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English language arts
The Zebra's Great Escape - Whole Class Reading Session!
This whole class reading session aims to develop children’s fluency and comprehension skills through reading the opening to Katherine Rundell’s ‘The Zebra’s Great Escape.’
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 text is hyperlinked (first slide) for ease of access, and is also provided as a PDF.
The session is best suited for children in years 2-3, although with minor adaptations it could feasibly be used with slightly younger and older year groups.
The Twits - Chapters 9 to 12 - 'Mrs Twit has the Shrinks' to 'Mrs Twit Comes Ballooning Down!'
This engaging and thought-provoking lesson resource aids students in developing a secure understanding of the chapters 9 to 12 of Roald Dahl’s ‘The Twits.’ The chapters covered in these lessons are ‘Mrs Twit has the Shrinks’, ‘Mrs Twit gets a Stretching’, 'Mrs Twit goes Ballooning up’ and ‘Mrs Twit comes Ballooning down.’
The lessons are guided by a comprehensive and colourful PowerPoint presentation, and enables students to understand the text through:
-Retrieving information;
-Inferring and deducing hidden meanings;
-Sequencing events from the story.
The sessions include a range of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, explanation and deeper thinking activities. A clear, colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation guides students through the learning. The session ends with a creative activity in which students write Mr Twit’s diary entry after pulling off his greatest trick yet.
There’s a lot in the session (19 slides in total) so I would recommend breaking into two lessons. The lessons are most suitable for children in lower key stage 2, (they were originally made for children in year 3) but they could also be adapted for slightly older and younger year groups.
Jane Eyre - Bertha Mason: The Gothic Monster!
This engaging and informative lesson enables students to make precise and perceptive interpretations of the character of Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre. Through close analysis of specific extracts from the text, students develop an understanding of how Bertha fits the conventions of a quintessential ‘gothic monster’, and also explore her position as a prime example of the ‘Other’ in Victorian society.
The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which students learn through:
Defining the key term ‘gothic novel’ and understanding the key conventions of gothic literature;
Reading selected extracts from the text and answering comprehension questions considering Bertha Mason as fulfilling the role of the gothic monster;
Considering ideas of the Victorian ‘Other’ and establishing how Bertha Mason recycles these ideas;
Analysing how ideas of Bertha link to predominant 19th Century ideas about mental health and ethnicity;
Using the knowledge they have gathered over the lesson to design and describe their own gothic monsters;
Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts.
Included is:
Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive;
Bertha Mason worksheet;
Selected extracts (from chapters 11, 20, and 26);
Character profile template;
Comprehensive lesson plan.
There are also opportunities for group learning, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. These resources were originally taught to GCSE students, but with subtle adaptations they have also been used with both younger and older (up to A Level) students. Worksheets are provided as word docs (so that you can edit) and PDFs (to protect formatting).
All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.
The Woman in Black Pointless Game!
Based on the popular game show ‘Pointless’, this resource is perfect for use as a whole lesson resource, enrichment option, or revision tool. Editable, so that you can change to any other topic or change questions. (I’ve also added a blank template so that you can make your own games from scratch). Containing almost 30 slides of sound clips, engaging visuals, and suitably challenging questions, this resource is effective at both promoting engagement and enhancing learning. There are several full rounds of questions to build or revisit knowledge of characters, plot, and themes in ‘The Woman in Black.’
Round 1. The characters in The Woman in Black
Round 2. Quotations from the text
Round 3. Settings, Themes, and Objects
Round 4. Places where the woman appears.
The nature of this game ensures that the resource can challenge students of all levels.
A blank template has also been added, so that you can create your own games!
The Merchant of Venice Comprehension Activities Booklet!
This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of William Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice.’ 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 new 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 play ensuring that students gain a deep understanding of the text.
Activities within the booklet include:
‘Context: Shakespearean Times’ - 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;’
‘Shakespeare’s Description’ - to aid students with ‘Analysing a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features, and evaluating their effectiveness and impact;’
‘Shylock’ and ‘Bassanio’ character profiles- to aid students with ‘Seeking evidence in the text to support a point of view, including justifying inferences with evidence;’
‘Editing the Play’ - 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).
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VCOP Bundle - All of the Lessons, Resources, and Plans!
Perfect for English lessons, or as part of a literacy across the curriculum scheme, the VCOP lessons aim to build students’ fundamental writing skills.
Engaging, differentiated, and easily adaptable, these lessons aim to improve students’ skills at using varied and appropriate vocabulary, connectives, sentence openings, and punctuation. Each lesson follows a logical learning journey to ensure that students learn in bite-size steps:
- Defining;
- Identifying;
- Analysing;
- Creating;
- Peer or self evaluating.
All of the lessons are interactive, employ a variety of different teaching and learning methods and styles, and are visually-engaging. Resources, worksheets, and lesson plans are all provided.
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OCR Love and Relationships Poems Comprehension Activity Booklet Bundle!
These 16-page resource booklets contain a wide range of challenging and engaging comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of all 15 of the OCR ‘Love and Relationship’ poems in the newest exam board anthologies. 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. 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.
Each booklet is provided in both Word (to allow for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure for consistency of formatting between computers).
Activities across the booklets are as consistent, to provide an equal understanding of each poem, and 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.’
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Roald Dahl KS2 Comprehension Activity Booklets Bundle
These Roald Dahl resource booklets contain a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use in guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the KS2 comprehension 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.
Included are activity booklets to accompany the following texts:
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- The BFG
- Danny, Champion of the World
- The Witches
- James and the Giant Peach
There are a huge range of activities; each booklet is around 20 pages in length!
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Magazine Project Bundle!
This lesson and resource bundle provides all that is needed to aid students in composing their own short magazines, on a subject/genre of their choice. Everything that is needed to teach the project is provided, including engaging lesson powerpoints, worksheets, model examples, and activities, and also comprehensive lesson plans for each stage.
Each engaging and informative lesson aids students in learning about and then composing a different magazine page. Included are lessons on:
- Choosing the Genre and Audience and Composing a Front Cover
- Writing Agony Aunt/ Uncle Pages
- Writing Feature Articles
- Writing Reviews
Throughout each lesson, students learn through defining techniques, identifying ‘what a good one looks like’ and analysing model examples, before using writing help-sheets and success criteria to design their own.
All images are cited on the final slides of each PowerPoint.
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A View from the Bridge Huge Bundle!
THIS BUNDLE CONTAINS ALL OF THE 'A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE LESSONS, IN ADDITION TO THE COMPREHENSION BOOKLET, THE KNOWLEDGE ORGANISER AND THE POINTLESS GAME!
This engaging, varied, and informative scheme of learning is designed to help students gain understanding, assessment skills, and key interpretations of Arthur Miller’s play ‘A View from the Bridge.’ Made up of a wide-range of interesting and exciting lessons, students should complete this scheme having gathered vital skills in: interpreting the significant meanings of the text, understanding the writer’s ideas within the text, identifying the traits of key characters, settings, and themes, understanding dramatic and language devices, and relating the text to its social and historical context.
Stimulating, visual, and easily adaptable, these lessons provide suggested learning objectives and outcomes for students of a wide-range of abilities - The vast majority of tasks are differentiated to allow for different abilities and needs in your classroom. Each lesson loosely follows this logical learning journey to ensure that students learn in bite-size steps:
- Engaging
- Defining/ Understanding
- Identifying/Remembering
- Analysing/ Creating
- Peer or self evaluating.
All of the lessons are interactive, employ a variety of different teaching and learning methods and styles, and are visually-engaging. Resources, worksheets, and lesson plans are all provided.
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World War One Poetry - Comprehension Activity Booklets Bundle!
These 16-page resource booklets contain a wide range of challenging and engaging comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of a range of World War I poems. 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.
Included are 14 booklets, based on the poems:
-Wilfred Owen - Dulce et Decorum Est
-Wilfred Owen - Anthem for Doomed Youth
-Wilfred Owen - Exposure
-Wilfred Owen - Futility
-Wilfred Owen - Strange Meeting
-Siegfried Sassoon - Aftermath
-Siegfried Sassoon - Base Details
-Siegfried Sassoon - Suicide in the Trenches
-Siegfried Sassoon - They
-Laurence Binyon - For the Fallen
-Philip Larkin - MCMXIV
-Isaac Rosenberg - Break of Day in the Trenches
-Rupert Brooke - The Soldier
-John McCrae - In Flanders Fields
The resources are provided in both Word (to allow for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure for consistency of formatting between computers).
Activities within each 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.’
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Secrets of a Sun King - Lesson Bundle!
This engaging and thought-provoking series of lessons has been devised to provide students with a well-rounded, secure understanding of Emma Carroll’s ‘Secrets of a Sun King.’ Double and triple lessons are provided for each chapter, broken down into ten resource packs:
Chapters 1 and 2
Chapters 3 and 4
Chapters 5 and 6
Chapters 7 and 8
Chapters 9, 10 and 11
Chapters 12 and 13
Chapters 14, 15 and 16
Chapters 17 and 18
Chapters 19, 20 and 21
Chapters 22 and 23
The comprehensive and colourful PowerPoint presentations guide students through a wide range of activities, including those designed to enhance the following skills: retrieval, understanding vocabulary, inference, explanation, summarising, sequencing, analysis and deeper thinking activities. Additional worksheets and templates are also provided where needed for some of the creative tasks.
All of the resources and tried and tested in real classrooms, catalysing excellent outcomes. The resources are suitable for students across KS2 (I originally used them with year 4 and 5 classes).
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Worlds and Lives Knowledge Organisers Huge Bundle!
THIS BUNDLE CONTAINS KNOWLEDGE ORGANISERS FOR ALL 15 OF THE WORLDS AND LIVES POEMS!
These clear, detailed and visually-appealing knowledge organisers offer complete reference points for students learning or revising the following poems from the ‘Worlds and Lives’ anthology:
A Century Later - Imtiaz Dharker;
A Portable Paradise - Roger Robinson;
A Wider View - Seni Seneviratne;
England in 1819 - Percy Bysshe Shelley
Homing - Liz Berry
In A London Drawingroom - George Eliot
Like An Heiress - Grace Nichols
Lines Written in Early Spring - William Wordsworth
Name Journeys - Raman Mundair
On An Afternoon Train from Purley to Victoria, 1955 - James Berry
Pot - Shamshad Khan
Shall Earth No More Inspire Thee - Emily Bronte
The Jewellery Maker - Louisa Adjoa Parker
Thirteen - Caleb Femi
With Birds You’re Never Lonely - Raymond Antrobus
Each organiser contains a number of detailed, clear, and colourful sections explaining the key elements of the poem:
Context;
Line-by-Line Analysis;
Poetic Devices/ Language Devices;
Themes;
Form/Structure;
Poems for Comparison;
Wider Reading About the Poet.
The resources are designed to be printed onto either A3 or A4, and are provided as both PDFs and Word documents (so that you can edit should you wish to). All images used are licensed for commercial use.
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Worlds and Lives Poetry - Comprehension Booklets Huge Bundle!
These 16-page resource booklets contain a wide range of challenging and engaging comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of all 15 of the ‘Worlds and Lives’ poems. 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.
Booklets are included for the following poems:
A Century Later - Imtiaz Dharker;
A Portable Paradise - Roger Robinson;
A Wider View - Seni Seneviratne;
England in 1819 - Percy Bysshe Shelley
Homing - Liz Berry
In A London Drawingroom - George Eliot
Like An Heiress - Grace Nichols
Lines Written in Early Spring - William Wordsworth
Name Journeys - Raman Mundair
On An Afternoon Train from Purley to Victoria, 1955 - James Berry
Pot - Shamshad Khan
Shall Earth No More Inspire Thee - Emily Bronte
The Jewellery Maker - Louisa Adjoa Parker
Thirteen - Caleb Femi
With Birds You’re Never Lonely - Raymond Antrobus
Each booklet is provided in both Word (to allow for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure for consistency of formatting between computers).
Activities across the booklets are as consistent, to provide an equal understanding of each poem, and 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.’
Stone Cold - KS3 Comprehension Activities Booklet!
This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Robert Swindells' 'Stone Cold.' Teachers have found them particularly useful in comprehension or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the KS3 expectations within the new National Curriculum framework. Children have found these resources 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 children gain a deep understanding of the text.
Activities within the booklet include:
- 'Context: Homelessness in London' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Know the purpose, audience and context of the writing and drawing on this knowledge to support comprehension.'
- 'Swindell's Description' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Know how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, present meaning.'
- 'Ginger' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Study setting, plot, and characterisation, and the effects of these.'
- 'Vocabulary Inspector' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Learn new vocabulary, relating it explicitly to known vocabulary and understanding it with the help of context and dictionaries.'
Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is 21 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).
Holes - The Warden!
This engaging and informative lesson enables students to understand the character of the Warden from Louis Sachar’s ‘Holes’, making insightful comments about her character based upon her actions, and backing these ideas up with reference to evidence from the text.
The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through:
- Reading and understanding the selected extracts to determine the key traits of The Warden’s character at different points in the text;
- Noticing trends in Warden’s character throughout the text, observing how she develops from her introduction in the text to later on in the story;
- Analysing Sachar’s use of language and description in describing the Warden;
- Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts;
- Creating their own villainous Warden, using an engaging template.
Included is:
- Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive;
- Selected extract- Chapter 14;
- Development of The Warden worksheet (Word and PDF)
- Analysis template with success criteria for creating well-structured responses;
- Create your own villain template
- Comprehensive lesson plan.
There are also opportunities for group learning, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 7 and 8 classes, however colleagues have used them for between years 4 and 9 with minimal adaptations.
All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) Comprehension Activities Booklet!
This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984).’ 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 new 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: 'Totalitarian Governments’ - 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;’
‘Orwell’s Description’ - to aid students with ‘Analysing a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features, and evaluating their effectiveness and impact;’
Winston Smith, O’Brien, and Julia’ - 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).
Death of A Salesman Knowledge Organiser!
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).
Romeo and Juliet Comprehension Activities Booklet!
This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ 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 new 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 play ensuring that students gain a deep understanding of the text.
Activities within the booklet include:
- ‘Context: Shakespearean Times’ - 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;’
- ‘Shakespeare’s Description’ - to aid students with ‘Analysing a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features, and evaluating their effectiveness and impact;’
- ‘Friar Laurence’ - to aid students with ‘Seeking evidence in the text to support a point of view, including justifying inferences with evidence;’
- ‘Editing the Play’ - 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).
Macbeth: Macduff!
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.