This extract from Ken Kesey’s ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ is perfect for analysing elements of political and social protest as per the AQA A level paper.

This lesson is focused on helping students to analyse literary ‘structure’ using an extract from Suzanne Collins’ ‘The Hunger Games’. The lesson is focused on Question 3 (‘How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?’) from AQA’s GCSE English Language Paper 1. Students are presented with methods of tackling this notoriously challenging question. Exemplar paragraphs on ‘The Hunger Games’ are also included. The resource includes a lesson PowerPoint and the extract from the novel. This lesson is aimed at GCSE pupils but could be used for KS3. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This 20-slide lesson explores Carol Ann Duffy’s poem, ‘War Photographer’. The lesson begins by considering the role of news and news media, before discussing our relationship with news coverage. Students are encouraged to think critically about how they interact with various news platforms and whether the globalisation of news coverage has lessened or deepened our understanding of the world. Duffy’s life and work is considered, including her friendship with prominent photojournalists. Students look at some of the work of notable real-life ‘war photographers’, considering the unique and challenging role of a photojournalist, and the ethics behind it. We read the poem and explore its language, form, structure, and rhythm. Key vocabulary is presented to students to facilitate top-grade analysis, and the poem’s main themes are discussed. A variety of discursive and formal questions are featured for students, and an exam-style essay question is included at the end. Teachers can use various stimuli to discuss the complex questions that Duffy asks about the role of photojournalism. This lesson is ideal for students ages 13+. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This 23-slide lesson explores Philip Larkin’s poem, ‘The Mower’. The lesson considers how the hedgehog in the poem - as well as the speaker’s reaction to what he has done to it - functions symbolically and metaphorically. Close attention is paid to Larkin’s language, structure, form, and rhythm, while the poem’s message is deconstructed in light of the elegy’s suspiciously neat conclusion. Larkin’s poetic and literary influences are also explored with regard to the poem’s genre and imagery. Questions, discussion points, and tasks are included. An essay question is also featured for students. This resource includes a copy of the poem. The lesson is ideal for analysing this poem as an ‘unseen’ text at GCSE, but could also work with KS3 or A level groups. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This extract from Bertolt Brecht’s harrowing anti-war play ‘Mother Courage and Her Children’ is perfect practice for analysing elements of political and social protest for those studying the AQA A level syllabus.

This 20-slide PowerPoint is an introductory lesson on the context of Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’, aimed primarily at A level students (particularly those studying the genre of comedy). The lesson contains information on Shakespeare, Commedia dell’Arte, Elizabethan acting, Illyria in context, religious satire, and more. Questions and tasks are featured for students, including a potential homework task. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This 40-slide lesson explores the context and background of Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’. Designed as both an introduction to the play and a revision resource for students to use when recapping the play’s context, this is a comprehensive and detailed exploration of Shakespeare’s sources and influences, as well as the play’s key themes, ideas and critical debates. Students are also equipped with important and precise vocabulary for analysing the play with sophistication. Among other key ideas, students are introduced to elements of tragedy, Jacobean ideas of kingship, Shakespearean staging and stagecraft, Christianity vs. Paganism, and the play’s preoccupation with absurdity and meaninglessness. The anonymous ‘King Leir’ is referenced along with other points about the play’s textual history, and contemporary debates around succession and the unification of Britain are discussed in detail. Images from various productions of ‘King Lear’ are included for discussion, and questions for students are included throughout the resource. The file is included here both as a PDF and PowerPoint. The latter file will not retain precise font choices and formatting.

Help students to finally master commas with this engaging 18-slide lesson that covers all the main rules. We all know that many students struggle with commas. This lesson aims to explain the key rules alongside practical examples. It explains how to use commas in lists (including the Oxford comma), for fronted adverbials, and subordinate clauses. Humorous comma errors are included for students to identify and amend. This lesson is ideal for KS3, but could definitely be used for GCSE students struggling with apostrophes too. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This 26-slide lesson provides a comprehensive introduction to the context and comedy of Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. The lesson features information on Wilde’s life and literary career and on Victorian contexts of gender, sexuality, and morality. The genre of comedy is considered in detail, and the key themes, characters, and conventions of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ are outlined. Questions, discussion points, and tasks are included for students. This lesson would work particularly well for those teaching Wilde on AQA’s Aspects of Comedy paper for English Literature A level, but is still useful for those exploring the play for other courses. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

These two lessons (28 slides each) explore William Blake’s companion poems, ‘Infant Joy’ and ‘Infant Sorrow’, from the ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’. The lessons explore Blake’s radicalism and context, analysing the poems’ language, themes, form, structure, and message in light of his political protest. Questions, tasks, and discussion points for students are included throughout, including extended essays. These lessons are ideal for those studying Blake’s ‘Songs’ as part of AQA’s A level ‘Political and Social Protest Writing’ paper, but could be adapted for other purposes. PowerPoints saved as PDF. 56 slides in total.

This 15-slide lesson explores Chapter 6 of George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’. In this comprehensive lesson, students consider how the pigs begin to violate the Seven Commandments (sleeping in beds and trading with humans) and how Squealer is able to justify these transgressions through manipulative rhetoric. The use of Snowball as a scapegoat is explored, alongside how and why Orwell emphasises Boxer’s significance to the farm’s ‘success’. The allegorical function of the novella is also closely studied, as pupils learn about the slippery relationships between Stalin and the US, UK, and Germany. Questions, discussion points, and tasks are included for students. The lesson is ideal for KS3 or GCSE students. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This 22-slide lesson explores Simon Armitage’s poem, ‘I Am Very Bothered’. The lesson encourages students to analyse Armitage’s poem as a subversion of typical love poetry, thinking about its ironic use of the sonnet form and the speaker’s distorted sense of romantic imagery. The poem’s language, structure, and form is considered. Questions, discussion points, and tasks are included for students. An extended essay question (including an exemplar introduction and analytical paragraph) is featured at the end of the lesson. A copy of the poem is also included. This lesson is ideal for Key Stage 3 or GCSE analysis. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This 18-slide lesson explores Chapter 6 of John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’. Students are encouraged to think about the iconic ending of the novella, considering how Steinbeck has led to this moment. George and Lennie’s relationship is discussed at length, and the key themes of dreams, hope, fate, loneliness and friendship are debated. Students always love to dissect the ending in detail! Questions, discussion points, and tasks are included for students. An extended essay question and creative writing tasks are featured at the end of the lesson. Ideal for upper-KS3 or GCSE students. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This is a thorough and comprehensive introduction to Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, outlining the key context necessary to understanding the novel. This 25-slide lesson details the novel’s key historical context, exploring the Deep South of the 1930s and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, as well as Lee’s own life and the novel’s key themes and legacy. Questions, tasks and discussion points are featured throughout. An extended (potential homework) task is included at the end of the lesson. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This is a thorough and comprehensive 30-slide lesson on Robert Browning’s poem ‘Porphyria’s Lover’, which is studied as part of AQA’s GCSE Literature anthology on ‘Love & Relationships’. This lesson unpicks key themes of obsession, possessiveness, delusion, control and violence with close analysis of language, form and structure. Students are also encouraged to consider Browning’s use of the dramatic monologue form and how the poem’s gender dynamics might act as a mode of satirising masculinity. Also included are many small questions, tasks and discussion points for students, as well as a ‘mock’ essay question in which students must compare ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ to another poem, just like in the real AQA exam. The lesson is aimed at GCSE students but could be adapted for KS3. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This 23-slide lesson provides a comprehensive introduction to key context for studying Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’. The his lesson covers the significance of the Prometheus, Gothic genre, Romanticism, Industrialisation and much more on Shelley’s famous novel, including the influence of ‘Paradise Lost’. Shelley’s life is explained, and the key themes are explored. Questions and tasks are also included for students. A creative task is featured at the end of the lesson. This could be used either as a class-based or homework activity. The lesson is ideal for GCSE students, but could be used for introducing the text for high-attaining KS3 pupils or even at A level. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This 30-slide lesson explores Linda Pastan’s poem, ‘To a Daughter Leaving Home’. Ideal for Key Stage 3 or GCSE pupils, this lesson deconstructs Pastan’s poem of parental anxiety and letting go, paying close attention to language, imagery, form, structure, and rhyme. Students are encouraged to think about the poem’s metaphorical and allegorical significance, and questions, tasks, and discussion points are included throughout the lesson. Biographical information about Pastan and her poetry is included. A short analytical task is included, and the lesson ends with a creative writing (poetry) activity (which could be used as a homework task). PowerPoint saved as PDF.

Help students to finally master apostrophes with this engaging lesson that covers all the rules. We all know that many students struggle with apostrophes. This lesson aims to explain the theories alongside practical examples. It explains how to use apostrophes for omission/contraction and possession, including plurals and names ending in ‘S’. Also included is a worksheet with apostrophe-related questions/tasks for students to complete either in class, as a homework task, or a starter activity to test knowledge retention in the next lesson. This lesson is ideal for KS3, but could definitely be used for GCSE students struggling with apostrophes too. PowerPoint and worksheet saved as PDF.

This 27-slide lesson explores Simon Armitage’s poem, ‘Hitcher’. The lesson analyses each stanza in comprehensive detail, considering Armitage’s use of language, structure, form, and poetic technique. The speaker’s increasing frustration and anger is examined closely as the poem builds to its infamous climax. Questions, discussion points, and tasks are included for students. One task involves creative writing, while an essay question is featured at the end of the lesson. This lesson is ideal for upper-KS3 or GCSE students. A copy of the poem is also included in this resource. PowerPoint and Word Doc saved as PDFs.

This 25-slide lesson explores all the key context behind Dickens’ classic novella, ‘A Christmas Carol’. It’s everything that students need to know before reading the text - including an introduction to Dickens’ life, understanding Victorian poverty, and an exploration of the key themes and concepts of the timeless story. Questions, discussion points, and tasks for students are also featured, including a research task at the end of the lesson (potentially a homework task). This lesson is ideal for GCSE pupils studying the text, but is easily adaptable for KS3. PowerPoint saved as PDF.