An independent reading guide for Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood. With a focus on intertextuality, students are able to independently read, analyse, and compare Atwood’s rendition with Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It could also be used as a stand-alone resource on intertextuality, allusion, or Shakespeare in the contemporary world. Includes: pre-reading exercises; chapter-by-chapter comprehension and analysis questions; a summative creative writing task. I hope you enjoy the resource, and thank you!

A close-reading guide to facilitate an independent reading of the text. The guide includes pre-reading, chapter-by-chapter, and summative activities.

Close-reading and analysis guide for The Song of Achilles. Created to guide and mold independent reading and analysis. Aligned with GCSE English AO’s with summary, literary, structural, evaluation, and creative writing activities. Enjoy, and thank you!

This unit aims to teach the craft of fiction through reading and application. Twenty workshop-style weeks/sessions build and accumulate an understanding of what makes fiction compelling, through focus on a range of fiction, from fundamental literary texts to the modern and avant-garde; the analysis accumulates and is consolidated through the creation of a narrative during the summative five-week drafting, peer-editing, and finalising process. The unit synthesises skills of critical analysis and creativity to help shape and express learners’ uniqueness and understanding of the craft of notable writers. To comment on its creation, this course was initially run as an after-school extracurricular club for upper KS3 and KS4 secondary students, Year 9-11 (aged 13-16), with the only requirement being to produce an extended piece of fiction during the process. The readings included were abridged and scaffolded as required to ensure access from all students. Its success and positive reception facilitated its use and adaptation as part of the general school’s English curriculum, in-line with the GCSE requirements (both Language and Literature). Please note: the sessions may need ’stripping-back’ depending on the time-constraints. I hope you find it useful!

This resource includes a wide array of activities related to the novel. All tasks are scaffolded and differentiated, allowing students to be stretched and challenged through developing their analytical skills. I originally used this pack as an extension/homework resource for Key Stage 3; to consolidate and cement their in-class study of the text. However, this would work very well as a workshop resource or a skeletal scheme of learning. With over 30 pages of activities, this workpack ensures students document their reading and push themselves towards developing higher-order thinking. Students responded very well to these activities; they especially liked how all their work was consolidated through an essay and, as they found, the process of this was facilitated through all their hard-work prior to the essay. When pricing this, I wanted it to be accessible to all whilst valuing the time I put into its creation. I really hope you enjoy this, it has been an excellent resource for me, I would love to hear your feedback! Happy teaching and learning! Mr. Key

Close-reading and analysis guide for Almond. Created to guide and mold independent reading and analysis. Perfect as a guided stand-alone novel study or as a self-directed activity. Enjoy, and thank you!

This novel packet was made for students to indepedently read, track, and analyse the text. I have focused on intertextuality with Shakespearean work, literary analysis, and vocabulary instruction. It’s a great resource to accompany If We Were Villains as students read independently or small groups with little to no teacher instruction required. The various tasks are consolidated with a summative essay task. Personally, I used this as a summer reading task for GCSE students before they returned to school to embark on Shakespeare! I hope you enjoy the resource.

This is a short-practise of Q3 from Paper 1 (IGCSE English Language 0500). Included; Q3 practise task; PDF of text. Please let me know what you think, and thanks! Mr. Key

This resource facilitates a close-reading and analysis of an engaging text, Bullet in the Brain. Following the AQA assessment objectives (AO1, AO2, AO4, AO5, AO6) an analysis of the text is accumulated initially with word-level analysis to a summative creative writing task. I have found this extremely useful in engaging learners with a unique text that really sparks interest with fiction. The final page of the PDF includes my notes to assist with teaching of the text; there’s also a very good YouTube video to assist students that require some visual stimulus. Please note - the video includes some explicit language; the text has been adbridged to omit this! Please let me know how you find the resource; it’s been very beneficial to my learners! Thanks a lot, Mr. Key

A close-reading guide to facilitate an independent reading of the text. The guide includes chapter-by-chapter guided reading questions and summative activities.

This resource is formed to assist students with an independent reading of “Piranesi” by Susanna Clarke. The guide begins with pre-reading tasks regarding genre, intertextuality, and psychoanalysis to preview and help inform the analysis of the novel. From here, students complete close-reading questions and analysis through the lens of a variety of narrative conventions (conflict; characterisation; narrative structure, etc.). This also includes vocabulary acquisition activities to further enrich the reading. The summative task involves a literary analysis essay to consolidate the analysis. The pack was created for Year 10 students, but with appropriate adaptive teaching, could be used for all secondary students. Thank you!

Since beginning to teach a few years ago, I’ve been developing a reflective learning model to use with students of all ages and abilities. My objective was to create a scaffolded method of reflection that encourages self-critique among all learners. Through applying a variety of reflective and critical learning theories, I’ve been able to create something tangible for students that develops and actions higher-order thinking skills. The central aim to introduce learners to the notion that reflection (like higher-order thinking) is an internal, natural dialogue that we all do on a day-to-day basis. Used consistently as a plenary in lessons, or to help structure an on-going reflective journal, this will also provide an effective means of continuous, meaningful assessment. Feel free to use and share; it’s been invaluable to me. I’d also love to hear whether you have used this and any suggestions you have, as like the model, I’m constantly trying to improve and fine-tune my craft. Thank you!

The objective of this scaffolded feedback sheet is to eradicate confusion and complications with teacher feedback; to enable learners to really benefit from the assessment process. Through its scaffolded-approach and the marking abbreviations, learner autonomy is facilitated through putting the onus on the learner to easily identify traits within their writing and to action growth (learners can complete the abbreviations and frequency table following teacher’s summative comment, if appropriate; you could also only mark the first paragraph for technical accuracy, and ask the students to complete the rest). This provides clarity of development areas, and I have also used this to create SMART targets and to evidence learner progress. Learners then complete the self-reflection model to evidence that they have read and digested the feedback provided. Furthermore, it can also be used as a tool of peer-assisted assessment by replacing the teacher comments with those of peers. Also, importantly, it saves time for the teacher!!! Please feel free to adapt as you see fit, and I would love to hear any feedback regarding how it has been used in your practice. Thanks, Edward Key.

The resources are tied to AQA GCSE Language Paper 1, Q3 (AO2), but this could easily be adapted for other examining bodies/ages. The lesson encourages deeper analysis of fiction through the ERIC model starter activity. This builds towards structural analysis of the opening to George Orwell’s 1984. Included: differentiated resources/copies the text; PDF version of the lesson; PPT version of the lesson. Please note: .pdf’ version and ppt version are the same session; the resource was created in Google Slides, so the format of the ppt will need some reconfiguring!