior knowledge
Key excerpts for analysis
A writing task
Sample ideas
Sample paragraph
You are getting 18 slides on PPT and 7 pages on Word.
This took my lower ability Year 10 class 6x 1 hour lessons to get through.
However, these are very flexible resoures and can be used across a spectrum of learners.
Do you have an extremely mixed ability Stage 5 class?
I definitely did.
This resource is three different versions of a Lady Macbeth deconstruction worksheet, catering three different levels of student ability. The aim is to have students analyse Lady Macbeth’s characterisation at one of the most critical moments of her character arc.
The problem: Macbeth is a complex play, and trying to digest it in its entirey can be cognitive overload for some of our students.
The solution: I’ve gone through and hand picked just a few extracts that help illuminate the point in which Lady Macbeth begins to spiral. Not in entire Acts or even scenes but just a few passages.
Then, I’ve written some guiding questions to help our students deconstruct the quotes in question. The guiding questions vary in level and the higher ability students will be able to contemplate the intersection between context and the text. All levels accumulate to a writing task at the end.
What’s Included:
Three different versions of worksheets that cover:
1). Guided annotations
2). Short answer questions that uses the annotations
3). Consolidating analytical paragraph questions.
Personally, I put students into groups to complete this task so that students could help one another and share ideas. However, depending on your class’ ability this can be completed individually also.
Saved as a Word document for editing and printing ease.
If you’re trying to get your lower to mixed ability students to think more critically about the author’s purpose and intentions, this is the resource for you!
This is a PPT that was originally designed for the remote learning space and is therefore incredibly easy to navigate. Though simple to execute, it is packed with insightful points to consider and plenty of teacher notes to help you along the way too!
These slides track through:
Bildungsroman and the Southern Gothic genre - examples from the text and the significance of this in Silvey’s writing style.
the structure of the novel, plot and its significance
The reason behind the child narrator/narrative voice.
A sample paragraph
There are small tasks throughout the presentation to help consolidate students’ knowledge.
Please note, these slides took my lower to mixed ability class 3 x 1hour lessons to complete, but pacing will depend on your class’ ability.
This teaching pack / study guide will take your students through a critical study of Aboriginal texts/ Indigenous Australian literature.
Jack Davis, Stan Grant, Blackfella films.
Poetry, speech, film and media.
Do you want your students to engage more intimately with Australian history and the Indigenous experience?
If you are trying to engage your students to develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding of Aboriginal Australia, this is the bundle for you. These lessons form a part of a unit on Indigenous literature. This unit was designed to help students learn empathy through the stories and lives of others, whilst deconstructing texts to learn how language shapes the delivery of the message.
With a total of 57 slides, this bundle took my lower to mixed ability Year 10 class approximately 6-7 weeks.
***Jack Davis Resource:
*
This is a poetry study with a heavy emphasis on historical context and poetic devices.
You can expect:
Prediction activities
Context (personal, historical, socio-political)
Language analysis: Scaffolded guidance, language techniques and key questions included.
Video links
Discussion questions
Information about Indigenous culture that is RELEVANT for each poem (I’ve been very selective about what to include here due to the time constraints of school contact hours)
Writing tasks (with prompts)
This presentation helps take the class through FOUR of Jack Davis’ most famous poems:
The First Born
Dispossession
The Black Tracker
The Mining Company’s Hymn
***Stan Grant Resource:
*
This lesson was designed to have students think critically about persuasive devices and how persuasive techniques can be used to help push the betterment of society.
*
What you can expect from the resource:
11 Slides of resources - this took my lower to mixed ability year 10 class approximately 2 hours to complete.
Step by step guidance on literary anaysis
An exit card activity
A homework task.
Redfern Now! Resource:
This is a film study, designed to have students academically engage with the contents of Australian media. Why is representation important? How have Australians been represented in the past? What changes do we see?
What to expect:
Discussion points about Indigenous poeple and media.
Research task about the social influence of the Australian National Anthem
Prior knowledge questions
External references used to guide thinking.
Close film analysis of Redfern Now
Do you need FUN but ACADEMIC lessons on persuasive language techniques to improve your students’ media literacy skills? This resource is a FOUR SECTION unit, each section lasting about two to three lessons (2 hours) to walk your students through different lenses to analyse advertisements.
We look at FUN commercials (such as infomercials, old school Iphone ads and advertisements that appeal to specific groups of children such as those related to make up and sports)
These slides provide students the front loading to create their own effective ads but ALSO to write about them in an academic way.
What’s Included:
The basics of advertising
Pathos, logos, ethos
Persuasive techniques
Analysis practise
Activities and extra prompts for teachers in the Presenters’ notes!!
This resource is so straightforward that a covering teacher could easily pick it up and run with it!
4 sections and 54 slides!!
If you are teaching the Craft of Writing for the first time, or you want to refresh your Module C toolbox, or your students are STILL CONFUSED on what discursive writing is, then this is the resource for you!
Whilst this resource has been made primarily with year 11 and 12 in mind, it can EASILY be modified for a Year 9-10 audience!
This is a FOUR PART TEACHING PACKAGE WHICH INCLUDES:
A discursive writing workshop
This workshop provides your students with an overview of expectations around discursive writing through a step by step PPT (9 slides) and a worksheet (5 pages) to accompany it. This workshop will give your students a clear understanding of what key features a discursive piece MUST HAVE in order to suceed in the HSC.
We also go through extracts of a sample discursive piece (David Foster Wallace’s This is Water) to act as a model of good writing.
Writing Scaffold based on Zadie Smith’s Joy.
This discursive piece by Zadie Smith is used as a model for good discursive writing. Students are then given a graphic organiser to brainstorm some of their own ideas, drawing inspiration for this text. There is plenty of guidance along the way to help them reflect and organise their ideas, funnelling their thinking into insightful discursive pieces.
PLEASE NOTE: the text is not included in this bundle due to copyright, but can be easily found for free online. It is also NOT an HSC prescribed text.
Discursive Writing Activity - A soft start
This is for those classes who just cannot GET STARTED.
I have written up the key things that are needed to start a discursive piece. You can send your students off to do said things if they are ready OR they can use the start that I have written for them.
Please note: the students may use my opening as practise, but it should not be reproduced for any exam or sales purposes.
A quick post assessment/draft ‘Helpful Hints’ PPT.
This is also a workshop style PPT which guides teachers in helping students refine their work post-assessment or post-draft.
If you are super busy and unable to provide 1:1 feedback, this class-wide feedback process might be your best bet!!!
If you’ve been putting off discursive writing in your Stage 5 or 6 classes TAKE THIS RESOURCE and let it run its course!!
For an introduction into Module C Craft of Writing, see here:
Craft of Writing Introduction
Click here for both at a DISCOUNTED Bundle price!
Module C Craft of Writing: Discursive Writing FULL Bundle
Please note: this resource does not cover the prescribed texts!!
Are you tired and overwhelmed with the pressure of having to teach so many modes of writing? If so, I’ve got you.
Here is an imaginative writing teaching pack for you to lift and teach in your own classrooms. We don’t just go through the basics of writing like ‘describe the colours and the senses’ or random writing prompts with no clear links to the curriculum, but we go through some real academic writing techniques such as free indirect discourse, vignettes, metafiction among others. All of this in grounded in examining the work of Colum McCann’s 'What Time is it Now, Where You Are" (an HSC text) as a model example.
Whether you’re teaching HSC Module C, or running a creative writing workshop, this is a step by step guide for your students. They will feel academically challenged, but well supported through this step by step guide!
Perfect for teachers who need creative writing resources that cover the beginning, middle and end of the entire writing process.
What you get:
An Introduction to good writing
* A 14 Slide PTT
* A concise description of what the HSC requires in terms of imaginative writing
* The key techniques and stylistic features of Colum McCann’s work
* Teacher notes to help you along the way!
A 6 page Worksheet
* A detailed examination of Colum McCann’s work
* Goes through the nuts and bolts of story-writing:
* Structure
* Character
* Setting
* Culminates into a writing task with interesting writing prompts.
A post draft Editing Workshop
* A 17 Slides PPT
* A natural progression from the writing task (in the worksheet)
* Perfect for busy teachers who cannot write copious amounts of individualised feedback.
This resource was primarily made for Years 11 and 12 but can be adapted for Years 9~10.
Let these resources hold your students’ hands through some really academic, but heavily scaffolded writing techniques!