This engaging and informative lesson enables students to make precise interpretations of the descriptive language used by Philip Pullman in his descriptions of settings in ‘Northern Lights.’ They also learn how the depiction of settings can have a profound impact upon the tone and atmosphere of a novel, and apply this understanding (along with their knowledge of the key language devices) to form their own vivid and imaginative descriptions of places. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: Understanding the power of places and settings, especially the impact that they have on atmosphere and tone; Defining each of the different types of descriptive devices, through completing an interactive group activity; Reading extracts from the text in which Pullman describes ‘The North’ and ‘The Bear Palace,’ and identifying the language techniques used to paint an image of place in the minds of the readers; Analysing the effectiveness of each of Pullman’s descriptive devices; Creating their own description of an awe-inspiring place, utilising appropriate and effective descriptive devices throughout; Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts. Included is: Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; Cards for the Card Sorting Activity;’ Extracts from Northern Lights; ‘Bear Palace’ analysis worksheet; Writing to Describe Helpsheet All resources are provided in Word (for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure formatting remains fixed between different computers). There are also opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 7/8 classes, however colleagues have used them for between years 5 and 10 with some adaptations. The PowerPoint is in the zip file. All images are liensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This engaging and informative lesson enables students to make clear, detailed and well-informed interpretations of Portia in Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice.’ In particular, students develop their contextual understanding of the role of women in Shakespeare’s time, make precise interpretations about her character using evidence from the play, and link their understanding to their knowledge of social and historical context. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: Knowledge harvesting their understanding of the role of women in Shakespeare’s era; Researching and sharing multiple aspects of life for women in Shakespeare’s era; Reading selected quotations from the play and interpreting what these reveal about Portia’s character; Linking their knowledge of Portia’s character to their understanding of historical context; Peer assessing each others learning attempts; Included is: Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; Researching context worksheet; Essay template Comprehensive lesson plan. Resources are provided in PDF (to maintain formatting), Word (so that they are easily editable) and also in zipfiles. The lesson contains opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 10 and 11 classes, however colleagues have used them for between year 9 and year 13 with some adaptations. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This whole class reading session aims to develop children’s comprehension skills through a reading of the opening chapter of Louie Stowell’s ‘Loki: A Bad God’s Guide to Being Good.’ The resource pack includes the extract and all of the activities for the session, which the class are guided through via a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation. The reading is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop children’s retrieval, explanation, inference, prediction and summarising skills. It also contains a vocabulary check immediately after the extract is read to clarify any unfamiliar/ difficult language. The tasks are comprised of quick-check questions, solo thinking, pair/ group discussions and deeper thinking activities. The session is best suited for children in KS2. The session is also suitable for home/ remote learning. The extract is provided as a PDF, and a link to the online version is also included on the first slide.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Stephen Kelman’s ‘Pigeon English.’ Teachers have found them particularly useful in exam revision, comprehension tasks, or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of students towards meeting the KS4 expectations within the National Curriculum framework - this makes the tasks suitable for all examining bodies. Students have found these resources extremely engaging, and for teachers there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the story, ensuring that students gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: 'Context: Modern Britain - to aid students with ‘Drawing on knowledge of the purpose, audience and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs, to inform evaluation;’ ‘Kelman’s Description’ - to aid students with ‘Analysing a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features, and evaluating their effectiveness and impact;’ ‘X-Fire’ and ‘Lydia’ Profiles - to aid students with ‘Seeking evidence in the text to support a point of view, including justifying inferences with evidence;’ ‘Editing the Text’ - to aid students with ‘Making an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these.’ Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is around 30 pages in length!) I’ve also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on a separate document (included).

This whole class reading session aims to develop children’s fluency and comprehension skills whilst developing their understanding of kennings poems. The pack includes 4 original kennings poems (about the Moon, rivers, rocks and the internet). Please note that these kennings employ the correct meaning of a ‘compound (often figurative) in place of a more concrete single-word noun’ - therefore not necessarily two words per line. The reading is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop children’s VIPERS skills: vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval, sequencing and summarising. It also contains a vocabulary check immediately after the extract is read to clarify any unfamiliar/ difficult language. The tasks are comprised of quick-check questions, solo thinking, pair/ group discussions and deeper thinking activities. The extract needed is provided in both PDF and Word format. The session is best suited for children across KS2, I have previously used the resources with years 3, 4, and 5.

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of A Salesman.’ It contains comprehensive sections on: Context; Scene by Scene Summary (with quotes); Main Characters; Themes; Miller’s Dramatic Devices; The Features of Tragedy. Key words and ideas are underlined for easy reference. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Katherine Rundell’s 'Rooftoppers.’ Teachers have found them particularly useful in comprehension or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the KS2 expectations within the National Curriculum framework. Children love learning from these resources, whilst they are also of great use to teachers, as there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the story, ensuring that children gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: ‘Rundell’s Language Techniques’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Explain meanings of words that they know and ask the meaning of new words. Link the meaning of new words to words that they already know;’ ‘Character Analysis of Sophie and Matteo’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Understand what is read by drawing on information from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas, and using quotations for illustration;’ ‘An Interview with Charles Maxim’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Understand what is read by drawing on information from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas, and using quotations for illustration;’ ‘Storyboarders’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Read books that are structured in different ways and for a range of purposes.’ Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is over 20 pages in length!) I’ve also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer. The resource is suitable for home/ remote learning.

This engaging and interesting lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of one of the key characters in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth: Macduff. In particular, they learn to make insightful interpretations about the character, and are enabled to to infer and deduce Macduff’s key characteristics from his involvement at particular moments in the play, in addition to considering how Shakespeare deploys Macduff as a fitting hero to face Macbeth’s tyranny. The lesson utilises a range of tasks, that require students to be visual and interactive learners. It follows this learning journey: Inferring key information about the character of Macduff from events in the text; Identifying and ordering the key events in the text in which Macduff is involved; Understanding his role in the downfall of Macbeth; Understanding his character in relation to historical context, considering Shakespeare’s intentions through the character; Analysing Shakespeare’s development of Macduff as a key character throughout the text; Evaluating the learning in the lesson. Included in this resource pack are: A well-presented, thorough, and informative, whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; Resources for the card sorting sequencing activity, detailing Macduff’s numerous actions throughout the play; A Macbeth vs Macduff worksheet, to enable students to understand Macduff’s heroic characteristics; A template to help scaffold the main task, complete with P.E.E instructions; A comprehensive teacher guidance form/lesson plan to assist delivery. All images in this resource are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the lesson presentation.

These colourful, comprehensive, and well-structured revision cards have been creatively designed for students securing their understanding of William Shakespeare’s tragedy ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ Each card is visually-appealing and highly-detailed, covering aspects of each feature including a full summary, cited quotations from the play, definitions/ examples, and a consideration of audience reactions. They are tried and tested, with teachers incorporating them in revision games, using them as essay writing aids, or utilising them as home revision aids. They are provided as both PDFs (to prevent formatting issues between computers) and as Word documents (for easy editing). The revision cards included in this pack are: Characters - Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Friar Laurence, The Nurse, Tybalt; Context - William Shakespeare, Patriarchal Society, Religion; Devices - Dramatic Irony, Soliloquies, Dramatic Tension; Scenes - Act 1 Scene 5 (The Masquerade Ball Scene), Act 2 Scene 2 (Juliet’s Window Scene), Act 3 Scene 1 (The Death of Mercutio/ Tybalt Fight Scene); Themes - Love, Hatred, Fate and Free Will. For any questions or comments, please contact TandLGuru@yahoo.co.uk - Many thanks!

These resources enable students to understand and analyse the rise of the pigs towards power in chapters 3 and 4 of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. More precisely, students learn to make clear and accurate interpretations about the emergence of the various characters as leaders on the farm, with appropriate links to individual characters and their allegorical relationship to context. Students learn through the following tasks: - Gauging and collaborating prior knowledge through a discussion-based starter task; - Reading chapters 3 and 4 and demonstrating their understanding through a related group quiz activity; - Developing their understanding of the changing nature of characters, and their allegorical ties, through a quotation retrieval mind mapping task; - Analysing the allegorical nature of the pigs, by further exploring their characteristics in relation to those of the communist Russian leaders of the early 20th century; - Peer assessing their partners’ learning attempts. The following resources are provided: - Engaging and colourful step-by-step PowerPoint - Teacher lesson guidance/plan; - Analytical paragraphs worksheet; - Mind-mapping activity template; - Copies of Chapters 3 and 4. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Emma Carroll’s 'Secrets of a Sun King.’ Teachers have found them particularly useful in comprehension or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the KS2 expectations within the National Curriculum framework. Children love learning from these resources, whilst they are also of great use to teachers, as there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the story, ensuring that children gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: ‘Carroll’s Language Techniques’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Explain meanings of words that they know and ask the meaning of new words. Link the meaning of new words to words that they already know;’ ‘Character Analysis of Lil and Tulip Mendoza’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Understand what is read by drawing on information from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas, and using quotations for illustration;’ ‘An Interview with Howard Carter’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Understand what is read by drawing on information from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas, and using quotations for illustration;’ ‘Storyboarders’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Read books that are structured in different ways and for a range of purposes.’ Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is over 20 pages in length!) I’ve also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer. The resource is suitable for home/ remote learning.

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising Robert Browning’s poem 'Now.’ It contains comprehensive sections on: Context; Line-by-Line Analysis; Poetic Devices/ Language Devices; Themes; Form/Structure; Poems for Comparison; Links to Wider Reading. Key words and ideas are underlined for easy reference. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).

This clear, detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for KS2 children when writing war poems. The organiser is also perfect for teachers, parents and English subject leaders - aiding their planning and supporting of children’s knowledge development for this writing text type. The organiser has a particular focus on the content, language and structural features required to write effective war poetry. It contains distinct sections covering: -Overview: War Poetry; -Content: What to include, tone, common features, word mat; -Language: Vocabulary choices, poetic devices, rhyme, punctuation checklist; -Structure: Stanzas, syllables, rhythm, rhyme scheme, top tips; -Key Vocabulary. The content is fully aligned with the age-related expectations for upper KS2 children in writing. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).

This whole class reading session aims to develop children’s comprehension of the opening chapters of Roald Dahl’s The Witches. It contains a link to the online chapter (on the first slide). This is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop children’s retrieval, explanation, inference, prediction and summarising skills. It also contains a vocabulary check immediately after the extract is read to clarify any unfamiliar/ difficult language. The tasks are comprised of quick-check questions, solo thinking, pair/ group discussions and deeper thinking activities. The session is best suited for children in years 3-5, although with minor adaptations it could feasibly be used with slightly younger and older year groups.

This 16-page resource booklet contains a wide range of challenging and engaging comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Laurence Binyon’s poem ‘For the Fallen.’ Teachers have found the activities particularly useful throughout teaching, or for exam revision or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of students towards meeting the key English Literature assessment objectives - suitable for all examining bodies. Students have found these resources extremely engaging, and it is clearly highlighted within each task regarding which assessment strands the task is designed to demonstrate. It is provided in both Word (to allow for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure for consistency of formatting between computers). Activities within the booklet include (amongst many others): ‘Analysing Context’ - helping students to ‘Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written.’ ‘Analysing Subject Matter, Language and Structure’ - to help students to ‘Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.’ ‘Diary Entry’ - to help students to ‘Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation. Make an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these.’ ‘The Speaker’ - to help students to ‘Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to: maintain a critical style and develop an informed personal response use textual references, including quotations, to support and illustrate interpretations.’