A fantastic bite sized assessment for paper 1 question 3 from the AQA GCSE English Language. This lesson allows for the student to take ownership over their own learning with lots of group work and discussions which are facilitated but not lead by the teacher. The lesson is designed to take all students at all levels through the assessment step by step, allowing students to support one another and to build the confidence to come to their own conclusions and answers. The lesson ends with a quick timed bite sized assessment, which is similar in look and feel to the exam question which allows the teacher to track each students progress on each individual exam question. 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 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

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

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 resource is an entire lesson with enough material to fill up a 3 hour session or 2 smaller sessions. The session aim to help students practice their skills for paper 2 question 4, the comparison between a modern and older text on the same theme / topic. The topic of this session is immigration and looks at the immigration of Irish people to America and modern day Syrian refugees and underpins the idea of equality and compassion. Comparison materials are a letter written in 1884 and a poem written in 2017. I have found that in a world of fake news, memes and multicultural classrooms that students are very interested in these topics as they are often unsure of today's world and it's politics. This is a lesson which is designed to let the students do most of the thinking and analysing and is a perfect session to deliver as exam dates become nearer and they need to become more independent in delivering answers and insight. There are plenty of short timed paired and team activities which build up students knowledge and insight and ends with a chance to deliver a exam style answer and a short self assessment. Worksheets come with support material to help those who struggle and open questions to push those who are more capable. Please keep in mind that at times the TES preview somehow distorts slides and worksheets and that is not reflective of how the resource will look when downloaded. Hope it helps.

This resource is an 8 page group of worksheets which can be used to design your own lesson around depending on which exam board you are working with in GCSE English. Using the prologue from the 1st book of George RR Martins series, this resource looks at language and structural features. It comes with worksheets for a range of levels, starting simple with read and obtain questions, working our way up to inference, language analysis and strong example answers with stretch and challenge tasks. The resources are designed so you can develop a teacher led lesson around them or set self study or independent learning seminar sessions with teacher acting as support or facilitator as the worksheets allow for paired or team interaction between the students. There is enough material for a 3 or more hour session, which can be broken into 2 or more sessions depending on your timetable. Hope it helps.

This lesson is focused around one of the, arguably, harder questions from paper 1 of the AQA exam - question 4. This lesson is quick paced, supportive and full of student focused activities. This lesson focuses around students formulating their own opinions and thoughts on the characters, Robbie and Cecilia from the book Atonement. Many tasks are designed to provoke deeper, independent thought from students with plenty of group and paired activities so students can discuss and share ideas, promoting critical thinking and independent learning skills. Tasks come with word banks and starter sentences for those who struggle to get started yet they can also be used to push the more able in your class to formulate deeper and more insightful answers and ideas . This lesson come with a full lesson powerpoint with enough material to fill a 3 hour lesson, extract and trailer for the movie, 3 worksheets and a support scaffold which can be distributed in class to support students. The session ends with a quick peers assessment task. Hope it helps.

One of the ways I try to bring English to life for my students is to show them how versatile English is by embedding it into a wide range of topics. I like to choose topics which will engage or strike a cord with my students. One of my sessions which has done this is this one, which looks at the ever increasing problem in the UK, the illegal trade in primates. This lesson is designed for those classes which are " slow burners" with the aim of slowly introducing a topic and building towards the practice exam question. Although Q3 from Paper 2 is based on a period piece of text, this lesson uses a modern text to help first develop the skills in learning, identifying and analysing language features before moving onto older / tricker texts, as in my experience…an older text tends to throw students and will lower their confidence or willingness to engage. The trick here is to show students that there is no difference in the skill used, just a difference in the text provided. This is a complete lesson with enough interesting and engaging material for a 3 hour session. It comes with a power point full of group /paired / individual tasks and starter and self / peers assessment activities. Also included are 2 worksheets and 3 short video clips. This lesson hopefully will build your students confidence in tackling this question, despite the era the text may come from. The theme of this lesson goes down well with students as it is based around the UK pet trade in small monkeys and is designed to help raise cultural awareness and British Values in animal welfare within young people. Due to this, this lesson can be expanded upon if needs be to include a group debate or discussion to hit the criteria of the speaking and listening element of the spec. Please be aware that the TES preview distorts the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection, hope it helps

This is a simple read and obtain worksheet based around an article talking about celebrity. It is a resource which allows room for development into areas such as bias, inference and debate. It is designed for students who struggle more than most and I found it works well with speakers of second language. Please keep in mind that TES previews can often distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps

This is a short lesson to help students understand inference. I especially find that this lesson is useful with second language learners or lower level learners. This short lesson break down the concept of inference and shows how it can be used in various forms, such as speech, images and in fiction. The final task is to take an image of a wrecked house and “sell” the property in writing as an estate agent would, using language to mislead and infer. This can be used with any exam board and with L2 Functional Skill learners. Hope it helps

This is a 5 page resource perfect for Functional Skills students or lower level students. This resource starts with a formal letter and works it way to informal messages sent on Facebook. It touches upon impressions made by poorly written messages. For higher level students this could be used as homework, and extension activity or as a starter or discussion about impressions made via social media. Please be aware that TES preview often distorts the resources and this is not a true reflection of how it looks. Hope it helps.

This is a complete mock exam for paper 1 of the 8700 spec for AQA English Language. The paper focuses on Animal Farm by George Orwell. This resource is designed for you to use in any capacity you feel necessary. It can be used as a formal timed assessment in class or you can take a more informal road and use it as a workshop or as a lesson. The resource comes with a paper mock, powerpoint with a quick warm up / starter and a video from Thug Notes. Be advised that Thug Notes does contain some low level language and some bleeped out words, so you may want to omit this from the lesson if you are teaching younger students or replace it. As I work with 16 + students and adults, Thug Notes is more acceptable . The TES preview can at times distort the look of the resource so please be aware that this is not a true reflection of the product. Hope it helps.

This is a complete mock exam for paper 1 of the AQA GCSE 8700 spec. The extract is taken from Harry Potter and the lesson comes with a small starter / warm up session. The session is created for you to use in any way you wish. You may want to sit a formal practice in which there is a word document of the mock paper or have a more informal approach to the lesson in which there is a powerpoint for you to use and adjust to suit your needs. Hope it helps

This work pack is designed for Functional skills and covers areas such as reading for information, summary writing and speaking & listening. The lesson is designed around the murder of Sophie Lancaster, who was killed for the way she dressed. This lesson touches upon issues such as equality, prejudice and British Values . Feel free to tinker with to suit the needs of your students. Please be aware that TES previews can at times distort the look of the resource and this is not true reflection. Hope it helps

This is short and fun lesson based around the theme of music festivals. The aim of this lesson is to introduce students to the idea of writing to persuade and the mnemonic DAFOREST for writing techniques. Students have activities such as reading for information, writing to persuade and the chance to design their own music festival. TES previews often distorts the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps

This is a simple activity which can be used to encourage students to proofread. It can be used with students of all levels, GCSE or Functional Skills, as it can be used as a starter, plenary, homework or as an extension activity. Please be advised that TES previews can often distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps