This lesson builds on the first resource in this series (on H is for Hawk) and challenges students to work a little more independently in identifying methods used by the author in the text through a worksheet activity. This would make an ideal resource for homework or for a flipped learning activity. Students have the opportunity to engage with the demands of this IGCSE curriculum individually or in pairs whilst completing this task before then moving on to a powerpoint presentation that methodically takes students through the Ideas and Perspectives question. The lesson concludes with another independent task whereby students apply their learning on an unseen text, replicating the IGCSE exam structure. My students progressed rapidly as a result of this step by step approach and were more secure on the later extracts we studied. I hope your students enjoy these activities as much as mine did. This resource includes a past paper and the mark scheme for ease of use.

This bespoke resource on Blake’s The Tyger is designed for use with the Edexcel IGCSE curriculum but is equally useful in teaching Unseen Poetry skills required across all of the IGCSE and GCSE English specifications. These resources are designed for a low/middle ability group and as such are highly supported and differentiated. Challenge/extension tasks are included here and every step of the process is checked for understanding, reinforced and modelled to ensure all students make maximum progress. Tasks include individual work, paired work, whole group work and peer ‘teaching’ (at a low level, but is designed to encourage students to become independent learners). My students enjoyed the variety of tasks included here and I could really see progress in terms of being prepared to ‘try’ out plausible answers based on this poem. I hope your students take as much from this resource as mine did! If you like this resource then you might also like these: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/igcse-poetry-not-waving-but-drowning-by-stevie-smith-cie-syllabus-0475-or-unseen-poetry-12168763 https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/la-belle-dame-sans-merci-by-john-keats-11546112 Do check out my shop to see the full range of resources on all things English! https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/The_English_Tutor

This KS3 Literacy Programme is 1 of 3 for use with year 7s across an entire term and forms part of a newly written programme that builds on the current demands of the KS2 literacy skills and makes them relevant for students as they head towards GCSE studies. The Study Guide is aptly designed to appeal to year 7 students and has one task per week focusing on a range of literacy skills: Spelling, Grammar and Reading. Each week the student is given a task assuming ‘no knowledge’, so is excellent for all abilities of students, a powerpoint takes students through the correct answers and offers scope for peer assessment and then a further ‘testing’ task is completed to check how securely the students have grasped that aspect of literacy. This cyclical learning style ensures that all students make progress and it encourages students to be accountable in part for their learning, and from the teacher’s perspective they can provide evidence of systematic address of literacy that builds on prior learning supported by comparable data on all students. Answers are included in this resource, so it works seamlessly from purchase to classroom with no additional work except for printing pages for the students. This resource is the first of 3 airmed at year 7 students and forms part of an entire KS3 resource comprising 9 units in total. The subsequent two year 7 booklets for use in this Programme can be found on the links below: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/year-7-12-literacy-programme-2-11477993 https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/year-7-12-week-literacy-programme-3-11480580 If you would like to see a sample of how this programme works prior to purchase see my free resource here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/literacy-regular-and-irregular-verbs-ks2-3-11713633

This resource covers all of the poems and includes a wide range of questions to help refresh and round off learning, it has been designed to increase engagement with language, structure, form and the context of these poems. My own groups have found this resource immensely helpful in the final preparations for the exam this week. This is a perfect resource for very last minute revision, that odd lesson in which you’re not sure where the gaps might be, lunchtime catch ups, after school support, tutors, teachers, supply or parents wanting to help their students/children respectively.

This IGCSE resource explores the complexities of this poem through engaging and fun activities that are fully differentiated through relevant activities using emojiis, images, discussion, SMSC strategies and a set of differentiated worksheets, for which answers are included, to challenge students to fully understand the nuts and bolts of this poem. Once knowledge has been gained, this lesson culminates in a fun, yet supported Marketplace activity whereby all studies will be expected to demonstrate understanding and have the opportunity to fill any gaps before being asked to respond to an exam style written activity. This lesson is as useful for the IGCSE as it is for anyone teaching Unseen Poetry as the activities are translateable to any poem. If you like this resource please don’t forget to follow me: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/The_English_Tutor

This complete lesson is aimed at IGCSE students, but is equally suitable for use as an Unseen Poem, and encourages students to become increasingly independent in their learning. Small group tasks are set to encourage all abilities to be able to access this poem and the requirement to present their findings and set a fun task for their peers ensures that the focus is on enjoyment and ‘game play’ as much as learning. For less able groups questions are proffered to open discussion and then annotated stanzas are included either for use at face value or to top up the presentations. This lesson closes with some thought provoking questions that only make sense once the text has been studied. This is an engaging and active learning lesson that my students have always enjoyed for both its sense of freedom to find answers and support in finding out if they were in the right ball park.

This resource offers a creative lesson for students studying English Language on papers that require students to ‘find’ information. This lesson is centred around earning Exit Passes (lolly sticks) and a Blind Style learning Activity to ensure that the most able are able to construct mark schemes and all students work in a supported environment. This lesson offers an imaginative route into a question that can otherwise be a little dry: it also works towards ALL students achieving full marks on this question and offers a range of 10 texts on which to practise this skill, including answers to all questions.

This resource is the first in a collection of fun literacy activities for KS2 and lower ability KS3 students based on homophones. The printable slides are best llaminated in A5 and could be used as part of your marking feedback: ‘please complete card 1.2 on homophones as a starter activity next lesson’: in this way these are designed to address specific errors for specific students, individualising learning and offering an immediate start to literacy lessons. This set comprises the 20 most commonly misspelt homophones and comes with a ‘Buy One Get One Free’ offer outlined on the resource. It also includes a teaching list of the options in this collection, for ease of setting the next task for your students. I am hugely excited about this project that offers opportunities for colourful displays, longevity, engaging activiites and most of all, literacy becoming part of an improving habit. As the inaugaural resource this comes with a special offer to be able to contribute to the choice of future resources and give hoenst feedback. The price on this resource is an INTRODUCTORY PRICE that will increase, so make your classroom part of both a metaphorical and literacy based journey. Jump on board the Literacy Bus!!

This resource is designed to support pinpointed revision. When students struggle to answer one type of question, the best way to improve grades is to offer them multiple questions of the same type to aid progression. This resource offers exactly that: the first four questions are differentiated in numerous different ways, exemplar responses, clozed activities, top tips to guide responses without giving it all to the student and open questioning, whilst the remaining six questions are straightforward tasks. This resource works as well for homework tasks, as it does for starter activities or those times when some are absent (in exams) and others need some consolidation of skills. This resource works hand in hand with the resource for Question 1 too (link below), the remaining question types will be posted up soon. Happy revision! https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/gcse-9-1-english-language-revision-find-questions-12046526

This lesson includes a number of engaging activities to draw students into this subtly complex poem. I have designed this lesson primarily for use when teaching the Cambridge IGCSE specifications (0475 and (0992) (2020-2021 syllabuses) although this would equally make an excellent study of an Unseen Poem at GCSE or the study of Other Cultures Poetry for a KS3 curriculum. One of the activities in this resource requires ‘sweets’: some sweet and some sour…these are not included in this resource, but make for an exciting and memorable lesson that helps students see the ‘effect’ of the poets methods in a highly kinaesthetic way. If you like this, do check out my shop at https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/joannammarsh where you will find other Poetry resources that range across a number of exam boards. Do let me know what you think of this resource through the feedback system!