Unique resources created by an experienced Secondary English and History teacher. These are academically rigorous resources that target children between 13 and 18 years of age.
Unique resources created by an experienced Secondary English and History teacher. These are academically rigorous resources that target children between 13 and 18 years of age.
A word document (Cornell Notes template) which I explain to students before the lesson. I then deliver the lesson in a lecture style format where students choose what to write down.
A PPT which I use for my lecture-style lesson. It introduces students to the Dutch East India Company and their influence in Africa. Terms like Boer and Afrikaners are introduced. Information about the conflict between the British colonisers and the Boers is provided. This is followed by information about how the Boers attained self government. The use of language as propaganda is explored e.g. terms like ‘kaffir.’ The PPT ends with some checking for understanding questions.
Resources designed for the new senior Modern History syllabus (implemented in QLD in 2019). The syllabus objectives would also be useful more broadly for English students in other states and countries with an interest in the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa (1948-1994).
This lesson is designed to teach students what a ‘cooking philosophy’ / ethos is. Students will be choosing a specific celebrity chef for their upcoming assessment to create a brochure about. Within the brochure, this is one element they must include. It begins with a written definition which students must add to their glossary. There are screen shots of quotes from Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver to use as examples. The remainder of the PPT is dedicated to engaging with some written and video content about various chefs and determine what attitudes, values and beliefs they hold and how this influences their cooking. The first chef is Mark Olive (a First Nations chef). There is a video clip and some screen shots from his Instagram which students use to extract information to summarise his ethos. This is followed by Australian chef Maggie Beer – there are 3 short videos as well as extracts from a Magazine article about her and information from the front of one of her cook books. Thirdly, British Chef Jamie Oliver (3 clips, 2 quotes and information from one of his cooking courses). Fourthly, Chinese-Australian Chef Kylie Kwong (1 video, 2 quotes). Finally, Australian chef Matt Moran (1 video and screen shots from his restaurant’s website).
Resources designed for use in an 11 Hospitality Practices class in Australia (2019 curriculum). My school has 70-minute lessons. (2 x theory and 1 x prac). The assessment at the end of this unit was an event (pop up café) and a written portfolio of their preparation for this event.
This lesson is designed to teach students what a 'signature dish’ is. Students will be choosing a specific celebrity chef for their upcoming assessment to create a brochure about. Within the brochure, this is one element they must include. They will provide information about the cuisine, cooking methods and the recipe. They will also cook the recipe and photograph how they have presented it.
The PPT includes a term for students add to their recipe. The term ‘cuisine’ is also explained. Some information from Encyclopedia Britannica about world cuisine is provided. information about how cuisine evolves is also included (including the term ‘fusion cuisine’). There is a video from Gardening Australia about Kylie Kwong which shows how she incorporates First Nations ingredients in her Cantonese cooking. Following this, students are instructed to use the retrieval chart (also included in this resource) to research the celebrities we are focussing on in the unit and their signature dishes.
Resources designed for use in an 11 Hospitality Practices class in Australia (2019 curriculum). My school has 70-minute lessons. (2 x theory and 1 x prac).
During this module students investigate their personality type and explore how people manage conflict. They apply conflict management strategies to real life contexts and make decisions about what strategies are most effective.
This is a work booklet pack which was designed for use during the 2020 COVID 19 pandemic. It would also be useful for students who are absent for medical / personal reasons. The content within this resource could be adapted into PowerPoints or worksheets for use in the classroom. This work pack contains three lessons worth of content.
Lesson 1 - Arguments are defined and common causes of conflict are listed. Three discussion questions are posed. Three levels of arguments are outlined. Assertive communication is explained (including examples). There is a ‘how assertive are you?’ quiz for students to complete. A list of assertion techniques are explained and examples are provided. This is followed by a classification activity - where students read examples and label them. Conflict resolution is defined along with a series of conflict resolution strategies.
Lesson 2 - focusing on conflicts in our personal lives. In particular looking at conflicts with our friends as these are a natural part of growing up. Students read tips for keeping their friendships strong. Interpersonal skills such as active listening are explained. Advice for what to do if you don’t know how to reply to something a friend discloses to you. Some ‘blocks’ to really listening are described. Looking at when it is a good idea to give people space and if it is ever ok to lie to friends. How to let people in without feeling humiliated. After engaging with these materials, a range of scenarios are presented to students. Students then complete activities in a graphic organiser which help them to a) analyse the conflict / problem & b) recommend a solution.
Lesson 3- focuses on conflict in the workplace. It includes advice about what to do if you experience conflict with your boss / manager. It includes information about why people (like customers) become challenging. There is information about what upset people want and a three prong strategy for dealing with difficult people. Tips for handling customer complaints are outlined. A series of comprehension questions follow this material.
Part of a set of resources created for a senior Social & Community studies class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons.
This is a great resource for high school teachers which can be used as a fun activity for the ends of lessons, in homerooms for National Science Week or for transition / induction days. It includes a combination of multiple-choice questions, true/false questions and fact-based questions.
This quiz contains questions about the branches of science, famous scientists & their inventions, modern technology, the periodic table, animals, biology, phobias, representations of science in popular culture and much much more.
In the past I have run this like around-the-world or pac man https://reliefteachingideas.com/2013/07/28/pac-man/
Social & Community Studies focuses on personal development and social skills that lead to self-reliance, self-management and concern for others. In studying Social & Community Studies, students will learn about: personal skills, interpersonal skills and citizenship skills.
This resource is a powerpoint for teaching students about conflict and various conflict resolution strategies. It should take 2 lessons. It begins with a warm up activity which encourages students to reflect on what matters to them. This is followed by an activity where students must describe 3 characters (which helps build their vocabulary for describing character traits). Arguments are defined and common causes of conflict are listed. Three discussion questions are posed. Three levels of arguments are outlined. There is a graphic organiser which students will use to fill in their observations of arguments from the TV show Everybody Loves Raymond. There are post-viewing questions for students to discuss. To consolidate their learning students complete a Y chart about what conflict looks like, feels like and sounds like. Afterwards the lesson zooms to focus on conflict in the workplace. 5 common strategies for dealing with conflict are explored (some are better than others). Students should consider the pros and cons of each strategy and which personality types might gravitate to which strategy. The lesson concludes with a research activity.
A PowerPoint which provides an image and summary for the following characters from Deadly Unna? (pictures taken from the film Aussie Rules).
Bob Black aka The Old Man
Gwen Black (Blacky’s mum)
Gary Black
Dumby Red
Pickles
Coach Robertson aka Arks
Tim Black aka Best Team-Man
Darcy
I printed these up and used them as posters in the classroom.
During this module students investigate their personality type and explore how people manage conflict. They apply conflict management strategies to real life contexts and make decisions about what strategies are most effective.
This is a work booklet pack which was designed for use during the 2020 COVID 19 pandemic. It would also be useful for students who are absent for medical / personal reasons. The content within this resource could be adapted into PowerPoints or worksheets for use in the classroom. This work pack contains three lessons worth of content.
Lesson 1 - This lesson has a pre-test for students to fill in - it is supposed to show what students know prior to completing the research task for their assessment.
Lesson 2 - This lesson contains tips which students can use to research key terms they need for their report. The tips include ‘skimming and scanning,’ the Big 6 steps for researching & how to do a BOOLEAN search. It also includes information about aggressive, passive and assertive communicators. Reasons why people may opt for each communication style are outlined as well as the pro’s and con’s of each style. Tips for how to be more assertive are shared along with an example assertive conversation (transcript). Following this are tips for how to respond to criticism (using ‘clouding’ or ‘probing).
Lesson 3 - students have time to research their key terms for their report. They complete section 1A of their booklet (including a bibliography).
Part of a set of resources created for a senior Social & Community studies class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons.
A fun trivia PPT designed for an end of the year activity but which would also be useful if you broke it up and used particular rounds as warm ups or brain breaks throughout a year. There are 20 questions per round (12 rounds in total) - each slide features 10 questions which auto appear upon clicking. Each round has a different focus or theme. There are a couple of picture rounds (famous people, famous landmarks, celebrity singers etc.) Additional round categories include: popular culture, true or false, food and drink, science and the human body, English, Geography, History, General Knowledge, Maths and lastly Animals and Birds. After each round is a slide providing the answers for that round. Questions could also be used in a jeopardy style game.
A Unit plan designed for a 10 week term. It includes syllabus objectives, a description of the unit, a marking breakdown which explains what the teacher would expect to see for each assessment criteria, assessment task details and a list of recommended resources. It also includes explanations of some recommended pedagogical strategies (for group work etc.) A Scope and Sequence suggesting topics to be covered throughout the term is provided.
Part of a set of resources created for a senior Social & Community studies class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons.
A final lesson for use before the practice exam. The focus is on inclusivity and the importance of stopping discrimination and harrassment in our communities. It begins with a warm up (completing a cloze passage about Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act). This is followed by a review of this act and the additions that were made in 2013 making it unlawful to discriminate against a person on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status under federal law.
Students have to read an article(LGBT-inclusive education: To teach or not to teach?) and fill in a graphic organiser identifying the different viewpoints within the article.
This is followed with a discussion about what is being taught in the Australian curriculum (in particular in terms of the sexual education curriculum). A question is posed: ‘What does LGBTQi±inclusive sexuality education look like?’ Answers from the United Nation are discussed.
This is followed by a practice exam-style question. Students have to read the sources and identify the viewpoints within them about inclusive education. They use these to write a TEEL paragraph summarising the key points made in these sources which answers the question: “Why is inclusivity important? Explain what experts recommend should be done to make Australian schools more inclusive of LGBTQIA+ students.”
The sources are provided on the subsequent slides.
At the end of this lesson, students should be able to: define sex discrimination and provide an example, explain how the Sex Discriminatino Act applies to workplaces and education institutions and list some steps a person can take if they think they are experiencing discrimination.
This worksheet can be used as a one on one tutoring resource. Alternatively, you can take activities from here to use as fast finishers or homework activities.
This document introduces students to key terms like fact, opinion and embellishment. It includes sentences and paragraphs and challenges students to identify whether they are subjective/objective. It also provides some information about zoos and asks students to write a subjective and objective paragraph about the topic.
The second section explores how verbs, adverbs and well-constructed, extended noun groups can position the reader to form an opinion or judge a person. It gives an example of a famous Australian and shows how by changing a few words you can change the connotation of the text. It includes comprehension questions to check the students understanding.
In the third section, a subjective newspaper article about the Vietnam war is included for students to analyse. There are comprehension questions which follow this.
The final section introduces students to the concept of tone and gives them a list of different words to describe the tone of a text. Students then look at an advertisement and have to suggest the tone. Subsequently, they read a bias newspaper article and answer questions about this. Finally, there is a writing activity for students which encourages them to write persuasively.
This lesson is designed as part of an Australian year 9 English unit. The first assessment for this unit is a persuasive essay. This PowerPoint first explains the assessment and the criteria students will be marked against. Subsequently, it goes through essay genre conventions (defining terms like thesis statement, explaining what should go in an intro, body and conclusion, explaining how texts should be referenced in text and in a bibliography). This PowerPoint also includes example paragraphs from a range of texts which show Australian stereotypes including The Simpsons Australia episode, Crocodile Dundee and men of the open spaces.
Handout - planning steps to be completed prior to writing
Handout - scaffolding for essay which tells students what they must write for each paragraph.
A Scope and Sequence suggesting topics to be covered throughout the term.
A revision booklet to help students prepare for the external exam. Some elements are not complete but I left the formatting in just in case you had the time to add them (the evaluation and synthesis questions).
Resources designed for the new senior Modern History syllabus (implemented in QLD in 2019). The syllabus objectives would also be useful more broadly for English students in other states and countries with an interest in the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa (1948-1994).
Unit plan designed for a 10 week term of 11 &12 Modern History. It includes a subject description, a description of the unit, a list of unit objectives (from the syllabus), inquiry questions to guide the unit, the recommended teaching and learning cycle from QCAA, a topic specific learning intentions and success criteria, assessment task details and a list of recommended resources.
Resources designed for the new senior Modern History syllabus (implemented in QLD in 2019). The syllabus objectives would also be useful more broadly for English students in other states and countries with an interest in the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa (1948-1994).
About the PPT: This lesson was designed to teach students about dialogue and how it can be used to reveal the personality of the characters. It begins with a definition of dialogue and an explanation of reported and direct speech. Some examples of each are provided and students need to identify which is which. There is an excerpt from the anthology ‘Growing up Asian’ which students can read as an example of how characterisation is driven through dialogue. There was also information about placing dialogue tags at the beginning, middle and end of a quote for variety. There is an activity sheet for variants to the word said. After checking the answers, there is information about how to punctuate dialogue correctly. Following this the story for today ‘Big World’ was introduced. Some of the terms that students may be unfamiliar with have been defined on the slide. After reading the story, there are some discussion questions which I use with the students. Students then share their responses for the retrieval chart. The lesson ends with a 5 question multi-choice quiz about punctuating dialogue correctly.
Other resources:
A copy of the Short Story and the retrieval chart
Context: A lesson designed for use in a 12 Essential English classroom in Queensland, Australia as part of Unit 4: “Representations and popular culture texts - Topic 2: Creating representations of Australian identities, places, events and concepts.” During this unit students learned about Australian social groups. They engaged with a range of short stories representing Australia. Their assessment was to write a short story which explored a gap/silence from one of the texts they studied in class.
About the PPT:
The PPT begins with a checking for understanding question to see what students recall about narrative structures. This is followed by information about different types of plot structures – chronological, flashback and in media res. There is an explanation of Freytag’s pyramid which should be familiar from previous years. This is followed by an explanation of gap and silence. Students are then introduced to the second story for the unit – Henry Lawson’s ‘The Loaded Dog.’ After reading the story, there are some discussion questions which I use with the students. Students then share their responses for the retrieval chart. Students then consider what gaps or silences they could draw on in a short story. The cool down activity is a list of words for students to look up and define in their glossary.
Other resources:
A copy of the Short Story and the retrieval chart
Context: A lesson designed for use in a 12 Essential English classroom in Queensland, Australia as part of Unit 4: “Representations and popular culture texts - Topic 2: Creating representations of Australian identities, places, events and concepts.” During this unit students learned about Australian social groups. They engaged with a range of short stories representing Australia. Their assessment was to write a short story which explored a gap/silence from one of the texts they studied in class.
About the PPT: the lesson began with a checking for understanding brainstorm – students had to think of types of characters who commonly appear in stories. After sharing their responses, I have a list for students to copy. There is information about the types of things authors need to plan and consider before they begin writing. I have a slide defining characterisation which gives examples of direct and indirect characterisation. Following this the text for today’s lesson ‘Soil’ is introduced. I provide some information about the author Ellen Van Neerven who was awarded the 2015 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize for the collection ‘Heat and Light’. Some of the terms that students may be unfamiliar with have been defined on the slide. After reading the story, there are some discussion questions which I use with the students. Students then share their responses for the retrieval chart. This is followed by some information provided by one of the Bundjalung teachers from our school about some of the sensitive issues raised in this story. Students then consider what gaps or silences they could draw on in a short story. I located images from children’s picture books and the internet which students could draw on to develop their setting. Following this, students were given a writing prompt which they had to plan for (which they would write about in the literacy lesson). The slides from the literacy lesson are also included.
Other resources:
A copy of the Short Story and the retrieval chart
Context: A lesson designed for use in a 12 Essential English classroom in Queensland, Australia as part of Unit 4: “Representations and popular culture texts - Topic 2: Creating representations of Australian identities, places, events and concepts.” During this unit students learned about Australian social groups. They engaged with a range of short stories representing Australia. Their assessment was to write a short story which explored a gap/silence from one of the texts they studied in class.
About the PPT:
The lesson begins with information about what setting is and how writers reveal setting. There are 3 brief excerpts of text with really different settings which students can read to see how the authors establish the setting whilst introducing the protagonist. There are some tips about developing indoor and outdoor settings. Then there are a series of clips from Australian television shows which we view and students take notes about things which appear in the setting. This is followed by information about imagery and using the five senses within your writing. Following this, I suggested other language features which could be used to establish setting including similes and metaphors. I also discussed the concept of extended metaphors. I also provided examples of settings which can be used symbolically. Then I introduced the story for today ‘Black Saturday’ and some context about the 2009 bushfires. Some of the terms that students may be unfamiliar with have been defined on the slide. After reading the story, there are some discussion questions which I use with the students. Students then share their responses for the retrieval chart. Afterwards there was a short YouTube clip for students to view. In the following lesson we watched an episode of the ABC TV series ‘Fires’ about the 2019/2020 bushfires.
Other resources:
A copy of the Short Story and the retrieval chart
Context: A lesson designed for use in a 12 Essential English classroom in Queensland, Australia as part of Unit 4: “Representations and popular culture texts - Topic 2: Creating representations of Australian identities, places, events and concepts.” During this unit students learned about Australian social groups. They engaged with a range of short stories representing Australia. Their assessment was to write a short story which explored a gap/silence from one of the texts they studied in class.
About the PPT: this lesson was designed to remind students of some language features they are already familiar with which they could utilise in their short story and some brief writing activities. Those I defined and provided examples of were adjectives, emotive language, internal thought, negative description, personification, onomatopoeia, metaphors and similes. Following this the story for today ‘My Father’s Hands’ was introduced. Some of the terms that students may be unfamiliar with have been defined on the slide. After reading the story, there are some discussion questions which I use with the students. Students then share their responses for the retrieval chart. Afterwards, students read through the story on their own and annotate the language features that stood out to them. The following slides include some examples of 5 senses, figurative language, emotive words and adjectives from the text. Students were also asked to consider why the author opted for direct speech more than reported speech in this story.
Other resources:
A copy of the Short Story and the retrieval chart
Context: A lesson designed for use in a 12 Essential English classroom in Queensland, Australia as part of Unit 4: “Representations and popular culture texts - Topic 2: Creating representations of Australian identities, places, events and concepts.” During this unit students learned about Australian social groups. They engaged with a range of short stories representing Australia. Their assessment was to write a short story which explored a gap/silence from one of the texts they studied in class.