Get SET to teach secondary English with Sian's English Toolkit.
These resources are based on my experience teaching secondary English for thirteen years. During this time I gained experience teaching language and literature to all ability levels within the age range 11-18. I also have extensive experience of writing schemes of learning as I was a department lead for ten of those years.
Get SET to teach secondary English with Sian's English Toolkit.
These resources are based on my experience teaching secondary English for thirteen years. During this time I gained experience teaching language and literature to all ability levels within the age range 11-18. I also have extensive experience of writing schemes of learning as I was a department lead for ten of those years.
A Christmas Carol Cut & Paste Quote Revision Activity | High School
This cut & paste activity will support learners with their quote revision. It will also show how well they know each of the characters and the key points about them.
There are two ways to complete this activity:
Print and give it straight to students. They cut out the character names and glue them into the appropriate boxes.
Print and laminate. You could cut up the character names, and students have to place them on the correct section. Alternatively, give your students wipeable markers and they write in the names. It will save you time laminating and cutting, but still means you can use them over and over again!
There are three different worksheets in this activity:
character speech
character descriptions
a ‘best-fit’ combination of speech and description
You may also be interested in the other ‘A Christmas Carol’ products in my shop:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-christmas-carol-annotated-extracts-12933695
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-christmas-carol-quotes-revision-game-13120979
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-christmas-carol-revision-board-game-12989845
Christmas 2024 Literacy Activities Bundle | High School | Answers Included
Keep students engaged in the build-up to Christmas with these Christmas-themed literacy activities. Including five different products, this bundle has something for all learners, whatever their ability.
Included in this bundle:
Christmas 2024 Advent Calendar: a literacy activity for each school day in December, including some great discussion topics! This editable PowerPoint is a brilliant way to start the day and the hyperlinks to each day’s activity make navigation really easy
Christmas Literacy Activities: 20 short activities, ideal for lesson starters or reward tasks for early finishers. Whilst being fun, they also encourage students to apply their knowledge of the alphabet, vowels and consonants.
Christmas Mega-Wordsearch: this 45 word wordsearch will keep students engaged and there is a bonus colour-by-number activity once all words have been found.
Festive Anagrams: two pages of 20 Christmas-themed anagrams, with the answer key included on a separate page.
Colour-by-Number (Spellings): this activity puts a festive spin on eight common spelling errors.
All of these products are also available to purchase individually from my shop. Or how about checking out some of these ‘A Christmas Carol’ activities:
Extract analysis: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-christmas-carol-annotated-extracts-12933695
‘I Have Who Has’ Quotes Revision Game: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-christmas-carol-quotes-revision-game-13120979
Revision Board Game: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-christmas-carol-revision-board-game-12989845
Advent Calendar 2024 | Literacy | Secondary School
This advent calendar provides a literacy activity for every school day in December. It works as a regular advent calendar does: you open the day’s window and it takes you to the activity. Windows are opened by clicking on the dated hyperlink.
These are short activities of 5-15 minutes and would be ideal for form time or as lesson starters. They can be used with any high school age group, but would be ideal for learners aged 11-14.
Activities include:
discussion topics around a festive theme
word games such as anagrams, wordsearches and word grids
festive phrases in other languages
visualising
The PowerPoint is also editable so that you can change/add activities to suit your learners, if you would prefer.
If you like this, you may also like:
Christmas Literacy Activities: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/christmas-literacy-activities-high-school-13128246
Christmas Mega-Wordsearch: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/christmas-wordsearch-high-school-13133045
Festive Anagrams: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/christmas-anagrams-12942667
NB. Activities in the advent calendar are the same as 2023 but dates, colours and hyperlinks have been updated for 2024.
Christmas Wordsearch | Aimed at KS3/11-14 Year Olds
This Christmas wordsearch contains 45 seasonal words to find. Once they have been found, there are instructions for how to colour-code the remaining spaces to reveal a Christmas-related image.
This resource includes:
the list of words and instructions for the whole activity
the word grid
a completed example of the wordsearch, including the colouring of the image
This worksheet could be used in the following ways:
as a quiet, individual activity during a lesson or form time
as a paired/group activity to include a competitive element
as a ‘reward’ task before the holidays or for completing all other work
You may also be interested in this Christmas literacy activity pack, which contains 20 seasonal tasks: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-13128246
I also have some festive anagrams available: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12942667
Heroes by Robert Cormier Unit & Revision
This bundle contains four resources that have been used successfully to teach and revise the novel Heroes by Roberts Cormier.
It includes:
a teaching overview for working through key aspects of the text
an accompanying PowerPoint, instructing pupils on how to complete tasks and some suggestions for discussion points in some key tasks
a narrative overview of the text to introduce the story/provide as a revision resource after the novel has been studied
essay structures for character and theme to support learners in preparing for whole text question responses in the exam
a range of revision activities to complete in the final sessions before the external exam, or to grasp learner understanding/confidence after the text has been taught
There are also numerous ‘An Inspector Calls’ resources in my shop, including a revision bundle, for those who are covering these two texts for the Unit 2 Literature exam:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12973433
Christmas Literacy Activities Secondary School
This PowerPoint includes 20 literacy-based activities all centred around the theme of Christmas.
Tasks engage students with key aspects of literacy, including:
the alphabet
vowels
consonants
spelling
The types of task include:
anagrams
identifying missing vowels/consonants
putting words into alphabetical order
creating their own words
finding hidden words in grids
Ideal as lesson starters in the weeks building up to Christmas to keep engagement levels high whilst still completing meaningful tasks.
They could also be used to create a sense of community within a class or community of students by having these as set form time activities.
All answers are included and the PowerPoint is editable so that you can add other activities or change colours/fonts to suit the needs of your learners.
If you like this resource, have a look at some other festive activities I have available:
Christmas Anagrams: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/christmas-anagrams-12942667
Annotated extracts from A Christmas Carol: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-christmas-carol-annotated-extracts-12933695
Christmas Colour-by-Number (spellings): https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/christmas-colour-by-number-spellings-12942709
GCSE English Language Revision Checklists (WJEC)
These checklists are to support learners in the build-up to mock exams and external exams.
They can be used by individuals to identify gaps in their own knowledge, or they can be used on a whole class level to identify areas of concern across the class to guide targeted teaching/learning/revision in the build-up to exams.
If a student cannot tick all columns for a skill, they should focus on that skill until they can. Once all columns have been ticked, they can move on to the next row.
The first checklist focuses on reading skills required across Units 2 & 3, including the editing section of Unit 2. The second checklist focuses on the writing skills required across Units 2 & 3, including the proofreading task on Unit 2.
Once gaps have been identified, some of these resources may be useful in addressing them:
Revision Pack: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/gcse-english-language-exam-revision-pack-wjec-12969501
Reading Skills Success Criteria Card Sort: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/gcse-english-language-reading-skills-wjec-12979433
How to plan writing task responses effectively: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/gcse-english-language-writing-planning-wjec-12984776
A GCSE English Language Resource Bundle, containing the above: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/gcse-english-language-bundle-wjec-12986501
Creative Writing Prompt Cards | Upper Primary School-Lower High School
These creative writing prompt cards would be useful for upper-primary or lower-high school aged students.
There are five categories of cards: main character, setting, season/weather/time, emotion and object.
The intention is for students to pick one card from each category and use these to create their own original story. This task can be differentiated up or down, depending on the needs of the students in the class, as outlined on the first page of the resource.
If this product is helpful to you, you may also like to have a look at these products in my shop:
Punctuation of Speech Activity: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/punctuation-of-speech-peter-pan-worksheet-12979465
Capital Letter Challenge Sheet: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/capital-letters-worksheet-the-secret-garden-12979226
Group Reading Task Sheet Bundle: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/inference-worksheets-12974999
Halloween Wordsearch | Aimed at KS3/11-14 Year Olds
This Halloween wordsearch contains 36 seasonal words to find. Once they have been found, there are instructions for how to colour-code the remaining spaces to reveal a Halloween-related image.
This resource includes:
the list of words and instructions for the whole activity
the word grid
a completed example of the wordsearch, including the colouring of the image
This worksheet could be used in the following ways:
as a quiet, individual activity during a lesson or form time
as a paired/group activity to include a competitive element
as a ‘reward’ task before the holidays or for completing all other work
You may also be interested in this Halloween literacy activity pack, which contains 10 seasonal tasks: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/halloween-word-games-and-activities-pack-13107470
Of Mice and Men | Quotes Revision | I Have Who Has | GCSE
This resource is targeted towards high school students in need of key quotes revision. It is a great way to get students revising whilst making it feel like a game.
There are 60 cards included, and these are divided into two games of 30 cards each.
Each card contains a quote and act. The two games have been colour-coded - blue and green - for ease of use.
A student will read the quote on their card, and students must identify which character said it, or which character/setting the quote relates to, depending on which version is being played. They must also identify whether the quote is from the chapter specified on their card.
Full instructions are included in the resource, as are all of the answers on a separate teacher sheet.
There are also suggestions for differentiation, including making the game more or less challenging, as needed.
If you found this resource helpful, you may also like:
my essay planning tool: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/of-mice-and-men-essay-planning-tool-wjec-12972679
an essay structuring pack: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/of-mice-and-men-essay-structures-12970873
An Inspector Calls | Quotes Revision | I Have Who Has | GCSE
This resource is targeted towards high school students in need of key quotes revision. It is a great way to get students revising whilst making it feel like a game.
There are 40 cards included, and these are divided into two games of 20 cards each.
Each card contains a quote and act. The two games have been colour-coded - blue and green - for ease of use.
A student will read the quote on their card, and students must identify which character said it, or which character the quote relates to, depending on the version of the game being played. They must also identify whether the quote is from the act specified on their card. Three cards per game include stage directions rather than speech.
Full instructions are included in the resource, as are all of the answers on a separate teacher sheet.
There are also suggestions for differentiation, including making the game more or less challenging, as needed.
If you found this resource helpful, you may also like:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/an-inspector-calls-essay-structures-12973418
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/an-inspector-calls-essay-planning-tool-12973414
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/an-inspector-calls-revision-bundle-12973433
A Christmas Carol | Quotes Revision | I Have Who Has | GCSE
This resource is targeted towards high school students in need of key quotes revision. It is a great way to get students revising whilst making it feel like a game.
There are 36 cards included, and these are divided into two games of 18 cards each. There are also two blank cards with each set in case you would like to write in a couple of your own to each game.
Each card contains a quote and stave. The blue version of the game includes quotes that describe characters. The green version of the game includes quotes said by different characters.
A student will read the quote on their card, and students must identify whether the character on their card said this quote, or whether the description is about their character (depending on which version of the game they’re playing). They must also identify whether the quote is from the stave specified on their card.
Full instructions are included in the resource, as are all of the answers on a separate teacher sheet.
There are also suggestions for differentiation, including making the game more or less challenging, as needed.
If you found this resource helpful, you may also like:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-christmas-carol-annotated-extracts-12933695
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-christmas-carol-revision-bundle-12972692
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-christmas-carol-revision-board-game-12989845
King Lear A-Level Quote Revision Game
This resource is targeted towards A-Level students in need of key quotes revision. It is a great way to get students revising whilst making it feel like a game.
There are 32 cards included, each containing a quote, act and character. A student will read the quote on their card, and students must identify whether the character on their card said this quote. They must also identify whether the character said it in the act specified on their card.
Full instructions are included in the resource, as are all of the answers on a separate teacher sheet.
There are also suggestions for differentiation, including making the game more or less challenging, as needed.
If you found this resource helpful, you may also like:
King Lear Exemplar Annotated Extracts - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/king-lear-a-level-extract-analysis-13018351
King Lear Revision Bundle - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/king-lear-a-level-revision-bundle-13019013
Halloween Word Games | Literacy | KS3 Learners/Age 11-14
This literacy task pack is perfect to use with KS3 learners/ages 11-14 during the build-up to Halloween.
There are ten activities included with an answer sheet for each one. The activities are:
wordsearch x3
anagrams x3
wordgrids x3
colour by number x1
Where there are multiple examples of an activity, there are different levels of complexity to enable differentiation within the classroom.
Tasks can be used in English lessons or as part of a whole-school literacy incentive during form/tutor time.
The task pack encourages learners to consider spelling, the alphabet, consonants/vowels and language features.
Designed so that sheets can be printed in colour or grayscale without compromising on clarity, depending on resources available to you.
If you have found these resources useful, you may also be interested in:
General anagrams for use throughout the year with KS3 learners/ages 11-14 - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/english-anagrams-12934233
Cross-curricular anagrams, containing subject-specific terms for six different subjects, for high school learners - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/cross-curricular-literacy-anagrams-12972642
The Merchant’s Tale (Chaucer) annotated extracts. These worksheets are designed to help GCE English Literature students practise extract analysis/annotation in preparation for analysing a specific extract in the exam. There are differentiated resources per extract depending on pupils’ ability and the learning intention of the lesson. Each extract has a specific question attached to it. The duration of the worksheet will depend on the learning intention of the lesson, but would take approximately 15-25 minutes to annotate and go through as a class as a revision activity.
There are three versions of each sheet:
blank extract and the question for use as an individual assessment
differentiated highlighted version to guide less confident students towards important quotations
highlighted and annotated version as a teacher guide, a good example of annotation to display to pupils/for self-assessment, or a revision handout to give to pupils
There are five annotated extracts:
33-54: presentation of January
318-341: presentation of marriage
611-638: presentation of January
948-972: presentation of January
1108-1133: presentation of January and May
If you haven’t seen it already, there’s also a free annotated extract available - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-13030820
Sport Events Literacy Activities Bundle contains a series of literacy activities for Euro 2024, the Olympics 2024 and the Paralympics 2024.
These editable PowerPoints each contain 20 literacy-based activities. These make perfect starter activities or form time tasks. Slides have a simple colour scheme so that they can be printed at a lower cost if hard copies are needed.
As well as being enjoyable and competitive, these activities will encourage learners to apply their knowledge of the alphabet, vowels, consonants and languages.
Activities include:
placing words into alphabetical order
matching terms to different languages
anagrams
identifying missing vowels/consonants
word grids
creating their own words
World Oceans Day Literacy Activities
This editable PowerPoint contains 20 literacy-based activities for World Oceans Day. These make perfect starter activities or form time tasks. Slides have a simple colour scheme so that they can be printed at a lower cost if hard copies are needed.
As well as being enjoyable and competitive, these activities will encourage learners to apply their knowledge of the alphabet, vowels, consonants and languages.
Activities include:
placing words into alphabetical order
matching terms to different languages
anagrams
identifying missing vowels/consonants
word grids
creating their own words
The Paralympics 2024 Literacy Activities
This editable PowerPoint contains 20 literacy-based activities based on the Paralympics 2024. These make perfect starter activities or form time tasks. Slides have a simple colour scheme so that they can be printed at a lower cost if hard copies are needed.
As well as being enjoyable and competitive, these activities will encourage learners to apply their knowledge of the alphabet, vowels, consonants and languages.
Activities include:
placing words into alphabetical order
matching terms to different languages
anagrams
identifying missing vowels/consonants
word grids
creating their own words
There is also an Olympics 2024 Literacy Activities resource available - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-13036737
The Olympics 2024 Literacy Activities
This editable PowerPoint contains 20 literacy-based activities based on the Olympics 2024. These make perfect starter activities or form time tasks. Slides have a simple colour scheme so that they can be printed at a lower cost if hard copies are needed.
As well as being enjoyable and competitive, these activities will encourage learners to apply their knowledge of the alphabet, vowels, consonants and languages.
Activities include:
placing words into alphabetical order
matching terms to different languages
anagrams
identifying missing vowels/consonants
word grids
creating their own words
You can also find a series of literacy activities relating to the Paralympics 2024: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-13039163
‘Heroes’ revision activities includes ten different worksheets for learners to complete after reading the novel. Some encourage learners to think critically about the text, whilst others test their recall of key events, characters and quotes. The time taken for each activity will vary, depending upon the level of confidence. Times are likely to vary between 5-20 minutes. Worksheets could be given as individual resources or used to produce a revision booklet for learners. Answer keys are provided for all tasks, where needed.
Activities require:
sequencing of key events
sequencing of key quotes
linking quotes to characters
thinking critically of characters and their personality traits
considering essay structures for the exam (WJEC)
£2.50 for the resource means that each activity costs only 25p!
If you find this resource useful, you may be interested in other Heroes resources available in my shop:
Essay structures - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/heroes-robert-cormier-essay-structures-12973423
Narrative Overview - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/heroes-by-robert-cormier-narrative-overview-12970174
