Most resources I develop are geared towards GCSE 2016-18 (AQA and Edexcel) curriculum and are practical solutions to classroom teaching. I keep most of these black and white for simple/cost-effective print.
I read each novel/play/poem and break down into manageable parts.
I find this most effective within classrooms where students require chunks of information they can order, in sequence. The 'study-packs' I create can apply to any book/play/poem and provide visual tools for memory recall.
Most resources I develop are geared towards GCSE 2016-18 (AQA and Edexcel) curriculum and are practical solutions to classroom teaching. I keep most of these black and white for simple/cost-effective print.
I read each novel/play/poem and break down into manageable parts.
I find this most effective within classrooms where students require chunks of information they can order, in sequence. The 'study-packs' I create can apply to any book/play/poem and provide visual tools for memory recall.
A 27-page resource (reduces to 13-pages printed as double-sided booklet) designed for student's covering the entire book. This resource was revised in March 2016 after introducing it to a Year 9 and 10 class and gathering some excellent feedback.
Provides: Author background, Synopsis, Character List, Chapter and Page Number Listing, Word Meaning/Dictionary Exercises, Whole Book Overview in Five Sections and a Breakdown Analysis of every chapter, including an Internet-Research project. This is an effective tool for any student reading the book in a classroom or home-study setting and as with all current resources, links to on-going requirements for GCSE.
A resource consisting of five tasks, including Monologue, Duologue, Group-Performance, insight into the methods of Bertolt Brecht and a final task of developing a piece based on current Book/Play/poem study.
An excellent tool to be used alongside the GCSE-booklet (free-resource by the same Author).
Can be printed as a booklet and used as part of individual lessons or an entire scheme of work.
Particularly useful for students who require a kinaesthetic/more tactile approach to understanding literature.
The booklet is set out in a series of tasks, to deepen the student-understanding and reinforce their learning through written reflection.
A simple yet effective tool for classroom learning; student-mentoring; counselling; planning.
At a personal-level I have had 'fantastic' results from students and individuals I've worked with in a mentoring-counselling capacity, more often leaving them to their own devices to create the detail.
A highly-effective revision tool for any student, particularly those preparing for exams, to arrange their thoughts in order and gain that ever-so-important visual perspective of their work.
A resource developed to capture key quotes/passages/lines from Book, Play or Poem.
This booklet is well laid out with ample space and a subject line, so the student can use it once, e.g. key quotes from Macbeth, or use the same booklet multiple times and keep it as a revision tool throughout a term.
In my personal experience, I print a Quotation Booklet per task, i.e. one for An Inspector Calls; one for The Tempest; one for GCSE Poetry, usually half the size of this one.
The resource is set out across 12 pages, so this could be printed back to back as a six page booklet, or added to/reduced as required.
The resource provides an example from a scene in Hamlet, in the first table boxes on the first page, to guide the student.
A study-support resource. I have used this with all year groups so students can document particular websites/sources and capture/document information they find at the sites. I find that by using a well set-out resource, it keeps them 'on-task'. It also acts as an excellent reference tool, when filed or kept inside of their books.
This resource is four-page A4, containing 12 individual boxes and can be extended to suit.
I find that the four-pages is enough 'per-task', e.g. per Book/Play/Poem.
Through the teaching of poetry as a subject, I find that students can often become overwhelmed by the thought of deconstructing and analysing. When fully explained, demythologised and likened to song-lyrics, photographs or paintings, soon the fear dissolves and they enter the reading from a fresh perspective.
The terms “lyrical photographs” and “word-paintings” stemmed from work with Year 9 students.
This four-page resource was developed to provide students with a view, from a writer’s perspective, providing a fantastic starting-point for critical-questioning. The resource also contains a list of 24 forms of poetry and a Task Sheet to allow the student to attempt their own poem, in any format, post-classroom discussion.
Revised after classroom-delivery (April 2016)
A resource containing:
Truth about the play/Facts relating to witchcraft
Full character list with space for written student observations/ Word meanings
The entire play content in brief / Table for student quote additions and Act by Act summary
Exam question example with a table containing 'traditional versus translated' text
Socratic-thinking/Critical-Questioning - with a description of the origin of Socratic-thinking
Online research project section to support Socratic analysis
This type of resource, together with others available in 'Premium Resources' is developed to allow the student a means of approaching the material from a range of perspectives, i.e. to fully grasp the context of the work; have the opportunity to explore it visually 'and' on their feet (kinaesthetic/tactile), i.e. speaking about it/acting it out/researching it in a way that informs the student and engages them in critical analysis.
Every resource contains space on each printed page for the student to comment/make notes/summarise and these form excellent classroom tools to compliment working directly from the play/book/poem.
Can be printed in booklet format or in individual sections
A straightforward resource for comparing poems. The student lists one poem in the left-side column and the other in the right, then compares. This resource includes poetry terminology in the central column and has been used in classrooms in 2016. If studying AQA or Edexcel this resource can be linked to other resources as listed.
I've used this resource in class recently with Year 9's who are studying MacBeth and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll. The resource applies to any KS4 Year Group. I've found that by delivering the classes, then relating individual classes to this workbook, it has provided them with an opportunity to 'draft' their exam-style responses, whilst drilling down to the types of response required to hit high-level GCSE. I am becoming more aware, as a teacher working between two outstanding schools, that the level of resource, matched to superb teaching, can help raise the aspirations of the students in a quite straightforward manner, i.e. pitching high from the start and working hard to maintain this level of dedication to task (for student and teacher) - Note: this is but a personal view, though the students I am working with are both responding and flying.
This resource contains whole exam content (Edexcel) and can be printed as a double-sided A4 booklet of 22-pages, or in individual sections, i.e. per Play, Book or Poem.
The resource combines student tasks + key information relating to the texts (Macbeth/An Inspector Calls/Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde/Poetry) + technical information relating to the Edexcel Indicative Content and Descriptors.
The resource was designed in line with the Edexcel sample assessment materials (First Certification from June 2017).
It comprises:
COMPONENT 1/SECTION A
Shakespeare
Part A and B – Extract/Whole 1 hour 45 minutes 80 Marks
MACBETH (Control and Conflict)
SECTION B
Post 1914 Play or Novel
Essay question from quote
AN INSPECTOR CALLS (Experiential Learning and Exploitation)
COMPONENT 2/SECTION A
19th Century Novel
Part 1 and Part 2 – Extract/Whole 2 hours 15 minutes 80 Marks
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE (Atmosphere and Settings)
SECTION B
Poetry since 1789
Part 1 – Named poem/Poem of choice
Part 2 – Two unseen poems
POETRY (Tension and Character Presentation)
Ideas, Context, Language, Form and Structure
Catrin by Gillian Clarke is used in this resource with option boxes for the additional
+ UNSEEN POETRY
This resource fluidly combines the technical information with guidance tools and student tasks so, in theory, a student can:
- Work through the entire content of all parts of a trial exam in a single day/week
- Understand the Indicative Content suggestions and gain insight into Exemplar Responses
- Gain insight into the Descriptor-language and comprehend the level of dedication to achieve a high grade
A resource looking at the ‘whole picture’ surrounding MacBeth including it’s Holinshed Chronicle influence; the true to life King MacBeth; the Jacobean Period and King James; Religious Belief of the era; burning of 6,000 witches; Middle Age illiteracy and Macbeth’s seemingly ‘genuine’ initial want to simply celebrate his achievements, until Lady MacBeth’s manipulative ways take control.
With focus on the so important (turning point) Act I Scene 7.
An eight-page resource with space for student notes and trial-exam attempts.
Can link to either AQA or Edexcel.
Poster used when mentoring/working with unemployed adults who attended Gateshead College over a
four-week period. They all had strengths but many had accumulated so many layers of loss of self-belief and severe barriers to learning. This poster, together with a wide-range of 'business' resources, was designed as a motivation tool, in order to explore the 'superbness' in each individual. This type of positive affirmation tool, together with some emotionally-intelligent response to viewing their situation through fresh eyes, really did assist their journey. Why shouldn't we celebrate our superbness, in a reality picture where, quite often, it is only our faults and weaknesses that are examined? If others will not, then celebrate it yourself! Or email me at eyeofthefly@hotmail.com and I'll tell you myself.
A 13-page resource.
Provides - Background notes on Charles Dickens
The origins of A Christmas Carol including:
“Dickens dwelt on the terrible sights he had seen among the juvenile population in London's jails and doss-houses and stressed the desperate need for educating the poor. This occasion seems to have put into his mind the idea for a [Christmas Eve tale] which should help to open the hearts of the prosperous and powerful towards the poor and powerless but which should also bring centrally into play the theme of memory that, as we have seen, was always so strongly associated with Christmas for him.”
Includes reading and writing exercises and full book analysis with lined tables for student notes throughout.
A read and respond resource.
Whole Book Summary in a single-page.
Student chooses eight items to banish from the current system/reality then narrow down to two and describe in a table the full reasons to support their choices.
Then:
Fourteen items to take to new planet.
Then:
A4 page response relating to the student thoughts on ‘whole’ book summary.
Used in June 2016 with Year 8's.
Three media extracts.
Students identify six key facts from each, then write a 50+ word summary of the article.
Worked well in line with discussion relating to sentence-structure and connectives and by media article number three the students ability had vastly improved.
An 8-page resource where the student explores the realities of constructing a basic descriptive written piece, examining the first and third-person perspectives. The resource combines these, with the student completing, throughout 1-2 lessons, a first draft from both literary viewpoints, whilst providing valuable insight into their own lives in a piece entitled: Where I Live.
The resource provides Basic, Intermediate and High-Level response to descriptive writing and can be used alongside PP entitled 'Insight' by the same author.
An interesting resource describing in a chart across two pages how the concepts within the play developed, seemingly from a true story.
Masuccio Salernitano
Luigi da Porto
Matteo Bandello
Arthur Brooke
A six-page resource used with Year 8's, 9's and 10's exploring questions the students discuss and then research in response to. Can be used alongside the Timeline resource by the same author.