A variation on a selection of lessons that I sell elsewhere. Here, the center piece is a 26 page printable workbook that runs in tandem with the power-point lessons - ideal for a Summer Term 2 unit of work where you are reluctant to give the students a new work book, and working on paper is problematic. The text is Anil (from the old Sunlight on the Grass Anthology) and there is about 12 lessons worth of material here.

A deconstruction of the English Language Paper 1 examination that uses Brighton Rock as a source. I’ve lifted the model material from the mark schemes and there’s FAR related targets included. Essentially, this is a lesson that can be taught either AFTER the students have sat the exam and you want them to peer/self assess, or you could change it so that that they answer a question and then mark their efforts. The Section B element is a bit of an experiment - peer marking creative writing is always a challenge. So I’ve given the students a series of yes/not/some related questions. The idea is that they “tick” the level next to the answer on a copy of the AO5 and AO6 mark schemes. Using that, they should be better able to work out where the creative writing fits. My peer marked creative writing has got much more accurate as a result of this.

A series of lessons designed to make sure students have a clear understanding of the “basics” and the “developed” skills and techniques required for EACH of the possible text types they could meet in Section B of the English Language Paper 2 exam. Because my lot were taught A Christmas Carol (and I was trying to kill two birds with one stone by revising this at the same time…), the tasks are all focused on writing within the world of Scrooge. To that end, they may require some editing on the part of the user - hence the reduced price.

I’ve done quite a few of these now, and I always try to improve on the last one. I think this is about as far as I can go with this format. Here’s what you get: An individual breakdown of each of the exam questions. Each section contains the following: A breakdown of the AQA related material A walk-through for Q2, Q3 and Q4 Suggested targets and strategies 5 Case studies using real student responses (Except for Q1. You’ve got 10 for Q5 though) Real students planning processes laid out for discussion It’s a big one - you’ve got 60+ slides to work through. In terms of teaching, this works best after you’ve sat the relevant exam. However, it wouldn’t take much tweaking for a mock-style scenario. Also, this is designed to be given to the students so that they can engage with it at home.

I’ve used the opening chapter of the novel as the basis for an AQA Language Paper 1 mock exam. I’ve created an Answer paper too.

Using a format that proved successful in the KS4 arena, I’ve adapted the thinking to apply to an AQA English Language P1 Q2/P2 Q3 style task that would fit for a higher ability top set KS3 class. The approach is to initially read the extract then to specifically identify concepts that relate to a language focused task, followed be explicitly identifying language based methods and incorporating into a response.

To make effective use of this scheme I suggest you have a copy of the most recent RSC version of As You Like It (It is quite marvelous…) else a lot of the images I use will make little sense. There are five “lessons” that each last around the two hour mark. Each of the assessments is available, so the whole package is a self-contained unit of work. We had a lot of fun with this unit, and I inter-spaced the learning with periods where the class would act out elements of the play. You don’t necessarily need a copy of the play to teach this unit either.

Similar to a lesson I posted on A Christmas Carol. After a bit of a warm-up, the crux of the lesson is focused on establishing concepts then explicitly showing students HOW to identify methods - again, some still confuse quotations and methods - before pointing them at an exam question. UPDATE: I repeated this lesson a few weeks later with a different extract, but backing off a notch in terms of explicitly identifying methods.

A lesson take from a collaborative scheme of work. The lesson focuses on the quite excellent Born A Crime by Trevor Noah. The focus is developing an initial understanding of South Africa, then Trevor Noah himself, before focusing in on the context surrounding the story itself. After, the focus switches to analysing the structural choices made in the extract. Additionally, I’ve included a useful little follow up lesson where the focus ins to build a piece of creative writing that follows a specific structural path.

A useful little resource that can be a starter/plenary element in your lessons. The spreadsheet generates ten randomly selected true or false statements from a bank of over 260. Each of the power and conflict poems is covered and there is the scope for you to add in your own or edit the statements that are there. I released this to my year 11s as a revision tool and they found it very useful. Additionally, I have included a blank copy of the spreadsheet so you can create your own ToF statement generator.

I've had a lot of fun teaching these lessons. Essentially, the idea is you spend a lesson exploring a poem and then a creative angle has been drawn from the text to inform the creative writing lesson that follows. Each of the creative writing lessons assumes a two hour window. A simple scheme, but I've found it to be rather effective.

A useful little tool. It allows you to RAGB(red, amber, green, blue) your students understanding/annotations of the 15 Power and Conflict poems in the AQA anthology. Also, it provides you with a poem by poem breakdown of your classes understanding/quality of annotations so you can see where the gaps are all the clearer. The spreadsheet is set up for a class of up to 40, but the coding can easily be altered to allow for a whole year group.

Does exactly what it says. This spreadsheet will create one random comparative question for and will generate a new one every time you double-click a cell and press enter. A word of caution in that you cannot retrieve the old question. But, this is very useful for revision and or cover lessons. I’ve left room for you to add in your own question stems and you can manipulate the poetry lists too. I’ve left some instructions on the relevant tab. Hope you find this useful.

A series of activities that are designed to be taught over time. There is a bit of initial leg-work to do in setting up the spreadsheet and, truth be told, I’ve had more success using this with smaller classes than with larger ones - the volume of specific data generated gets unwieldy with the larger groups. So, I’ve divided punctuation up into three groups - BASIC, MID-RANGE and ADVANCED. The idea is that you teach/go over/re-demonstrate the type a type of punctuation. Then, the students are given ten minutes to write where they focus on using that type of punctuation. Each punctuation type has a points value, and the goal is to “defeat” a possessed teacher by using that type of punctuation. The powerpoint presentations each show a teacher (or a combination of teachers) making their way across the screen over the course of ten minutes. There’s the option of spooky orchestral music too. There are specific work sheets that each student will need - each work sheet contains the points value of each punctuation type and a grid where you can wither self/peer/teacher assess depending on how you want to set the lesson up. As the class progresses, so to does the complexity of the task. Each new level incorporates a new type of punctuation OR (more importantly) a new combination of focuses. For example, level 3 requires students to use BASIC and MID-RANGE punctuation to defeat two teachers. What I found useful was the specific nature of the feedback I got: I could see quite clearly which punctuation types were defeating each student and which punctuation type was an issue for the class as a whole. And, if the class lost (which they did on more than one occasion) then they retried the level the following week. We used this in SPAG lessons in combination with some other elements - it can easily be made into a whole lesson. A useful little tool…

Three slides on a power point that can easily be printed out and handed out as a task. Each slide gets progressively more complex. Each slide contains a choice of two tasks (one descriptive and one relating to the writing of a narrative), a punctuation related challenge, a content challenge and an organisational challenge. Ran it with my year 11s yesterday and they found it very useful. Oh yes! I have intentionally put one spelling/punctuation mistake on each slide with the idea that I award a housepoint to the first student that identified it. You’re welcome!

A few elements of my class really struggled with this concept. So, I’ve broken it down into a step by step guide. The class will each need a copy of the AQA Poetry Anthology for this. It focuses on Follower first and then sets them up for an academic tilt at a comparative response. I’ve had a good response from the elements of the class that initially struggled too.

A lesson designed to be taught AFTER the class has sat a mock exam. However, with very little modifcation this can become a walking-talking mock exam, or a peer/self assessment based lesson. The powerpoint contains model material and an indicator as to the quality of the model material. My class found this lesson to be very useful. Additionally, the insert is available for free should you wish to download it for yourself. I include the link below: https://linwood.bournemouth.sch.uk/summerwood/files/2017/12/8700_1-INS-EnglishLanguage-G-6Jun17-AM.pdf

The lessons are designed to tie in specifically with the Scholastic Classics version of the text OR the Collins Classroom Classics version, but it wouldn’t take too much to use this with any version to be honest. Visually, the powerpoints are designed to be eye-catching. Each one is loaded with links to videos, layered with animations and suitably spooky xmas music. The lessons are ordered via number for your convenience. There is a specific focus on each of the GCSE Assessment Focuses, starting with AO3 (It makes sense, to me at least, to contextualise the story prior to reading it). The stave lessons each contain definitions of the archaic words (though there is a definite backing off with this the further in you get: as the students get more familiar with the language, they’ll need less prompting with decoding it), as well as a particular focus on key quotations. There are comprehension questions layered throughout, and the first THREE of the stave lessons have an ending task that links to a type of question found in AQA English Language Paper 1 Section A - my class had previously focused on this unit and it made sense to me to keep these skills “hot” so to speak. The AO specific lessons tie in with the Assessment Objectives for the English Literature course. The AO1 and AO2 lessons assume that the students have read the entire text. Finally, the theme lessons build towards the students sitting a GCSE Literature style assessment. I have sourced a lot of ideas from the following pdf file - I wouldn’t feel comfortable trying to pass these ideas off as my own; I include the link so that any person might have the benefit of this resource without having to pay for mine: http://drbacchus.com/files/christmas_carol/glossary.pdf There’s about 30+ hours worth of teaching materials in here; enjoy!

This resource was designed to be used after a class or cohort have sat the 2019 English Language paper 2. It’s set up to be used after a class has sat the exam and had their papers marked, but it wouldn’t take much modification to be used as part of a scenario where the students get the material, execute a preparatory strategy, answer the question and then peer/self mark. The material from the AQA mark scheme has been integrated into the PowerPoint, so students can get a sense of what level their response is before fine marking. I’ve done a few in this style and the students value them as revision tools too.