An extract from George Bernard Shaw’s classic play ‘Mrs Warren’s Profession’, perfect for analysis as an example of political and social protest writing for Section A of the AQA A level exam. It can be challenging to find great resources for this part of the exam, but this extract (with the accompanying exam question) always work fantastically.

A revision lesson designed to deconstruct Dr. Rank’s significance in ‘A Doll’s House’. This is a detailed analytical summary of Dr. Rank, including his key quotations, function in the play, and an essay question for students to consider. Perfect for those studying the play with AQA for A level (Political and Social Protest Writing).

An invaluable resource designed to build a picture of how Shakespeare presents Macbeth via other characters in the play. Taking key quotes from a variety of characters, we can see how Shakespeare’s characters speak about and to Macbeth throughout the play. This not only unveils how loyalties change and develop throughout the play, but also how Macbeth himself changes and how characters may behave differently in private versus public settings. This is ideal for supporting study of the play at GCSE.

An analytical summary of Mrs Birling in Act II of ‘An Inspector Calls’. This 900-word essay explores how Priestley presents Mrs Birling’s unyielding prejudice in the pivotal second act of the play. Perfect for high-grade students, this is a sophisticated reading of a key character.

An essay on the ‘tragic’ aspects of Malvolio in ‘Twelfth Night’. Often hailed as one of Shakespeare’s greatest comic characters, critics have also flocked to point out the tragic elements of his character arc, particularly the ethical implications of the play’s repeated schadenfreude. This article aims to introduce students to the complexities of Malvolio’s character. This resource serves as a great lesson for those studying the comedic genre in relation to ‘Twelfth Night’ (particularly AQA’s Aspects of Comedy paper), but is equally as useful and engaging for those studying the play through other lenses.

How does Scotland fare under the tyrannical reign of Macbeth? Students rarely consider the country of Scotland itself when analysing Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’, but to ignore Scotland is to forget the national scale of this bloody tragedy. This PowerPoint considers the role of Scotland in the play, including 10 key quotes about Scotland from various characters. Teachers can use these quotes however they please - it may create a great group activity or independent task. At the end of the PowerPoint is an exam-style question for students to consider. This is an ideal resource for encouraging students to aim for high marks in their GCSE analysis.

What kind of king is Macbeth? The perfect holistic study of how power corrupts Macbeth in Shakespeare’s tragedy, this detailed lesson traces what happens to Macbeth after he chooses the heretical path of regicide. This is an ideal lesson for GCSE students. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This top-band essay on Priestley’s presentation of Sheila in ‘An Inspector Calls’ is an excellent exemplar for students. At the end of the essay is a highlighting key for students to unpick the essay’s techniques and structure, allowing for detailed discussion of the exemplar in class. This resource is particularly useful for challenging HA pupils to reach the top bands.

This resource contains detailed and academically challenging PowerPoints for all five acts of Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’. Each PowerPoint goes through an act scene-by-scene, analysing language, theme, character and context, combining scholarly notes from a range of sources. These PowerPoints work well when accompanying the reading of the text in class. Students find them useful for revision of the play too. These five PowerPoints have the potential to cover several weeks of lessons. These resources are aimed at A level students (particularly those studying comedy as a genre), but could be used for the study of the play with any high attaining group.

This 24-slide lesson explores the character of Lady Bracknell from Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. Wilde’s presentation of Lady Bracknell is thoroughly deconstructed, with students asked to consider her theatrical heritage via Greek stock characters and the Comedy of Manners. We debate to what extent Lady Bracknell can be called the play’s ‘antagonist’, and how Wilde uses her to catalyse key events or provide comical obstacles in the play. Wilde’s structural use of Lady Bracknell is analysed, and important quotations from her and relating to her are dissected. We think about what we can learn from the stage directions about Lady Bracknell, and discuss how Wilde uses the offstage character of Lord Bracknell to inform Lady Bracknell’s character. We consider Lady Bracknell in the context of the ‘New Woman’ and students are provided with key vocabulary that might be used to analyse Lady Bracknell. Modern theatrical interpretations (including gender inversions) of Lady Bracknell are discussed. Students are also encouraged to think critically about how Lady Bracknell interacts with props and how Wilde positions her at the end of the play. Questions and discussion points are provided for students throughout the lesson. An exam-style essay question is featured at the end. Exemplar sentences and sentence openers are provided for students to enable sophisticated analysis, including purposeful introductions to extended essays. This lesson is ideal for high-level analysis of Lady Bracknell. PowerPoint saved as PDF.