I provide high quality, tried and tested materials, developed over 17 years of teaching KS3-5. There is material to support G3/4 students as well as material to push for G8 and G9s.
I provide high quality, tried and tested materials, developed over 17 years of teaching KS3-5. There is material to support G3/4 students as well as material to push for G8 and G9s.
This Midsummer Night’s Dream unit is lots of fun and fantastic for stretching high ability KS3 students. It contains 18 lessons, focusing on the playwright’s use of language, how the playwright uses dramatic devices, creative writing and the effect of staging. It comes fully resourced with PowerPoints, contextual information to illuminate understanding of the text, extracts and IWB activities. The page numbers refer to the Cambridge School Shakespeare edition. The unit includes:
Lesson 1: Elizabethan context
Lesson 2: Online research
Lesson 3: The Globe
Lesson 4: The Characters
Lesson 5: The language
Lesson 6: Plot and Characters
Lesson 7: Act out the play
Lesson 8: Set design in A1S1
Lesson 9: Creating characters in A1S2
Lesson 10: Exploring fairies in A2S1
Lesson 11: Oberon and Titania in A2S1
Lesson 12: Persuasive language in A2S1
Lesson 13: Shakespeare’s language
Lesson 14: Writing spells in A2S2
Lesson 15: Insults in A3S2
Lesson 16: Analysing character in A4S1
Lesson 17: Themes review at the end
Lesson 18: Blockbuster revision
This unit is ideal as an introduction to how the writer creates setting at KS3 and will save you hours of preparation time! It has 13 lessons focusing on how a writer creates a setting, characters, mood and atmosphere. This unit extends into creative writing so the students can create their own settings and characters. It is fully resourced with PowerPoints, dramatic activities and quizzes. This is perfect for early GCSE preparation on writing to describe.
Lesson 1: describing workhouse in Oliver Twist
Lesson 2: analysing the workhouse
Lesson 3-5: Monkey’s Paw by WW Jacobs
Lesson 6: act out Monkey’s Paw and write your own story
Lesson 7: describing Dracula’s castle
Lesson 8: describing Frankenstein’s laboratory
Lesson 9: writing a London ghost tour
Lesson 10: the legend of Jack the Ripper
Lesson 11: analysing and evaluating the suspects
Lesson 12: Dracula assessment
Lesson 13: assessment feedback
This unit of work is focused on short stories with original endings. The students analyze these stories, then have an opportunity to analyse an original ending in their final assessment. The unit of work contains 14 lessons and is mainly focused on how a story is structured and uses foreshadowing to lead the reader towards the ending.
Lesson 1-3: The Landlady by Roald Dahl
Lesson 4: The Raven by Edgar Alan Poe
Lesson 5: Analysing structure in The Raven
Lesson 6: An introduction to Sherlock Holmes
Lesson 7-9: The Case of the Engineer’s Thumb by Arthur Conan Doyle
Lesson 10: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Lesson 11-13: The Cone by HG Wells
Lesson 14: Structure in The Cone
There is also an opportunity for a KS3 SATS style exam to analyse structure in
‘Pick Your Poison’.
Are you looking for an original way to hook visual learners into creative writing?
This unit of work contains everything you need to teach Descriptive Writing at KS3 and is fantastic early preparation for English language descriptive writing. It includes 13 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, exemplar answers, IWB interactive resources, intriguing pictures, activities to exploit drama and poems. It uses classic art as inspiration, such as Bird in an Air Pump, Thomas Chatterton and The Lady of Shalott.
Lesson 1: Bird in an Air Pump by Joseph Wright
Lesson 2: Chatterton by Henry Wallis
Lesson 3-4: The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse
Lesson 5: Voice in Not My Best Side by UA Fanthorpe
Lesson 6: Original Writing
Lesson 7: How to create original characters
Lesson 8: Describing alien planets in Star Wars
Lesson 9: Describing The Iron Islands in Game of Thrones
Lesson 10: Narrative Viewpoint in Assassin’s Creed
Lesson 11: Planning your assessment on ‘The Scream’
Lesson 12: Writing your assessment
Lesson 13: Assessment feedback
This scheme of work contains everything you need to teach Narrative Writing at KS3. This unit of work is great preparation for AQA Paper 1 for English language. It includes 13 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson ppts, exemplar paragraphs, IWB interactive resources, activities to exploit drama, media activities and fun ways to engage the students using horror writing.
Lesson 1: How to create tension in your writing
Lesson 2: Using camera angles
Lesson 3: Filming your Sandman
Lesson 4: Designing a storyboard
Lesson 5: Narrating over the Sandman
Lesson 6: Planning and structure
Lesson 7: Editing, extending and improving
Lesson 8: Focus on grammar
Lesson 9: Focus on sentence structure
Lesson 10: Planning your story
Lesson 11: Writing your story
Lesson 12: Less is more - being concise
Lesson 13: Designing a Sandman poster
This unit contains everything you need to teach Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan at KS3. This is a sequence of 21 Cirque du Freak lessons that aid KS3 students in developing their understanding of plot, character, language and structure through studying Darren Shan’s text. The unit of work includes:
Lesson 1: Narrative Hooks
Lesson 2: Initial impressions of Darren
Lesson 3: Analysing characters
Lesson 4: Comparing the boys
Lesson 5: Describing setting
Lesson 6: The Freakshow
Lesson 7: Language to describe the snake
Lesson 8: Vampire webquest
Lesson 9: Steve and friendship
Lesson 10: Forming a plan
Lesson 11: The relationship between Steve and Darren
Lesson 12: Building tension
Lesson 13: Analysing Mr Crepsley
Lesson 14: Writing a letter of application
Lesson 15: Designing a vampire
Lesson 16: Writing effective endings
Lesson 17: Assessment Planning on Steve
Lesson 18: Writing your assessment
Lesson 19: Assessment feedback
Lesson 20: Designing a front cover
Lesson 21: The film
The unit ends with an assessment that evaluates the character of Steve Leonard. It is supported with a feedback sheet, writing frames and exemplar answers to mark afterwards.
If your students find Shakespeare dull and inaccessible, this is the unit for you. The lessons are focused on staging a shipwreck, costume, props, bringing the play to life and contextually understanding Elizabethan views of slavery.
This unit includes everything you need to teach The Tempest at KS3. It includes 20 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson powerpoints, contextual information, exemplar material, IWB interactive resources, quizzes, activities to exploit drama and extract analysis. Page numbers refer to the Cambridge Shakespeare edition. There is a final unit assessment on the relationship between Miranda and Prospero.
Lesson 1: Elizabethan context
Lesson 2: Accessing Shakespeare’s language
Lesson 3: The plot
Lesson 4: The characters
Lesson 5: A1S1 shipwreck
Lesson 6: Analyzing the relationship between Prospero and Miranda
Lesson 7: Ariel and magic
Lesson 8: Caliban and slavery
Lesson 9: How Prospero and Miranda’s relationship changes
Lesson 10: Alonso and betrayal
Lesson 11: Gonzalo and loyalty
Lesson 12: Miranda and Ferdinand
Lesson 13: Designing a Tempest poster
Lesson 14: Nature and nurture
Lesson 15: Prospero’s plan
Lesson 16: How the characters change
Lesson 17: The epilogue
Lesson 18: Assessment planning
Lesson 19: Writing your assessment
Lesson 20: Feedback and improve
Encourage students to stand up for their rights, using their language skills to influence the world.
This unit is ideally for KS3 students. It has been designed to teach the skills to write a formal letter of complaint by opposing the development of a theme park in the local area. There are 17 lessons which examine the layout of a letter as well as formal phrases to use. It is fully resourced with PowerPoints, brochures, theme park maps, persuasive adverts and debate cards.
Lesson 1: Language to advertise
Lesson 2: Holiday brochures
Lesson 3: Advertising theme parks
Lesson 4: Descriptive Writing
Lesson 5: Online holiday webquest
Lesson 6: Holidays gone wrong!
Lesson 7: Writing a letter of complaint
Lesson 8: Writing an application letter
Lesson 9: Evaluating a theme park leaflet
Lesson 10: Evaluating a website
Lesson 11: Designing a theme park
Lesson 12: Theme park debate
Lesson 13: Theme park poetry
Lesson 14: Theme park letter of complaint
Lesson 15: Theme park TV advert
Lesson 16: Plan your assessment
Lesson 17: Write your assessment
This scheme of work uses the superhero genre to engage lower achieving students, culminating in writing a formal film review. It works well with low to mid ability KS3 students and could appeal to boy heavy groups. The 14 lesson unit looks at the content and structure of a film review and supports their writing in the final assessment. It is fully resourced with superhero review exemplars, jigsaw readings, quizzes, crosswords and essay frames.
Lesson 1: Designing your own superhero
Lesson 2: Turning this into a comic strip
Lesson 3: Making a superhero movie using online software
Lesson 4: Superhero Origins
Lesson 5: Designing a poster for your film
Lesson 6: Film pitch planning
Lesson 7: Pitching your film to the critics
Lesson 8: Fantastic 4 Review
Lesson 9: X-men review
Lesson 10: Pirates of the Caribbean review
Lesson 11-12: Watching and evaluating a superhero film
Lesson 13: Writing your film review
Lesson 14: Top Trumps
This unit of work is fantastic for stretching high ability students, by encouraging them to amalgamate context into their consideration of the fable. The unit contains 17 lessons covering the whole of the novel, focusing on writer’s use of language, how the writer uses structure, creative writing and the effect of rhetorical devices. It is fully resourced with PowerPoints, contextual information to illuminate understanding of the text, chapter extracts, speech writing and dramatic activities. Page numbers refer to the Penguin Modern Classics Edition.
The lessons include:
Lesson 1: Lenin, Trotsky, Marx and Stalin
Lesson 2: context games
Lesson 3: the characters and their historical equivalents
Lesson 4: analysis of Old Major’s speech
Lesson 5: the animals
Lesson 6: Napoleon vs Snowball vote
Lesson 7: the revolution
Lesson 8: flags as symbols
Lesson 9: formulating a battle plan
Lesson 10: political spin
Lesson 11: propaganda and posters
Lesson 12: leadership styles
Lesson 13: review chapters 1-5
Lesson 14: Napoleon as a dictator
Lesson 15: Scapegoats
Lesson 16: the battle of the windmill
Lesson 17: power and corruption
Lesson 18: assessment preparation
Lesson 19: assessment feedback
There is an opportunity at the end of the unit to plan and write an assessment on Napoleon.
Are you looking to teach Gothic Horror at KS3, but don’t want to spend hours preparing? Then you have come to the right place!
Develop greater understanding of the conventions of Gothic literature and the horror genre
Analyze how famous authors of Gothic literature used characterization, description, and various literary devices that are consistent with the horror genre
The texts covered are extracts and short stories from: Twilight, Great Expectations, The Werewolf, The Evil Priest, The Woman in Black, Tell Tale Heart and more
Please note, for "The Darker Side of St Ives" lesson you will need to buy a copy of Shanty Baba’s CD, which is available online.
Lesson 1: An introduction to gothic horror
Lesson 2: Creating vampires
Lesson 3: The gothic in Great Expectations
Lesson 4: The Darker Side of St Ives
Lesson 5: The Werewolf by Angela Carter
Lesson 6: Creating school ghost tales
Lesson 7: Performing your tale to the group
Lesson 8: Gerunds and adverbial phrases in The Evil Priest
Lesson 9: The Woman in Black
Lesson 10-11: Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
This scheme of work is ideal as an introduction to classic poetry at KS3. It gives the students an insight into classic poets like Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost and WH Auden. There are 11 lessons focusing on analysing poems, giving students the skills to annotate poems and comment on the effect of poetic devices. It is fully resourced with PowerPoints, quizzes, match ups, terminology definitions and activities that act as a gateway to the poems. This is perfect for early AQA Unseen Poetry preparation.
Lesson 1: Revising poetic techniques
Lesson 2: You Being Born by Brian Jones
Lesson 3: Mirror by Sylvia Plath
Lesson 4: Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Lesson 5: Adolescence by Rita Dove
Lesson 6: The Loner by Julie Holder
Lesson 7: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Lesson 8: Stop All the Clocks by W. H. Auden
Lesson 9: Stop All the Clocks assessment
Lesson 10: Assessment feedback
Lesson 11: How to compare poems
Everything you need to revise Blood Brothers at KS4. This unit includes 13 revision lessons and is fully resourced with lesson powerpoints, contextual information, exemplar essays, extracts and essay structure. The lessons cover character and theme questions. Page numbers refer to the Metheun Drama edition. This unit of work has been designed for the AQA GCSE, but is adaptable to fit other exam board specifications.
Lesson 1: Comedy and tragedy
Lesson 2: Sympathy
Lesson 3: Character posters
Lesson 4: Context
Lesson 5: Mrs Johnstone and motherhood
Lesson 6: Who is responsible?
Lesson 7: The narrator
Lesson 8: Remembering key quotes
Lesson 9: Act 1 review
Lesson 10: Act 2 review
Lesson 11: Mrs Johnstone as a strong character
Lesson 12: Linda
Lesson 13: Planning your answer
Do your students need last minute prep for their exam? This 11 lesson unit is designed for students who have studied a Christmas Carol, but need two weeks intensive revision before their exam. The unit covers a number of characters and themes such as:
Lesson 1: plot and characters
Lesson 2: essay planning and context
Lesson 3: the role of the ghosts
Lesson 4: the ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
Lesson 5: Scrooge’s transformation
Lesson 6: revision guides
Lesson 7: useful quotes
Lesson 8: context bidding
Lesson 9: Staves 1-2 review
Lesson 10: Staves 3-4 review
Lesson 11: final revision
This unit includes everything you need to teach Mockingbird at High School for the IGCSE, and it will save you hours of preparation time! It is focused on essay writing skills for Cambridge IGCSE, but it could be easily adapted for other exam boards. It includes 23 lessons; each lesson covers a chapter of the novel. It is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, contextual information, assessment questions, quizzes, activities to exploit drama, extracts for analysis, online research, opportunities for creative writing, context cards and a revision workbook. The page numbers refer to the Orange Faber and Faber edition with an introduction by Ian Gregor.
Chapter 1: An introduction to Maycomb County and Alabama
Chapter 2: A Southern Education, Miss Caroline extract practice
Chapter 3: The relationship between Atticus and Scout
Chapter 4: Atticus and Bravery
Chapter 5: Miss Maudie Atkinson
Chapter 6: How Harper Lee builds tension
Chapter 7: Growing Up
Chapter 8: Creative Writing and The Fire
Chapter 10: The rabid dog
Chapter 11: Ms Dubose and Southern Belles
Chapter 12: Segregation and Calpurnia’s church
Chapter 13: Aunt Alexandra
Chapter 14: Exam practice
Chapter 15: Lynch Mobs and the KKK
Chapters 16-21: The Trial
Chapter 17: How Harper Lee creates mood and atmosphere
Chapter 21: The Verdict
Chapter 23: Character Foils: Bob and Atticus
Chapter 24: The Missionary Ladies
Chapter 25: Role Models
Chapter 28: The attack on Scout and Jem
Chapters 29-30: The Aftermath
Chapter 31: The Ending
This unit contains everything you need to teach ‘Remains’ at Key Stage 5, and will save you hours of preparation time! It includes 26 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, contextual information, essays, quizzes and opportunities for extract analysis. The page numbers refer to the Faber and Faber edition. This unit of work has been designed for the IB but is adaptable to fit other exam board specifications.
Lesson 1: Introduction to ‘Remains’
Lesson 2: Context
Lesson 3: Plot Review
Lesson 4: The Prologue
Lesson 5: Great Houses Research
Lesson 6: Introduction to Mr Stevens
Lesson 7: Stevens’ journey
Lesson 8: Englishness
Lesson 9:Essay planning
Lesson 10: Stevens and his father
Lesson 11: Miss Kenton’s letter
Lesson 12: Stevens’ father
Lesson 13: The Conference
Lesson 14: Mortimer’s Pond
Lesson 15:Guilt and Delusion
Lesson 16: Denials and Excuses
Lesson 17: Mis Kenton and Mr Stevens
Lesson 18: Comparing Key Scenes
Lesson 19: Democracy and Autocracy
Lesson 20: Stevens confronts reality
Lesson 21: Appearance and Reality
Lesson 22: Mrs Benn
Lesson 23: The End
Lesson 24: Stevens’ memories
Lesson 25: End of Unit Quiz
Lesson 26: Interview with Ishiguro
This unit contains everything you need to teach the Songs of Ourselves anthology and will save you hours of preparation! It is focused on the CIE IGCSE Paper for English Literature. It includes 26 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, exemplar essays, context research, mark schemes, quizzes and opportunities for self-assessment. It is extremely thorough and allows the students multiple points for reflection to ensure they are confident of what themes to explore in their exam.
Lesson 1: An introduction to poetry
Lesson 2: Poetic techniques
Lesson 3: Scansion: rhythm, rhyme and meter
Lesson 4: Techniques review
Lesson 5: Sonnet 18
Lesson 6: Love Armed
Lesson 7: A Married State
Lesson 8: The Chimney Sweeper
Lesson 9: An Essay on Man
Lesson 10: Quiz review
Lesson 11: Carpet Weavers, Morocco
Lesson 12: Before the Sun
Lesson 13: Storyteller
Lesson 14: Lament
Lesson 15: Lament essay
Lesson 16: Romantic research
Lesson 17: Report to Wordsworth
Lesson 18: Quiz review
Lesson 19: A Different History
Lesson 20: Hunting Snake
Lesson 21: Hunting Snake Essay
Lesson 22: The Cockroach
Lesson 23: Where I Come From
Lesson 24: Follower
Lesson 25: Quiz review
Lesson 26: Revision cards
Lesson 27: National Poetry Day
This unit is designed to approach the AQA GCSE Paper 2 in an original way. It is a journalism unit that teaches the reading and writing skills the students need for Paper 2 without getting bogged down in past papers. It comes fully resourced with articles, discussions, PowerPoints, exemplar answers, readings and reviews. It focuses on more than Paper 2 tests, such as music reviews, reports and website design, so you could skip these lessons if you are pushed for time.
Lesson 1: News Values
Lesson 2: The Structure of a Newspaper
Lesson 3: Website Design
Lesson 4: Website Analysis
Lesson 5: Analysing Perspective for Q4 Reading
Lesson 6: Point of view in ‘Snack Attack’
Lesson 7: Writing a Report
Lesson 8: Writing a Film Review
Lesson 9: Travel Writing
Lesson 10: Planning a Job Application Letter
Lesson 11: Writing a Job Application Letter
Lesson 12: Identifying Bias
Lesson 13: Informal Language for Tabloids
Lesson 14: Formal Language for Broadsheets
Lesson 15: Analysing Perspective in Jamie’s Dream School
Lesson 16: Writing a Music Review
Lesson 17: Writing a health Article
Lesson 18: Tarot Cards
Lesson 19: Writing Original Headlines
Lesson 20: Writing to Advise
Lesson 21: Influencers and Fame
Are you looking for a fresh and creative way to teach Romeo and Juliet? I recently studied for my Certificate for Teaching Shakespeare at the RSC in Stratford and it has revolutionized the way I teach the bard.
This unit contains everything you need to teach Romeo and Juliet at KS4. It is focused on essay writing skills, analyzing extracts for English Literature and bringing the play to life. It includes 31 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson powerpoints, contextual information, exemplar essays, IWB interactive resources, quizzes, activities to exploit drama, extract analysis and opportunities for online research. Page numbers refer to the Cambridge Shakespeare edition.
Each lesson is focused on a scene from the play, so you can easily cut this unit down to focus specifically on a key scene and a theme from the play. I have designed this unit to make it relevant to teenage audiences, so we look at themes like:
the role of women, both then and now
expectations of masculinity in men
the role of the theatre
why set it in Verona?
toxic masculinity in Act 1 Scene 1
the role of a father
suppression and rebellion
violence
role models
and much more…
This scheme of work contains everything you need to teach Imaginative Writing at IGCSE and will save you hours of preparation! It is focused on Paper 3 coursework, but can easily be adapted for Paper 2 exam preparation. It includes 24 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, short stories and extracts, IWB interactive resources, quizzes, writing checklists and activities to exploit drama. Each lesson targets a different area of the mark scheme for the students to master.
Lesson 1: An introduction into imaginative writing
Lesson 2: How to structure a story using a story mountain
Lesson 3: How to write an effective opening
Lesson 4: Using connectives
Lesson 5: Creating characters with depth
Lesson 6: Writing about a party
Lesson 7: Focus on punctuation in ‘The Hero’
Lesson 8: Avoiding cliche in “The 100% perfect girl”
Lesson 9: Using dialogue
Lesson 10: Multiple narrative voices in “Not My Best Side”
Lesson 11: Writing a story using a unique voice
Lesson 12: Structure in ‘The Fugitive’
Lesson 13: A Day in the Life of a Nobody
Lesson 14: Writing a personal response
Lesson 15: Creating titles
Lesson 16: Expanding and planning
Lesson 17: Topic sentences
Lesson 18: Openings and endings
Lesson 19: Endings
Lesson 20: Narratives and dialogue
Lesson 21: Opening lines
Lesson 22: Creating a sense of place
Lesson 23: Show don’t tell
Lesson 24: Narrative Tenses in The Beach