This engaging and informative lesson enables students to develop a detailed understanding of the characters of Ariel and Caliban in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. In particular, students compare and contrast how the two characters are introduced to the audience in Act 1 Scene 2, and then developed throughout the play. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which students learn through: Understanding the roles that servants and slaves played in society in Shakespearean times; Reading and comprehending how the two characters are introduced in Act 1 Scene 2; Using textual exploration to discover how the characters are then developed over the course of the play; Considering Shakespeare’s intentions in his portrayal of the two characters; Demonstrating their understanding through an interesting synthesis activity; Self-assessing their learning through the lesson; Included is: Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; Character Profile Template; Ariel and Caliban Development Template; Copy of Act I Scene 2 (freely available online); Comprehensive lesson plan. Resources are provided in PDF (to maintain formatting) and Word (so that they are easily editable - they can be found in the zipfile) The lesson contains opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 10 and 11 classes, however colleagues have used them for between year 9 and year 13 with some adaptations. 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 Willy Russell’s play ‘Blood Brothers.’ 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: 1980s Britain/ Liverpool’ - 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;’ ‘Russell’s Dramatic Devices’ - to aid students with ‘Analysing a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features, and evaluating their effectiveness and impact;’ ‘Edward’, ‘Mickey’, and ‘Mrs Lyons’ - 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 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 clear, detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for children learning about Aneurin Bevan as a part of their history study of ‘Significant Individuals.’ It contains comprehensive sections entitled: Overview; Times in His Life; Important Vocabulary; Aneurin Bevan Timeline; Answers to the Important Questions; Top Ten Facts. The resource is designed to be printed onto either A4 or 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.

This engaging and interesting lesson enables students to demonstrate a clear and developed understanding of the historical context of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers. In particular, students learn about the key social and historical events that took place in the UK in the 1970s and 80s (particularly around the play’s setting of Liverpool) and apply this understanding to characters and events in the play. The lesson utilises a range of tasks, that require students to be both independent and collaborative learners. It follows this learning journey: Considering and discussing ideas of class and class systems, both historically and in the present day; Sequencing and understanding the key features of the social and historical context of the UK/Liverpool in the 1970s and 80s; Using independent research to enhance their understanding of deeper contextual meanings; Linking the key events of the play to social and historical context, analysing Russell’s key messages; Taking part in a fun, interactive quiz in order to gauge their learning; Self-evaluating their learning in the lesson. Included in this resource pack are: A well-presented, thorough, and informative, whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; Detailed cards for the sorting/timeline activity, presenting key contextual events; A ‘Researching Context’ template, to help guide students’ research; A template to help scaffold the main task, complete with quotes from the text; A comprehensive teacher guidance form/lesson plan to assist delivery. Resources are provided in both Word (for easy editing)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. Please note - the independent research activity (development task) in this resource pack requires students to have access to the internet.

This engaging and interesting lesson enables students to make clear and developed interpretations of the characters of Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers. In particular, students infer and interpret key information about the characters from their introductions into the play, before tracking how their characters develop through close analysis of key quotations. The lesson utilises a range of tasks, that require students to be both independent and collaborative learners. It follows this learning journey: Considering the meaning of the key term ‘stereotype’ and how Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons represent stereotypes of social groups; Engaging with the opening to the text and interpreting how Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons are presented; Tracking how the characters are developed throughout the play, through engagement with key quotations; Answering an essay-style question about the introduction and development of the characters; Self-evaluating their learning in the lesson. Included in this resource pack are: A well-presented, thorough, and informative, whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; Appropriate extracts from the play; A worksheet with key quotations to enable students to track the development of characters; A template to help scaffold the main task, complete with quotes from the text; A comprehensive teacher guidance form/lesson plan to assist delivery. Resources are provided in both Word (for easy editing)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.

Based on the popular game show ‘Pointless’, this resource is perfect for use as a whole lesson resource, enrichment option, or revision tool. Editable, so that you can change to any other topic or change questions. (I’ve also added a blank template so that you can make your own games from scratch). Containing almost 30 slides of sound clips and suitably challenging questions, this resource is effective at both promoting engagement and enhancing learning. There are several full rounds of questions to build or revisit knowledge of characters, plot, and themes in ‘The Tempest.’ Round 1. The characters in The Tempest Round 2. Quotations from the text Round 3. Settings and Objects Round 4. Themes in The Tempest The nature of this game ensures that the resource can challenge students of all levels. A blank template has also been added, so that you can create your own games!

Based on the popular game show ‘Pointless’, this resource is perfect for use as a whole lesson resource, enrichment option, or revision tool. Editable, so that you can change to any other topic or change questions. (I’ve also added a blank template so that you can make your own games from scratch). Containing almost 30 slides of sound clips and suitably challenging questions, this resource is effective at both promoting engagement and enhancing learning. There are several full rounds of questions to build or revisit knowledge of characters, plot, and themes in ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984).’ Round 1. The characters in Nineteen Eighty-Four Round 2. Quotations from the text Round 3. Settings and Objects Round 4. Themes in Nineteen Eighty-Four The nature of this game ensures that the resource can challenge students of all levels. A blank template has also been added, so that you can create your own games!

This engaging and informative lesson enables students to use a range of varied and precise noun choices in their writing, through considering the specific meanings of different nouns and their potential synonyms. Students analyse examples of both effective and ineffective writing, considering the use of nouns, and editing where appropriate. They then apply this understanding to their own creative attempts. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: Understanding that most nouns have synonyms, and identifying these for high-frequency nouns; Developing an expanded vocabulary of varied nouns through a fun and interactive game; Choosing the best noun for different given situations, considering the connotations of words, and justifying their choices; Editing an example of an ineffective text, through implementing a range of interesting and varied nouns; Creating their own creative writing openings, utilising varied and specific nouns ; Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts. Included is: Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; Understanding connotations worksheet; -Editing a bad example worksheet, and extension activity; -Comprehensive lesson plan. All resources are provided in Word (for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure formatting remains fixed between different computers). There are also opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 7/8 classes, however colleagues have used them for between years 4 and 9 with some adaptations. 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 William Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing.’ 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 play ensuring that students gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: - ‘Context: Shakespearean Times’ - 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;’ - ‘Shakespeare’s Description’ - to aid students with ‘Analysing a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features, and evaluating their effectiveness and impact;’ - ‘Friar Francis’ - 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 16-page resource booklet contains a wide range of challenging and engaging comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Margaret Postgate Cole’s war poem 'The Falling Leaves.’ They are perfect for aiding the progress of students learning poetry either in KS3 and KS4 in preparation for poetry/unseen poetry at GCSE, as the tasks draw on English Literature assessment objectives - suitable for all examining bodies - it is clearly highlighted within each task regarding which assessment strands the task is designed to demonstrate. The booklet is provided in both Word (to allow for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure for consistency of formatting between computers). Activities within the booklet include (amongst many others): ‘Analysing Context’ - helping students to ‘Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written.’ ‘Analysing Subject Matter, Language and Structure’ - to help students to ‘Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.’ ‘Diary Entry’ - to help students to ‘Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation. Make an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these.’ ‘The Speaker’ - to help students to ‘Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to: maintain a critical style and develop an informed personal response use textual references, including quotations, to support and illustrate interpretations.’

These resources offer an original and efficient way to approaching the spelling expectations of the 2014 National Curriculum. They contain over 30 slides of spelling rules, 5-minute stand-alone activities, and application tasks to apply spelling patterns to more extended writing opportunities. This year 2 pack provides comprehensive and varied tasks for approaching spelling rules, such as: - The /s/ sound spelt with a c before e, i ,and y; - The /dʒ/ sound at the end of words; - The /n/ sound at the beginning of words, sometimes spelt kn and gn; - The /r/ sound at the beginning of words, sometimes spelt wr; - The /l/ or /əl/ sound at the end of words, spelt le, el, or al; - The plural of nouns ending /y/, replaced with ies; - Common homophones; - Suffixes; - Apostrophes for possession and omission; - The year 2 common exception words. All images used are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the presentation.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate and engaging comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Norton Juster’s 'The Phantom Tollbooth.’ 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 Milo’ - 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;’ ‘Juster’s 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;’ ‘Tock’s and Rhyme and Reason’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 Phantom Tollbooth’ - 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).

These interesting and stimulating resources enable students to read and understand a number of texts from different cultures. Students learn about different countries and their social and historical traditions. Students also learn to recreate texts, honing their knowledge of text content, language, and structure choices, whilst simultaneously building their imaginative writing skills. There are easily enough resources here for 2 lessons, at the very least. The visually engaging, comprehensive PowerPoint presentation guides students through the following learning journey: - Learning about the cultures of different countries where the short stories originated; - Reading and understanding the short stories; - Collaborating in teams in order to analyse the stories in terms of content, language, and structure; - Understanding the key term 'recreations' and evaluating two recreations of a famous fable; - Planning and writing their own recreation of one of the texts from different cultures; - Peer-assessing the recreation attempts of their partner. Provided in this resource pack is everything that you need to simply print and teach, including: - Comprehensive PowerPoint presentation; - Countries fact-sheets - 4x short stories (The Island of the Sun - China, Narcissus and Echo - Greece, The Little Beggar - Iraq, and The Princess of Riddles - Portugal.) - Mind-map activity template; - Recreations planning template; - Learning objectives to stick in. All images are licensed for commercial use and are cited on the final slide.

These original writing mats offer a varied and visually engaging way for students to independently increase the depth and breadth of their imaginative writing. Designed on A3, they simply need to printed and given to students before they begin creative writing tasks. They could also be used as colourful word posters to brighten up your classroom and familiarise children with new vocabulary. The benefits of using these resources as writing mats is twofold: Firstly, the vibrant, wide-ranging, and student-friendly landscapes offer students a wealth of new writing stimuli. Secondly, the simple concrete noun labels save substantial learning time, as the effort that students may have previously exerted deliberating over the spellings of the common nouns is vastly reduced. Instead, students have the time to focus upon the teacher's intended key writing focus areas. This resource pack aids children in visualising imaginary settings, many of which fit in with Primary/ early Secondary topics. There are 10 different imagination landscapes in this pack: -Nightmare World -Ancient Egypt -Christmas -Medieval Times -The Future -Pirates -Olympics -Romans -The Circus -Fairy Tales Every image used in this resource pack is licensed for commercial use, and all are cited on a separate document within the pack. This pack can either be purchased alone, or as a bundle alongside the 'World Landscapes' writing mats for just 1 pound more.

These original writing mats offer a varied and visually engaging way for students to independently increase the depth and breadth of their imaginative writing. Designed on A3, they simply need to printed and given to students before they begin creative writing tasks. They could also be used as colourful word posters to brighten up your classroom and familiarise children with new vocabulary. The benefits of using these resources as writing mats is twofold: Firstly, the vibrant, wide-ranging, and student-friendly landscapes offer students a wealth of new writing stimuli. Secondly, the simple concrete noun labels save substantial learning time, as the effort that students may have previously exerted deliberating over the spellings of the common nouns is vastly reduced. Instead, students have the time to focus upon the teacher's intended key writing focus areas. This resource pack contains 12 completely original, comprehensive landscapes from around the world, including: -The Rainforest -Space -Under the Sea -The Poles -Mountain -Forest -Safari -Desert -Farm -Beach -Park -Town Every image used in this resource pack is licensed for commercial use, and all are cited on a separate document within the pack. This pack can either be purchased alone, or alongside the 'Imaginations Landscapes' writing mats for just 1 pound more.

These practice questions and tasks for the Year 2 SATs have been formulated utilising a number of past papers and the Year 2 expectations for Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling. Each question is worded in a similar manner to questions on past papers, to enable children to become a great deal more comfortable with what will be asked of them in their SATs exams. As these tasks are short, snappy, and interesting, I have been using them in the run up to the assessments, and the children have found them really engaging. All of the areas from the exam papers are covered, (there are around 30 separate 10-minute tasks in the booklet) including: Past tense, future tense, connectives, sentence types, nouns, adverbs, adjectives, adverbs, capital letters, statements, questions, commands, apostrophes, full stops, question marks, exclamation marks, prefixes, suffixes, and spelling bee activities. Enjoy!

This 16-page resource booklet contains a wide range of challenging and engaging comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Ben Jonson’s tender elegy 'On My First Sonne.’ They are perfect for aiding the progress of students learning poetry either in KS3 and KS4 in preparation for poetry/unseen poetry at GCSE, as the tasks draw on English Literature assessment objectives - suitable for all examining bodies - it is clearly highlighted within each task regarding which assessment strands the task is designed to demonstrate. The booklet is provided in both Word (to allow for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure for consistency of formatting between computers). Activities within the booklet include (amongst many others): ‘Analysing Context’ - helping students to ‘Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written.’ ‘Analysing Subject Matter, Language and Structure’ - to help students to ‘Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.’ ‘Diary Entry’ - to help students to ‘Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation. Make an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these.’ ‘The Speaker’ - to help students to ‘Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to: maintain a critical style and develop an informed personal response use textual references, including quotations, to support and illustrate interpretations.’

This 16-page resource booklet contains a wide range of challenging and engaging comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Dylan Thomas’ poem 'Do not go gentle into that good night.’ They are perfect for aiding the progress of students learning poetry either in KS3 and KS4 in preparation for poetry/unseen poetry at GCSE, as the tasks draw on English Literature assessment objectives - suitable for all examining bodies - it is clearly highlighted within each task regarding which assessment strands the task is designed to demonstrate. The booklet is provided in both Word (to allow for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure for consistency of formatting between computers). Activities within the booklet include (amongst many others): ‘Analysing Context’ - helping students to ‘Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written.’ ‘Analysing Subject Matter, Language and Structure’ - to help students to ‘Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.’ ‘Diary Entry’ - to help students to ‘Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation. Make an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these.’ ‘The Speaker’ - to help students to ‘Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to: maintain a critical style and develop an informed personal response use textual references, including quotations, to support and illustrate interpretations.’

I used these comprehension resources recently to engage a group of girls who were reluctant readers. The pack enables students to fulfil the requirements of the Key Stages 2 and 3 comprehension expectations within the new National Curriculum framework. It does so in a new and student-friendly way, by engaging students in texts related to someone whom they share an interest in. Whilst focussing on Justin Bieber, these resources provide a wide-range of differentiated and interesting resources for students to build their reading and comprehension skills. The pack includes resources such as a short Justin Bieber biography, a newspaper story about the positive aspects of his personality, and lyrics to the song 'Baby.' Each of these are differentiated for lower KS2, higher KS2, and KS3. Students understanding of these texts are gauged through comprehension questions aligned with the expectations of the new National Curriculum (again, these are differentiated by age.) The curriculum expectations are included in the pack, and are referenced in brackets after each question. This allows you to easily plot students' progress against individual strands. Some images are used, which are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide.

Template for you to create your own Pointless games - whatever subject or topic you are teaching! Based on the popular game show 'Pointless', this resource is perfect for use as a starter activity, plenary, or revision tool. Editable, so that you can change to any other topic or change the questions/answers. Containing almost 30 slides of sound clips, engaging visuals, and suitably challenging questions, this resource is effective at both promoting engagement and enhancing learning. There are several built-in rounds of questions to build students' understanding in your topics, including: - Identifying terms from definitions - Anagrams of key terms round - Recalling the highest level knowledge. The nature of the game ensures that this resource can challenge students of all levels. NOTE: You can buy this resource alone, or in a bundle of 8 Pointless games, for only £1 more!