The inspiration and original idea for this resource was @MrsSpalding on Twitter, and this is the product of a collaboration with two other Twitter users. The three GCSE Literature texts addressed are: * Macbeth * A Christmas Carol * An Inspector Calls and a range of critical theories are applied to each, including: * Marxist theory * Feminist theory * Jungian archetypes * Freudian theory * Aristotelian theory * Structuralist theory * Nietzschean philosophy * John Locke's theory of 'tabula rasa' (nature vs nurture) and is geared towards use with more-able students so that they can make conceptual interpretations of the literary texts studied to access the highest bands in the exams.

25 x PPT slides, each containing 5 retrieval practice Qs to encourage regular recall of previously learned information. The latest research suggests retrieval practice improves transfer of knowledge to long-term memory. Hope they’re useful. Please leave a review.

Quite simply, using the key word skills hierarchy 'descriptors' from the new AQA English mark schemes, I have produced comment banks which teachers might wish to use in their report writing which address all of the AOs for WRITING. The key word descriptors are as follows: 'simple and limited', 'some success', 'generally and appropriately', 'consistently and clear' and 'compelling and convincing.' These comment banks could be imported into whole-school assessment reporting, tracking and recording software like SIMS to make report writing easier. If you find this resource useful, check out the Comment Banks for READING skills, too.

A variety of starter activity puzzles: crosswords, anagrams, word searches with hidden messages to accompany the teaching and learning of Orwell's novel, a set text for the new AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 2: Modern Texts examination. Hope they are of use to you.

A set of 15 resources, made available in PPT and SMART Notebook formats. Each resource offers students a variety of tasks on an individual poem, encouraging them to ‘think hard’ about the poem, its form, structure, language and themes. These resources have been designed for classroom use, or can be set as homeworks, or used as exam preparation tasks. Hope they are useful. Please leave a review. Matt :)

A practice exam paper for the new AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2A: Writers' Viewpoints and Perspectives, linked by the theme of 'PARANORMAL', using an extract from an autobiographical account written by Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle in 1930 and a 21st C Discovery Channel online news article entitled, 'Do Ghosts Exist? Exploring the Paranormal' where the authors present contrasting viewpoints and attitudes to the subject matter. The texts and the format of the exam Qs follows that published by AQA in the approved specimen materials. Please note: These resources were originally designed for use by pupils at Key Stage 3, introducing the format and the skills tested by the new GCSE. Also, Conan-Doyle's account, taken from 'The Edge of the Unknown' was published in 1930 but for the purposes of introducing contrasting viewpoints and attitudes at KS3 is suitably challenging. I hope it is of some use to you.

The new GCSE English Language and Literature Assessment Objectives 'boiled down' to 5 CORE Reading Skills and then those core skills are traced through a hierarchy of competence, using phrases common to new AQA Language and Literature mark schemes (highlighted in bold on the progression maps), linked to the new numerical grades 9 to 1, using the FFT 'refined' model. They can be used across both Key Stages 3 and 4 to assess skills progression and to ensure consistency in application of assessment criteria across members of your department. If you find them of use, check out the Planning for Progression in Writing: New 9 to 1 Skills progression map also uploaded to TES. I hope they are of some use to you.

Several starter activity puzzles for use with Philip Pullman's adaptation of 'Frankenstein.' Designed for use by pupils at Key Stage 3.

A collection of starter activities based on events and characters in the play, ranging from simple to very challenging so they are suitable for pupils of different abilities. Complete with solutions for busy teachers! Ideal for use at Key stage 3.

Designed for the NEW AQA (2015 onwards) English Language Paper 2B - WRITING TASK A variety of writing tasks, each linked by theme, to accompany various Paper 2A practice exam resources I have already produced, all available FREE of charge from my 'shop'. Help yourself and leave a review! The 2B tasks in the Word document are designed to accompany the following practice 2A papers I have uploaded: * NURSING - THEN & NOW * CAPITAL PUNISHMENT * RAIL DISASTERS * CRIME & PUNISHMENT * CHILD LABOUR and each writing task follows the format of the published AQA specimen exam paper for Paper 2B. I hope you find these of use to accompany resources you may have already downloaded. Matt :)

A practice exam paper for the new AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2A: Writers' Viewpoints and Perspectives, linked by the theme of 'Elephants', using an extract from an autobiographical essay written by George Orwell in 1936 and a 21st C tabloid online newspaper article regarding the exposure of animal cruelty suffered by England's last circus elephant. The texts and the format of the exam Qs follow that published by AQA in the approved specimen materials. Please note: As these resources were originally designed for use by pupils at Key Stage 3, introducing the format and the skills tested by the new GCSE, Orwell's work was published in 1936 but, for the purposes of introducing contrasting viewpoints and attitudes at KS3, it is suitably challenging. I hope it is of some use to you.

A practice exam paper for the new AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2A: Writers' Viewpoints and Perspectives, linked by the theme of 'Homelessness', using an extract from Orwell's autobiography 'Down and Out in Paris and London' and a 21st C tabloid newspaper article with a very negative attitude to homeless people. The texts and the format of the exam Qs follow that published by AQA in the approved specimen materials. Please note: As these resources were originally designed for use by pupils at Key Stage 3, introducing the format and the skills tested by the new GCSE, Orwell's work was published in 1933 but for the purposes of introducing contrasting viewpoints at KS3 is suitably challenging. NOTE: I've uploaded LOADS of practice Paper 1s AND 2s to my 'shop', ALL FREE of charge. Please help yourself - just leave a review. Thank you! I hope it is of some use to you.

A 35 page workbook of differentiated activities, designed to support students in their study of John Steinbeck's classic novella, 'Of Mice and Men'. To accompany the workbook is a set of SMART Notebook slides, which replicate the pages of the pupil workbook, to support teachers in their whole-class, interactive teaching of the text and the material. PLEASE NOTE: If you do not have SMART Notebook, you can STILL download and view SMART Notebook files by downloading a FREE Smart Notebook viewer. It opens the file on your PC in a format akin to Microsoft Powerpoint (with very occasional wonky movement of graphics due to a formatting glitch!) Anyway, you can access the FREE SMART Notebook viewer by copying and pasting this link into your web browser: http://express.smarttech.com/ I hope you find these useful. If you do, then you may find of interest similar resources available FREE at my 'shop' here on TES for 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' and also 'The Highwayman', aswell as differentiated AQA English Language exam paper 1s and 2s. Matt :)

A practice exam paper for the new AQA Language Paper 1: Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing UPDATED: APRIL 2017 - to include a REVISED series of SMART notebook slides to teach Q by Q in class, which can be unlocked and adapted for other Paper 1A practice exam papers I have uploaded to the TES site, all available free of charge. Includes a Q3 key terminology matching starter, a Q3 STRUCTURE model response, a new Q4 slide. This extract is taken from John Steinbeck's novella, 'The Pearl', published in 1947. In the extract, set in Mexico during the 1940s, a child named Coyotito has been stung by a scorpion. The child’s father, a Mexican pearl diver named Kino, takes his child to the white European doctor who works in a nearby town. The text and the format of the exam Qs 1 to 4 follows that of AQA's approved specimen papers. NOTE: I've uploaded LOADS of practice Paper 1s AND 2s to my 'shop', ALL FREE of charge. Please help yourself - just leave a review. Thank you! I hope this is of some use to you.

A collection of starter activities for use with Theresa Breslin's novel, 'Whispers in the Graveyard', from simple wordsearches and anagram puzzles of key word vocabulary to crossword puzzles testing reading comprehension and more challenging cryptogram puzzles. Solutions to the puzzles are provided at the end.

The new GCSE English Language and Literature Assessment Objectives 'boiled down' to 5 CORE WRITING Skills and then those core skills are traced through a hierarchy of competence, using phrases common to new AQA Language and Literature mark schemes (highlighted in bold on the progression maps), linked to the new numerical grades 9 to 1, using the FFT 'refined' model. If you find them of use, check out the Planning for Progression in Reading: New 9 to 1 Skills progression map also uploaded to TES. I hope they are of some use to you.

In this dramatic opening, the narrator describes a man being thrown from a grounded hot air balloon which then begins to ascend. Alone and terrified, in the basket there is a small boy. I have adapted TES contributor Claire Mesher's resource for use with SMART Notebook, as a series of interactive slides to aid your teaching of this specimen exam paper Q by Q, for Qs 1 to 4. Also, I have added a model response to Q3: Structure demonstrating how pupils can apply subject specific terminology appropriately as this is mentioned in every band on the AQA mark scheme for this question. NOTE: I've uploaded LOADS of Paper 1s AND 2s to my 'shop', ALL FREE. Please help yourself - just leave a review. Thank you! Thanks :)

Designed for less able students at Key Stage 3 or 4, this is a practice exam paper for the NEW AQA English Language Paper 1A: Reading 20th C Fiction texts. I have adapted an extract taken from H G Wells' classic sci-fi novel, 'War of the Worlds' (1898), simplifying some of the vocabulary and sentencing to make the text a little more accessible for students whose reading age might be lower than their chronological age. I've also designed a series of SMART Notebook slides to accompany the Word resource for interactive whiteboard teaching of the questions, Q by Q. The format of the paper is as follows: Q1 - the same Q2 - cloze exercise focusing on how the writer uses language Q3a - sequence a series of statements to show understanding of narrative events / structure Q3b - cloze activity, modelling Q3 response, for pupils to complete. I know that the new GCSE paper is untiered and students will not be given this level of support in the exam. However, this resource is intended to provide an appropriate point of access and opportunities for students whose literacy is a barrier to learning to practise the reading response skills demanded by this exam - and to support the teachers who have to deliver it! I hope that it is of some use to you. I have produced other resources just like this one using extracts from Frankenstein, Skellig, A Christmas Carol, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Monkey's Paw, The Hobbit, The Sniper, To Kill a Mockingbird, Z for Zachariah, Dracula, The Machine Gunners, The Pearl and Buddy. I've also uploaded loads of typical specimen exam papers for the new AQA Language Paper 1 and 2s to my shop, all available free of charge. Please leave a review and help yourself! Matt :)

Courtesy of @MrsLCavalier who provided the source texts over on Twitter (via @Team_English1), I have produced an AQA English Language Paper 2 Walking Talking mock exam via SMART Notebook slides, complete with reminders about the focus of each Q; the timings; how to approach each Q; exemplar responses and Q by Q slides with interactive timers. PLEASE NOTE: If you don't use SMART Notebook interactive whiteboards in your school, you can download a FREE SMART Notebook viewer which enables you to open and view/project the slides in a format that it akin to Powerpoint. (Occasionally, due to formatting glitches some of the graphics or text can go a little wonky!) Or you can just download the source texts and the question paper. It is hoped that this is of use to you and your colleagues. Matt :)

A highly differentiated resource to support students whose literacy is a barrier to accessing the new GCSE English Language exam papers. I have adhered to the question format of Qs 1 to 3 of the exam paper but have scaffolded the responses to enable less able students to practise the skills demanded by the new AQA English Language Paper 1A: Reading exam. To accompany the pupil workbook, I have produced a set of SMART Notebook slides for whole class interactive teaching of the resource. Q1 - the same Q2 - cloze exercise Q3a - sequence the statements to show understanding of narrative events Q3b - cloze exercise to show comprehension of narrative events, using specialist terminology I have uploaded lots of these differentiated practice papers, as well as differentiated Language Paper 2s, all available FREE at my 'shop'. Also, loads of 'actual' specimen papers! Help yourself and please leave a review. Matt :)