With all my resources I try to find a balance between clarity and creativity, aiming to stretch and challenge as well as train. Most of all, I want to 'knock on the doors of the mind', introducing students to a wider range of texts, ideas, activities and experiences. Although English is my speciality, I've also got a keen interest in Biology and Geography, which occasionally manifests in resources. Let me know if there is a text not catered for anywhere and I'll see what I can do.
With all my resources I try to find a balance between clarity and creativity, aiming to stretch and challenge as well as train. Most of all, I want to 'knock on the doors of the mind', introducing students to a wider range of texts, ideas, activities and experiences. Although English is my speciality, I've also got a keen interest in Biology and Geography, which occasionally manifests in resources. Let me know if there is a text not catered for anywhere and I'll see what I can do.
Pollination: Useful for revision with a weaker class, but a great way to challenge a more able one. Students look at photographs of pollinators at work – really look – and try to consider the implications of what they are seeing. This can be done in teams or individually. 4 slides show insect, bird and wind pollination and one has a quote from Darwin as an extra challenge.
Then the same pollinators are shown with commentary and some extra information designed to provoke discussion and spark interest. This gives the opportunity for the class to discuss the implications of what they notice. [If this is done as a cover lesson, the non-specialist teacher could draw up a list of questions generated by students to put to the teacher for next lesson].
The lesson ends with a 2 question test as a plenary to sum up what has been learned.
To accommodate differentiation there are the extra challenges and additional information for more able students, as well as a fill in grid with some given information for the less able or slow writers.
The stunning photos in the Power Point are presented in Word for printing off as A4 or A3 posters for display.
Shakespeare Day this year has the added thrill of marking 400 years since the Bard’s death [or 452 since his birth!]. To help you mark the anniversary, here’s a ‘Where’s Will?’ competition with quotes, student fill in sheets and an answer sheet. Set up the competition school wide, departmentally or as a class activity to get students reading quotes and finding where the action is set. The competition is really easy – its merit is exposure – participants have to find the posters, read a quote and be alert to where the action is set. At the very least they’ll have heard of a few more plays. This activity is easy enough for upper primary pupils.
That’s just one activity. On the quotes PP you have a template you can send to students and colleagues on which they can write their favourite Shakespeare quotes [even if it is from the play they are currently studying] to display around the school. Primary pupils could display insults they've generated. Each subsequent slide can be printed [on coloured A3?] to make a display for the classroom or to boost the display around the school.
Longer term, there is the set of starter quotes that could introduce students to Shakespeare’s language, as a Shakespeare ‘quote of the half-term’, or for 6 lessons in April… the idea is to get students to think about both the literal and figurative meaning of memorable lines, as well as expose them to a wider range of plays. The ‘fill-in’ version allows you to set the whole task as a one off lesson activity or a self-mark homework. For anyone who has missed the lesson, quotes and answers are available as a paper version too.
The Teachers' Guide also provides useful links and ideas. Enjoy a super Shakespeare Day!
