When I first met my new classes I went through a 'classroom code' so they were familiar with my expectations. This is the PowerPoint I used. You may edit it as you wish to suit your own purposes.

Fun little starter to get students thinking. They're asked to look at 8 different objects and try to group them into pairs and explain their reasons why. Students can work individually, in a pair or in a group depending on their ability.

Place these facts around the room. Students have five minutes to search for the facts in the room and write them down. Allow time to feed back and discuss afterwards. This resource is taken from my KS3 Macbeth SOW which you can buy from my shop.

Students use this sheet to chart their sympathy for Candy throughout the novel. This sheet could be blown up to A3 to allow students lots of room to annotate the chart with key quotations from the text.

Students are to review the play and consider reasons, with supportive quotations, as to whether or not Macbeth should kill King Duncan. This resource is taken from my KS3 Macbeth SOW which you can buy from my shop.

10 examples of written reports for Year 10 students studying for their GCSEs. There are examples of reports for students making 'adequate', 'good' and 'excellent' progress. Reports include targets for improvement.

Students to correct these commonly mixed-up idioms. This activity could lead into a lesson about the origin of idioms and why idioms are part of the English language.

Do ‘Starter Activity for Descriptive Writing’; this should put students in the right mind-set for descriptive writing. This activity should encourage students to tune into their senses, which is an essential skill for writing descriptively. Ideally, students should use mini whiteboards, but if these are not available, then exercise books are satisfactory. Hand-out ‘An Example of Writing to Describe’ sheet. Ask students, in pairs, to read it through and highlight – in different colours – the words and sentences that relate to the five senses. Recap the five senses – sight, sound, smell, touch, taste. Feedback. Ask students why description is important. Hand-out ‘Planning Sheet for Descriptive Writing’. Explain that, as it is a planning sheet, it does not matter if they alter or change their ideas throughout. They are to write about a place or event, perhaps building on the ideas they established in the starter activity. Students could write up their piece of descriptive writing as a writing assessment.

Print off enough of these sheets to ensure you have one skill per student or group. When students are rehearing for a speaking and listening performance, hand students or groups one skill each. They have to focus on improving that skill in their rehearsals. You may swap the skills to ensure students are focusing on more than one skill.

Spelling activity based on unstressed vowels. Students learn what unstressed vowels are before trying to come up with tricks to remember spellings with unstressed vowels.

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.

Work through the PowerPoint for the lesson which includes a starter activity, contextual information, 'crunched poem' activity (creative, language analysis), annotated poem, exam question and comparison activity. This could cover 1-2 lessons.

This is a fun way of offering further exploration of Bayonet Charge by appealing to students' different strengths and skills, e.g. artistic, creative, visual, mathematical or social. This is an engaging, outstanding lesson, and was designed with Garner's Multiple Intelligences in mind. You will need to prepare for this lesson beforehand by creating the 'resource stations': Resource Station 1: Visual – Saving Private Ryan Clip, available on YouTube, lined paper (x5), instructions Resource Station 2: Creative – activity (x5), lined paper (x5), instructions Resource Station 3: Social – activity, instructions Resource Station 4: Artistic – plain A4 paper, activity, instructions Resource Station 5: Mathematical – activity (x5), instructions Lesson Plan: Ensure that students are sat in groups of five. Tell them that the group they’re sat with is their ‘home group’. Show students the ‘resource stations’ slide. Explain to students that they’ll see five different resource stations around the room. Explain the activity at each resource station. Explain that each group will send one group member to each resource station to complete the activity. After 20 minutes, all group members will return to their home group and feedback what they’ve learnt. Give groups one minute to decide which group member will go to each resource station. If they cannot decide, then they’ll be randomly numbered one-five and will go to the corresponding station. Check students’ understanding by using ‘thumbs-up’. Ask a student to re-explain if there’s misunderstanding. Allow students to move to their designated resource station to start their activity. Instructions and resources will be ready at each station. Teacher facilitates, circulates, ask students questions to deepen their learning. After 20 minutes, students are to return to their ‘home groups’ to feedback. Tell them that they have 10 minutes and they should hear from everybody. Ask students in their books to write down three things they feel they’ve learnt from other people about Bayonet Charge.

Issue sets of these cards to groups or pairs. Students are to sequence them in the correct order. Great as a quick starter activity to get students thinking about the order of events in the play. Extend the task by asking students to find quotations to accompany all or some of the events.

In this lesson students will develop skills in writing to argue, and structuring an argument. This is a fun and engaging approach to writing to argue. This lessons involves debate to get students actively arguing, but it also encourages students to articulate their arguments on paper, not just vocally. Two videos are also included in this lesson to encourage engagement in the central argument of: Is the internet a good thing or a bad thing? Instructions for the lesson are written on the PPT in the 'notes' section at the bottom of each slide.

GREAT 10-MINUTE STARTER TO CEMENT THE FOLLOWING KEY TERMS AND THEIR DEFINITIONS: Alliteration Assonance Enjambment Content Emotive language Form/ Structure Imagery Metaphor Onomatopoeia End-stopped line Rhyme Simile Stanza Tone Voice Symbol Rhythm Personification Mood INSTRUCTIONS FOR ACTIVITY: Cut out these dominoes and laminate them (optional). Give individuals or pairs one domino, including you, the teacher. You begin by reading out the definition on the yellow side of your card. The student who has the term on the blue side of their card that matches with your definition then puts up their hand and says their term out loud. They then read aloud the definition on the yellow side of their card. All class members will have to listen carefully to see if their term matches with the definition they’ve just heard, and so the game continues until it goes full circle, every student has spoken, and you eventually hear the definition that matches with the term on the blue side of your card. Essentially, you’re playing a large game of dominoes, where students have to match key terms with definitions they hear. Depending on your group’s knowledge/ability, you may work altogether to match up the terms with definitions, or, alternatively, you may decide to play this as an actual dominoes game on the floor. This is a great 10-minute starter that really helps students to remember key terms and their definitions.

Poetic devices glossary to assist with students' study of poetry.

Ask students to close their eyes and put their heads on the table. Play Thomas Newman track and read the second-person edit of Chapter Two's description of the garage. Read the description slowly to allow students to imagine how Michael would feel entering the garage. After you've read the description, allow students 1-2 minutes to reflect with their eyes closed. Explain that once they open their eyes, they're to write down how they felt in the given situation. Ask students to share with a partner. De-brief post-activity; ask students: ‘How did it feel to do that?’ This activity should help students to engage with Michael's character and how he feels when entering the garage where Skellig resides.

Will Christopher get to London? Christopher is about to face a situation that will be very difficult for him. How will he cope? Will he manage to get to London? In this resource students are asked to consider how Christopher's Asperger's Syndrome will affect his experience at the train station. They're to consider challenges he'll face and strategies he'll use to cope. This will take students 10-15 minutes to complete. Using either thumbs-up, thumbs-down or thumbs in the middle, vote as a class for whether Christopher will cope at the train station or not. This resource is taken from my KS3 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time SOW which you can buy from my shop.

This is a collection of quotations about what poetry is. Place these around the room before students enter. Ask students to 'tour' the room and find the quotations. They're to write down what quotations most resonate with them. Ask students to explain what poetry is to them. If students 'hate poetry', may be suggest to them that musical lyrics also class as poetry and ask them to express what music means to them.