A lesson to enable students to create emotion and atmosphere through language using the skill pathetic fallacy. The lesson uses visual stimuli (clips from Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings) to facilitate students’ understanding of pathetic fallacy and how the weather/landscape reflects characters’ emotions and affects the audience. This resource contains video links and resources to print for students. It also includes a written example of pathetic fallacy, a writing task for students to demonstrate their understanding of pathetic fallacy, and sentence stems and words banks for differentiation.

TBQ: Can I compare how the poets present ideas about war and conflict in ‘Bayonet Charge’ and ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’? Designed for weaker ability Y10 and delivered over 2 lessons. Includes: Step by step approach to comparing poems and responding to an exam style question Revision venn diagram to compare the poems Quote explosions Comparative phrases task Exemplar paragraph Paragraph task Peer assessment

A capture sheet for students to complete as they are watching A Christmas Carol. A great revision resource or end of term activity, with a cloze summary included.

A resource designed to revise creative writing skills in preparation for Language Paper 1 Question 5. This resource covers key skills, writing structure and a creative writing task with scaffolding.

A student-led exploration and analysis of significant moments in Chapter 6 of LOTF. This lesson uses jigsaw work, enabling students to work in groups to share and discuss their explorations. The lesson can be adapted for online learning through the use of collaborative breakout rooms in Teams.

A lesson exploring ideas about appearance, reality and the presentation of women in Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 130’. Prompts discussion about ‘reality’ and ‘appearence’, weaving in ideas about social media. Students work individually to interpret different given lines in the poem (worksheet including challenge questions), and then class collaboratively discuss, explore and feedback their interpretations. Lesson also includes a creative writing task.

A (2 hour) lesson guiding Y10 students (top set) through an approach to exploring, analysing and responding to an unseen poem - The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. The lesson addresses the question: ‘Can I analyse language and structure in an unseen poem, learning a strategy to respond to an unseen poetry exam question?’ Students are working towards the question: In ‘The Road Not Taken’, how does the poet present the speaker’s feelings about choice? Groups of students are given a particular stanza to focus on independently and then feedback their ideas as the teacher makes notes on the board (I have left some of the answers my students delivered on the slides FYI). The next task focuses on an exemplar response, where students will construct their own paragraph responding to the question and utilising their annotated poem to support them. Resource includes Powerpoint, lesson plan, exemplar paragraph word doc and a word doc displaying the poem and question.

’After reading an extract from Act 1 Scene 2, can I analyse the character of Caliban and consider whether he is a victim or a villain?' Delivered to a mixed ability Y8 class, focusing on the analysis of Caliban as a victim or villain, where students prepare to write an exam style response to the question - How does Shakespeare present Caliban as a victim?

‘Am I able to explore Chapter 12 and comment on the most significant moments?’ Designed for a Y11 top set reading lesson and includes a ‘significant moments’ grid which can be used to reflect on and analyse key moments in the chapter. Students can record their own thoughts and add the feedback of other students in a different colour. The plenary enables students to reflect on the ending and why it might be significant. Lesson plan and grid included.

’Using creative writing skills, can I write a recipe for a magic spell to summon a storm?' This lesson was created for a mixed ability Y8 class who were studying The Tempest. I used this for the last lesson of term, so it was a nice and creative lesson to end on and the students had lots of fun creating their own spells. The lesson includes an activity where students identify poetic devices in the spell chanted by the witches in Macbeth, and then goes on to support them writing their own spell to conjure a storm (like the Tempest).

Designed for a two-hour Year 12 lesson, this resource introduces the characteristics of ecocriticism using Dr Seuss’ ‘The Lorax’ to demonstrate how to analyse a text from an ecocritical perspective. In the second half of the lesson, students will then apply their ecocritical knowledge to an extract from Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’. This resource includes: a structured and comprehensive Powerpoint presentation a lesson plan a mix and match activity Video clips numerous discussion points ‘The Road’ extract and an exploration grid an example analytical paragraph with success criteria I thoroughly enjoyed planning and teaching this lesson, and the students seemed to enjoy it too! I hope your class benefits from it too. If they do, please leave a review!

Guiding Y7 students through expanded noun phrases, using The Highwayman Poem by Alfred Noyes. Designed for a literacy intervention class.

A Freudian reading of LOTF, suitable for remote learning as well as in the classroom. This lesson explores Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of the Id, Ego and Superego, applying it to Lord of the Flies to develop students’ contextual knowledge and understanding of characterisation. This is a great stretch and challenge lesson, planned for a top set Y11 class, although can easily be differentiated according to ability. Includes a range of tasks and stimuli to engage and facilitate learning such as videos, a Guess Who game, character profiles activity and a quiz (link included to quiz in lesson plan).

Story writing prompt used for a Year 7 baseline assessment.

TBQ: Can I reflect on the events in AMSND and create a storyboard to develop and secure my understanding of the plot? Delivered to a top set Y9 class over the course of 2 lessons. Students loved this engaging lesson as it encompasses a wide range of activities to secure their knowledge of the plot. Lesson includes: Plot summary (number the events in order) Storyboard task (with challenge) Plot quiz Closer analysis of Hermia and Helena fight Hermia’s twitter activity Image plenary task

Designed to follow on from the simile lesson, also available on my shop. Students build upon their knowledge of similes and develop these skills into creating effective metaphors using advanced vocabulary. During this lesson they will understand the effects of metaphors, and how they are similar/different from similes. They will use their knowledge to develop effective metaphors in their creative writing, using engaging stimulus.

A lesson to engage students in creative writing, and to enable them to create effective similes using sophisticated adjectives. Students develop their understanding of similes and identify their effects, utilising their knowledge to construct their own simile poem.

A lesson exploring how Sylvia Plath uses language to present ideas about identity in her poem ‘Mirror’. Was designed for a mixed ability Year 9 class, but would be a great stretch and challenge lesson for a higher ability Year 8 class. Various activities including an imagery task, where students match images to a line or phrase in the poem (handout). Stretch and challenge tasks also incorporated.

TBQ: Can I research and revise relevant context to support my analysis of the poor in A Christmas Carol? Students were given laptops in this lesson to support their revision. Alternatively, this could be set as a homework revision task. Kahoot quiz link included.