All my resources are aimed at teaching students to the top, that's the USP! You can find them on the UK's second largest English teaching channel, Mr Salles Teaches English, and also see how I deliver them there. If you want to be an even better teacher, try The Slightly Awesome Techer, https://amzn.to/2GtQu6l
All my resources are aimed at teaching students to the top, that's the USP! You can find them on the UK's second largest English teaching channel, Mr Salles Teaches English, and also see how I deliver them there. If you want to be an even better teacher, try The Slightly Awesome Techer, https://amzn.to/2GtQu6l
Eric is analysed in more depth than you’ve ever read before. You’ll know him better than you’ve ever done before, and your students will be able to excel.
Here is a small sample so you can see what I mean:
“I read Satan’s signature upon a face”.
This is part of a series of 5 short extracts on Hyde. They will enable your students to answer any essay on Hyde. Each extract is explicitly linked to the following 5 themes. Understanding any two of these fully ought to be enough to gain a grade 7. Referencing more than 2 is likely to propel students into grade 8.
Key words and phrases are analysed in each slide and linked to each of the 5 themes.
I’m pricing this as cheaply as TES will allow! If you really want a bargain, buy all 5 extracts in the bundle!
If you want any help on how to teach them, follow the links to thee videos.
Christian Morality Tale
Fear of Scientific Progress
Repressed Homosexuality
Love of the Gothic and Detective Genres
Hypocrisy of Middle Class Men
AQA likes to test the novel by asking students to compare Pip to another character. This is my top tip for 2018.
Students often struggle to find interesting comparisons and fail to write about Dickens’ purpose.
This resource introduces four big ideas which will allow your students to write confidently about Dickens’ purpose.
It also provides 20 ideas and 20 quotations for them to use in their essay.
Most quotations, as you can see, are detailed, so that you can give your students practice in selecting judiciously, and so that they learn to embed quotations in their sentences.
Below is a sample of the first 4 ideas:
Comparison of Pip and Miss Havisham
The Big Ideas, which should feature as your argument, and in your conclusion.
These points and longer quotations are to help you practise finding the right quotation to embed into your sentences.
They are also the key quotations to use when comparing Pip to Miss Havisham.
How Dickens uses the relationship to explore the corrupting power of wealth on those who no longer have a moral purpose in life, which is strongly connected to having proper work.
‘“And you live abroad still?”
“Still.”
“And do well, I am sure?”
“I work pretty hard for a sufficient living, and therefore–yes, I do well.”’
How Dickens hints that the is a problem of the patriarchy, where a woman can only be defined by marriage, and is not able to forge an identity of her own through proper employment – which he contrasts to Pip and Herbert.
“I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose had shrunk to skin and bone.”
‘“If you knew all my story,” she pleaded, “you would have some compassion for me and a better understanding of me.”’
3. How her insanity at lost love is only possible in a patriarchal society – Pip does not experience the same level of madness because he can still live a useful and partly fulfilled life without marriage.
How she symbolises the proper role of the wealthy, like Scrooge, learning to use her wealth to help others at the end.
“‘leaving a cool four thousand to Mr. Matthew Pocket. And why, do you suppose, Pip, she left that cool four thousand unto him? 'Because of Pip’s account of the said Matthew.’”
There are on average 20 ideas for each essay, with 20 quotations to back them.
The quotations are short extracts from the novel, to encourage students to select precise words to quote judiciously.
Taken together, these essay plans will fully prepare your students for any question on Pip, Miss Havisham, Estella, Jaggers and Magwitch.
Arthur Birling in more depth than you ever thought possible. I guarantee you’ll never see him the same way again.
Here is an extract to show you what I mean:
Social Class is More Damaging to Society Than Capitalism
However, as we have seen, this sacking actually led to a better job at Milwards. In this way, capitalism is not the direct cause of her tragedy. Social class, and the immorality of the upper classes, however, is responsible.
Birling feels able to justify this cruelty by referring to how much paying his employees would cost the business, “Well it’s my duty to keep labour costs down” rather than increase them by “twelve percent”. Of course, while this seems cruel, it is also true. By 1945, as you will see later in the guide, Britain had lost its monopoly on the cotton trade, precisely because foreign competitors could pay their workers much less. Priestley understands Birling’s view on wages, and knows many in his audience will share it, which is why he has worked so hard to discredit everything else about him. He hopes this will make the audience more likely to question their own belief about fair wages.
Priestley also uses Birling quite subtly to criticise the upper classes. Birling has become successful through business, he wasn’t born into privilege. This is the opposite of his son, Eric, who he now criticises, “That’s something this public-school-and-varsity life you’ve had doesn’t seem to teach you.” Even Birling is critical of the effect of being brought up as part of the ruling classes. This symbolises his message to his wealthy audience, a warning to stop trying to climb the social hierarchy, and instead make society fairer. Why pursue higher social status when it will only damage your character? We will see that most when we find out how Gerald and Eric are most responsible for Eva’s tragedy.
This series of lessons will help your students select the key quotations they will need to write about when studying Hyde. Because it is linked to 5 Themes and further 5 Contextual purposes, your students will feel confident to tackle any question on Hyde.
They will also be able to apply these to any question on the whole novel, or on Jekyll.
How can you use the advice of teaching more than one interpretation, applying context to each interpretation, developing alternative interpretations, writing about the context of the extract, linking points to Shakespeare’s life and his own society, exploring the main themes of each play from more than one perspective.
Numerous examples are provided from Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet.
There are also 2 videos on my YouTube channel, Mr Salles Teaches English to show you how to teach from these presentations.
“Desire to kill”.
This is part of a series of 5 short extracts on Hyde. They will enable your students to answer any essay on Hyde. Each extract is explicitly linked to the following 5 themes. Understanding any two of these fully ought to be enough to gain a grade 7. Referencing more than 2 is likely to propel students into grade 8.
Key words and phrases are analysed in each slide and linked to each of the 5 themes.
I’m pricing this as cheaply as TES will allow! If you really want a bargain, buy all 5 extracts in the bundle!
If you want any help on how to teach them, follow the links to thee videos.
Christian Morality Tale
Fear of Scientific Progress
Repressed Homosexuality
Love of the Gothic and Detective Genres
Hypocrisy of Middle Class Men
Dickens is a master of his craft, but by God, you can tell he was paid by the word, can’t you? Never was a man so in love with a sentence, loaded with clauses, garnished with phrases and then, to add to the confusion, the main clause tagged on at the end. What 16 year old wouldn’t struggle?
I’ve abridged this great novel down to 90,000 words, from 163,000! So each chapter can be read in 20 minutes or less. That’s a 45% reduction in reading time, which buys you an 45% more time to teach your analysis!
Better than that, it actually makes for a more entertaining read. The conversation feels much more natural, and has some real pace. You can easily have your students taking parts.
As a bonus, I’ve placed in bold the most important quotation in each chapter. This means your students should find it much easier to make notes, and you can find it easier to decide on key passages to approach in your teaching.
Use 8 short paragraphs describing Scrooge and the weather to explore how the weather mirrors the changes in Scrooge’s morality and personality.
Teach how Dickens also uses contrast, repetition, personification, sibilance, alliteration to signpost the changes in Scrooge’s character.
Show how the descriptions of weather in the countryside and the weather reveal Dickens’ attack on the problems of urbanisation and his campaign to persuade contemporary readers to change their attitude to the deserving poor.
Teach students how Tiny Tim is a metaphor for Scrooge himself, and how his weak morality is rescued by Christmas and the child within.
“An Unknown But Innocent Freedom of the Soul”.
This is part of a series of 5 short extracts on Hyde. They will enable your students to answer any essay on Hyde. Each extract is explicitly linked to the following 5 themes. Understanding any two of these fully ought to be enough to gain a grade 7. Referencing more than 2 is likely to propel students into grade 8.
Key words and phrases are analysed in each slide and linked to each of the 5 themes.
I’m pricing this as cheaply as TES will allow! If you really want a bargain, buy all 5 extracts in the bundle!
If you want any help on how to teach them, follow the links to thee videos.
Christian Morality Tale
Fear of Scientific Progress
Repressed Homosexuality
Love of the Gothic and Detective Genres
Hypocrisy of Middle Class Men
This resource takes you through 6 ways to link details of Shakespeare’s marriage to Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet.
Here’s one of them:
Now, let’s consider the subservient role of women in the patriarchal society of the day. Yes, women were considered the property of their husbands by law, but what did that mean in everyday life? Is it likely that the 17 or 18 year old Shakespeare seduced Anne, or is it more likely that she took the initiative? When we think this way, we can clearly see why he would write parts for clever, passionate, powerful women, like Lady Macbeth. We might infer that he did not see women as weaker or inferior beings, but men’s equal in many respects.
It also links to two videos, one for each play.
Get ready for the AQA exam by preparing your students fully for two comparison questions:
Compare Pip to Miss Havisham, and Pip to Magwitch, my two top picks for the 2019 paper.
There are 20 ideas for each essay, and 20 quotations for each.
It also gives you at least 3 big ideas for each essay, so that students can debate Dickens purpose and claim gades 7, 8 and 9.
Get an in depth analysis of 5 key themes of Jekyll and Hyde to propel your students to get the top grades.
Ideal to teach from or print off as revision cards.
An amazing bargain.
How do you get a student who is packing their description and narrative with too many adjectives and adverbs to pick them carefully.
How do you help them choose when to speed action up, and when to slow it down?
Sometimes this feels as though we have to get them to unlearn what we have taught them! It’s hard.
But this lesson will help you do that quickly, and in a way your students will understand.
A video goes with it, so you can see how I teach it.
You also get a copy of the all the writing in Word, so it is easy to edit and print off. It gives the original version, and then the improved version.
Also included is the rest of the story, which you an get your students to edit and rewrite in response to your teaching.
Grades 7, 8 and 9 depend on students exploring different interpretations. Focus on why Stevenson, the atheist, writes the novella with Christian themes. Then see how his description of Jekyll undermines these themes, promoting a freer society.
Watch the video to see how to get the most out of this PPT, or print it off for your students to take notes on while they watch the video.
You’ll also see how Hyde acts as Jekyll’s bravo, and why only Jekyll has a motive to kill Sir Danvers Carew and cause the death of Lanyon.
This is also explained by the historical context and the 1885 Act of Parliament outlawing homosexuality.
Finally, explore why Stevenson might prefer Hyde to Jekyll and how he chooses to reject England and it’s Christian society to live the rest of his life in Samoa.
Every to grade idea you’ll ever need. Boost students’ grades, because top level analysis is just knowing stuff. Understand interpretations you’ve not met before and help your students stand out from the crowd.
This is a brilliant way to improve students’ vocabulary, learn to write great description, and to plot a narrative.
Then there is the fantastic bonus that it makes the quotations from the poem truly memorable.
Here is the beginning. I hope you like it.
Description/ Narrative Based on Storm on The Island
Wizened by hope, the old man sits in the waiting room. His mind dives from the cliffs of cancer - yes, the tests will show if it has spread, Mr Stook - it twirls through fear, spins at the thought of nothing, of nothing waiting beyond the dark, of emptiness, and summersaults towards hope, spread before him like a sunlit lake. Perhaps they have caught him in time.
He chuckles optimistically to himself, fingers curled in a ball upon his walking stick, his back stooped by the blows of time, the blasts of age, rounded, like a ball. He thinks, “I ought to be easy to catch!”
Here is the beginning of the 21st C text, ideal to teach informative writing for Question 5, or how to analyse informative features, for Question 4.
Dubrovnik: city of nightmares, or city of dreams?
There are few less likely victims of war. Dubrovnik’s thick stone walls stand defiantly on cliff tops, cradled by mountains, an imposing and forbidding barrier to siege. Soldiers would fire down from a hundred feet up, from fortifications far taller than the puny castles you might be used to at home. Magnificent walls, the backdrop to a charming harbour.
Yet, as you walk the battlements, gasping at the beauty of the town enclosed within the womb shaped walls, you are struck by a subtle shift in colour. New, tiled roofs abound, like an orange carpet. In 1991 the Serbians attacked from the skies, dropping missiles to spread terror in this most beautiful of preserved cities. The miracle of design, three and four-foot-thick walls built to defeat earthquakes, astonishingly swallowed up the fires and explosions from the skies. The flames burnt out, starved of fuel, even where whole streets are only about eight feet apart.
So yes. Dubrovnik is something of a miracle, a survivor with its whole history intact.