I support vulnerable students with their English with weekly 1-2-1 hour long sessions. The sessions I create are designed to create interest in the student and to revise skills taught in their main session. This session starts with developing Haikus to engage the student and get them thinking of different vocabulary and sentence structures, it is also useful for underpinning spelling techniques and proofreading. We work our way up to L1 reading practice with a piece of text about Frida Kahlo. Feel free to adapt for your own needs. Hope it helps

I support vulnerable students with their Functional English in 1-2-1 hour sessions. The materials I create are designed to be simplified, to support their main learning and be used as revision or guided homework, however feel free to adapt to your own cohort. This session supports the reading paper at L1 and is based around the painting, the raft of Medusa. We start simple and focus and read and obtain questions and work our way up to exam style questions. Hope it helps

I find it useful, when close to the exam period, to take students through an exam answer as if they were the examiner and awarding the marks. This helps to clarify in the students mind the skills and knowledge they need to demonstrate in the exam and to identify any areas of development within their own writing skills. This session is based on that premise. This session has enough resources to fill a 2 hour session. It takes 3 sample answers from the exam board and the class examine each one and uses a simplified mark scheme to award marks. The class is then asked to honestly critique their own skills next to the criteria and develop a revision plan to work on up until their own exam. The session is based around SOLO teaching method which chunks up learning and increases in difficulty. I find this helps to put the writing exam, and students own skill sets into perspective and aids in self study. Hope it helps

This resource is a complete lesson with a complete mock exam for Paper 2 of the AQA English Language exam and enough material to fill a 3 hour session. It is designed to be a informal and supportive lesson to help students become more comfortable and confident in the lead up to mock and real exams, although it can be altered to be presented in a way which suits the individual teachers style or to be more formal in delivery. Based around two war speeches made by Winston Churchill and Chief Joseph this lesson examines to two sides of war made by two different war leaders from different eras, it allows the student to work in teams and as individuals with bite sized activities which help the student to focus and develop ideas around the materials, supporting the less able in the class to get up to speed but also allowing your more able to push further and develop insightful answers. As the theme is war, this lesson also allows room for embedding of deeper social issues. Hope it helps

This session was designed for a L2 student F/S who’s first language wasn’t English but was strong enough to not be put in a ESOL class. They struggled with writing, using a range of vocabulary and sentence structures. This session was designed to try and broaden their skills in this area and their confidence with writing. The session looks at using synonyms, LY / ING sentence starters, language features and descriptive writing techniques such as using the senses to describe. The tasks all combine together to build up to a short piece of descriptive writing, piecing all elements together, with the session ending with a Functional English styled question. This session was designed for a 1-2-1, but can be adapted to suit your own cohorts. Please be aware that the TES preview only gives a sample of the materials and can at times distort them, and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps

This is a fun lesson looking at the notion of the Earth Being flat as a means to an introduction to Paper 2 questions 7a and b from the Edexcel exam board. The session looks at two different articles on the topic and delves into how they are written and how the writer conveys a point of view. There is a break down of the exam questions and answer format to help students formulate an answer to these questions. There are team and paired activities and a short video. The session comes with a starter and plenary and 8 pages of worksheets / activities. Please be aware that the TES preview does at times distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.

This lesson was a big hit amongst my students and co-workers as it is a stretch and challenge lesson designed to be used once the students are comfortable with identifying and explaining language features. It is a quick paced and fun lesson, with enough material to fill 3 hours and it can be used with either AQA or EDEXCEL GCSE English Language exam papers. Using a extract from Oscar Wilde’s A picture of Dorian Gray this lesson takes your students through ,step by step, a deeper thinking process to help them access tricker texts which may crop up in the exam - where the answers are not obvious but hidden. To do this, the resource uses a trailer from the movie, there are group and paired activities, group discussions to promote shared learning and develops your students self confidence in being able to formulate ideas and answers on their own merit. These tasks are all designed to help your students accumulate everything they need to answer the final question, which is structured how it would be in the live exam. Please be aware that TES preview can distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.

This exciting lesson is designed to help students prepare for paper 1 question 1 from the AQA English Language exam - spec 8700. It's primary focus is to help students gain a understanding of inference and how to use it in a structured answer for the exam. This is done by weaving activities focused on PQI (POINT, QUOTE, INFERENCE) around clips from the Tom Hardy movie "Warrior" (cert 12A) in where we look the Character of Tommy, played by Tom Hardy, and use inference to examine what kind of person he is. This lesson uses bite sized activities to keep the lesson moving forward at a good pace and to engage the students, this includes team activities and class discussions. The lesson includes some high level analysis of the character of Tommy and low level activities to help those who have mixed level classes reach all students. Hope it helps

This session is a quick paced, fun, interactive session with group and paired activities, handouts include match up tasks, planning tasks, read and obtain tasks and helpful handouts. This is an introductory lesson to writing using PURPOSE, AUDIENCE, FORM, TONE (PAFT) . It is focused for the Edexcel GCSE English Language paper as many of the questions of this paper are multi layered / skilled and ask for layers of understanding from the student in ways that other exam boards don’t. It comes with a “writing gibberish” starter and takes the student through various stages which can help them improve their own writing, get into the habit of planning but also touches upon being able to analyse writing, therefore bridging over both the reading and writing section of the exam. This session is aimed quite low as it is an introduction but does offer elements of stretch and challenge for more able students. It comes with helpful handouts for low ability learners and tackles some more high level concepts such as tone. There is enough material in this resource to be adapted into two sessions if needs be but is also adaptable to include more if necessary. Please be aware that the TES preview does sometimes distort the way the resource looks and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps

This resource is based around the topic of Banksy and is centered around the L1 reading paper with elements of L2 for stretch and challenge. This resource comes with 2 articles, video, powerpoint and worksheets. The session also underpins dictionary use / vocabulary meaning and inference. It has been designed to fill a 2 hour session and has a writing extension task. Please keep in mind that TES preview can give a altered view of the resource and this is not always a true reflection. Hoe it helps

This is an 8 page booklet designed to be used as independent study to help students prepare for their creative writing task in the GCSE English Language exam. This has been designed with the WJEC EDUQAS exam board in mind but will equally work with those who are studying for other exam boards. This booklet is designed to cater for different levels. We all know we have students who need explicit structure and instructions, therefore often find it difficult to create from imagination, even with prompts. Whereas we all have students who will fly on an imaginative roller coaster with the vaguest of hints. This booklet caters for both type of student. It starts with visual prompts to help coax ideas out of the least creative of students and then walks them through a planning process where they develop language features, vocabulary and short story lines. We also have writing prompts which will allow the student to use real life experiences to help inspire a story, much like the WJEC exam board will give. To turn the level up a notch we have a wide range of writing prompts using song titles. All through out the pack there are hints and tips to help students keep on track as to the skills they need to display in their writing to ensure the most marks from the examiner. This can be used in any way you feel will work best with your students. Please keep in mind that TES preview can distort the resource, this is not a reflection of how to looks. Hope it helps.

This lesson is centered around the tragic story of Sophie Lancaster, who was murdered in 2007 for being a Goth. I have used this story over the last 10 years with all my classes as it helps to address prejudice and build tolerance. This session uses the Story of Sophie to introduce question 7B to students. It does this by breaking question 7B into two and only looking at the writers views and perceptions part of the question rather than the comparison part, as I have found in my experience that diving straight into comparing two texts tends to stress and confuse students. This session has enough material to cover 3 hours but has optional tasks and can be altered to suit you or your classes needs, session time and sensitivity levels. It comes with 10 worksheets, a video and full powerpoint with starters, team tasks, individual tasks, plenary, question 7B breakdown, group discussion and homework which focuses on section B of Paper 2. I have found that over the years that this lesson is diverse. It has been used in tutorials outside of the English department and by youth workers when delivering their sessions. I usually invite support workers and youth workers when delivering this session to help support any students for who this may bring up memories or for them or to help students overcome any of their own prejudices. Because of this sessions holistic and cross college appeal it was a big hit with managers and Ofsted. Hope it helps.

This is a very fun and active lesson designed for lower level or a mixed level functional skills English class. This lesson has very few written tasks, as many lower level classes do demonstrate poor behaviour and are very reluctant to do written work. Instead we have a lesson which jam packed with group and paired activities from board games to creating an origami frog via a instructional video. This lesson also allows room to embed maths via the origami frog task. It is a quick paced lesson which also allows for stretch and challenge and offers a bridge into GCSE English by touching upon imperative verbs and explaining why such language features are used. It comes with a starter and a daily diary plenary task. Please be aware that TES previews do at times distorts the look of the resource and tis is not a true reflection. Hope it helps

As October is Black History month I have created a GCSE English Language session centered around the book “12 Years a Slave”. This session focuses on paper 1 question 2 of the AQA exam paper which looks at language. This is a whole lesson which comes with a full powerpoint with all worksheets and videos included. The sessions is a quick paced, team based session with plenty of activities to encourage independent thought and sharing of ideas to help stretch and challenge but also support. The lesson comes with starter and a small self assessment plenary, it breaks down the key points of the question and the final task is a practice exam question which the students have been working all lesson towards and should feel confident in answering. This is a great lesson to embellish with issues of modern day slavery if desired or, as in my case when delivering hot topics as these, invite youth workers or councilors to your session as they can provide an extra dimension to the session and support any students who may have encountered racism. Please be aware that TES previews often distort the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps.

This fast paced and fun lesson is designed to support a low level or mixed level Functional Skills English class with their writing skills. A great lesson to use at the start of the academic year, this lesson revolves around a article about a 5 year old body builder who made it into the Guinness book of Records and focuses on using direct speech, alliteration, puns and hyperbole to show bias and make writing more interesting. Many tasks are group are pair based to help support lower ability learners, but has some higher ability elements to stretch and challenge stronger learners. Vocabulary focus begins with the starter and is reinforced as you move forward, so students are thinking about language and words from the very start. This resource comes with a full PowerPoint, and 3 worksheets including the article, worksheet and a planning scaffold. TES preview often distorts the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection of the material. Feel free to play with and amend this resource to fit your teaching style and / or needs of your cohort. Hope it helps.

There is a lot of focus on assessing our students, and initial assessments at the start of the year are seen as crucial to setting the student on their journey for the academic year. In my teaching career, many institutions I have worked for have relied heavily on electronic assessments, which is fine. However myself, as a teacher, can assess so much more into a students needs, strengths and weaknesses from a sample of their own writing. This is something I have found useful and successful time and time again for a wide range of reasons, so I decided to share some of my most successful free writing initial assessment tasks with you. This pack comes with 5 different free writing tasks, writing prompts, videos for each task and a feedback sheet which can be placed inside a students file or book and used as an individual tracking sheet through out the year. Some of my most successful assessments have been the ones where students get to express their opinions, which gives them a good first impression of your course as being one where they can express themselves. I also try to underpin deeper themes into light hearted topics to help stretch and challenge those students who enjoy thinking more deeply. For example, the Flat Earth free writing task has prompts which asks the student about the dangers of fake news on social media. One of the many uses free writing has is that I can identify those who may have a dyslexia need and alert the necessary people from the first week and get them assessed and / or supported. I can find out more about the students in my class on a more personal level and connect with them more quickly, I can also quickly find out any areas of personal need and highlight these students to youth workers for example. I can also use these quick writing tasks in other sessions and develop them into underpinning British Values, equality and diversity or to underpin speaking and listening tasks for example. The topics of the free writing are: Beauty industry - used mainly with female classes equality flat earth - underpins fake news / social media big giant swords - underpins ambition and following your dreams. being brave I have attached a short guideline of what to look for when assessing, however most teachers do assess in their own way so feel free to use in a way which suits you and your students. I hope it helps

A fantastic lesson full of group and paired activities to help students understand structural features. Based on the story of Jekyll and Hyde this lesson uses comic books / storyboards to help students visualise structural features as if the story were a movie. I have found that by teaching structure this visual way, the students find it easier to identify these features and therefore this question becomes less daunting. I have also incorporated a new mnemonic called ROW OF CLONES to help students remember some of the More commonly used structural features. The lesson uses peer assessment, whole group and paired activities, it is quick paced and fun to teach. Hope it helps

This is an entire lesson for AQA English Language (spec 8700) for Paper 2 Question 4 where the students must compare two sources. For this lesson I have used two modern sources as opposed to one modern, one older as it would be in the exam. The reason for this is highlighted in the lesson and is clear to the students what they will expect, however I have found that by using this method helps the students build confidence in tackling this overwhelming question and is a good way to build them towards comparing older sources. This lesson looks at the award speeches made by Leo DiCaprio and Kanye West, the lesson starts with a personal values starter and this idea of personal values continues throughout the rest of the lesson by looking into the values these two celebrities display in their speeches. There is room to develop the personal / British values concept if desired. The lesson has 2 videos, links to the you tube site is on both the worksheet and the power point. The activities are timed, short and allow for group discussion and discovery learning. The lesson ends with the students writing their findings in a structure which will suit the examiners needs and a short, self assessment plenary. The power point provides slides which can be printed and distributed as support / scaffolding materials for the weaker students if needed. Hope it helps

This is a mock / practice exam paper for the GCSE English Language from AQA (8700 spec). This is not an entire paper, it is a bitesized version which included some of the trickier questions that students tend to struggle with. I have used this with my students to help build confidence with some of the harder questions, track their progress on specific questions and to help get students used to exam conditions. As it is a shorter version of the exam it helps to cut down on a teachers marking load whilst also being a supportive tool for the students. This paper includes practice questions, with sample materials, for Paper 1 Question 3, Paper 2 Question 3, Paper 2 Question 4 and Paper 2 Question 5. I have also given it a more friendly look with some handy tips and advice along the way to help support the more needy or less confident in the group. Sample materials include extracts from The Help and Chocolat, A news article from 1873 and 2 speeches made by British PM's Churchill and Cameron. Hope it helps

This complete lesson comes with extracts from Bill Bryson and Engles, worksheets and supporting materials. The focus of this lesson is looking at the writers points of view on the city of Manchester in order to create answers for paper 2 question 4 ( comparative question) Bill Bryson talks about the city in 1995 and Engles talks about the city in 1844. This lesson has enough content to fill a 3 hour session and is designed to gradually build the students confidence into tackling this question and developing an exam styled answer using a PQI-C answer structure. It does this with lots of quick paced activities, team and paired activities, short class discussion and through developing ideas and analysis of the two texts. Hope it helps