This engaging and informative lesson helps students to understand and analyse how the character of Steve Leonard is introduced and developed throughout Darren Shan’s ‘Cirque Du Freak.’ In addition to considering how Shan uses foreshadowing in his introduction, students plot how Steve’s character develops as the events of the plot take place. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: - Reading and comprehending the opening chapters, understanding how Steve’s character is initially presented to the reader; - Defining the key term ‘foreshadowing’, and considering how this technique has been used by Shan in his introduction of Steve; - Tracking the changes in Steve’s character throughout the text; - Analysing the characterisation of Steve throughout the text, utilising textual evidence to back up ideas; - Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts; Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; - Extracts from ‘Cirque Du Freak’ - Chapters 1-2; - Analysing Steve’s Character Essay Template; - Character Development Graph Template; - Detailed Lesson Plan. There are also opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 7 and 8 classes, however colleagues have used them for between years 4 and 9 with minimal adaptations. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This engaging and thought-provoking double-lesson resource aids students in developing a secure understanding of the chapters 89 to 113 (inclusive) of Mark Haddon’s 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.’ In this section of the text, Christopher discusses his infatuation with certain colours, his love of Sherlock Holmes, and also finds out important information from Mrs Alexander. The comprehensive and colourful PowerPoint presentation enables students to understand the text through: -Retrieving information; -Inferring and deducing hidden meanings; -Explaining key ideas; -Comparing and contrasting. The sessions include a range of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, explanation and deeper thinking activities. A clear, colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation guides students through the learning. There’s a lot of content in the resource (20 slides in total) so I would definitely recommend breaking into two lessons. The lessons are best suited to students in KS3 or KS4, depending upon the individual context of the school and students.

This engaging and thought-provoking double-lesson resource aids students in developing a secure understanding of the chapters 18 to 20 of Michelle Magorian’s 'Goodnight Mister Tom.’ In this section of the text, Will recovers from his ordeal in London, they go on a seaside holiday, and the friends visit Spooky Cott. The comprehensive and colourful PowerPoint presentation enables students to understand the text through: -Retrieving information; -Making inferences; -Analysing Magorian’s language choices. The sessions include a range of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, explanation and deeper thinking activities. A clear, colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation guides students through the learning. There are a wide range of activities in the slides (there are 21 slides in total) so I would recommend breaking into two or even three sessions. The lessons are suitable for students in either KS3 or upper KS2, depending upon the individual context of the school and students.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate and engaging comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of David Walliams’ 'Demon Dentist.’ Teachers have found them particularly useful in comprehension or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the KS2 expectations within the new National Curriculum framework. Children love learning from these resources, whilst they are also of great use to teachers, as there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the story, ensuring that children gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: ‘An Interview with Alfie’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Understand what is read by drawing on information from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas, and using quotations for illustration;’ ‘Walliams’ Description’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Explain meanings of words that they know and ask the meaning of new words. Link the meaning of new words to words that they already know;’ ‘Miss Root’s and Raj’s Character Profiles!’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Understand what is read by drawing on information from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas, and using quotations for illustration;’ 'Figurative Language in ‘Demon Dentist’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Discuss and evaluate how authors use language, including figurative language, to create an impact on the reader.’ Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is 21 pages in length!) I’ve also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on a separate document (included).

This engaging and interesting lesson enables students to develop the knowledge and skills needed to establish the content (e.g. the subject matter, poet’s key messages, and surface/ deeper meanings) of previously unseen poems. In particular, they define and understand each of the key features of content, practice identifying them in poems and analyse their effectiveness upon the reader. The lesson utilises a range of tasks, that require students to be both independent and collaborative learners. It follows this learning journey: -Defining and exemplifying each of the features of content through a group card-sorting activity; -Discussing , understanding, and practicing some of the skills and techniques needed to initially explore a poem for content; -Considering the ideas of interpretation, inference, surface/deeper meaning, and textual evidence as important mechanisms for exploration; -Applying their understanding of the features of content and the skills needed to find them through a jigsaw activity; -Self-evaluating their own learning in the lesson. Included in this resource pack are: -A well-presented, thorough, and informative, whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; -Content features cards for the card-sorting activity; -‘Establishing Content’ worksheet for the development task; -Copies of the poems ‘Two Scavengers in a Truck…’ by Laurence Ferlinghetti, ‘Nothing’s Changed’ by Tatamkhulu Afrika, ‘Hitcher’ by Simon Armitage and 'Island Man’ by Grace Nichols for annotation (both freely available online); -A comprehensive teacher guidance form/lesson plan to assist delivery. Resources are provided in both Word (for easy editing - find in the zip file)and PDF (to prevent formatting issues between computers). All images in this resource are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the lesson presentation.

This engaging and informative lesson helps students to understand the key features of the social and historical context of Anne Frank’s Diary, through learning about The Holocaust and Nazi-occupied Europe in the 1940s. Furthermore, students learn to identify and analyse features of context within specific sections of Anne Frank’s Diary - making appropriate links between text and context. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: -Understanding the key features of the Holocaust through watching and comprehending an informative (and age-appropriate) video; - Reading and understanding extracts from the opening section of Anne Frank’s Diary; - Linking their understanding of social and historical context to what they read in the text; - Analysing how the horrors of the Holocaust are evident through Anne’s account of her family’s experiences; - Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; - Linking Text to Context Worksheet (and answer sheet); - Selected extracts - The Diary of Anne Frank; - Link to an engaging and informative video (you will need internet access to view); - Essay Template - Comprehensive lesson plan. There are also opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with a mixed-ability year 8 class, however colleagues have used them for between years 5 and 9 with minimal adaptations. Please note that internet access/ use of research mechanisms is required for the introduction task. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Arthur Miller’s ‘A View from the Bridge.’ Teachers have found them particularly useful in exam revision, comprehension tasks, or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of students towards meeting the KS4 expectations within the new National Curriculum framework - this makes the tasks suitable for all examining bodies. Students have found these resources extremely engaging, and for teachers there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the story, ensuring that students gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: - ‘Context: 1950s America’ - to aid students with ‘Drawing on knowledge of the purpose, audience and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs, to inform evaluation;’ - ‘Miller’s Description’ - to aid students with ‘Analysing a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features, and evaluating their effectiveness and impact;’ - ‘Eddie’ - to aid students with ‘Seeking evidence in the text to support a point of view, including justifying inferences with evidence;’ - ‘Editing the Play’ - to aid students with ‘Making an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these.’ Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is around 30 pages in length!) I’ve also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on a separate document (included).

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising Michelle Magorian’s 'Goodnight Mister Tom.’ It contains comprehensive sections on: Context; Section by Section Summary (with quotes); Main Characters; Themes; Literary Devices; The Author’s Perspective. All key words and ideas are compartmentalised for easy reference. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3 or A4, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use.

This engaging, in-depth lesson enables students to understand how the plot events in the wedding scene create a sense of climax throughout Act IV Scene I of Much Ado About Nothing. In particular, the lesson focuses upon the language used by Claudio and Leonato to denounce Hero (with links to the expectations within the social/historical context of the renaissance), the dramatic response to the allegations, and Benedick's altering priorities. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which students learn through: - Identifying the key events of the plot leading up to the wedding scene. - Reading and comprehending the predominant plot events in Act IV Scene I. - Understanding the idea of the patriarchal family society, and considering the accusations directed at Hero in light of this. - Completing an essay style response in which they consider how the key plot events contribute to a sense of climax within the scene. - Peer assessing each other's learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and detailed - just download and teach from it! - Cards for card-sorting activity; - Wedding Scene worksheet (and teacher answer sheet); - Analysis template with success criteria for creating well-structured responses; - Comprehensive lesson plan.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Frances Michelle Magorian’s ‘Goodnight Mister Tom.’ Teachers have found them particularly useful in comprehension or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the KS3 expectations within the National Curriculum framework. Children have found these resources extremely engaging, and for teachers there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the story, ensuring that children gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: ‘Magorian’s Description’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Know how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, present meaning.’ ‘William Beech Profile’ and ‘Mister Tom Profile’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Study setting, plot, and characterisation, and the effects of these.’ ‘Context: Evacuations in World War II’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Know the purpose, audience and context of the writing and drawing on this knowledge to support comprehension.’ ‘Vocabulary Inspector’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Learn new vocabulary, relating it explicitly to known vocabulary and understanding it with the help of context and dictionaries.’ Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is 23 pages in length!) I’ve also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer. All images are licensed for commercial use.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Treasure Island.' Teachers have found them particularly useful in comprehension or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the KS3 expectations within the new National Curriculum framework. Children have found these resources extremely engaging, and for teachers there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the story, ensuring that children gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: - 'Context: The Golden Age of Piracy' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Know the purpose, audience and context of the writing and drawing on this knowledge to support comprehension.' - 'Stevenson's Description: The Black Spot' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Know how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, present meaning.' - 'Long John Silver' and 'Squire Trelawney' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Study setting, plot, and characterisation, and the effects of these.' - 'Vocabulary Inspector' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Learn new vocabulary, relating it explicitly to known vocabulary and understanding it with the help of context and dictionaries.' Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is 23 pages in length!) I've also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on a separate document (included).

This highly engaging and informative double lesson (around 1.5 to 2 hours of teaching materials) helps build students’ ability at using varied and imaginative techniques to describe emotions in their creative writing. Specifically, students learn how to create in-depth paragraphs detailing the emotional state of their narrator and characters, both implicitly and explicitly. I wrote this lesson because I noticed that there are an extremely high volume of students that approach creative writing tasks (even in their GCSEs) offering little depth or detail in terms of their characters emotions. Even though they have clearly learnt a number of writing techniques from their teachers, their emotional writing often merely explicitly states how a character feels, using the same four or five emotions. In this lesson, students learn: - To define what emotions are; - To understand and use the vast range of emotional vocabulary and synonyms available in the English language; - To investigate different emotions, including how they can manifest themselves; - To understand how emotions can be communicated utilising a range of descriptive devices; - To create an imaginative and emotionally-driven piece of creative writing; - To self-assess their creative writing attempts; Included are all worksheets, and detailed and visual PowerPoint presentation, which explains each concept clearly, and a lesson plan for teacher guidance.

Now with PDF version included! This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use in guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the Year 4 expectations within the new National Curriculum framework. Children love learning from these resources, whilst they are also of great use to teachers, as there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They are also generic enough to ensure that they are appropriate for use with all texts. Activities and games within the booklet include: - Word Boxing - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Show an understanding of words that capture the readers’ interest and imagination' and 'Use a dictionary to check the meanings of words that you have read' - FBI Vocabulary Agent - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Show an understanding of words that capture the readers’ interest and imagination.' - Information Hunter - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ' Retrieve and record information given from non-fiction texts.' - Storyboarder - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Maintain a positive attitude towards reading by understanding, listening to, and discussing a range of fiction, plays, poems, non-fiction, reference books and text books.' Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is around 20 pages in length!) All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on a separate document (included.)

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate and engaging comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of David Walliams’ The Boy in the Dress.’ Teachers have found them particularly useful in comprehension or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the KS2 expectations within the new National Curriculum framework. Children love learning from these resources, whilst they are also of great use to teachers, as there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the story, ensuring that children gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: ‘An Interview with Dennis’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Understand what is read by drawing on information from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas, and using quotations for illustration;’ ‘Walliams’ Description’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Explain meanings of words that they know and ask the meaning of new words. Link the meaning of new words to words that they already know;’ ‘Lisa James’s and Mr Hawtrey’s Character Profiles!’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Understand what is read by drawing on information from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas, and using quotations for illustration;’ 'Figurative Language in ‘The Boy in the Dress’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Discuss and evaluate how authors use language, including figurative language, to create an impact on the reader.’ Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is 21 pages in length!) I’ve also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on a separate document (included).

Perfect for use when teaching writing to persuade or argue, this lesson utilises a wide range of teaching strategies to enable students to gain authority over their target audiences. The students who I have taught this lesson before have found it enjoyable and engaging - particularly enjoying the use of videos to see some of the techniques in action! Throughout the lesson, the learning journey that the students follow enables them to: - Define the key terms 'Argue', 'Persuade' and 'Authority.' - Consider famous individuals that are effective at gaining authority; - Link key techniques to their definition and examples; - Identify key techniques in videos (Dave Gorman, Dragon's Den, etc.) and analyse why they are effective; - Write their own authority-filled persuasive piece using a success criteria; - Peer assess their partner's writing attempts. The resource is made up of: - A visual and engaging Powerpoint presentation, which walks teachers and students through the lesson in a step-by-step fashion - Hyperlinks to all of the online video resources that you will need - A key techniques activity worksheet - An analysis worksheet - A full lesson plan/ teacher guidance. All images are cited on the final slide and are licensed for commercial use.

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising John Agard’s poem 'Flag.’ It contains comprehensive sections on: Context; Line-by-Line Analysis; Poetic Devices/ Language Devices; Themes; Form/Structure; Poems for Comparison; Links to Wider Reading. Key words and ideas are underlined for easy reference. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Roald Dahl’s ‘Boy.’ Teachers have found them particularly useful in comprehension or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the KS3 expectations within the National Curriculum framework. Children have found these resources extremely engaging, and for teachers there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the story, ensuring that children gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: ‘Dahl’s Description’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Know how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, present meaning.’ ‘The Matron Profile’ and ‘The Headmaster Profile’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Study setting, plot, and characterisation, and the effects of these.’ ‘Context: 1920s Britain’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Know the purpose, audience and context of the writing and drawing on this knowledge to support comprehension.’ ‘Vocabulary Inspector’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Learn new vocabulary, relating it explicitly to known vocabulary and understanding it with the help of context and dictionaries.’ Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is 23 pages in length!) I’ve also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer. All images are licensed for commercial use.

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising Roald Dahl’s ‘Boy: Tales of Childhood’. It contains comprehensive sections on: Context; Section by Section Summary (with quotes); Main Characters; Themes; Dahl’s Literary Devices; Features of Autobiography. All key words and ideas are compartmentalised for easy reference. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3 or A4, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use. It is suitable for all students of varied ages, but was originally made for those between years 6-9.

In this engaging and informative lesson, students are enabled to make clear and insightful interpretations of Elizabeth Bennet – the chief protagonist in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. In particular, students learn about her key characteristics- such as her strong ideas, wit, intelligence, grace, and good humour – and relate these to ideas of societal expectations of the time. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which students learn through: - Playing a fun and interactive quiz to determine the key events and family life of Elizabeth Bennet; - Establishing her characteristics and traits, utilising textual evidence; - Analysing Elizabeth’s character in relation to the expectations of society in the Regency Era; - Creating clear and creative diary entries, using an in-depth understanding of Elizabeth’s character; - Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; - ‘Character Traits of Elizabeth’ task resources - with teacher answer sheet; - ‘Elizabeth in Context’ task resources - with teacher answer sheet; - Comprehensive lesson plan. There are also opportunities for group learning, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. These resources were originally taught to GCSE students, but with subtle adaptations they have also been used with both younger and older (up to A Level) students. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This engaging and thought-provoking double-lesson resource aids students in developing a secure understanding of the chapters 23 to 47 (inclusive) of Mark Haddon’s 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.’ In this section of the text, Christopher is released from the police station, reveals more about his family back-story and decides to try and solve the mystery of the dog murder. The comprehensive and colourful PowerPoint presentation enables students to understand the text through: -Retrieving information; -Inferring and deducing hidden meanings; -Explaining key ideas; -Summarising the main events. The sessions include a range of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, explanation and deeper thinking activities. A clear, colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation guides students through the learning. There’s a lot of content in the resource (20 slides in total) so I would definitely recommend breaking into two lessons. The lessons are best suited to students in KS3 or KS4, depending upon the individual context of the school and students.