objectives writing challenges timed activities opportunities for discussion reflection building on their own interests minimal prep I created this to go with the KS3 Fantasy Writing Scheme of Work I also have for sale on here. It would be less 3 in there. I set brain storming homework before, but the results were wildly varied, often plagiarised,and 99% pointless. Teaching students to be creative sounds impossible but this is a really rewarding process for students to be able to draw on their own varied loves and build up stories based on their specific interests. When I did my Masters in Creative Writing at Warwick, we would do short writing tasks to explore our ideas, writing around the central story to create a sense of depth and scope to the world. This lesson builds students ideas from individual words up to a 1000-word piece using timed segments and opportunities for reflection and discussion, all focused around a Fantasy/Sci-Fi theme. Some of these ideas are from that course, others are from the FANTASTSIC resource “Ready, Set, Novel” published by Chronicle Books and building on the strategies developed over National Novel Writing Month. However all writing, descriptions, and further breaking down is mine. Objectives: Creating original and imaginative ideas. Reflecting those ideas effectively through descriptive writing. There is a plenary slide, but because of the idiosyncratic nature of school objectives, I have not added them to each slide, but it gives “excellent, great, good and let’s talk” standards which the students must use to assess their own imaginative ad creative writing. I would ask students to write them on Post-its so if they need to talk, they can throw these later (of course, once they’re over the horror of asking for help, they won’t bother removing it).

I’m tutoring a 8 year old with ADHD, and ASD who loves motorcycles and Valentino Rossi.I needed to assess his reading skills so chose Rossi’s autobiography from 2006, “What if I Hadn’t Tried?”. It is simply written, translated from Italian, and skirts over inappropriate behaviour with phrases like “long term and short term girlfriends” or “we got into some trouble” and has a review from a Parker-Bowles in the Sun, so I think the whole book will be appropriate for his reading age of 7 1/2 years, and I plan to make several further lessons on it for him if you enjoy this one. Pictures of the cover, back, and Rossi’s signature create some interest and structure of books can be discussed. There are 10 main questions over the course of the first page and a half describing the Australian GP win, followed by some lightning speed skimming and scanning questions. The first couple of questions are Maths based to cover some numeracy skills and see if students can process what they’re being asked to do. The questions touch on structure (in media res opening), metaphors, similes, information retrieval, and effects on the reader of the exciting description. Key Word = trajectory and there is a definition and diagram for this. The last challenge asks students to draw the race track from the description given. I designed this to have answers written in books, but it could easily be adapted. Reading assessment. Reading worksheet.

Hi. There are a range of resources I used with my students to learn about the background for M Taylor's novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, but it will be of use to those studying Of Mice and Men and other texts set in this time period or about the historical context of the Civil Rights movement and why it was so necessary. There are web quests and listening quizzes for different topics which are hard to speak about, let alone teach, because of their awful brutality: the KKK, lynching, JC laws and sharecropping.

A range of games and activities to make students work on their vocabulary. These work fantastically with any group from EAL KS3 to KS5. They can all be done independently, in pairs or in teams and most have a competitive element. I use these as starters in English lessons, but my school used to have a Literacy Form Time every Monday when we would play one of these. Most don't require any printing but can be adapted into a more physical resource if this suits your group. These always make fun and engaging links into creative writing lessons or literacy lessons. My students love them! I even caught some of my year 7s playing the Alphabet Game at lunch! I hope your students enjoy them just as much.

Two speaking and listening activities to introduce the theme of crime and punishment in the novel Holes by Louis Sacher. These could be individual lessons to introduce the class to courtroom processes, decision making skills, ethics and morality, and speaking and listening skills in general. The first is a group debate where a list of crimes must be ranked and the class must come to a group decision about which are the worst crimes and which are least offensive, or offences at all. They include having mixed-race relationships, so open a historical (and *sigh* still apparently current) dialogue about racism and equality, useful for citizenship and PSHE. The second is a role playing activity where students set up a courtroom and put a young man on trial for stealing a pair of trainers. There are 9 different roles, including the judge and students can either take one role between two or the non-role-taking students could be the jurors. All PowerPoints come withe clear outcomes, starters, task instructions and plenaries. All you need to do is print one A4 sheet of role cards and/or a list of the crimes for each student (A5 works fine for these). This is a really useful lesson which students find really engaging and interesting, particularly if they are into mystery solving! As an extension activity you could ask them to report on the trial or debate for a newspaper/blog/TV news programme. The non-speaking characters could interview those who took part in the trial and use those quotations in their reports. A court scribe could also be used during the trial to make sure notes can be reviewed.

10 starter games which help students with memorising lines, characterisation, imagery etc. Plus a bonus one! These are all tried and tested and beloved by my classes from 11 - 19! Examples are given of any more complicated games. No printing or resources needed apart from this Powerpoint (and not even that necessarily if you know the rules!) (These also make fun games for parties either at the end of term or, frankly, after a few pints at the pub!)

Ten games which cover a range of skills and focuses in English. These have made my lessons really fun and kept the kids hooked and happy, not realising that there's some serious learning or revising going on. Want to trick them into reading? I got you. Want to introduce them to different word types? Here you go. Want them to revise key quotations? It's here. I hope there's plenty here to keep you going and examples are given wherever needed so very little preparation is needed. Enjoy!

8 adjectives, superlatives and adverbs activities which make great starters for writing lessons of all kinds or as part of a literacy lesson. Accessible for all ages and very active, including drama, team games, timed races, etc. Very versatile activities and still academic enough for any HOD to approve of. I've done these lessons with students aged from 10 to 18!

This is a one-off lesson great for cover or a last minute lesson as everything you need (except the computers!) is provided. You will only need to print the family cards (1 page of A4 has 15 family cards) and save the article and email structure so as to be available for editing by students. The students take on the role of estate agents, searching for new homes for their particular family. I have tried to make sure the families are varied and representative. Most families want a house in a particular area with a low crime rate - these are for the average ability student. Some families have extra details to make the search more challenging. There is even a joke card for an extension activity: giving President Trump's family a less-than-salubrious new address. Students should work as independently as possible to get higher marks, so the most able students should have the cards for the UK and find their own suitable websites using keywords discussed in the starter. Middle ability students can have cards from the USA and use the article's suggested links. Everyone should produce a finished email and send it to the teacher for assessment within an hour to an hour and a half. It was really easy for my students to differentiate their work themselves. My students got really into this and loved researching their own addresses as well as the ones they were set and saw the real world use of Geographical data. It clearly demonstrates the usefulness of Geography as well as developing Literacy skills and ICT skills. Let me know how your students get on :)

An introduction to a SOW on podcasting and radio for KS3 students. Designed for students in groups of 4 - 6. The final game could also be played in groups with a mini-whiteboard or as a whole class. There are two articles on podcasting and radio with a reading race (or just standard questions if you prefer), activities and worksheets to help with new vocabulary (three versions for different ability groups) and a brainstorm to help students KWL their learning. The homework structures their research of podcasts. A selection of recommended and student-friendly podcasts are given. These are differentiated (green for my EAL students, blue for more able or native speakers). I would suggest downloading a select few from some of the blue list as certain episodes can have more adult themes than others. Questions to structure each week's homework are included. There is an overview on the first slide which explains what will be covered in the unit for students. This can be adapted as you need, of course.

A range of questions including ideas about content, structure, language, vocabulary, quotations, creating similes, sentence types, punctuation and more, all related to creative writing and fiction. There are 2 questions regarding the Paper 2 of the Cambridge English Checkpoint, but these can be changed to suit your exam board/curriculum. After students complete this activity, I chose 10 questions to quiz the students on to check they were paying attention! Enjoy!

I had a whole stack of newspapers in my classroom which the cleaners were threatening to throw away and an end of term lesson with my year 7 students. I put together this selection of the games we played to get students engaged with this text type (which lots of them said they rarely, if ever, saw at home). Most are set up as team building challenges, but there are several which would make great independent activities as a starter for a lesson involving or analysing newspapers. There are artistic, kinesthetic and, of course, literacy- based challenges suitable for a variety of ages and abilities. Nothing that isn't fun! Very few materials are required for these activities apart from the newspapers: sticky tape, any scrap materials, marker pens, A3 paper and glue would cover every challenge and most can be done with nothing more than a pen. Enjoy!

I hope your class have had a great year. You’ve worked so hard and you deserve to use this for…all your classes at least once? So I’ve made it broad enough to apply to ages 11 - 19 with no amendment. 5 rounds of questions: 1. Film and TV 2. Children’s Literature 3. News headlines 4. The Royal Wedding 5. Music Intros. The films and TV programmes , news headlines and royal wedding are from 2018 while the children’s books referred to are mostly classics with a few recent best sellers, The music intros are linked to YouTube. All songs selected are from this year and suitable for all ages while still (hopefully!) being cool. I’m sure the kids will give you their opinions! The newspaper headlines round asks students to write their own true headlines to go with the pictures provided. This can also vary in assessment depending on the ability of your class. It’s difficult to give definitive answers to some of these (no PowerPoint should have to burden all of Donald Trump’s newsworthy stories), so links have been provided to Google searches for news on the person in question. Enjoy and have a wonderful summer! : )

8 clips of characters from Fantasy and Sci-fi films speaking. The students are asked to write down the names of the characters and the films in the first round. In Seychelles we had watched clips from several of these beforehand, but in England I think it would work from general knowledge. In the second round, students are asked 4 questions about genre and comparing sci-fi to fantasy. The whole quiz is out of 20 and should challenge everyone from my EAL lower ability kids to the top set ones. The first time they are shown, the video effect should mean they cannot see the characters clearly. If your students really struggle, the videos play through without a filter at the end and the answers come up after each clip. With some of my less confident classes, I would only play this part and ask students to hold up answers on a whiteboard after each clip. I would also pause between each clip to allow writing time. I created this for my Fantasy scheme of work, but it would work well as an introduction to character building in any story writing. These particular characters were all selected because they have unusual character voices which would be written down in a way which is outside of the norm, i.e.: Hagrid's elision of h sounds; Gollum's additional s's, etc. My students went on to try to write the speech for each character phonetically, compare them to the scripts/books and then to write phonetic speech for one of the minor characters in their stories. Bonus idea! I showed my top set a clip of all the times Hodor says "Hodor" and then played them the "Hold the door" video too, to illustrate character arcs shown through speech. I'd recommend it! Please rate and review if you use it. This is my first video, so I'd happily make more if it's enjoyed. I hope it's as useful to you as it has been to me.

10 of my favourite go-to activities for that difficult class who’ve earned 5 - 10 minutes of Golden Time, or in the time after exam practice or revision where everyone needs a brain break, or when they come back from assembly early… you know how it goes! These have a summer-term flair to them because there are only so many quizzes one class can do. You will find one PowerPoint with all the activities in one place. No printing to be done. Answers could be given on scraps of paper, whiteboards or go through all 10 challenges in teams to compete for a prize - it’s up to you and your class’s needs. Anagram round Book quiz with answers on the following slide. Quiz on your school (you will have to provide the answers!) Paper aeroplane challenge (it was going to be origami - but what type of origami do kids love more? I’ve added a link to the wastepaper basket challenge which uses this game as a metaphor for social privilege. Nice PSHE link.) Under the microscope. Students try to work out what the 8 every day items under the microscope are. Name the TV theme tune. A link is provided to another good quiz available on YouTube for Pixar songs. Celebrity Faceswaps. Students works out which celebrities have had their faces swapped. Flags of the world quiz with answers. #Unexpected. Part of a gif plays and is then blocked. Students have to predict what unexpected thing will happen next. You may have to click to make the blocking box fly in. Rhyme Time Puzzle. Students are given clues for a rhyming answer. Examples and answers given. On a serious note, these games and activities do wonders to bond a group and build positive communication skills. They test logical and lateral thinking as well as a range of knowledge and skills. They are quick and easy to implement and will save you a panic in so many situations! Have a great last few weeks of term!

A complete set of resources and a carousel lesson to accompany the poem which is featured in the iGCSE Songs of Ourselves Poetry Anthology. Starters, plenaries, background information, language analysis, imagery, outcomes, essay question, peer-analysis and essay structuring: everything you could need.

My favourite fairytale of all time! Read it with the students (or watch the animated version here on YouTube which uses the words from the text) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Aank8bDtcE and then let them answer the comprehension questions. I find this is a great story to tackle before Christmas as it deals with themes of charity, poverty and the value of our lives in service to others. It creates really interesting critical discussion with more able students on the didactic nature of fairytales and how they express morals. The PowerPoint then asks students to organise the traditional structure of a fairytale and then plan their own fairy tale with a moral element.

A complete lesson with a range of activities to engage students with learning about Romantic poetry, introduce Victorian Literature or focus on Blake. There is a substantial amount of context and varied activities from videos, drawing, mind-mapping and, of course, analysis and annotation. This was designed as part of a year 8 scheme of work, but would be suitable for any study of this poem. Starters, objectives, plenaries and differentiated activities are all included.

A complete lesson or two including interactive starter, specific questions for analysis, quizzes with answers and an AFL plenary which clearly shows progress. There is also a creative writing structure sheet provided for homework which is accessible for all abilities. These resources make a fantastic introduction to or recap on * any poetry SOW * language features and effects, particularly covering imagery. It clearly builds towards essay writing skills. * lessons on different accents and dialects (Scots) * poems from around the world / variations within English language. * 18th century Literature * Romanticism This was used as my first lesson for iGCSE poetry coursework and nearly half of the students wanted to analyse this poem in their essays because they felt so confident with it. That's with a male and female mixed-ability group of EAL students in year 9. If they loved it, so will your students! Check out my Love Poetry bundle to get extra value! Everything you need here for an excellent lesson. Enjoy!

Resources for Drama work on Sweeney Todd. The script has been edited down to the bare essentials with only a few songs. Backgrounds are to be projected in the classroom to set the scene. Performance assessment proforma included.