Student notes and lesson plans: exam technique; context (“Coral Island”, Golding a teacher); themes - original sin; WW2 background; Golding on themes and characters; human nature as theme; why are there no girls in the novel?; what Golding himself has said about the novel and the film adaptation; detailed study of individual chapters. This is both a set of notes for students and a series of lessons - take your students through these notes and use them as a basis of discussion. Excellent for revision and study of the context. 7 pages, 2368 words.

M4M translated into clear, modern English for A level students with detailed notes. Huge help for lower ability students: context/language notes; a very readable edition designed to retain the excitement of the original and to help students with this linguistically challenging play. Written by Frank Danes, a published Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press author and teacher/Head of English for over 36 years.

8 pages, 2447 words. Everything your students need to revise “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”: CONTEXT - novels, short stories and novellas defined; shilling shockers and penny dreadfuls; gothic fiction; character of Mr Utterson; Soho; appearance and reality; Science, Darwin, evolution and devolution; recommendation of translation of the text into modern English, available from this author.

Lesson plans and student notes on: exam technique; themes - regicide, the natural order, witches/the supernatural; tragedy, tragic hero, free will, fate, Fortune. This is both a set of notes for your students and a series of lesson plans: take them through the notes, use them as a basis for discussion. Excellent for context and extension work for higher ability students. 17 pages, 5926 words. Used by over 300 students.

Line by line analysis of Want and Ignorance passage in “A Christmas Carol” for GCSE Eng Lit. Explains difficult vocab; Romantic/Gothic; Victorian context. Refers to Dickens’ view of children as close to God, contrasting the children Want and Ignorance with Tiny Tim; Victorian context of Christianity, poverty, why Ignorance is such an evil for Dickens. Also looks at Gothic imagery of the passage and of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, with his Grim Reaper imagery. Notes on change of tone from joyous to horror.

For students unfamiliar with Christianity, this 6 page resource introduces basic Christian concepts. It’s a lesson plan or for self-supported study. For use with: year 8/9 /GCSE students about to start the Christianity component or ESOL students studying English Literature. The resource covers, in 2300 words: Jesus as founder of Christianity; The Old Testament; the Ten Commandments; the New Testament; links with Islam and Judaism; the Gospels; Christian teaching; examples of Jesus’ teachings (the parables: sheep and the goats and The Good Samaritan; the Sermon on the Mount/Beautitudes; heaven and hell; different denominations’ interpretations of Christianity; questions for students.

For beginner/intermediate ESOL learners: real life situation. Funny and lively lesson with dialogue and vocab learning. Used very successfully in class.

DETAILED notes for students on Grimbert’s UN SECRET: teachers - use as a bases for lessons. Covers: themes; guilt; identity; history/context; motifs; l’occupation; storytelling; form and structure of the novel; Laval; treachery; motifs of dogs, the body and bodies. History covered - occupied France, Laval, the Holocaust. This resource is in English. 2994 words, 7 sides. Successfully used with A level French students.

Sample AQA style practice paper for Section A, English Language paper 1; the opening of Orwell’s 1984 with AQA style qs. Excellent text leads to stimulating answers!

This new reading of “The Handmaid’s Tale” puts the novel into the context of feminism in the 1980s and the dystopian novel. This article is ideal for the Dystopia option of OCR English Literature A level. The article considers"The Handmaid’s Tale"'s reputation as a cult novel, as a satire of male power and Christianity and the debt it owes to Orwell’s “1984”. Attwood’s prose and structure are analysed. The author argues that “The Handmaid’s Tale” is not the greatest novel of the twentieth century or the greatest dystopian novel: it is a fine novel, written in excellent prose, but it has flaws. This article will help to engage your A level students and to give them something to argue with or against. It will thus encourage them, as the A level specifications require, to engage with critical views rather than simply to read them passively. It is written by Frank Danes, who wrote many of the materials to support OCR English Literature A level on the OCR website; Danes taught English for 30 years in English secondary schools and was Head of English in three schools.

Teacher and student guide to Bennett’s “The History Boys”. Notes on Bennett; Oxbridge lessons; themes of the value of education, sexuality; characters of Irwin, Hector; ten student activities. As used successfully in the classroom and formerly published on OCR’s website, now deleted. Can be delivered as lessons/given straight to students/used for AO5, other interpretations. 6700 words, 15 pages. Excellent value.

Essential notes for students: can be used for independent study or as a lesson. Themes include: New York society; gossip; sexuality; marriage; duty/passion; old vs new money; adultery. These notes also cover the major characters; influences on Wharton, e.g. Austen and Henry James; the novel’s place in American Literature; the ironic, multiple meanings of the title. Students can cite these ideas for AO5, other interpretations. Over 3000 words of essential critical study on this novel. Frank Danes, the author, is an experienced A level examiner, former Head of English and published author of many guides to A level texts.

1500 words of A level notes on Heller’s great novel, by a senior A level examiner and a former Head of English. Themes, viewpoint, dramatic irony, unreliable narrator, reader’s experience, characterisation all covered. This resource can be given straight to students or used to teach from.