I made this grid when cover was needed for a year 7 class who were working on a unit on Fairy Tales. The task is adaptive so children could choose their own activity. However, this grid could also be used over a half term, providing homework activities.

This is a short excerpt from Elbert Hubbard’s recount of the sinking of Titanic with 12 multiple choice questions (answers provided). This could be used as a starter activity or for homework. It could be used to structure a guided reading activity with the questions providing a starting point for a more in-depth discussion of the writer’s use of language. Alternatively, it could be used prior to teaching to identify gaps in knowledge so that the subsequent lesson can be more precisely focused.

This is a simple and straightforward multiple-choice quiz using a charming poem (public domain) with a focus on onomatopoeia as well as some questions to test inference, comprehension and recognition of personification. Answers are provided. Useful as a homework or as a starter.

A powerpoint lesson on the opening of “The Speckled Band”, planned for a middle-ability year 8 class but suitable at any point in KS3. The lesson begins with a settler activity looking at the word ‘axiom’ and drawing an inference about Sherlock Holmes from his maxim. Pupils are then guided through Watson’s opening narration, making inferences from selected evidence. The focus then turns to Helen Stoner whereupon the inference is developed into deduction and pupils’ attention is turned to what can be inferred and deduced from the simile - and how that simile can be linked to other aspects of the description. Finally, pupils are asked to draw an inference from the way in which two paragraphs of the story have been structured.

The extract used is the description of Jonathan Harker’s journey towards Dracula’s castle. There are 12 questions focusing mainly on the writer’s methods and their effect. Useful for homework or as a cover activity. Could also be used to structure a guided reading session.

This is a 14-question multiple-choice quiz (answers provided) on John Clare’s lovely sonnet about the spring. Could be used as a starter activity prior to a deeper analysis of the poem. Could work as a homework activity. The questions could be used to stucture a guided reading activity.

Created as a homework task as part of a unit on gothic horror, this would also work as a cover activity. It uses a short extract from “The Mysteries of Udolpho” by Ann Radcliffe and there are 8 questions, most requiring a more extended answer, focusing on analysis. Useful for honing the reading skills that will be tested at GCSE and for exploring a less common text from the genre of gothic horror.

Created for a year 7 class as part of a unit of work on “Treasure Island”, this lesson invites the children to explore Masefield’s poem, “Sea Fever”, identifying the speaker’s attitude towards the sea and focusing on the use of personification and other language features. The lesson uses hinge questions at key points, requiring all children to feed back with one from a choice of answers. In my classroom we use our arms to make letter shapes; you could use mini-whiteboards. At the end of the lesson, the children are asked to produce a written response focusing on Masefield’s use of personification and two other language features of their choice, explaining what’s revealed about the speaker’s attitude towards the sea (and here you could introduce or embed the idea of viewpoint). There is a separate homework available for this lesson which is a series of multiple-choice questions about the poem.

Created for my year nine group as part of a non-fiction SOW on journeys, this uses Scott’s diary and focuses on the pupils using their skills of inference to link Scott’s feelings to his use of language. The lesson culminates with the writing of a P.E.E response.

Useful for a homework task or for cover, this uses the description from “Dracula” where Jonathan Harker is being driven through the Transylvanian darkness to Dracula’s castle. The questions are divided into four sections: vocabulary, information retrieval, inference and the effect of the writer’s methods. This worksheet could be used to structure a guided reading session.

Planned for a year 8 class as part of a unit of work on Charles Dickens, this lesson focuses on Dickens’s use of setting for characterisation. The extract used (a short one; printable is on slide 11); prior to that, the pupils are asked to look at the description of the Chocolate Room from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, explaining how Dahl’s use of colour suggests the character of Willy Wonka. There is then a focus on concrete nouns and pupils are asked what these suggest about Willy Wonka - what aspect of his personality they might reflect. Having built confidence in this skill, the focus then shifts to the more challenging text - from ‘Great Expectations’. Having gone through some text marking, pupils are then asked to share what they think the setting suggests about Miss Havisham - then pick one aspect of that setting and write up an analytical paragraph. For homework, pupils are asked to describe a room that gives the reader clues as to their own character - describing the room’s colour, temperature, listing at least 3 concrete nouns and mentioning the view from the window.

Lesson 2 of a sequence planned for a year 8 class. This lesson focuses on looking closely at evidence to explain characterisation. The lesson is intended to get the pupils to zoom in more closely as the lesson progresses. The focus in the text is the part of the story where Helen Stoner is telling Sherlock Holmes about her family history and introduces information about her stepfather, Dr Roylott. There are prompts (in the form of questions) for the explosion of one quotation; students are then asked to work more independently to explode a second quotation, using the first as a model.

Created for a less confident year 11 group in the run-up to their first mock exam, this powerpoint makes it clear and explicit which skills are tested and required to answer question 4 on paper 1. The lesson walks the students through those skills and culminates in a model (if one is needed). The text used is from “Frankenstein”.

I created this short comprehension activity for my year 7 class to be used alongside their class reader, "Love That Dog". It uses an excerpt from "The Call of the Wild" describing Buck's kidnap. Alongside the extract are ten questions focusing on vocabulary and understanding. This works as a homework but could also be used as a cover activity. Alternatively, the questions could be used to structure a guided reading session.

Created for a year 7 class as a homework to go alongside our class reader of 'Love That Dog', this is a comprehension (close reading and response) activity based on the segment from "The Call of the Wild" in which Buck fights Spitz to become top dog. There are 14 questions in total, focusing on vocabulary, inference and the effects of language. This would be a good cover activity or the questions could be used to structure a guided reading session.

Created for a mixed ability year nine class, this powerpoint takes the pupils through the poem, initially with a focus on Owen’s redrafting - what is the effect of ‘doomed youth’ rather than the initial ‘dead youth’. Throughout the lesson the pupils are asked to consider the effect of Owen’s language choices. There is a multiple-choice question focusing on the simile ‘who die as cattle’. In our classroom, we respond by using our arms to make the letters, YMCA-style. The question could as easily be answered using mini whiteboards. The lesson takes the pupils through a model paragraph of response focusing on the effect of the ‘as cattle’ simile; they’re then asked to produce a further three paragraphs working independently. Useful as a reading assessment or as part of a unit of work on war poetry. The intention is that this lesson begins to embed the skills on which the pupils will be tested at GCSE.

Created for a higher-ability year 7 class as part of a unit of work on "Treasure Island" and pirates, this lesson plan takes the pupils through "The Ballad of John Silver" by John Masefield. Using images and drama to embed the idea of writing having a mood, the lesson culminates with the pupils selecting one of the verses from the poem and re-writing it in script form (model given on one of the slides), creating the same mood as the original poem.

This lesson uses the excerpt in which Mrs Joe is introduced. Students are asked to work through 3 of Dickens’s methods for characterisation: contrast, symbolism (specifically, the symbol of Mrs Joe’s apron) and the use of a semantic field. Through a mixture of questioning and discussion, pupils are guided through some ideas about the effect of these methods. Thereafter, they are asked to write a response to this question: Explain how Dickens uses contrast, the symbol of the apron and a semantic field to create the character of Mrs Joe. The final slide of the powerpoint is a self-assessment grid.

This is a straightforward worksheet. It uses the narrative poem, “The Farmer’s Wife” and there are questions alongside each verse. These questions could be given to pupils for independent work or alternatively could be used to structure a guided reading session. Planned for a year 7 class as part of their distance learning - but might be of use for year 6.

This lesson uses questioning to elicit students’ knowledge of methods used by the writers and understanding of some of their effects. Students are asked to annotate their copies of the poems in the questioning phase of the lesson so that they can then use their notes to spend 40 minutes working independently on both sections of an exam-style question. The two poems used are by John Clare and Walter de la Mare, both called “Winter” (and both in the public domain so no issues with copyright).