These quick starters are all self-mark and focus on vocabulary and spelling.

The lesson starter can easily become a discussion lesson with an enthusiastic class, but a 'one-liner' mumble if the class isn't interested: either have a discussio topic on each desk as students enter or put them in a hat for pairs to pick out. This gets them thinking about the themes covered by the collection of short stories. The lesson consists of short extracts promoting close reading in order to infer and deduce information about the characters and the setting. This is an important skill and if students say they didn't find the stories frightening, ask them whether they are just reading words or actually infering and deducing - I liken the difference to a balloon with and without the breath that blows it up. This is all about making reading a 3-D experience!

Being able to summarise is a vital skill. It is a particularly good way of checking understanding of what has been read and the ability to foreground the most important information when writing. It impacts other subject areas as summarising aids revision. The PP begins with a few guidelines and a starter exercise, models how to summarise and then gives an independent summary task using an extract from 'Out of Africa'. This task is also on the worksheet, which should be handed out at that point. There are two to a page to save printing costs. Students can check their own from the penultimate slide. The last slide plenary challenges students to think of other ways in which we summarise information, as in mind-maps & lists...

Here’s a starter pack for a successful year ahead. The PP can be adapted to suit, but sets out expectations for the year. Share your class rules with an easily remembered graphic: the hand. Comes with a script and 1st lesson ideas. To fight ignorance, instigate a ‘quote of the month’ that students copy and then explain – whether verbally or written is up to you. Not only does this make them think a bit, model crafted sentences and inspire, but they get to ‘vaguely recognise’ names they should become familiar with. There are two sets of quotes to use on alternate years so that if you teach the same students again you don’t repeat quotes. Finally, for that desperate moment when you need to buy a bit of time, or as a treat after hard work, a ‘word walk’ PP to get them thinking about vocabulary and spelling. Just add a 'word of the week' found by students and your battle against ignorance can begin.

Designed to suit AQA, KS5 Lit B, this task makes an ideal homework task or lends itself to group work, where there can be more discussion. The idea is to use the given 'possible content' from the mark scheme to prompt students to find evidence that could be used in a coherent response to the question. While it would be limiting to over-do this approach, it is an excellent way of getting students to think about ways of approaching a question, especially creating an element of debate. In a lesson after, the PP is a useful way fo turning the ideas into an essay that could be peer assessed using the exam board's memo [download from their site - it is a generic one, so any Q1 will do] Stronger classes can watch & discuss, then write the essay, weaker students may need to take it paragraph by paragraph - for them a handout of the PP might be a good way to proceed if the class is very mixed in ability.

Rather than a series of lessons, this is a 'drop-feed' of tasks to improve older students' writing. The first step is to make them aware of how important accurate expression is. Great ideas are corroded by error-filled writing. The proof reading Power Point looks at two samples of students' writing that need to be improved - on the Word document these are written out to facilitate this process. In each case the next slide presents the corrected sample,so that students can peer mark or check their own. Each sample could be done in a different lesson: I'd recommend that for classes that are easily board by focused work. Likewise the two starters can be spread out. They focus on spelling, particularly the difference between sound and spelling, helping students notice pitfalls like ite/ight/ee/ea as well as the 'c' that sounds like 's'. Awareness leads to focus and on to improvement. That's the aim!

Unseen poetry can seem daunting, especially when it could come from any period. So this resource begins to inculcate a simple, yet effective, strategy for approaching unseen poetry in general, while also focusing on 'Sonnet 65' in particular. The PP runs through the strategy with specific instructions to be followed on the worksheet by students. There are also feedback slides where some points are made as a stimulus - the idea is that students should contribute there ideas. The student worksheet contains the poem to be annotated and some fill in space to consolidate information. Page 2 gives an essay title and information in the guise of notes from 3 students that can be used along with the student's own ideas- this allows for subtle differentiation. The 'lesson plan' sheet is actually notes for the teacher in case they are unfamiliar with the poem. The sonnet handout is a note on the sonnet form, with the same information on A6 to save costs. Be aware that the AQA unseen poetry requires students to compare poems, but as this is a first there is no comparison. More unseen poetry will lead to comparison. Other than that, the question for the essay is modelled on the AQA style task.

These 7 ice-breakers are fun, easy to administer and also help you get to know the class and them to get to know each other. You need a soft ball, a timer and maybe some music. The PP has icons hyperlinked to the activity explanation. 4 of the tasks need no resources. The ‘bingo’ sheet, 'tell us’cards and the ideas for ‘get in line’ are all provided for printing before the lesson. Suitable for tutor or subject lessons.

This resource brings together the work done on poems individually to focus on a strategy for comparing and the actual comparison of the two poems.The PP begins the task with planning, then continues with self- and peer- checking. Targets are suggested in the last slide, to be adapted by the teacher as suits the actual class. A planning sheet handout to be enlarged to A3 ensures the AOs are covered at the planning stage. A further handout focuses on effective openings, stimulating discussion and then serving as a model for the essay opening. For very weak students there is a generic note on comparing poems with some useful words, phrases and prompts. The trial exam paper follows the style of the AQA exam.

This is a self-check starter that could develop into a full lesson by letting students find their own words to build. The PP begins with a definition of both prefix and suffix, goes on to list common prefixes and suffixes, which students then use to build up words. To help students get the hang of it, 'source' is one you can do together, beginning with 'resource'! Create a more competitive atmosphere by setting time limits and letting students work in teams. While they don't need to copy all the answers, they should write a few they didn't get because the whole exercise is to widen their vocabulary. The work sheet supports the PP task for weaker or slower students. The spelling test included for extension work doesn't focus on word building specifically, but provides a less threatening way of helping poor spellers focus on accuracy.

Typical AQA questions begin with a critical stance to be applied to an extract and then the play as a whole. The starter PP gives the critical stance and asks students to formulate the question [a paper version is available to cut time wastage ] and chose - in groups with discussion- a suitable extract for the question. The homework is a log to fill in for each Act, providing a key focus and some key quotes. A note on essay writing outlines a strategy to follow as well as giving feedback from AQA on the way they prefer essays written.

This is a poem where structure undergirds the meaning of the poem more obviously than often, so it is a useful 'unseen' to explore. As well as the lesson on PP and the fill in worksheet, there is a detailed note on Metre, using examples from the poem. Avoid with a weak class, but worth doing with a mid- to able class, provided the focus is on how the rhyme and rhythm support/ enhance meaning. The teacher's notes has two links, one to a reading of the poem and another to a youtube clip that could be used as a 'flipped learning' style preparatory homework task [under 20mins]: particularly useful with weaker students - an easy differentiation.

Pollination: Useful for revision with a weaker class, but a great way to challenge a more able one. Students look at photographs of pollinators at work – really look – and try to consider the implications of what they are seeing. This can be done in teams or individually. 4 slides show insect, bird and wind pollination and one has a quote from Darwin as an extra challenge. Then the same pollinators are shown with commentary and some extra information designed to provoke discussion and spark interest. This gives the opportunity for the class to discuss the implications of what they notice. [If this is done as a cover lesson, the non-specialist teacher could draw up a list of questions generated by students to put to the teacher for next lesson]. The lesson ends with a 2 question test as a plenary to sum up what has been learned. To accommodate differentiation there are the extra challenges and additional information for more able students, as well as a fill in grid with some given information for the less able or slow writers. The stunning photos in the Power Point are presented in Word for printing off as A4 or A3 posters for display.

Something for you, to help you plan for a work-life balance. The charts are intended to be enlarged to A3, laminated and filled in with board pens which can be wiped clean. Where students follow individual activity plans you could adapt the chart to suit. They are made to be customised and to that end there are also additional quotes to choose from. You can insert your own photos too.

Here are the three different stages leading up to and including the trial exam paper and its feedback. The focus is on learning a strategy for coping with unseen poetry by taking it slowly, focusing on the process while exploring the poems: 'Sonnet 65' and 'Meeting at Night' and comparing the two.

Part of the SPaG starter series, these two starters consist of an instruction slide, a handout for differentiation and an answer slide. The idea is to keep drip-feeding SPaG reminders by way of starters that are self mark. Here the focus is on prepositions and plurals. In each case as an extension activity students try to formulate a rule which is given with the answers.

The questions on the worksheet are valid prompts for any comparison of poems, but are particularly for the new EDUQAS style of Section C unseen poetry comparison. The first worksheet contains the poems and the questions, which are based of the specimen papers provided by the exam board. This makes an easy to set homework of cover lesson. The second worksheet has key points as possible answers. So the task can be self or peer assessed easily. For other exam boards or general poetry preparation, the 'answers' could be the springboard for an essay comparing the two poems, to help less able students cluster their response.

Keep students mindful of the need to proof-read with regular starters and short SPaG exercises. These self-mark starters consist of an instructions slide and an answer slide PP and the text to be corrected on a handout, either for the whole class to aid speed or as differentiation to aid weaker/slower students.

There is so much fantastic stuff out there on Romeo & Juliet there seems no point in more of the same. So this is not about the main thrust of your teaching. What this resource offers is alternatives for differentiation, especially in homework and starters. Budget constraints often mean students can't take the text home and time constraints mean there is little time in the lesson to allow students to engage with the text independently - these tasks try to rectify this by a 'little and often' approach, making starters and homework more 'open' than has been the recent trend. To help you sort out the order of relevance I've numbered the work that clusters together. Hope you and your class can bring a little enjoyment back into studying Shakespeare.

While a Thesaurus can be a useful tool, it is a blunt instrument when used without understanding of the subtle differences in meaning of synonyms. The PP explores how things can go wrong, using words that could easily become part of each student’s word-hoard. Differentiated for slow writers or to speed the whole class up, the worksheet supports the PP in this longer self-check starter, designed to develop apt vocabulary that takes context into account. This starter could easily be developed into a whole lesson by inviting students to create their own muddles which other groups mend, using the PP sentences as a model.