2023** Now updated with more activities for Act 2**
This is a full scheme of work for Noughts and Crosses (the play version), ideal for KS3, year 8/year 9 English. Included: PowerPoint with 95 slides and three different assessment options for reading, writing and speaking.
Fonts used (free to download - just go to Google Fonts): [Montserrat] and [Staaliches].
Act 1 is analysed in detail, then students read through Act 2, completing some optional tasks at the end, such as review writing or an empathic monologue.
Context of racism, segregation and the IRA bombing
Narration task for the trailer, where students take the trailer without sound and add on their own narration
Group research and presentation task
Language analysis, including a model answer
Drama activities including hot seating
Newspaper writing task that forces students to pick a biased perspective
Review writing
Empathic response - taking on the voice of one character to write a monologue
Preview video: https://youtu.be/Q1QDDNe2L2c
This is my whole year’s worth of lessons that I used to teach CIE 0500 First Language English IGCSE to Chinese EAL students. I organised the files by topic, so it’s not chronological, as you can dip in to whichever section your class most needs. I also included my Forms quizzes, starter booklet with short answer practices and revision materials, including a link to my one hour video lesson for question 3. All the folders, files, worksheets etc, in the preview video are included. I put each folder into a zip file so that everything would stay organised.
Included:
Question 1 - Summaries: lessons going over paraphrasing techniques with a model answer and tips
Question 2 - Language analysis: many lessons on this, including one on the song Blowin’ in the Wind and many from past exams. I also made a PowerPoint in which I go over common effects that I found when going over past papers (in the revision folder).
Question 3 - Extended response: lessons for the major text types, speeches, newspaper, magazine, interview, diary and letter. Exam tips for approaching this question. Includes engaging material such as Harvey Milk and JFK speeches.
Narrative writing - tips and tricks, going over plot structure and climax, looking at engaging openings.
Descriptive writing - tips and tricks, exemplar, lesson on extended metaphors and developing a range of imagery.
Evaluative response - PPT and resources to give a rebuttal to an article about school uniforms with a plan included.
Six Forms quizzes (mostly self marking) which offer short answer question practice
Starter booklet for short answer questions
My video lesson for Q3 is included as a link in the revision folder
Student friendly overview of the course
**Please note that I planned this for the coursework element, but both coursework and Paper 2 need the same text types being taught with near-identical mark schemes: narrative writing, descriptive writing and the response to text. **Therefore I think that this resources is equally as valuable to everyone doing both assessed and coursework routes - but with exam route, of course you’d also want to give students some exam practices after teaching the skills in my lessons.
This booklet contains two whole lessons plus fast finishers. I structured this booklet so that pupils will have visual cues in the form of icons to help them structure their story: who, where, when, problem, solution and ending. This mini icons help to signal to pupils what is required of them.
The booklet contains many many colourful images to generate ideas for writing and engage pupils. There are also two stories in there to use as a starting point, with images and comprehension questions. This is suitable for KS2 and SEN and low ability KS3.
Six units, which took me about 6 months to teach, for academic writing for KS4/KS5 students on researching, gathering data and writing up a research report. Over 30 PowerPoints are including, as well as worksheets, readings and self-marking Forms quizzes.
Students will undertake a research project centered around their school on a topic of their choice. Eg. To what extent does the mobile phone policy at X School improve student learning? To what extent are students at X School satisfied with the school uniform policy?
Please see my preview video on Youtube: https://youtu.be/Jp61qsTsRH4. Everything you see in those files is included. I organised the folders into zipped files to maintain the organisation system.
I taught this course to second-language Y13 learners. It would be appropriate for KS5 and KS4 students.
This 6 unit scheme of work takes students through the basics of academic writing, creating a research question, gathering data and writing up their own academic research report. Most units also contain a seminar and a lecture lesson to help prepare students for university.
Unit 1: The Basics. How to reference, using academic language, quoting and summarising from an academic source, structuring an academic paragraph, lecture lesson and a seminar lesson on vaping, culminating in a quiz to check understanding
Unit 2: Writing Introductions. Creating a research question, writing context and rationale sections, seminar and lecture on gender identity. Quiz is included also.
Unit 3: Writing literature reviews. How to find relevant studies using Questia/JSTOR, how to structure a literature review, seminar and lecture on parental control.
Unit 4: Methology and Data Collection. Designing a research instrument, ethics of research, creating a poster to get people to take their surveys, finishing with a group seminar to give feedback on each other’s data tools. Exemplar included.
Unit 5: Data Analysis. Creating data visuals, how to analyse their results, writing data analysis section with exemplar and worksheet, seminar to get feedback on their writing so far.
Unit 6: Writing Conclusions, Abstracts and Redrafting. Guidance on writing abstracts with a worksheet, guidance on conclusions with an exemplar and peer feedback session to give students advice on how to redraft and improve their final essay. Also included is a final summative quiz, mostly self-marking.
Quizzes, rubrics and whole year overview are included.
This complete Powerpoint lesson introduces students to Shakespearean language, explaining common grammar/language changes. Suitable for KS3/KS4/KS5 Literature.
This begins with an explanation of language change, from Old to Middle English up to Early Modern Shakesperean.
Students then have a match-up challenge with common vocabulary.
Finally, students will try to translate the prologue of Romeo and Juliet into modern English.
Tried and tested lesson!
This is a complete booklet designed for SEN KS3, full with colourful pictures and fully scaffolded. As always with my SEN material, I use a colour coded key for each activity to guide pupils through tasks.
There is a full planning section and a fast finishers section at the back.
This 12 page colourful booklet comes both as a PDF and in editable Word format.
The booklets consistently use colourful icons to guide pupils through a series of creative writing tasks. I use lots of images to engage and inspire pupils.
This is one of my favourite lessons to teach, tried and tested, and always gets good results! Students will learn step-by-step how to write extended metaphors, with videos, model answers and a nicely designed ppt.
This lesson guides students through analysing the opening of The Hunger Games film, looking specifically at the use of sound, camera angles, contrast and the portrayal of Katniss. I’ve also included some notes I made with my class about the opening film, with suggested talking points. Slides include screenshots and sound clips from the film.
I couldn’t share the whole opening of the film due to copyright issues, so you’ll need to get the DVD, download it using your own means, or rent it off Youtube.
This is a unit of work aimed at the CIE English as a First Language GCSE spec. It could be adapted for other specifications, especially for creative writing. Simply remove the CIE question and insert your own prompt, using my stimulus text too if you choose.
This unit took me around five weeks to teach. Each powerpoint took around 3.5 hours on average to cover in class (including discussion time, time to write and give feedback, etc). Differentiated for ESL/EAL learners with key vocabulary, word of the day and prereading homeworks.
It covers letter writing, interview writing and diary writing for question 1. Mock CIE style assessments are also included to support this, along with annotated inserts. It also has a lesson for writing a dystopian story for the coursework unit. The scheme also covers using language devices in creative writing and analysis of film, looking at the opening scenes of The Hunger Games film.
Included are: one full unit plan, seven ppts, two homework tasks, three mock Q1s based on the novel, and an example planning sheet.
This resource contains a Powerpoint and a running race worksheet with teacher answers.
You will first explain some common strategies for working out the meaning of new vocabulary with examples.
Students will then have a group running race in which they apply the strategies they have learnt to new words. They will have to come to you for each question with a correct answer before being allowed to access the next question. The first team to complete the quiz wins.
This is a tried and tested lesson which my students love. Engaging, fun and practical.
Suitable for KS3 or KS4 English for any exam board. Especially suitable for CIE First Language English 0500 in which students will have to define new words.
This is a complete booklet designed for SEN KS3, full with colourful pictures and fully scaffolded. As always with my SEN material, I use a colour coded key for each activity to guide pupils through tasks.
There is a full story written by myself as an example to pupils. I retell the story of Goldilocks but set in New York City in the present day. This story comes with a key and images to make it all the more accessible to SEN pupils.
There is a full comprehension section, planning section and a fast finishers section at the back.
There is the opportunity to watch a short video of the original fairy tale, which is available here: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/short-stories/goldilocks-and-the-three-bears
This link is also included in the pack.
Please see my example images of the booklet.
This fun and colourful English reading quiz would be suitable for KS3 and KS4. Each round contains extra clues to support weaker students, plus songs, film audio, picture clues, timers and more. All of the books in this quiz are books I have seen my pupils read, so should be accessible to most high school students. Extra clue differentiate for weaker ability students too. Total of 67 colourful slides. I gave it a contents page and fully hyperlinked so it would also be appropriate for starters and/or tutor time activities.
Also included are student answer sheets and teacher answer sheet.
Rounds include:
Picture round
Name the author
Opening lines
Books on Netflix
Unscramble the title
Books and film
Blurbs
Youtube authors
Children’s books
Fan art
This is a Powerpoint lesson differentiated for ESL/EAL/SEN students to teach them how to write similes step-by-step. Tried and tested.
This lesson was originally designed for Chinese speakers learning English, so I left in some of the Chinese (it’s minimal and easily deleted, or you can translate into your student’s native language using google translate for some translanguaging!)
Three lessons on the topic of informal letter writing. This was intended for CIE IGCSE English as a Second Language question 6, but could be used also with KS3.
1. Generating ideas - four different routes into coming up with ideas for letter writing (PPT)
2. Formal/informal language with a variety of activities and model answers (PPT)
3. Peer assessment (PPT)
This also comes with a success criteria based on the CIE mark scheme.
This booklet enables pupils to write a modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, scaffolding the process along the way. I encourage pupils to think about setting, costume and character, and how this might alter as we bring the play into a different era.
This ppt contains rules and 24 debating prompts, along with a timer. This is intended for speed debating in a speed dating style, with pairs of students faced opposite each other. The teacher decides which side is agreeing and which side is disagreeing and then students have 3 minutes to debate. I usually then open up the topic to the class to have a whole room debate, but that’s up to you. Some controversial topics included, to be used at your discretion depending on the personality and ability of your class. Easily modifiable format for you to include your own topics. I originally used this with a top set year 11 class with lots of second language learners. Could be used for first language or second language learners, depending on ability.
This scheme of work is aimed at KS3, building up the skills needed for OCR's English Literature New Spec GCSE.
This presentation includes 3 whole lessons.
I have taken extracts from Victorian literature, focusing on language analysis skills (AO2) and building in historical context (AO3).