This is a mini workshop session which focuses on how to use sentence structures for effect for the creative writing section of paper 1 of the WJEC GCSE English exam. This lesson is designed for revision sessions as the exam draws close but can be developed further or used with another exam board. This session uses Donald Trump for inspiration in how to use interesting sentences to describe. It also recaps high and low level language features. It is a fast paced session with paired activities and a main writing task taken from a practice paper. It ends with a self assessment plenary. Be advised that the TES preview does distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps

Having taught English over the last 10 years I have witnessed an increase in pressure put on students to achieve grade C’s and above - now grade 4’s and above. I have also witnessed how this pressure makes lower performing students give up in English, leading to poor attendance and behavior . Other students, who try their best, being made to feel stupid or “thick” (as they put it) because they never seem able to do what is increasingly expected of them. Therefore this is a lesson designed to be inspirational and encouraging, which makes it ideal for the start of the academic year and trying to start your students off on a positive mind set in English. It crosses over into something of a tutorial and is a good way to start off the creative writing unit as the final task is geared towards that particular question in the exam. If you are doing regular target setting and target reviews with your students, it is also a great session to begin that process with and allows you to have a starting point from which you can track. This session encourages students to measure their ideals against their actuals. Which is to look at what it is you want to achieve in the future (grades 4 - 9) but measuring the progress against what you did last week / last term etc and visibly seeing the improvements and progress being made. The idea is to encourage a positive feeling towards English and to develop a healthy approach to achievement and what achievement means. It can be used with any exam board as the creative writing task is across all boards. This lesson comes with a full powerpoint - slides of which can be printed and used as worksheets - and a video which ideally needs to be watched from roughly 3 mins in and ended at about 5 mins in ( exact times can be found in the notes section of the PP) If you don’t want to use the video, the point it makes is reinforced by a group task and so you can use either /or - or both. It is full of group and individual activities which can be done without a world of resources at your finger tips - ideal if you multi site in your job. Please note that TES previews can distort the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps

This resource is a 8 page resource, with trailer, filled with tasks based around discrimination and Harvey Milk - the LGBT activist. The aim of this resource is for you to use, build a lesson around or embed in anyway you see fit based on your classes and your style of teaching. You can use all or some of the resource available based on your needs. The main aims of the resource are: To list three facts about the life of Harvey Milk Discuss different kinds of discrimination and rights. Discuss the effects of discrimination on an individual. This resource is aimed at both lower and higher ability students with scaffolds and different tasks such as comprehension, research task, discussion and summary writing. The discussion task is based on the famous experiment ran by Jane Elliot in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King and comes with teacher notes on how to run the discussion. This is a great resource to use during observations or Ofsted visits, LGBT awareness month or the run up to Pride weekends. It is also a good session to invite youth/support workers along to as they can offer support, advice or help facilitate and add an extra dimension to the session. Please note that TES preview can at time distort the look of a resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.

This is a fun, fast paced, team based session which comes with a full powerpoint lesson from start to finish, 3 worksheets and 2 videos. This session covers the main language features which the students will need to know for this exam (DAFOREST / POSHIMP) and addresses not just the terminology but the purpose and job the language features perform. The main aim of the session is geared towards Paper1 Question 5. I use this lesson as an introductory session to language features for my students and build on these key skills as the term moves on. There is enough material to cover a 3 hour session in tis pack. As inspiration we look at an unusual character from the TV show ‘Big Giant Swords’ and use this person to inspire creative writing from the students. Please be aware that TES previews can distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.

I have decided to share his resource because it was a great success with my students and managers, who turned from a personal resource to a departmental resource. This came about because I decided to try and encourage my students to read more, as they don’t read anything that isn’t on Facebook or Snapchat, by creating this 28 page booklet filled with extracts from Literature to give to them at the start of the year. This worked very well as the extracts are all at different lengths and difficulty and also features extracts from modern literature such as Harry Potter and older texts such as Wuthering Heights. I found that this helped my students become more familiar with the texts they may get in the live exam, therefore preparing them from day 1. This is a great resource to have on the students tables or around the classroom for the students to look at at their leisure or to refer to in your classes, which is something both Ofsted and my department managers praised. I also gave a few copies to have in the college library which helped to extend the English / GCSE section and helped to engage a wider college interest in supporting English. From a teachers point of view, this booklet is very useful for helping you cut down on your planning time as you have a bank of sources which you can use either as the core of your session or as an extension, starter or homework tasks. This booklet was also extremely helpful for revision purposes and drop in workshops as we got closer to the big day. The booklet contains extracts from many works of fiction which have been turned into movies or TV shows to help engage your class. Extracts include The Hunger Games, The Help, The Handmaids Tale, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984. It also has older texts such as Frankenstein, an extract from the original manuscript by Solomon Northup which inspired the movie “12 Years a Slave”. Many of the extracts can be used to embed other topics such as equality / diversity / race and bullying in to your sessions whilst also underpinning British Values. Extracts range from 2-3 pages in length to short paragraphs and script format to help you both stretch and challenge but also support the weaker students and build confidence. I hope you find this as useful as I did. Please keep in mind that TES previews can at times distort the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection, which is why I have included some screenshots to help you get an idea of what this booklet contains. Hope it helps.

This is a fun quick paced lesson designed to introduce paper 2 from EDEXCEL to your students. We look at the idea of creating a bucket list and focus on the use of language/structure and introduce counter arguments to help when answering question 8/9. There are lots of group activities in where they think and create their own bucket list, breakdown an article, work on counter arguments and eventually create their own persuasive article, encouraging reader to create and actually do their own bucket list. This session comes with the whole lesson on powerpoint, starter worksheets and 4 core lesson worksheets. Please keep in mind that the TES preview does distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.

This session can be used as a mock exam or as a progress assessment on Edexcels Paper 1. It comes with a full powerpoint in which each of the reading questions is answered and explained alongside a peer marking activity. It is designed to be student centered and supportive rather than frightening and off putting- as we know students do not always like mock exams. There is a 4 page helpful handout to support students with the questions and a paper copy of the assessment. Starters include a paired activity recapping / giving a summary of the exam paper and a break down of each question along with a short clip from the movie. I have engineered this session to be completed individually but it can also be used as a team / workshop session in where students work together through each question and help each other learn. Please keep in mind that TES previews can distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. 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 session explores structural features for paper 1 , question 4 of the EDEXCEL GCSE English exam by looking at an extract of Margret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale. This lesson is quick paced, engaging and exciting which explores human rights and human rights violations. This lesson helps to expose students to events that have and are taking place around the globe and to encourage awareness and tolerance, therefore embedding equality and diversity but also British Values. This is a great lesson to invite youth workers to attend and help support activities and group discussions as they can bring another dimension to this topic, therefore encouraging cross school or college participation in English and encouraging a holistic approach to education. Students work in groups and pairs to break down and examine the extract, they explore ideas of culture and individuality whilst also looking at the ways the Margret Atwood uses structural features to communicate atmosphere and repression to her audience. The lesson ends with a practice question, peer marking and a small self assessment plenary. The lesson comes with the full extract, powerpoint of the entire lesson, worksheets and two videos, one exploring human rights and the other is the trailer for The Handmaids Tale. I used to teach in a college where lessons came in 3 hour blocks therefore there is enough material for 3 hours in this resource, but it can be altered into smaller sessions depending on your timetable. Please note that TES previews an at times distort the look of the resource but this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.

This is a quick paced and fun filled session with team games and activities. The main focus is on using language to persuade but underpins widening vocabulary and descriptive use. This session comes with the full lesson from start to finish on powerpoint and a 6 page worksheet pack. The lesson starts with fun team games such as Stop the Bus and Guess the Animal ( need to supply your own list of animals). The lesson the steers towards looking at endangered animals and looks at what we can do to help in our everyday lives. This session does assume that students are aware of DAFOREST and POSHIMP language features and leads towards the final task which is geared wards paper 2 questions 3 and 5 of the exam paper. There is enough material to fill a 3 hour session in this pack. Please note that the TES preview does distort the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps.

This is a quick paced lesson which breaks down question 4 from paper 1 of the Edexcel paper and examines an extract from George Orwells, 1984. It works on the idea that the students are familiar with language and structural features. This session comes with a support scaffold, the whole lesson on powerpoint, the trailer to the movie and the extract and helps the students to break down the question and understand what is being asked of them, as this question is traditionally the tricky question and can confuse students as to how to best answer it. The sessions ends with an example question as it would appear in the exam, an example answer and gives the students an opportunity to piece an answer together themselves. Please keep in mind that TES preview often distorts the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps.

This poster is a really helpful resource to have in your classroom or out on students tables during sessions to help them to remember and use high level language features in their work. The poster breaks down the acronym POSHIMP and uses Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones as a visual memory aid to help reinforce. This is in the format of powerpoint and so is easy to swap / alter or use in other powerpoints. Please keep in mind that the preview can distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps

I know from experience with my own students that the more practice you do from a wide range of different texts, the more prepared you will be for the live exam. It is at this stage in the academic year that practice becomes very important and knowing your exam paper - the type of questions and layout of the paper - is vital to achieving the grades you want for your students. A diverse collection of interesting and engaging practice papers is difficult to come by as the 8700 spec is still relatively new. Therefore I have authored my own practice papers to use with my own classes, all with questions based from both the AQA exam papers. The sources for these mock papers include extracts from The Colour Purple, Harry Potter and Hunger Games. Paper 2 mocks include documents on the topics of Child Labour, disasters and celebrity culture. This bundle contains: Paper 1 mock x 3 Paper 2 mock x 3 All source materials A bite sized mock with focuses on a selection of the more tricky questions from both papers. That is 7 papers all together, which averages as £1.40 per paper. Please be advised that the TES preview can distort the look of the material so please keep in mind that this is not always a true reflection of the resource. Hope it helps.

This is a fast paced lesson which delves into the diary of Anne Frank to help students practice for AQA’s paper 2 Question 3. This session is student focused and allows students to work together and find their own conclusions to the answer " How does Anne Frank use language to describe her experience of living in hiding?". This session encourages students to share their ideas and talk about their findings in order to help self learn and learn from each other rather than getting all their knowledge from the teacher with plenty of group and pair activities, peer marking and a self assessment / reflective plenary. This session differentiates between all levels whilst also allowing room to stretch and challenge with activities which promote insight and inference. We break down the exam question and the skills the exam wants from the students, the lesson then looks into the background of Anne Frank, which is an ideal opportunity to embed some British Values regarding tolerance and freedom of religion if so desired. We then start to breakdown her diary extract, focus on language and how to use the extract to answer the exam question. The session gives an example answer with a breakdown of what the examiner is looking for and what makes the answer a top band answer and what doesn’t. There is enough material to fill a 3 hour session, the lesson in full on powerpoint and 6 worksheets. Please be aware that TES preview doesn’t always give a true reflection of what the session contains and can distort the look of the session. For this reason I have included some screen shots to help give you a better view. Hope it helps

This session is fast paced and covers a lot of ground. I have used it in both level 2 functional English and as a starter lesson in GCSE English Language in the first month of the new academic year. As many students I have taught within FE are resistant to English, lessons which encourage the demonstration of opinions, encourage critical thinking and group / pair activities are extremely helpful in engaging students with English early on. This session looks at male dancers such as Sergei Polunin and the recent comments made by an American presenter about Prince George taking ballet at school. We use this example to cover wider topics such as prejudice, tolerance and encourage discussions which allow students to look at the issue from a different angle, but also to look at subject specific topics such as writers point of views, language features. The resource comes with the full lesson, with starters, discussion, main activity and peer assessment plenary, on powerpoint, with hyperlinks to various online videos / articles and 7 pages of worksheets and support material. There is enough material to cover a 3 hour session and so can be altered to suit whatever length sessions you may have. Please keep in mind that the TES preview does sometimes alter the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps

It has been 200 years since the birth of Emily Bronte and her novel Wuthering Heights has just as much to offer now as it did then. This session is designed to look at Wuthering Heights with 21st century eyes and introduce a new generation to this story. This session is an engaging, fast paced and fun session with plenty of student lead activities to help the them come to their own conclusions and to share those conclusions with others. This is a jam packed lesson with scaffolded / differentiated questions to help students access this 19th century text at all levels. The session comes with paired and groups activities ranging from read and obtain tasks, read and infer tasks, group discussions and opportunities for students to express their own opinions. This session focuses on paper 1 question 2 and ends with the question “How does Emily Bronte use language to suggest that Heathcliff is perhaps Mr Earnshaw’s illegitimate mixed race son?” - a question which is inclusive, can bring about further discussion and touches upon British Values, something that I was praised for in an recent observation of this session. Much of this session works hard to build on students inference skills, which is key to this exam. Many tasks have both simple questions and deeper, more thought provoking questions, therefore embedding this skill in to almost every task in the session. This session comes with a full powerpoint over 10 worksheets which can be used and adapted in whichever way you need, handouts with tips, hand outs with answer break downs, discussion prompts and a run down of a list of characters and plot summary and the trailer for the 2011 movie. There is enough material to span 3 hours or more, therefore allowing you as the teacher to adapt to your own timetable and students abilities. Many of the slides can also be used as handouts - such as the starter slide which comes with a word search. Please keep in mind that TES previews can often distort the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection of the materials. Hope it helps.

This session uses an extract from The Witcher and is designed to be a fast paced, Fun and engaging, group based session which allows the learners room for self discovery and peer support in order to practice using the skills they have been taught through out the year. This is largely a recap session on Language and Structural features (I have used DAFOREST, POSHIMP and ROW of CLONES but these can be adapted) they have been taught and to prepare them as the exam dates grow close. Designed for paper 1 question 3 of the edexcel exam board but can be adapted to be used with other exam boards. The focus of this session is on the learners to lead the lesson rather than the teacher to feed knowledge and is great as a recap/ exam prep or workshop lesson. Slides from the presentation can be printed and used as handouts or worksheets, are designed to be used with an IWB with room for annotations during group discussions and feedback tasks and come with comments to help delivery. Please keep in mind that the TES preview can distort the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps.

This is a full GCSE English session which has enough materials to cover 3 hours. This session covers the critical thinking question of the English exam and is adaptable to any exam board. This session slowly builds and presents a scaffold towards to this difficult question through a series of team and paired activities and group discussions which underpin and practice P.E.E answers and writing to describe. There is room for students to learn at a even pace and tasks are structured to stretch and challenge higher achieving students. This session comes with 3 video clips and the extract. You can break this session into 2 sessions or adapt to whatever exam board you are teaching on. Please keep in mind that the TES preview often distorts the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps.

This resource is excellent for revision, workshop or homework sessions. In current times, it can also be useful for remote / online sessions. This session breakdowns question 4 of paper 1 in a way that both supports the low ability and stretches the more able students. It is designed to calls on each student to actively use their developed knowledge and prior learning to successfully engage with the session. This session is designed with a variety of short build up tasks, larger revision and recall tasks which lead up to the final analytical, examination writing task. The powerpoint is open and adaptable to be used in whichever was works for you. You can add in timed or paired activities if you plan of delivering this session or you can leave it to be used by the student as homework. Please keep in mind that the TES preview does at time distort the look of the resource and tis is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps.