This is a full , informal and fun lesson put together based around the novel, Lord of the Flies. The lesson warms up the students with background information to Lord of the flies which includes group activities and a video (Thug Notes has low level use of cuss words, although many are beeped. I used this resource with 16-19 yr olds and so was allowed, however many other summary videos are available) This lesson can be used as an informal mock exam to help prepare and track students progress or it can be adapted to be used in a formal setting for exam preparation under exam conditions. Lord of the Flies was chosen as it may be a text your students are familiar with and so helps to make this exam less daunting. Materials include 2 worksheets (including extract) with a varied question structure for all levels, a video and question 1 - 5 based on paper 1 of the AQA 8700 spec.

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

A fun and engaging lesson which can be used in the run up to Halloween, although it can work at any time of the year. I have used this lesson for presentations with both GCSE and Functional Skills lessons and students love it as it involves dressing up someone in their team as a mummy and creating a backstory for it. This is a relaxed take on presentations and I use it to introduce and help more under confident students become used to standing up and presenting in front of others, it embeds elements such as working within a team and introducing structure and planning to presentations. This lesson starts with a few fun critical thinking questions and develops to look at Egyptian Mummies and the curses which surround them, there are two videos and supporting ideas boards to help the lesson move forwards and maintain structure but also to help the students form and plan out ideas. This session will require materials for the students to use, this doesn't have to be much as I have often only used bundles of cheap toilet roll, sellotape and cheap make-up from the pound shop ( in many cases students will often find their own materials to add to their mummy). Over the years of using this lesson I have kept left over materials and added to them each year that now I have a small dress up box in my classroom which has all sorts in it, I also take photos of this sessions which are ideal for classroom displays. This lesson also encourages imagination which some students do struggle with and so I find that Question 5 from Paper 1 on the AQA 8700 GCSE spec is difficult for them. Sessions like this can be used to help develop that skill and recently I have added a piece of independent study in which the students must write up the backstory they created for their mummy up as a piece of creative writing in practice for P1:Q5. Hope it helps

This is a full, interactive, quick paced lesson which covers a lot of ground as this lesson has enough material to cover a 3 hour class, however it can easily be broken into 3 separate lessons if needs be as there is a lot of information in this session. The lesson warms up the students by using vocabulary building activities and by looking at Cirque Du Soleil to practice the skills needed for paper 2 question 3. The lesson then moves on to an older piece of writing covering the Great Exhibition in 1851, developing the skills needed for P2:Q3 but also preparing the students for a piece of 19th century writing. The last phase of the lesson then compares the Great Exhibition to a piece of writing covering the Millennium Dome Exhibition in 2000. The lesson is broken up with 3 videos, worksheets and has lots of room for interactive paired and group activities and also includes practice exam answer tasks which involve deeper thinking skills. Students support and learn from one another with peer assessment and a short self assessment plenary which encourages independent learning whilst slides and worksheets include starter sentences to support the weaker students. Hope it helps

Independent study resource to help students with identifying and using inference in their answers for paper 1 question 2. This resource uses extracts from The Hunger Games and Harry Potter, it helps students to break down the extract and to examine the language an author has used whilst also supporting students to use a structured answer format (point, quote, infer). 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

A handy bite sized assessment to help support and track students towards their paper 2 of the AQA GCSE English Language exam (spec 8700). This assessment tests students on paper 2 questions 3 and 4 by using comparable sources on festivals (Greenwich and Glastonbury). Rather than throw the students in cold to an assessment, this assessment is broken down and uses reinforcement of prior learning and paired work to help students prepare, discuss and scaffold (2 scaffold templates, one populated with examples, one not as to stretch and challenge your students) their answers before the final timed assessment.I find that by having these bite sized assessments at the end of each term helps to build up confidence and allows for tracking progress through out the year. It also helps to reduce your marking. Please note that these resources are designed to be modified by yourselves to support your students needs in whatever way you see fit. Also, the TES preview does at times distort the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection. 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 is a fun lesson designed to help engage the lower level students or students who are disengaged with GCSE English. The focus of this lesson is to use persuasive writing features within a review in order to help prepare students for paper 2 question 5 of the AQA English Language spec 8700 exam. This lesson uses 3 clips from the reality TV show "Worlds Worst Tenants" to develop ideas and opinions about the show to eventually be written up using DAFOREST. If you are having trouble with the video file (it is quite large but should work fine on a pen drive using VLC or windows player), I'm happy to send in an email it to you. The video contains bleeped language and use of mild curse words, however as I taught largely over 16 yr olds, this was not a problem, however you may ant to give it some consideration. Other resources include word banks, sentence starter support material and watch/obtain worksheets. There is room to expand on this lesson with basic punctuation and / or vocabulary building activities if needed. My students from GCSE and Construction Functional Skills loved this lesson. Hope it helps

A great lesson which uses a wide range of resource types and teaching strategies to help students prepare for Paper 1 Question 3, Structure. This lesson uses the trailer and extract from the movie/book Divergent by Veronica Roth to engage students and help them look deeper into ways stories are told in order to interest a reader. To help them do this, this lesson uses a helpful mnemonic of commonly used structural features -ROW OF CLONES and focuses on repetition, opening / endings and setting. This lesson is designed for a 3 hour session, it uses team and paired work, support grids and stretch and challenge inference class discussion. Quick 5/10/15 min activities keep the lesson at a good pace and allows for information to be delivered in bite sized chunks with a short self assessment plenary. Hope it helps

A full lesson with plenty of engaging and fun activities which helps the student prepare for Paper 1 Question 3 of AQA 8700 Spec for English Language. This lesson allows students to work in groups to discuss, plan, draw and film their own section from Graham Greene's "The Destructors". This lesson focuses on tension and danger created through sentence length and dialogue. This resource pack comes with a full power-point, script, support sheet and a video with enough material for a 3 hour session. Hope it helps.

This fantastic lesson looks at question 3 from paper 1 of the AQA English Language exam - spec 8700. Using the work of Stephen King "The Body" this lesson uses power-point, paired activities, video and activity sheets to focus on how authors use Openings and Endings to convey symbolic meanings, in this case - the end of childhood and innocence. The lesson comes with plenty of paired, timed activities to help support less able students and a discussion on inference to help stretch and challenge the more able in your class. I have also introduced a mnemonic for the more commonly used structural features called ROW OF CLONES to help students learn a range of techniques authors may use in their writing which my students found incredibly useful last year. The final aim of this lesson is for the student to be able to write a full Point, Quote, Infer answer to this exam question. This resource is adaptable, will fill and hour to hour and half lesson, engaging, quick paced and comes with fun starters and plenaries. Please keep in mind that this movie is a 15 certificate and using this resource for anyone under that age maybe worth some consideration. Mild language used in the extract, however as I taught in a college, this was fine to use. 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

A great lesson to help students get ready for Paper 1 Question 4 (critical thinking) from the AQA GCSE English Language exam, spec 8700. This lesson focuses on fast paced group activities and discussions based on an extract from 1984 where students actively investigate the use of the familiar and unfamiliar to create a unsettling atmosphere in the book. The session starts with a critical thinking question as a starter task and builds up to the main task through quick fire questions and a video to help students visualise and understand this world created by Orwell. The session builds towards a final written task which doubles as exam practice, allowing you to track how each individual handles this tricky question. This session allows for the opportunity to stretch and challenge your students but also comes with support structures and starter sentences to help those who need it and a peer marking plenary which allows the students to self assess and learn from each other. Hope it helps

This quick paced and engaging lesson is designed to get students ready for question 4, paper 1 from the AQA GCSE English Language 8700 spec. In this question students are to critically analyse a text. This lesson breaks down the question and best ways in to which to answer this tricky question by looking at Bram Stokers 'Dracula'. Dracula is a character who has been written about for decades in various ways. For this reason students can relate easily to this story and text and is the reason I have used it as the source in the lesson. This is a full 3 hour lesson filled a wide range of engaging and challenging tasks from small group discussions, story-boarding/drawing tasks to short, timed paired activities, peer marking and a self assessment plenary. This lesson comes with both support scaffolds and stretch and challenge opportunities. Hope it helps.

A fantastic and fun, time tested resource which never fails to work with my students. This lesson looks at iconoclastic ideas and conspiracy theories (The 1st Moon Landing was faked) in order to help develop the persuasive skills needed for Paper 2 Question 5 of the 8700 spec from AQA. This lesson allows the students to formulate their ideas and opinions whilst also taking them through important planning steps required for this question. The lesson includes lots of fun games, team and paired activities, a short video and plenty of platforms for students to offer their opinions, which many students love to do :) There are opportunities to both stretch and challenge whilst also offering supportive material where needed. This lesson is a 3 hour session with all worksheets included, however it could be taught in 2 separate sessions, depending on your session time. The lesson is structured into quick 5 / 10 min activities with a final 20 min persuasive writing task at the end, it involves both peer and summative assessments along with a fun starter based on a "sheep hat" designed to encourage creativity and a "daily diary" plenary. Hope it helps

This engaging resource fuses poetry and persuasive writing together in a stretch and challenge lesson based around the work of John Cooper Clarke. The idea for this lesson was born from Functional Skills and works well with a wide range of students from various disciplines (eg: Childcare, Music etc) and is easy to adapt to any level. This lesson allows students to have their own opinion and feel confident enough to build their opinion into a well formed piece of persuasive writing, which uses the skills the examiners are looking for. The lesson includes a full power-point with guidance notes, a video and article / worksheet. Tasks include a fun "free writing" starter, fun drawing task, break down of the exam question, team/paired and individual tasks, peer assessment and a self assessment plenary. The session will be lively, engaging and full of exploration and learning. Hope it helps

A quick a simple piece of independent study / homework or extension for paper 1 question 5 from the AQA new spec for GCSE English Language. This resource is styled on the type of question the exam may ask, it can be adapted for students of other cultures who may not know or celebrate Halloween, they can write about a festival in their culture. Hope it helps

This is a well paced, exciting lesson filled with fun and team games. Paper 1 Question 5 is worth a lot of marks and today the examiners expect students to use a wide range of sentence forms and language features to obtain those marks. Many students jump into this question as it looks deceptively easy and they will forget to PLAN for what the examiner wants to see. This lesson is a fun well paced lesson to help students to remember what to plan for in this question and therefore is great as an introduction to the question / topic. Using games and short activities, students will build up a bank of language features and sentences on the topic of Donald Trump over the course of the lesson to use in their final task. Feel free to amend to your students needs and levels. Please be advised that the preview sometimes distorts the look of the resource. Hope it helps