Students work as detectives investigating a crime scene based on Roald Dahl's short story Lamb to the Slaughter. There are two lessons included with the learning objective 'To select, understand and describe evidence; To interpret information and develop explanations.' These lessons have proved hugely successful and fun for students. They absolutely love walking into the classroom to see a crime scene and it's amazing to see even the most disruptive of students get completely into character. There's a little preparation involved in these lessons, but you and your students will reap the benefits.

This SOW was created for Year 7 students of varying abilities. It contains 14 lessons with accompanying resources. The SOW has the following reading, writing and speaking & listening assessments: READING - Explore the relationship between one of the characters and the horse Joey. WRITING - Students are to describe a picture using the senses and one simile or metaphor. SPEAKING & LISTENING - Dramatic performance of a scene from War Horse. The SOW takes students through these learning objectives: LESSON 1 To be able to engage with the key theme of war in the novel To understand the main points about the historical context of the novel LESSON 2 To understand life on a farm in the early 1900s To develop inference skills LESSON 3 To be able to describe character To be able to make comparison To revise the use of connectives to compare LESSON 4 To understand the term ‘points of view’ To be able to compare points of view To be able to rewrite from an alternative point of view LESSON 5 To be able to analyse and describe a setting To develop descriptive writing skills LESSON 6 To develop inference skills LESSON 7 To be able to take different roles in speaking and listening tasks To develop drama skills LESSON 7.5 To be able to take different roles in speaking and listening tasks To develop drama skills LESSON 8 To be able to make links between objects, events and characters To be able to track themes and make logical links LESSON 9 To develop analysis skills To develop the ability to write about language To develop the ability to write about the words chosen by the writer LESSON 10 To be able to explain the relationships between characters LESSON 11 To be able to read independently To develop analysis skills LESSON 12 To assess students’ ability to make inferences about characters LESSON 13-14

Sheets for students to stick in their books or for teachers to display in their classrooms that describe requirements for levels and sub-levels in reading, writing and speaking and listening. An accessible resource that allows students to take responsibility for their own progress. It's also a helpful resource for teachers when setting targets. Students find their level on the sheet and they can then look to the next level where it says 'To get a level 5b, I need to...' Also included is a marking key sheet for students to stick in their books to enable teachers to state the particular markers they use to marks students' books. Also, a personal target sheet for students to self-assess their ability at the start of the year. Students may review this at different times of the year to assess their own progress. There's also a target record sheet for students to keep in the front of their exercise books to keep a record of their targets. The idea is that they start filling in their targets from the bottom of the sheet so they're effectively climbing "the ladder" and making progress. Students should regularly review the sheet with their teacher to assess whether they're meeting their targets and whether their NC level is improving over time.

Set up a debate with your class as a speaking & listening assessment/activity to run alongside the reading of David Almond's Skellig. This debate springs from the character Mina, who is home schooled. Having done this debate several times with classes, it usually elicits some passionate opinions. Divide your class as necessary into two teams - 'for home schooling' and 'against home schooling' and then issue the cards to the opposing teams. The cards will give students starting points to develop their arguments further. This is a flexible activity to manage and adapt however you wish to suit the abilities of your students.

This PPT takes students through five stages of writing their own ballad. It uses the ballad 'Frankie & Johnny' to model the different features of a ballad. This is a creative writing task that could be used as a writing assessment.

Explain to students that Macbeth is going to write a letter to Lady Macbeth explaining the decision he’s arrived at. He should either persuade Lady Macbeth to give up on her ideas, or concede that Lady Macbeth might have a point, and he wants to go through with it. This could be written up in full as a writing assessment. This resource is taken from my KS3 Macbeth SOW which you can buy from my shop.

Students will need access to a computer to complete this activity. Put students into small groups and issue A4 paper one of the questions from the Questions Pack.. Students are to create an attractive poster which provides the answers to the question(s) they've been given. After 30 minutes, students are to 'present' their poster to the rest of the group. Students are to make notes in their books so that they have a record of the contextual information about Skellig. Display students' posters in your classroom as a point of reference throughout the study of Skellig.

Language devices to use when writing to argue and persuade, put helpfully into the mneumonic 'A RED FOREST'. When I was teaching students to write to argue, I display the language devices around the room to encourage students to look for them and use them.

This SOW focuses on persuasive techniques, language techniques, non-language devices and presentational features used in advertising to have an effect on the reader. Students develop their analytical skills before creating their own advert with commentary for their assessment. Although this may sound dull, students had real fun with this scheme and found it genuinely interesting. They thoroughly enjoyed the 'speed dating' to learn about different advertising techniques. The SOW uses the following learning objectives in its lessons: LESSON 1 To understand how images are composed, and how to read figure signs. LESSON 2 To understand how images use colour, texture and viewpoint. LESSON 3 To understand how persuasive language techniques as used in adverts. LESSON 4: To describe the effect of persuasive (language) techniques used in adverts. LESSON 5 To analyse language techniques and presentational features in an advert. LESSON 6 To create own advert using knowledge and skills gained from analysis. LESSON 7 To create own advert using knowledge and skills gained from analysis. INDEPENDENT TASK TIME LESSON 8 To create own advert using knowledge and skills gained from analysis. INDEPENDENT TASK TIME

This lesson takes students through Vernon Scannell's poem A Case of Murder. First, students are presented with the First Two Lines from their poem. Place these are students desks before they enter. They're to think about the poem and what it could be about. Next, present students with Gap-fill Poem where they are urged to fill in the gaps in the poem. This helps them to engage with the content and really think about the language of the poem. Feedback. Issue the complete poem. Discuss initial thoughts. Go through the activities in the PPT, which includes quick questions, in-depth question, discussion on themes, emotional response and then a contextual-based homework.

This is a 6-7 week scheme of work that can be adapted to suit your needs, but it basically leads students up to pitching their idea for a new type of fast food restaurant. Essentially, it leads up to a very engaging speaking and listening assessment. Students must learn to work in a team with different roles. They must learn to delegate tasks based on students' differing abilities. The SOW involves mind mapping, problem-solving and decision-making. Having done this SOW with students before, it really does get their creative juices flowing. They end up taking it very seriously and really do think about their restaurant's brand name, slogan, logo, target audience, USP, appropriate location etc. The competitive element of the SOW really engages boys as well. Not only do students hone their speaking and listening skills, but they gain a basic understanding of how to create a business that will be successful when considering several different factors. The SOW is all included within the PowerPoint with 'notes' added to most slides to be completely self-explanatory. The PowerPoint contains 31 slides, which are very easy to follow and tell students exactly what they need to do.

L.O. To identify and understand emotive language, and its effect on readers. The PowerPoint begins by asking students to look at two different headlines at a time and to decide which one is most emotive, and why. They then focus on two particular headlines and translate their ideas to paper by writing a PEE paragraph. In the next activity, they then have a go at editing a series of headlines by replacing words with more emotive words. Students should share ideas as an entire class. Students then look at a newspaper article and underline/highlight the emotive words. They then complete a table whereby they think about 'more emotive' and 'less emotive' words than the ones in the article. As a final activity, or as homework, students answer the following question about the newspaper article in PEE paragraphs: How does the writer’s choice of emotive language make us (the readers) feel about the dog and its previous owners?

This PPT offers students two activities to practise close reading and inference. The first activity gives students a scenario in which they have to consider whether the protagonist is guilty of theft. The answer isn't very obvious so students have to closely read the passage to make a considered decision. The second activity gives an RSPCA's description of a puppy for adoption. Students have to explain what they can infer from the passage based on evidence and reasoning.

A simple straight-forward starter for capital letters. Students learn where to use capital letters before correcting sentences where capital letters have not been used.

11 examples of written reports for Year 9 English students. There are examples of reports for students making 'limited', 'adequate', 'good' and 'excellent' progress. Reports include targets for improvement.

Play ‘Halloween’ music as students walk in. Display ‘Urban Legends’ PowerPoint. Show students the definitions of ‘urban’ and ‘legend’. Students are to attempt to work out what an urban legend is with reference to the definitions. Pair-share. Introduce L.O. Ask students to write date, title and L.O. in their exercise books. Look at the conventions of an Urban Legend. Explain Def. – conventions - a rule, method or feature of a particular piece of writing) Establish what an urban legend is. Show students the short video of ‘Diet Coke and Mentos’. Switch off the lights and use torch to read the urban legend 'Killer on the Back Seat'. Students will find it pretty creepy! Split the class into groups. Distribute the Urban Legends and ask one member from each group to read an urban legend aloud. After groups have read an urban legend, request whole-class feedback. Ask students to state the common features of an urban legend. Display ‘How to write your own Urban Legend’ slide. Discuss the conventions of an urban legend in preparation for students to write their own. Ask students, in pairs, to discuss their initial ideas for two minutes. Using slide 6, students are to start writing their own Urban Legend. It should be no longer than 4 paragaphs and should take no longer than 3-4 minutes to read. Students to finish for homework.

This resource offers a reading question, an essay plan and key word definitions. This essay was used as the reading assessment for a high ability Year 9 group studying Shakespeare's Macbeth. Essay Question: Starting with this speech, explain how far you think Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a tragic hero. Assessment Objectives A01 – Maintain a critical style and develop an informed personal response, and use textual references, including quotations, to support and illustrate interpretations. A02 – Analyse language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate A03 – Show understanding of the contexts in which texts were written A04 – Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

The Laboratory by Robert Browning - Annotated Poem on PowerPoint

Two lessons that teach students all about Shakespeare's sonnets, their structure, rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter. Packed with interactive activities, including lots of drumming with hands on the desk! The learning objectives are as follows: WALT: identify the structure and rhyme scheme of a sonnet. WALT: explore another of Shakespeare’s sonnets to take inspiration from to write my own. These two lessons lead students up to writing their own sonnet as a writing assessment.

A fun, accessible resource for students to revise the key tips for questions 1-4 in Section A of the AQA Non-fiction Higher paper.