Christmas Literacy Activities Secondary School This PowerPoint includes 20 literacy-based activities all centred around the theme of Christmas. Tasks engage students with key aspects of literacy, including: the alphabet vowels consonants spelling The types of task include: anagrams identifying missing vowels/consonants putting words into alphabetical order creating their own words finding hidden words in grids Ideal as lesson starters in the weeks building up to Christmas to keep engagement levels high whilst still completing meaningful tasks. They could also be used to create a sense of community within a class or community of students by having these as set form time activities. All answers are included and the PowerPoint is editable so that you can add other activities or change colours/fonts to suit the needs of your learners. If you like this resource, have a look at some other festive activities I have available: Christmas Anagrams: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/christmas-anagrams-12942667 Annotated extracts from A Christmas Carol: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-christmas-carol-annotated-extracts-12933695 Christmas Colour-by-Number (spellings): https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/christmas-colour-by-number-spellings-12942709

Inference Worksheets 3 - A Christmas Carol & The Wizard of Oz These worksheets support learners in developing the skills of reading for meaning and making inferences. The teacher guide at the start helps you navigate through a series of activities that support learners in understanding a text. Each text will take approximately an hour to complete. These work particularly well with groups of 3-6 learners but can also be used 1-1 and with larger groups. These activities help learners to practise: making connections with current knowledge visualising questioning word meaning explaining subtext empathy prioritising summarising The two texts in this pack are extracts from The Wizard of Oz and A Christmas Carol. Also available in my shop are: Inference Worksheets 1: Peter Pan & The Wind in the Willows Inference Worksheets 2: Treasure Island & The Secret Garden A bundle offer including all six extracts

GCSE English Language Writing Planning (WJEC) is a resource to support learners with preparation for the writing section of Unit 3. It is particularly useful as a revision activity for learners at the C-D borderline. There are four separate writing tasks included in this resource, three sheets per task. Sheet 1 - a blank worksheet with the writing task at the top for learners to fill in Sheet 2 - scaffolding with general advice on planning Sheet 3 - an exemplar essay plan for the task There are two ‘persuade’ tasks and two ‘argue’ tasks. The genres covered include: article speech formal letter If you find this resource useful, you may want to look at the other GCSE English Language (WJEC) resources in my shop: Revision Pack - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/gcse-english-language-exam-revision-pack-wjec-12969501 Writing Support for C/D Borderline Learners - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/gcse-english-language-writing-tips-and-tricks-wjec-12969667 Reading Skills Card Sort - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/gcse-english-language-reading-skills-wjec-12979433 Individual Presentation Preparation Booklet - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/gcse-english-language-irp-booklet-wjec-12970177

This ‘Heroes’ by Robert Cormier unit of work and PowerPoint is tailored towards teaching GCSE English Literature Unit 2 (WJEC). It has been trialled successfully in a classroom with learners with A*-D targets. The unit of work contains tasks that deal with different sections of the novel, and encourage learners to think about character, theme and language analysis. The structure of the unit accounts for time spent on each section, main learning activities, key vocabulary and the corresponding PowerPoint task. (There is also a suggested whole text question activity at the end). The editable PowerPoint includes 17 main activities that encourage learners to analyse different sections of the text. This is sold as an editable resource so that you can amend as needed for your classes, and so that you can incorporate appropriate exam practice as and when it is needed. (Page references are for the Penguin edition). You may also find these resources useful: Narrative summary:https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/heroes-by-robert-cormier-narrative-overview-12970174 Essay structures: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/heroes-robert-cormier-essay-structures-12973423 A range of ‘An Inspector Calls’ tasks is also available if that is the second text you are studying with your learners in preparation for Unit 2.

Christmas 2024 Advent Calendar of English Literacy Activities Keep your students focused and on-task with this English Literacy Activities Advent Calendar. We all know that students find it harder to focus in the build-up to the Christmas holidays, so why not give them something festive to keep them occupied? This advent calendar has a literacy-based activity for each school day in December. With only minimal writing, students will complete activities that feel fun, but that also encourage them to think about words, spelling, vowels, consonants, and to apply their speaking, listening and reasoning skills. There are numerous different types of activity across the different days, so there is something for every learner here. These tasks are versatile and can be used as starters, treat tasks to end lessons, or even as a mid-way break during a lesson where focus is particularly hard to find! Examples of activities include: placing festive words in alphabetical order deciphering Christmas anagrams discussing the ideal Christmas dinner options visualising based on what they hear There is no prep required. Just load up the PowerPoint before the session and the day’s hyperlink will take you to the relevant activity. And if you need to get back to the main page, just click on the date icon in the corner. Create a sense of community. This advent calendar can create a sense of community within class or, better yet, across a whole year/school if every student starts their day with the same festive activity. NB: for anyone who purchased the 2023 version, activities are the same but hyperlinks have been updated

‘An Inspector Calls’ revision worksheets includes ten different worksheets for learners to complete after studying the play. Some encourage learners to think critically about the text, whilst others test their recall of key events, characters and quotes. The time taken for each activity will vary, depending upon the level of confidence. Times are likely to vary between 5-20 minutes. Worksheets could be given as individual resources or used to produce a revision booklet for learners. Answer keys are provided for all tasks, where needed. Activities require: sequencing of key events sequencing of key quotes linking quotes to characters considering mood and atmosphere thinking critically of characters and their personality traits £2.50 for the resource means that each activity costs only 25p!

King Lear A-Level Critical Approaches brings together some key quotes and views of the plays from various critics. The work pack is set out so that students can make notes about what the quotes/views mean, and also so that they can identify key acts/scenes/events that this approach is relevant to. The first three views have notes next to them as examples to guide students in their notes. The resource is five pages. This is particularly helpful for students who have to engage with critical approaches as part of their exam responses, such as WJEC GCE English Literature Unit 4. If this resource is helplful, have a look at the King Lear quote pack and summary in my shop: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/king-lear-revision-materials-for-a-level-12969963

GCSE English Language Writing Tips & Tricks (WJEC) is intended to give specific instructions for less confident students to follow to help improve their mark for accuracy in the written elements of the exams. In my experience, this has a positive impact, in particular, with learners who have C targets or below. It includes some very specific rules to follow to help show accuracy with some aspects of spelling, punctuation and grammar that were recurring issues amongst some of the learners in key classes. It includes: some key spellings aspects of sentence structuring including different vocabulary/language features If you are interested in this resource, you may also want to look at the detailed GCSE English Language exam revision pack also available from my shop: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12969501

Keats Revision Sheets for Key Poems contains key points and notes for nine of his poems: Bright Star Burns’ Tomb Chapman’s Homer Imitation of Spenser La Belle Dame Sans Merci On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again On the Sea To Sleep When I have fears that I may cease to be These are useful overviews when initially reading one of these poems, and are also useful revision sheets once poems have been studied. They contain a copy of the poem itself, in addition to notes on content, analysis, context, language and form.

A Valentine’s Day Colour by Number worksheet, including answer key. This worksheet is designed to help learners practise the key homophones there/their/they’re and to/too/two. This resource is suitable for pupils in primary, but could range beyond that depending on ability. It will take about 30 minutes to complete. In this task, pupils will select the correct use of the homophone to complete each sentence. Correct answers will provide a key to use to colour in the image. The image is suited to a Valentine’s Day activity. An answer key for staff is included for both elements of the worksheet.

An Inspector Calls Narrative Overivew is a three page account of the play. This is particularly useful to give to GCSE English Literature learners prior to reading the text, to provide them with an overview of key characters and events. This is also helpful during the revision stage to ensure that learners remember in which order the characters are questioned, which can become a point of confusion.

Inference Worksheets 1 - Peter Pan and The Wind in the Willows These worksheets support learners in developing the skills of reading for meaning and making inferences. The teacher guide at the start helps you navigate through a series of activities that support learners in understanding a text. Each text will take approximately an hour to complete. These work particularly well with small groups of 3-6 learners but can be used 1-1 or with larger groups. These activities help learners to practise: making connections with current knowledge visualising questioning word meaning explaining subtext empathy prioritising summarising The two texts in this pack are extracts from Peter Pan and The Wind in the Willows. Also available in my shop are: Inference Worksheets 2: Treasure Island & The Secret Garden Inference Worksheets 3: A Christmas Carol & The Wizard of Oz A bundle offer including all six extracts

Inference Worksheets 2 - Treasure Island / The Secret Garden These worksheets support learners in developing the skills of reading for meaning and making inferences. The teacher guide at the start helps you navigate through a series of activities that support learners in understanding a text. Each text will take approximately an hour to complete. These work particularly well with small groups of 3-6 learners but can be used 1-1 or with larger groups. These activities help learners to practise: making connections with current knowledge visualising questioning word meaning explaining subtext empathy prioritising summarising The two texts in this pack are extracts from Treasure Island and The Secret Garden. Also available in my shop are: Inference Worksheets 1: Peter Pan & The Wind in the Willows Inference Worksheets 3: A Christmas Carol & The Wizard of Oz A bundle offer including all six extracts

World Oceans Day Literacy Activities This editable PowerPoint contains 20 literacy-based activities for World Oceans Day. These make perfect starter activities or form time tasks. Slides have a simple colour scheme so that they can be printed at a lower cost if hard copies are needed. As well as being enjoyable and competitive, these activities will encourage learners to apply their knowledge of the alphabet, vowels, consonants and languages. Activities include: placing words into alphabetical order matching terms to different languages anagrams identifying missing vowels/consonants word grids creating their own words

‘King Lear Revision PowerPoint’ provides a range of activities to help learners target the following areas: narrative recall characters and relationships themes quotation language/terminology This has been trialled successfully with an A2 group completing the WJEC GCE English Literature Unit 4 exam. Activities include: answering key questions filling in blank spaces in key quotations identifying types of language that can be discussed in whole text question responses matching terminology to definitions linking quotations to characters and/or themes This has been uploaded as an editable PowerPoint so that it can be modified/edited/added to for the needs of the learners in your settings.

Halloween Word Games & Activities Pack for High School Keep your students engaged this Halloween with these short, seasonal literacy activities. This pack includes 10 no-prep English word activities with a seasonal twist to keep students focused. With only printing required, you can have students on-task within seconds of walking through the door. Four different seasonal activity types are included. Wordsearches, word grids, anagrams and a colour-by-number. Students will enjoy these activities that will feel like a Halloween reward but in reality gently encourage them to think about consonants, vowels, spelling and language features: trick or treat! They make great individual activities but can also be used as group/challenge task. Students love competition: why not set an activity a day and build up points towards the end of the week? Or why not have them as reward tasks for early finishers? There are different levels of challenge across the different types of activity so there’s something for every learner here, whatever their ability. You will get: three wordsearches three sheets of anagrams three word grid activities one colour-by-number activity This resource is perfect for your regular English class and is one I use as starter activities in the build-up to Halloween. This then leaves the colour-by-number as a reward once we get closer to the holidays. You could also use it with a form to give them a daily literacy boost in the build up to Halloween: cross-curricular skills…check! Prep is quick and easy. Just print and go! The resource has been designed so that the colours are seasonal but the worksheets are still clear if you have to print in grayscale. And there’s no need to frantically look through wordsearch grids…all answers are included for all activities. You may also like: Halloween Mega-Wordesearch, which turns into a colour-by-number once all words have been found: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-13125178

GCSE English Language Revision Checklists (WJEC) These checklists are to support learners in the build-up to mock exams and external exams. They can be used by individuals to identify gaps in their own knowledge, or they can be used on a whole class level to identify areas of concern across the class to guide targeted teaching/learning/revision in the build-up to exams. If a student cannot tick all columns for a skill, they should focus on that skill until they can. Once all columns have been ticked, they can move on to the next row. The first checklist focuses on reading skills required across Units 2 & 3, including the editing section of Unit 2. The second checklist focuses on the writing skills required across Units 2 & 3, including the proofreading task on Unit 2. Once gaps have been identified, some of these resources may be useful in addressing them: Revision Pack: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/gcse-english-language-exam-revision-pack-wjec-12969501 Reading Skills Success Criteria Card Sort: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/gcse-english-language-reading-skills-wjec-12979433 How to plan writing task responses effectively: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/gcse-english-language-writing-planning-wjec-12984776 A GCSE English Language Resource Bundle, containing the above: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/gcse-english-language-bundle-wjec-12986501

Creative Writing Prompt Cards | Upper Primary School-Lower High School These creative writing prompt cards would be useful for upper-primary or lower-high school aged students. There are five categories of cards: main character, setting, season/weather/time, emotion and object. The intention is for students to pick one card from each category and use these to create their own original story. This task can be differentiated up or down, depending on the needs of the students in the class, as outlined on the first page of the resource. If this product is helpful to you, you may also like to have a look at these products in my shop: Punctuation of Speech Activity: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/punctuation-of-speech-peter-pan-worksheet-12979465 Capital Letter Challenge Sheet: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/capital-letters-worksheet-the-secret-garden-12979226 Group Reading Task Sheet Bundle: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/inference-worksheets-12974999