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.
I have created a mock paper (2hr30) for the comparative and contextual study for OCR English Literature using dystopian texts. This paper has the critical appreciation question on Logan’s Run (William F Nolan) and the comparative question that offers four choices for students to pick from.
The mark schemes to help assign a grade for essay responses is available on the OCR website, but their past papers are often redacted so are not easily used.
I have created a mock paper (2hr30) for the comparative and contextual study for OCR English Literature using dystopian texts. This paper has the critical appreciation question on Children of Men (P.D James) and the comparative question that offers four choices for students to pick from.
The mark schemes to help assign a grade for essay responses is available on the OCR website, but their past papers are often redacted so are not easily used.
I have created a mock paper (2hr30) for the comparative and contextual study for OCR English Literature using dystopian texts. This paper has the critical appreciation question on Minority Report (Philip K Dick) and the comparative question that offers four choices for students to pick from.
The mark schemes to help assign a grade for essay responses is available on the OCR website, but their past papers are often redacted so are not easily used.
I have put together a revision guide for my set 4 class on A Christmas Carol, taking into consideration what has already been examined by Eduqas. It took me a really long time to create it, but the students have really found it useful so I thought I would share it.
In the revision guide, I have included:
A ‘how to write an analysis’ page with prompts for each part of a high level answer
Some ‘one page revision sheets’ for key characters and themes (Scrooge, Fred, Bob and the Cratchits, The Poor, Family, Responsibility, The Ghosts). This one page revision sheet includes key ideas/vocab, key quotes, a timeline, key message and key context.
Pages with key questions for Redemption, Christmas and Isolation (the quotes and information on other revision sheets are to be used to fill in blank templates for these themes)
A summary page for each stave + a multiple choice quiz to consolidate learning
I have made sure to use dual coding to further support understanding of theme.
When I can, I create mock papers for Eduqas English Language Component 1 and 2 so my students have more practice before their exams.
This paper is a COMPONENT 2 READING PAPER. It does not include the writing section.
For this paper, I selected to sources about feral children, and created an exam paper and indicative content for teachers in my school. All are included in the price. I have also included a complete PowerPoint to walk students through the exam so you need no/very little editing!
In the bundle you will find:
A PPT with some example answers (no full mark answers though, so students can improve upon work - all are around 6-7 mark answers for 10 mark responses)
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.
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
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 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
A fully resources scheme of work looking at sonnets and soliloquies, comparing them to popular music - mainly rap and hip hop. This is created for year 8, but could be used in any year of KS3.
This is a lively and engaging scheme of work that looks at the similarities between rap, hip-hop and Shakespeare’s writing. The student have opportunities to learn about the structure and creation of sonnets and soliloquies, with soliloquies from Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth as well as Sonnet 18, Sonnet 55 and Ozymandias (Shelley).
As part of the package, you get:
A full MTP document with detailed outline of each lesson, tasks, assessment points, LOs and SCs and optional homework. It also has links to any web pages needed.
All resources for each week, including assessment resources and grading for speaking and listening assessment opportunities.
Resources for each week
A full skeleton powerpoint for the whole term. This gives basic guidance through each lesson, with LOs and SCs already outlined. All you need to do is tweak it for your classes/add any photos or images you would like.
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.
key Stage 3, Year 9 English SOW that has strong links to History.
A full half term scheme of work, fully resourced for each week with a detailed medium term plan outlining every lesson. Key vocabulary is outlined for the scheme. A skeleton powerpoint is also provided with 38 slides of basic guidance for teachers for the first week of learning. Each week has a different focus, with key skills worked on throughout the SOW. These skills are:
Reading:
Comparing texts, synthesising information, analysing writer’s techniques and message and evaluating texts
Writing:
Using discourse markers, using ambitious punctuation, using writer’s techniques, using the correct layout and writing engaging texts.
The scheme of work includes:
-an analysis of the language of media looking at cases of police brutality
-an exploration of how the civil rights movement started with transactional writing tasks linked to different moments within the Civil Right’s Movement, as well as source analysis
-An analysis and comparison of different influential figures - includes extracts of autobiographies, speeches and articles about MLK, Malcolm X, JFK and Emmett Till. Also has a great lesson on the FBI report around Emmett Till’s murder.
-Exploration of Civil Rights poetry (June Jordan, Nikki Giovanni and Margaret Walker
-Exploring presidential campaigns and how they are created. This looks at Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and speeches and compares them to different presidents
-The final two weeks give students the opportunity to create their own presidential campaign and to create a celebration of Black History Month. These weeks include lots of opportunity for written and spoken assessment, as well as collaborative projects.
Each week has a blue highlighted task that can be the assessment task, or a weekly checkpoint task.
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 ‘Leisure’ by W.H Davies and ‘The Lesson’ by Maya Angelou. 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.
This is the second masterclass, after the students requested to do another.
The format of the slides is really easy to edit, so you can use this repeatedly and just change the poems in the middle.
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.
I have compiled a range of questions for WJEC/EDUQAS in the exam style to cover every theme, relationship or character in the following texts:
Blood Brothers
A Christmas Carol
The Merchant of Venice
The poetry anthology.
In the documents you will find exam style questions.
In the Blood Brothers pack, there are 18 exam style questions, including previous exam questions. All of these include an extract for the springboard essay and cover every theme, character and relationship.
In the A Christmas Carol pack, there are 16 exam style questions, including previous exam questions. All of these include an extract for the springboard essay and cover every theme, character and relationship.
In the The Merchant of Venice pack, there are 17 exam style questions, including previous exam questions. There are both the 15 mark extract, and 25 mark whole play questions and cover every theme, character and relationship.
In the Poetry Anthology pack, there are 9 exam style questions, including previous exam questions. All of these include the poem asked to analyse and compare, as well as both questions.
As part of the WJEC/EDUQAS poetry anthology, students are expected to learn and understand the context of each poem. To make this easier to retain, I have created a context homework sheet for each poem. The sheet is a simple and easy homework that can be tested as a Do Now at the beginning of a lesson. Each sheet has the title, date and name of poet, alongside a ‘Top Ten Facts’ for the poem’s context. This purchase will give you one sheet for each poem - something which I know at times can take hours of research. With these sheets it will save you and your students time, knowing ten top contextual facts that can help secure success for your students.
Two revision documents for year 11 students.
Document 1: Create your own transactional writing task.
This sheet breaks down PAFT - Purpose, Audience, Format and Topic alongside a list of different purposes, as well as some examples of possible transactional writing questions that could be asked. This means students have 12 varied writing tasks to complete, as well as a grid to help them create as many extra writing tasks as they want.
Document 2: Create your own Literature Essay Focus.
This sheet breaks down the way questions are phrased for their Literature GCSE exams, with a box at the top with the style of questions posed for character, theme and relationship. There are then three colour coded (and editable) boxes with all of the main characters, themes and relationships in: The Merchant of Venice, A Christmas Carol and Blood Brothers. This means students have all the information to be able to practise any exam question that could come up in their exams.
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 resource used for student to work through during the summer holidays in order to prepare themselves for the course in September. This booklet has a range of 19 tasks for English Literature and English Language at A Level. In addition, there are useful web links provided for students, and a guide to different ways of doing some preparation. I have also included a recommended reading list for both Literature and Language - this can be easily amended.