This engaging and informative lesson enables students to make detailed and precise interpretations of the language used by Charles Dickens in describing Miss Havisham in Great Expectations. In particular, students analyse the interesting vocabulary choices, similes, metaphors, and other language devices employed to depict Miss Havisham’s decayed appearance and surroundings, before utilising the techniques in a similar manner through their own vivid descriptions. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: - Defining and exemplifying each of the descriptive language devices; - Reading extracts from ‘Great Expectations’ in which Miss Havisham is described, identifying the descriptive devices used; - Precisely and in detail, analysing how Dickens uses each of the descriptive language devices for effect; - Creating their own imaginative and appropriate descriptions of mysterious characters, using a wide range of descriptive language devices; - Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; - Extracts from Great Expectations; - Cards for card-sorting activity; - Analysis template with success criteria for creating well-structured responses; - Blank character profile template; - Model example character profile template; - Writing to describe helpsheet; - Comprehensive lesson plan. All documents are attached as Word and PDF in case formatting differs on your computer. There are also opportunities for group learning, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. This was originally taught to mixed ability year 10 groups, but can easily be differentiated for groups of different ages and abilities. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This informative and engaging double lesson aims to improve students’ ability to compare and contrast two different texts based on a similar subject. They will focus particularly on the purpose, audience, language, and structure of texts, and will learn to use comparing and contrasting connectives to highlight any similarities and differences. This has always been a crucial skill in English, but has an increased importance in the new GCSE for English Language, as there is a greater requirement for students to be able to make links and comparisons between texts. The lesson follows a clear and logical learning journey, with students learning to: - Understand the key terms 'compare' and 'contrast', and the importance of these skills in English; - Categorise the different features that they can compare, under the headings 'Purpose', 'Audience', 'Language' and 'Structure;' - Read (and identify the key features within) two morally and ethically intriguing texts, offering diverse views of young people in the media; -Compare the two texts, using a clear and concise template, and newly-acquired knowledge of different types of connectives; - Peer-assess each other's comparative essay attempts. Included in this resource pack are: - Whole double lesson, colourful and engaging PowerPoint presentation (Including assessment for learning referral slides) - Cards for card-sorting activity; - Two interesting and thought-provoking non-fiction media extracts (one a newspaper extract from The Evening Standard, and another a persuasive leaflet, both focused on the issue of how young people are perceived.) - Template for main comparative analysis task; - Full teacher guidance plan. All images are licensed for commercial use and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint presentation

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm.’ 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: The Russian Revolution’ - 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;’ - ‘Napoleon’ - 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 detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men.' It contains comprehensive sections on: - Context; - Chapter by Chapter Summary (with quotes); - Main Characters; - Themes; - Literary Features; - The Origins of the Book Title. 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 highly engaging and informative double lesson (around 1.5 to 2 hours of teaching materials) helps students to build skills in demonstrating appropriate, sophisticated, and original structures in their writing, and provides them with theories and techniques to help them to organise their writing adequately. I wrote this lesson because I noticed that there are an extremely high volume of students that approach extended writing tasks (even in their GCSEs) with practically no sense of organisation. Even though they have clearly learnt a number of writing techniques from their teachers, their writing can be extremely short, repetitive, and in some cases the topic is confused. This lesson aims to address each of those issues. Students learn: - What structure and organisation mean; - Narrative structure theory and 'plot mountain;' - How time order can effect a creative text; - How to expand using the five key senses; - How and when to use paragraphing; - Plan for their own extended piece of writing; Included are all worksheets, and detailed and visual PowerPoint presentation, which explains each concept clearly, and a lesson plan for teacher guidance. Alternatively, you can buy the Descriptive Writing Big Bundle (All descriptive devices lessons, structuring and organising writing lesson, capturing the readers attention lesson, and the literacy writing mat) for £5. All images are licensed for commercial use, and authors are cited on the final slide.

There's been a murder! This exciting, engaging investigation activity allows students to control the direction of their own learning, through speaking, listening, discussing, and reasoning. I initially created these resources to provide something interesting for the students to engage with for their Functional Skills Speaking and Listening discussions, but it has since been used across Citizenship and PSHE departments, as well as by form groups, as a catalyst for social and moral discussions. Students play detectives aiming to solve the case of a death of an old lady. Using a range of evidence, from video clips, to interviews with key suspects, to positioning events on maps, students work in teams to try and solve the case. They must use skills of communication, to decide which leads to prioritise, and which evidence to discount. They also need to use their skills of literacy, to read and understand key evidence, and skills of numeracy to ensure that they keep their case within budget! Included in this resource pack are: - Full PowerPoint lesson talking students through the case; - A range of 'Exhibits' - evidence that the students use to build a case, including video clips; - A map of the local area, to help visualise the events leading up to the death; - Budgetting and recording sheets to track their progress; - A prime supsects list; - Clue cards containing interviews with prime supsects; - Full teacher guidance. Considering the time and effort that it took to create these resources, I think that they offer exceptional value. Whenever I have used this activity before, it has taken at least 2-3 lessons, including the introduction, investigation, conclusions, and evaluation. I orignally have used this with lower ability Year 8,9, and 10 groups, but colleagues have adapted it easily for students of all key stages. All images have been cited at the end of the PowerPoint presentation and are licensed for commercial use.

This interesting and engaging lesson enables students to build their understanding Arthur Birling, one of the chief protagonists in J.B. Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls.’ In particular, students learn about his characteristics, his attitudes and opinions towards the world around him and other people, and also his relevance to Priestley’s social and historical context. The lesson follows a clear, logical, bite-size learning journey, which guides students towards differentiated learning objectives. Over the course of this journey, they become able to: - Recall and understand the key features of Birling's character profile; - Link Birling to the social and historical context of the play; - Understand how Birling's character is significant in terms of Priestley's key message; - Read and understand the section of the play in which Birling is interviewed by the inspector; - Analyse key quotations by and about Birling in the text; - Read and understand the opening of the play; - Create a diary-entry piece in which they consider Birling's morals and sense of responsibility for the death of Eva Smith; -Peer/self-assess learning attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - Images of Birling to be annotated for the starter task; - A clear and interesting worksheet for the introductory task; - An extract from Act 1 of the play for students to read and interpret; - P.E.E template for students to complete their character analysis; - A detailed lesson plan, complete with what the teacher and students should aim to achieve at each stage of the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint.

Template for you to create your own Pointless games - whatever subject or topic you are teaching! Based on the popular game show 'Pointless', this resource is perfect for use as a starter activity, plenary, or revision tool. Editable, so that you can change to any other topic or change the questions/answers. 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 built-in rounds of questions to build students' understanding in your topics, including: - Identifying terms from definitions - Anagrams of key terms round - Recalling the highest level knowledge. The nature of the game ensures that this resource can challenge students of all levels. NOTE: You can buy this resource alone, or in a bundle of 8 Pointless games, for only £1 more!

This lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of the descriptive language used to depict the monster in Chapter 5 of Mary Shelley’s horror novel ‘Frankenstein.’ The lesson places a particular focus upon the descriptive language devices employed by Shelley, in order to create a clear image of the monster’s appearance in the reader’s mind, and also to describe Victor’s strong reaction to his creation. By the end of the lesson, students demonstrate an ability to make sustained and original interpretations of the language used by the author. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: - Considering how their preconceptions about the monster have been influenced by modern media and representations; - Read and understand a key extract from the beginning of chapter 5 - the point at which the monster comes to life; - Infer and interpret the key developments of the extract, including Frankenstein’s changing feelings and the monster’s ambiguous actions; - Identifying and analysing some of the key descriptive devices used by Shelley to create an image of the monster; - Analysing the effect of the descriptive devices upon the reader; - Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and substantial; (including an animated Frankenstein’s monster to guide them through the lesson); - Descriptive devices worksheet (and a teacher answer sheet); - Extract from the beginning of Chapter 5; - Inferring and Interpreting worksheet; - Analysis template with success criteria for creating well-structured responses; - Comprehensive lesson plan. There are also opportunities for group learning, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. This was originally taught to middle-ability year 9/10 groups, but can easily be differentiated for groups of different ages and abilities. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This engaging and stimulating lesson enables students to create travel brochure texts containing appropriate and imaginative language choices, utilising a range of different language techniques with subtlety in order to craft writing that serves the dual purpose of being descriptive and persuasive. In particular, students learn how descriptive language such as of similes, metaphors, and personification, in addition to persuasive devices such as statistics, rhetorical questions, and personal pronouns, can help to create truly authentic and effective travel brochure pieces. The lesson follows a clear, logical, bite-size learning journey, which guides students towards differentiated learning objectives. Over the course of this journey, they become able to: - Define what travel brochures are and understand their purposes; - Identify the persuasive and descriptive language devices that travel brochure writers employ - Analyse the effects of the language in a model travel brochure text; - Utilise a clear and challenging success criteria document in order to construct their own travel brochure pieces; - Self/Peer assess travel writing attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - An interesting and ambitious travel writing extract (with a highlighted version for teachers): -A logical and challenging worksheet, encouraging students to analyse key features; - A detailed lesson plan, complete with what the teacher and students should aim to achieve at each stage of the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint.

This engaging and informative lesson enables students to make precise interpretations of the descriptive language used by J.K Rowling in her descriptions of Hogwarts in ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.’ 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 magical 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 Rowling describes Hogwarts, and identifying the language techniques used to paint an image of place in the minds of the readers; - Analysing the effectiveness of each of Rowling's descriptive devices; - Creating their own description of a magical 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 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone; - 'Inside Hogwarts' 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 3 and 10 with some adaptations. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This engaging and detailed resource pack has been designed to make the learning of fronted adverbials (particularly prominent in the new curriculum) easily accessible, engaging and interesting for all children. Throughout the lesson, students learn to improve their skill at using appropriate, concise, and precise fronted adverbials within their own writing compositions. In addition to the comprehensive lesson, resources, and plan, it also includes a fronted adverbials writing mat to assist students in building their extended writing skills. The lesson follows a clear, logical, bite-size learning journey, which guides students towards differentiated learning objectives. Over the course of this journey, they become able to: - Define what fronted adverbials are; - Identify fronted adverbials in sentences; - Analyse and evaluate what it is that makes some fronted adverbials more effective than others; - Write an extended piece with the employment of fronted adverbials; -Peer/self-assess learning attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - A clear and interesting worksheet for the development task; - An interesting short story for students to analyse; - A hyperlink to an engaging and heart-warming video through a hyperlink in the presentation; - A detailed lesson plan, complete with what the teacher and students should aim to achieve at each stage of the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint/ the bottom of worksheets.

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students preparing for the ‘Unseen Poetry’ elements of English Literature examinations. It is ideal for GCSE and A Level students, as it contains detailed and comprehensive sections (including explanations, examples and key questions) on: Content -Subject Matter, Context, Tone, Atmosphere, The Poet; Language - Similes, Metaphors, Interesting Adjectives, Interesting Verbs, Imagery, Onomatopoeia, Alliteration, Assonance, Personification, Hyperbole, Oxymoron, Repetition; Form and Strcuture - Common Forms, Rhyme/ Rhyme Schemes, Metre, Rhythm, Stanzas, Line Type, Line Length. Plus lists of Adding Connectives and Contrasting Connectives for use when comparing. 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 detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising William Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet.' It contains comprehensive sections on: - Context; - Scene by Scene Summary (with quotes); - Main Characters; - Themes; - Dramatic Devices; - 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 interesting and engaging lesson enables students to know what colons and semi-colons are and when they should be used, to understand the effect of colons and semi-colons in the writing of others, and to use subtle and appropriate colons and semi-colons in their own writing. Over the course of their learning journey, students: - Define and exemplify what colons and semi-colons are; - Identify where colons and semi-colons should be placed in writing; - Place colons and semi-colons into unpunctuated sentences correctly; - Analyse the effect of colons and semi-colons upon sentences and wider texts; - Use colons and semi-colons accurately and with subtlety in their own writing; - Peer and self assess each other’s writing attempts. The resources include: -Visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint; -Placing Colons and Semi-colons’ worksheet (and teacher answer sheet); -A model example of a colon and semi-colon filled piece of writing for analysis; -Helpful and comprehensive step-by-step lesson plan. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final page of the slide.

This whole class reading session aims to develop children’s comprehension skills through reading and interpreting the opening section of Katherine Rundell’s ‘Impossible Creatures.’ The resource pack includes the extract needed and a clear and well presented PowerPoint, guiding the teacher and learners through the various activities. The reading is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop children’s retrieval, explanation, inference, sequencing and summarising skills. A vocabulary check helps to secure children’s understanding of any new or unfamiliar 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 5-6, although with minor adaptations it could feasibly be used with slightly younger and older year groups.