A whole lesson on Zephaniah's poem 'No Problem' from the new Edexcel GCSE Conflict Cluster. Includes discussion of dialect, interpretations and devices.

TWITTER ISSUES - Correct the Spelling and Grammar of MORE Celebrities! This great bell ringer includes 25 more grammatically incorrect tweets from famous celebrities. Pop one on the board and get your students to correct them! A mixture of spelling and grammar issues #Twissues on one fun PPT. I made this into a TuesdayTwissue activity and the kids LOVE it! This could also be used in any subject area for Literacy across the curriculum.

Welcome to Word Birds, a weekly lesson and resources to build higher-level vocabulary in your Year 9 students. These weekly lessons include the following: • a single word plus definition as a PDF designed to be printed as a poster and displayed in your room • a PowerPoint slide to accompany the poster, with an example of how to use the word in a sentence • 6 entertaining task cards to get your students using the word in a variety of ways including my trademark comic strip! • a Word Bird helpsheet explaining the differences between verbs, adjectives, nouns and adverbs. • a record sheet to go in student exercise books to help them keep track of the words they have learnt. Most school years run for 38 weeks, but I’ve included 40 words in case you don’t fancy using any of them or you want to use them on other occasions too. Package includes: 40 slides PowerPoint 40-page PDF of words plus definitions for student handouts or posters 6 mini task cards 1 record sheet 1 help sheet to be used as a student handout.

This is a four-sheet organiser for the main characters in William Golding's Lord of the Flies. It includes space for: Ralph Piggy Simon Jack The Twins Roger The Lord of the Flies Beast. It asks students to fill in any physical descriptions, inner desires and important traits of the characters. It is an excellent resource to use alongside reading and to make students accountable for their own notes while still giving them some structure.

This is a dynamic and engaging collection of lessons to study Act 1 of the Merchant of Venice. It includes research tasks, video clips, high-level thinking skills and engaging close-reading activities. This is detailed and thorough and was designed to prepare the group for the Literary Heritage Controlled Assessment.

This is a complete GCSE unit novel study for Robert Cormier's Heroes. This comprises 21 PowerPoints, a total Scheme of Work split into 24 lessons and all related resources. Lessons include embedded videos, extracts from other relevant literature, close reading exercises, creative work, research lessons, a complete trial set-up, debates and various short and extended writing opportunities. This is a hugely popular unit with all of the groups that have studied it. Please do let me know if any of the video links/resources don't work for you. Message me and I will send them to you directly.

This is a complete lesson for teaching Act 1 Scene 1 of Julius Caesar. I have included a copy of the 'No Fear Shakespeare' version of the scene for you to use if you wish. The lesson includes the following: - Key/complex vocab exploration - Introduction to puns - Creative task - Prediction of future events. Look out for more Julius Caesar lessons from me soon!

Welcome to Word Birds, a weekly lesson and resources to build higher-level vocabulary in your 8th Grade students. These weekly lessons include the following: • a single word plus definition as a PDF designed to be printed as a poster and displayed in your room • a PowerPoint slide to accompany the poster, with an example of how to use the word in a sentence • 6 entertaining task cards to get your students using the word in a variety of ways including my trademark comic strip! • a Word Bird helpsheet explaining the differences between verbs, adjectives, nouns and adverbs. • a record sheet to go in student exercise books to help them keep track of the words they have learnt. Most school years run for 38 weeks, but I’ve included 40 words in case you don’t fancy using any of them or you want to use them on other occasions too. Package includes: 40 slides PowerPoint 40-page PDF of words plus definitions for student handouts or posters 6 mini task cards 1 record sheet 1 help sheet to be used as a student handout. NOTE: This set will be followed with Word Birds for grades 8-12 shortly, along with a complete bundle of all six sets!

Roll the dice and create something TERRIFYING! This is a Halloween version of my popular roll the dice board game for Creative Writing. It consists of a vibrant grid full of spooky Halloween-inspired images, words and phrases to provoke out-the-box thinking and writing! Students roll the dice to choose a genre, then roll again moving across the board to land on weird and wonderful prompts, including fangs, thunderstorm, snake, creepy doll and a full moon. This has produced some really outstanding writing from my students and can be used to aid writers' block in even the most reluctant of budding authors. NOTE: This product requires you to supply your own dice.

This is a complete lesson for studying Emily Brontë's poem 'Spellbound'. It includes a carefully differentiated lesson in PPT format, along with my personalised 'Developing Tray' activity. To use Developing Tray: I have included two copies of the poem; one normal and one with certain words blacked out. The students must try to work out the missing words (either in teams or as a whole class) and the teacher will reveal the words that they get correct. I usually allow them to 'buy' three total words, five individual letters and one complete line to help them out. I hope you enjoy this lesson, it's been very popular with my classes. Look out for more poetry lessons using Developing Tray on my profile!

This is another no-prep, ready to print learning mat for Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew'! This works brilliantly as homework tasks given out at the beginning of a unit. I ask my students to complete one activity per week and require them to have gained 25 points by the end of the unit. This means that they have the freedom to self-evaluate - if they have a football match and a school concert this week then they only have to do a 2 point task. If they have a quieter week, they may want to bump up the points! I find that the competitive challenge to these tasks really improves homework hand-in rates and the quality of the work produced. I swear by homework mats now! Check out my other learning mats for other topics by clicking on the category to the left. Enjoy!

Please Miss, Can I Have Some More?! This is an engaging Narrative and Creative Writing worksheet comprising 17 high quality tasks and prompts for students to undertake. Each task has a points value depending on how easy or challenging the task is, which means you can set a points requirement as homework, during the lesson or for the duration of a unit. SAMPLE TASK: Describe your first encounter with a celebrity. Tell the story twice - first from your point of view, then imagine how the celebrity felt about meeting you. The 'task bubbles' presentation means that students can colour in the tasks that they have completed so that you can easily check progress, and it can also be used to add a competitive edge to proceedings! You can also use this as a homework mat alongside your Narrative/Creative unit to support independent learning. Have fun with it! I'm always amazed by the quality of the responses!

This is a beautifully presented Roald Dahl crossword created from facts about his life and works. Also included is an answer key for you to use as you wish. This is a perfect first lesson for students to gain a bit of context and develop their research skills! I used this for my introductory lesson before my 'Darker Side of Dahl' unit for my Year 8 students. They loved it and the answers inform their thinking for the rest of the topic. I took them to the computer suite and encouraged them to use their initiative. The questions are tricky enough not to know, but not so difficult that the students lose interest. This would also be a brilliant activity to use on Roald Dahl Day on September 13th!

Welcome to Word Birds, a weekly lesson and resources to build higher-level vocabulary in your Year 7 students. These weekly lessons include the following: • a single word plus definition as a PDF designed to be printed as a poster and displayed in your room • a PowerPoint slide to accompany the poster, with an example of how to use the word in a sentence • 6 entertaining task cards to get your students using the word in a variety of ways including my trademark comic strip! • a Word Bird helpsheet explaining the differences between verbs, adjectives, nouns and adverbs. • a record sheet to go in student exercise books to help them keep track of the words they have learnt. Most school years run for 38 weeks, but I’ve included 40 words in case you don’t fancy using any of them or you want to use them on other occasions too. Package includes: 40 slide in PowerPoint in British English 40-page PDF of words plus definitions for student handouts or posters 6 mini task cards 1 record sheet 1 help sheet to be used as a student handout. NOTE: This set will be followed with Word Birds for years 8-12 shortly, along with a complete bundle of all six sets! This product is for personal and classroom use. It is NOT for resale or any other commercial purposes.

Roll the dice and create something amazing! This is a roll the dice board game for Creative Writing. It consists of a vibrant grid full of images, words and phrases to provoke outside-the-box thinking and writing! Students roll the dice to choose a genre, then roll again moving across the board to land on weird and wonderful prompts, including a frog, thunderstorm, chain-link fence, digger and orca. This has produced some really outstanding writing from my students and can be used to aid writers' block in even the most reluctant of budding authors. NOTE: This product requires you to supply your own dice.

This is a worksheet comprising 19 activities on Act 3 Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice. You can use this worksheet in any number of the following ways, and possibly more that I haven't thought of!: - as unit homework, asking students to complete 1-2 activities per week - as a lesson for pre-exam revision - ask students to choose one task from each colour to ensure a wide range of analysis and interpretation. To use the QR codes students can download a free QR reader from the App Store - this is often their favourite bit! This has been clearly differentiated for a wide variety of learning styles with a colour key at the bottom of the page.

TWITTER ISSUES - Correct the Spelling and Grammar of Celebrities! This great starter activity includes 25 grammatically incorrect tweets from famous celebrities. Pop one on the board and get your students to correct them! A mixture of spelling and grammar issues #Twissues on one fun PPT. I made this into a TuesdayTwissue activity and the kids LOVE it! This could also be used in any subject area for Literacy across the curriculum.