Using the poem “Nettles” by Vernon Scannell, students analyse the effect of the extended metaphor of military imagery to describe the nettles before engaging with the theme of the poem. In the second lesson, students learn how to create extended metaphors themselves with an example comparing school to a prison. Students are given several choices and lots of support to then choose a vehicle for their own extended metaphor. Folder includes: A worksheet to identify meanings of military imagery words before reading. Copy of poem. 25 slide powerpoint.

This lesson explains simple sentences and then shows students how to identify the main clause and subordinate clause in complex sentences. Students extend some given sentence starters into complex sentences. Then they use the information about Lake Como in Italy to create a piece of exciting and sophisticated travel writing.

Encourage your students to use a wider variety of sentences by teaching them how to begin sentences with the present participle, “ing” form of the verb. This powerpoint contains a clear explanation, ten sentences to re-write with answers and five fictional products to for students to sell using this type of sentence. In the final activity students choose their own product or company to promote using this sentence type. It can be used as two separate lessons of thirty minutes or a lesson of an hour, factoring in feedback from students.

Explore the life of the legendary hero, Dr Martin Luther King, with this bundle of activities. The folder includes: Two-sided information on King’s life and struggle. Worksheet with sixteen sentences to complete from information. Extension tasks such as writing a letter to the great man; creating interview questions. Extract from “I have dream speech” with language technique analysis sheet. Extract from acceptance speech of Nobel Peace Prize. Vocabulary Extension Activity Worksheet. 22 slide powerpoint with answers to sixteen sentence information. Further activity ideas.

Teach your students to write effective letters with this example from Dorothy Brooke, an animal welfare campaigner from the 1930s, who rescued World War One war horses which had been sold as working horses in Egypt after the war. Her letter was so successful that it raised £20,000 in today’s money, allowing her to found the charity Brooke, still in existence to this day. Analyse the techniques that Dorothy used to persuade newspaper readers to donate funds and encourage your students to write their own persuasive letters on animal rights or another topic of their choice. Two worksheets - one with background information and the letter and another with an analysis grid and ideas for follow-up activities. Helps prepare students for the letter writing element of GCSE English language.

Celebrate the live of this great man with three pages of information about his life, followed by a worksheet with sixteen sentences to complete. All answers are provided on the 26 slide powerpoint. Extension activities include: Write a letter to Ghandi. Devise 10 questions to ask him in an interview. Vocabulary extension worksheet of vocabulary used in the text. A Fact File template for research into either Hinduism or the Muslim religion. Website suggestions for further research. Teach your children why he was given the honorary title “Great Soul”.

This twenty slide Remembrance Assembly Powerpoint explains the historic background of the two minute silence in a poignant slideshow with images of those who gave their lives, purposefully including black soldiers who have been omitted from the historic record. It then zooms in on two individuals - Noel Chavasse, the only man to win the Victoria Cross twice and Arthur Barraclough who went over the top six times. It ends with a request for students to consider their own lives in the light of the sacrifice of so many.

Enable your students to focus on effective structure and language features by inspiring them to write a story with the title “The Rescue” by giving them a real life newspaper report on a dramatic mid-sea rescue of a cargo ship. The report contains all the details they need and all they have to do is to transform the structure of the report into the five-part story structure, enabling you to focus on what makes an effective narrative. The folder includes: A powerpoint with pointers and tips. A Word version of the report. A Word planning sheet. Designed for both AQA and Eduqas GCSE narrative writing.

Using an extract from Daphne Du Maurier’s eternally fascinating novel “Jamaica Inn”, teach students how master writers create characters. The lesson includes: Background information on the novel and writer. Extract from novel describing Joss. Worksheet on language analysis. Prediction exercise for how extract continues. Character Profile Proforma for students to create their own characters with quirky questions to provoke thoughts. Your students will be so fascinated by this rough villain that they will be desperate to read the book or watch the BBC adaptation at least!

Foster a love of reading in your students by using this thirty-two slide powerpoint on the life and career of Jacqueline Wilson to inspire your students to research an author of their own choosing. The project can either be print-based or Powerpoint-based, as in the example, if you have access to ICT resources. There are two accompanying worksheets to support the project with lots of ideas for potential authors and how to structure the project. The project could be done at school or set for homework.

Lots of colourful and visual examples and a variety of exercises to embed the concept of onomatopoeia for your students. This twenty-two slide powerpoint culminates with three examples of poems using onomatopoeia. Students are then supported to create their own onomatopoeia poem about the noises that they hear while they are at school.

Students write a speech to persuade people not to drop litter and to look after the environment. They are supported to do this with a forty slide powerpoint that gives historical background on the Dunkirk evacuation during World War Two. An extract from the famous Churchil “We shall fight them on the beaches” speech teaches them how to use persuasive language features, with excellent examples of how to use emotive language. Perfect preparation for GCSE transactional writing.

Support students to write a persuasive speech on the subject of school uniform by analysing an extract from Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech”. Students then apply Mr King’s language techniques to a speech either for or against school uniform. Students never tire of this eternal subject. A twenty-two slide powerpoint guides them through planning and structuring the speech with some ideas for and against the issue. Perfect for teaching GCSE transactional writing.

Inspired by Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade”, I have been searching for original sources that describe the battle. I’ve found diary extracts from the longest-living charge survivor, Sir George Wombwell. His vivid account of having his horse shot from under him, his capture, then escape from the Russian Cossacks makes exciting reading and is ample material to encourage your students to write about a desperate cavalry charge. Also included is an extract from William Howard Russell’s newspaper report on the Crimean War. As if that wasn’t enough, the folder also contains an extract from Michael Morpurgo’s “War Horse” which describes a cavalry charge. All of this is accompanied with a lively powerpoint with contemporary images to illustrate the key players in the drama. My lessons and worksheets on Tennyson’s poems are also thrown in free, so that your classes become absolute experts on this memorable battle in British history. Go forth and write!!

After the introduction to the definition of emotive language, students are given a series of newspaper headlines that they must make more emotive. Further tasks include ranking words in order of most emotive to least emotive. There are several example paragraphs from real texts to demonstrate how professional writers use emotive language. This then links to how professional texts use emotive images also and examples are included. All the introductory activities culminate in students creating an emotive leaflet where they have a choice of five tasks and a template to work from. This work will take at least two lessons.

Using Levi Tafari’s poem “Caribbean Christmas”, students read the poem as a class, then take a verse each to practice and perform. Finally students write their own poem about what Christmas is like in the region where they live. Tafari’s poem is great fun as it includes several “Call and response” verses that students love interacting with. Festive fun for all the class with a multi-cultural element. Don’t be all bah humbug this Christmas. Have some fun with your students! Folder includes powerpoint and hard copy of poem.

Students love writing limericks and this fun lesson contains a fully adaptable thirty-two slide powerpoint that gives some interesting background to the life of Edward Lear and then provides lots of examples of limericks for students to analyse. Next students have to guess the missing words in three limericks. Thirdly students complete the remaining three lines of limericks after being given the first two lines. By this time they will have mastered the rhyme scheme and the rhythm of the form, so they are then left to complete their own completely original limerick, which they they re-draft and illustrate for display. A fun lesson for second language learners also.

This thirty-four page student workbook contains twelve lessons covering: The history of magazines The production of magazines Marketing magazines Create your own front cover Representation - gender, race Stereotypes Institutional Values. Fully adaptable to your needs in Word format.

Using an extract from the brilliant Roadl Dahl’s memoir “Going Solo”, students analyse how he appeals to the senses to describe his arrival in Africa for the first time. Students are then given lots of ideas for places, times of the day, what they can see, hear, smell, feel and they write their own description, just like an expert. The folder contains a worksheet of the toolkit vocabulary and copy of the Dar Es Salaam extract. All you need to inspire your students to describe places like a professional.

A fun lesson on how many objects in the English language have been named after people. The powerpoint includes an explanation of the meaning of the term and then students complete a worksheet with clues to fifteen eponyms. The powerpoint then gives the answers with visually stimulating cartoons. Finally students are asked to create an educational poster for younger students to embed the learning. This is an enlightening and enjoyable lesson, ideal for when your students need a diverting break.