I am an experienced teacher and currently Head of English and Media in a large secondary school. I am also an examiner for EDUQAS English Language GCSE. I have a range of resources available on TES. Some of my resources are quite old, from when I first started out, and I am currently working in my spare time to update my resources. There are a range of resources from displays, schemes of work, revision booklets, mock exam papers and lessons available.
I am an experienced teacher and currently Head of English and Media in a large secondary school. I am also an examiner for EDUQAS English Language GCSE. I have a range of resources available on TES. Some of my resources are quite old, from when I first started out, and I am currently working in my spare time to update my resources. There are a range of resources from displays, schemes of work, revision booklets, mock exam papers and lessons available.
This powerpoint has been created to encourage confidence in unseen poetry, and to teach students how to analyse and plan for the WJEC/EDUQAS unseen poetry question timings. The first five slides are resources for the class.
Slide 1 - a breakdown of each unseen poetry question - colour coded - to explain expectations from examiner, timings, what the question is asking you to do.
Slide 2 - a reminder bookmark to give students to take home to practise with at home. It has 8 key questions students should ask themselves to ensure clear and detailed answers when responding.
Slide 3 - The first poem handout with annotation boxes (colour coded). This is advisable to be printed in A3 so they have a decent amount of space to write notes in.
Slide 4 - The second poem handout - this one has the original poem and the poem they have to compare it with on- with annotation boxes (colour coded). This is advisable to be printed in A3 so they have a decent amount of space to write notes in. I normally print slide 3 and 4 back to back
Slide 5 - an optional print out slide with a breakdown of what to write in each paragraph, as well as possible sentence starters/cloze paragraphs to use.
This masterclass uses the poems ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ by Dylan Thomas and ‘Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep’ by Mary Elizabeth Frye. Slides 6,7,8 and 9 talk you and the class through how to quickly annotate with timers to keep the pace. The poem analysis is broken down into sections with written prompts to show on the board.
I have done this masterclass with all of the year 11 classes in my school (other than the weakest ability who weren’t sitting literature) and an overwhelming majority requested a second masterclass as they found it so helpful. I will upload the second masterclass to TES as well- it is the same format but different poems.
The format of the slides is really easy to edit, so you can use this repeatedly and just change the poems in the middle.
A lesson complete with annotated poem, teaching students the context, language, imagery and structure of Cozy Apologia ready to compare to She Walks in Beauty.
Following the structure, format and wording of the WJEC/EDUQAS literature exam paper, I have created a mock paper using Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley for students to practice exam responses. Included in the resource is an essay planning sheet to help students consider their answer and time their writing.
A fun lesson to start a Shakespeare module, looking at Shakespearian insults, how Shakespeare has influenced our language today and how he is still relevant. A mixture of fun facts about Shakespeare to play a bingo game, a research sheet, a Shakespearian insult activity and opportunities to analyse and explore interesting use and change of word classes. Easily adaptable for all abilities. I used with a year 9 set 4 class and it was really successful. All learning objectives, success criteria, real world link, levels and stretch and challenge opportunities are included. Fun Do Now and Plenary activities also included.
A complete lesson with all resources, learning objectives, success criteria and poem breakdown. This lesson starts with a do now activity where students explore the stereotypical image of a soldier, mind mapping ideas around an image. The PowerPoint then talks through key notes for the context, content, structure, form, language, imagery and tone of the poem. The poem has a step by step analysis, including key questions, so students can expand understanding and knowledge whilst having discussion opportunities to expand deeper meaning. This can be used as a complete lesson, but it can equally be used as a revision aide for students either in or outside of the classroom. All Eduqas questions are thematic, so the next step would be to pose the question ‘How is War presented in The Soldier’. Teachers are able to edit or add to this lesson to aide understanding - this lesson was created for lower ability sets.
To help my A Level students, I created a useful guide with context, critics, historical information, a guide of literary terms and the poems they would need to analyse for their coursework. It includes information about the war and the poet, as well as influences and other poets linked to Owen. It also has copies of 11 of Owen’s poems for them to annotate so all of the information they need for their coursework is together.
I have put together a revision guide for my set 4 class on the poems that have not yet been examined on by Eduqas in the GCSEs. It took me a really long time to create it, but the students have really found it useful.
In the revision guide, I have included:
For each poem:
A ‘fit on one page’ guide explaining what the poem is about, 7 key quotes, the key messages, context and structural notes
A question page with short form questions linked to the poem
A ‘memorise the quote’ page in the style of spelling copy and repeat sheets
An exam style question and three pages to answer.
Alongside the poem sheets I have included an ‘how to write an analysis’ page with sentence starters and 7 comparison grids. Each grid has a different theme. I have filled in one half of the first sheet so students can see what needs to be done.
The poems included are: Death of a Naturalist, Hawk Roosting, The Prelude, She Walks in Beauty, Valentine, Living Space, As Imperceptibly as Grief, Cozy Apologia, The Manhunt, The Soldier
I have included the following themes: Power, Nature, Love/Relationships, Grief/Time/Faith, Childhood/Growing up and Conflict/War.
I have made sure to use dual coding to further support understanding of theme.
A fun and engaging lesson exploring foreshadowing using chapter 6 of The Hobbit. Throughout the course of the lesson students first need to select the correct definition of foreshadowing and discuss the meaning, before watching a clip from the Lion King and The Wizard of Oz and identify what event is being foreshadowed. After that, student 'popcorn read' chapter 6 of The Hobbit, identifying possible foreshadowing before analyzing a key extract (provided on the PowerPoint). This lesson can be used as part of an ongoing scheme, or can easily be adapted by removing slide 5 (the hobbit summary slide) to be a stand alone lesson. Excellent for high ability key stage 3 students. All resources, learning objectives and success criteria, videos and timers are included in the PowerPoint.
This workbook has been created for A and AS Level students to guide them through the text whilst remotely learning.
The booklet consists of:
A transcript of an interview with Ray Bradbury
A summary of the novel, and some questions to answer
Social and historical context + knowledge checker
Information about the Atomic bomb + a research task
A timeline of events in the book
Plot Summary of The Hearth and the Salamander + questions
Multiple choice quiz on that section
Plot Summary of The Sieve and the Sand + questions
Multiple choice quiz on that section
Plot Summary of Burning Bright + questions
Multiple choice quiz on that section
A plot diagram
Symbols grid work task
Themes grid work task
Fun facts / things you didn’t know about the novel
Suggested further reading
A complete lesson with all resources, learning objectives, success criteria and poem breakdown. This lesson talks through the context, content, structure, form, language, imagery and tone. With a step by step analysis for the poem, including key questions, students can expand understanding and knowledge. This can be used as a complete lesson, but it can equally be used as a revision aide for students either in or outside of the classroom.
A complete, two hour, 'walking talking' mock where the teacher guides students through example questions and how to achieve top marks. Students are given a created exam paper with a Shakespeare extract and essay question, as well as a poem from the anthology and the exam questions. The powerpoint then talks the students through timings and how to answer each question. A fantastic revision aide and great training for the exam. All resources are included with this purchase.
A complete, two hour, 'walking talking' mock where the teacher guides students through example questions and how to achieve top marks. Students are given a created exam paper with a 'A
Macbeth' extract and essay question, as well as an anthology extract and the corresponding exam questions. The PowerPoint then talks the students through timings and how to answer each question. A fantastic revision aide and great training for the exam. All resources are included with this purchase. This is a run on from the first Walking Talking mock for Literature component 1, and as such has more questioning for students to build on their revision.
16 important literary features pairs game for students to memorise key techniques needed to analyse literature. Works with all ages- important for analysis of prose and poetry. Fun and engaging, easy to use and popular with the students!
Full lesson powerpoints created (21 lessons minimum) ideally each poem takes 2 lessons which makes a 42 lessons completed with success criteria and learning objectives. The poems studied include:
A Wife in London
London
She Walks in Beauty
Living Space
As imperceptibly as grief
Cozy Apologia
Valentine
Afternoons
Sonnet 43
Death of a naturalist
Hawk Roosting
To Autumn
The Manhunt
The Soldier
Dulce et Decorum Est
Mametz Wood
Ozymandias
Excerpt from The Prelude
Also included in the pack is a photocopy of roughly half the poems completely annotated for teachers.
A bundle of 11 OCR style mock exam papers for the dystopian unit for the Comparative and Contextual Study section of the English Literature A Level. For this question, they are asked to read an unseen extract of dystopian fiction and write a critical appreciation. In the bundle you will have:
Fahrenheit 451
I Am Legend
Lord of the Flies
Never Let Me Go
The Chrysalids
The Hunger Games
The Long Walk
The Mazerunner
The Road
Uglies
Unwind
As it stands, there are very few critical appreciation mock papers on the OCR website that haven’t had the extract redacted, so this is a useful bundles of sources for A Level teachers who don’t have the time to plan their own.
Disclaimer: I have not included indicative content for each paper.
A range of resources and a lesson on Marxist Criticism and how to apply it to an analysis of A Christmas Carol for GCSE. Students learn the basics of Marxist criticism and use this to improve close analysis of key scenes in A Christmas Carol. Great for top band students looking to boost their performance in essays and exams.
A selection of 21 ready to print resources that can be used as Do Now or Plenary activities for your classes. These can also be used online if you convert to a google doc.
The do now selection covers:
capital letters
full stops
commas in a list
commas to separate clauses
apostrophes
discourse markers
verbs and adverbs
adjectives and nouns
prefixes and suffixes
ellipses to shorten quotations
there, they’re and their
where, wear and were
the verb to be
past V present tense
superlatives
colons
semi-colons
synonyms
antonyms
prepositions
I have put together a breakdown of every question asked for the texts studied for English Literature on Eduqas Exam Board for students and staff in my school. I thought it might be useful for any other teachers.
I have included A Christmas Carol, An Inspector Calls, Poetry Anthology and The Merchant of Venice.
Hope it is helpful