I have shared with you all of my best lessons I have developed over the last 11 years. I'm a Teacher of English with excellent achievement rates making me among the top 2% of the GCSE English team and a consistent strong grade 2 in observations. I have taught a wide range of English qualifications within FE including Functional Skills (English and Maths) and GCSE. I hope you find these resources as useful to your students as I have.
I have shared with you all of my best lessons I have developed over the last 11 years. I'm a Teacher of English with excellent achievement rates making me among the top 2% of the GCSE English team and a consistent strong grade 2 in observations. I have taught a wide range of English qualifications within FE including Functional Skills (English and Maths) and GCSE. I hope you find these resources as useful to your students as I have.
This is a L2 activity based around the idea of a bucket list. This activity has 3 parts to it which include creating a list, researching activity and a writing activity. This activity has been created in order to be flexible with your teaching style and can be used as an extension, homework or form the main part of your session. It can also be amended underpin a specific topic. Please keep in mind that TES previews can distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps
I have always used cheat sheets as a form of revision for my students sitting GCSE. It is essentially an extended version of an exam plan but not quite a mock exam, it’s some where in the middle. I love to use these because it promotes a sense of confidence for the students and it it a condensed version of EVERYTHING they need to know about each question of the exam. I explain it to them as an “exam blueprint”. This session is what I call a “meat and potato” type of lesson. No frills just does what it says on the tin and gives the students what they need. The session puts students into teams and takes them through a breakdown of each exam question and they copy these “cheats” onto a past exam paper. Along the way they try their hand at some of the questions, get examples of what makes a good answer and they have some independent study questions in their cheat sheet to try at home. They get to keep their “cheat sheet” for revision purposes. This has always worked and I have found that students have always got on board with this idea because they instantly see the benefit of it and it helps them feel more secure about sitting their exam. This session comes with a full powerpoint for paper 1 and student handouts with source material. Please keep in mind that TES preview can distort the look of resources but this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps
We all know that creating or finding new and interesting mock papers is time consuming and difficult. This is why I have created this complete mock exam for paper 1 of the AQA GCSE 8700 spec to help. I find that when presented with a mock paper many of my students, and probably yours too, switch off and become disengaged …which can lead to them not giving the mock their best effort. To help combat this the extract for this mock is taken from The Life of Pi, but the questions are still very much based on how they would be in the real exam, and is presented in a way so you can either print off the slide and run the full mock or cut the session into bite sized timed/ teacher led chunks. There are also some warm up activities to help get your class started and to get them interested in the text which you can use or disregard depending on the level of the class . These include a few small groups task starters and a selection of 2 videos, the trailer and a Thug Notes breakdown - you can choose which one best suits your needs / age of your students. Please keep in mind that Thug Notes does contain mild use of language and adult themes, it is also 10 mins long. The session is created for you to use in any way you wish to help your students achieve. Please be advised that Tes previews distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps
This is a short and sweet resource which can be used as a recap/workshop session or as a introduction session to implicit and explicit meaning. This session is fast paced, team based and leads into a creative writing final main task, although it is easy to adapt for your own needs. This session is based around a short video where the viewer must piece together the overall story from the imagery depicted. Students look for implicit and explicit meaning from this video and then create a piece of descriptive writing based from what they have concluded. This session comes with a quick starter from the outset, quick group activities, team and class discussions and a final individual task with a support starter structure to support the lower ability students. Please keep in mind that TES previews can distort the look of the preview and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps.
This is a small starter which can be tagged onto any lesson you wish which looks into how thoughts, feelings and behavior are interlinked. This quick activity uses CBT methods to help manage negative thoughts by asking the students to look at a situation from a different angle and analyse how this impacts our feelings and our actions.
This resource comes with a full a powerpoint and worksheet. It contains paired activities and a group discussion. This resource has been created to be adaptable, so please feel free to amend in a way which suits the style of your learners. Please keep in mind that the TES preview can sometimes distort the look of the material and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.
This is a unit I run as a part of a short course designed around job skills. The course is aimed at getting people back into work and developing confidence. I run this unit over two days, therefore I have added 2 ppt’s - feel free to adapt to accommodate your own cohort. I also have a workbook and worksheets. Hope it helps
This is a team / group based session designed to not only help students prepare for their L2 FS English writing exam but to also underpin some valuable life skills. There are 7 pages of activities which focus on tone and language when writing to complain, and underpins self awareness and self control. The resources are differentiated so both lower levels and higher achieving students can work together to achieve in this session. The session slowly builds to a final individual task which is to write a formal and tone appropriate letter of complaint, a task similar to one they may find in the exam and can be used as exam preparation or as an introduction to the topic. There are planning scaffolds and word banks to support students in their final writing task. This pack can be edited, broken up into sections and altered to suit you and your student needs. Please keep in mind that the TES preview does at times distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps
Great support/guidance booklet for those students who struggle with the PEE / PEA /PQI and structure. Many students particularly struggle with the explain / inference section of this structure. This fun booklet comes with word banks and starter sentences for those who find this structure a challenge. It also comes with examples of high level answers and developed PEE /PEA/PQI answers to stretch and challenge more able students. Great handout to give to students or have casually on their desks to allow them to freely access whenever they need to, promoting independence in their own learning. Feel free to use in which ever works best for you and your learners.
This resource is a mini practice of the L2 English reading Functional skills exam. Based around health and fitness and the role of influencers to promote lifestyle products. This resource is based on 1 text and features a selection of exam style questions and is a good way to help get students, especially anxious, students exam ready. Hope it helps
If you have hair students like mine, then they really hate English and only want to do anything related to hair then these resources may be helpful. I teach very short sessions (1 hour) to very low level and reluctant hair students who will disrupt any lesson to avoid doing the work. This session is designed to teach the basics of language features and to help the students learn the terminology. For this reason, DAFOREST has been shortened to DRAFTES. (Naturally, you can adapt the resource to cater to your own class needs)
The session includes rote teaching the terminology, a paired matching task and a identification task. The majority of the tasks and activities are hair related to help encourage engagement. Please be aware that the TES preview can at times distort the look of the resources and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps.
This is a full informal mock of paper 1 for the AQA GCSE English Language exam based on an extract from The Hobbit. It comes with a full powerpoint with warm ups and starters. This powerpoint can be printed off or converted to a more formal paper version of a mock if you wish to use it in that way. The starters include a group task, a look at the trailer and a look at a short you tube video called Thug Notes which break down the plot and some of the main themes. Be advised that Thug Notes does contain some adult themes and low level adult language. As I teach 16 + this is fine as a resource but if this is not the case for your class you can stick to the trailer or use an alternative. 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
Many students often struggle with the freedom to use their imagination, particularly under exam conditions. This resource was created for the AQA specification, Paper 1 Question 5 - create a short story based from an image. However this resource is diverse enough to be adapted to a wide range of exam boards and creative writing skills, from encouraging writing in low level Functional skills English students to developing language features in GCSE students. It uses paintings by Picasso and Frieda Kahlo. It is a team activity which allows for differentiation among levels and abilities by using a scaffold questions system. The activity is developed to allow the teacher freedom to build in specifically tailored skills they wish their students to learn. Encouraging students to use their imagination allows English to be fun and engaging whilst also developing their confidence in the subject, as with this activity there is no wrong answer.
As controlled assessments are a thing of the past now on the GCSE English Language course, I have a selection of bite sized assessments to be used through out the year as a means to track students progress on individual question from the exam. This is extremely useful for both student and teacher as it allows for continuous yearly exam practice and progress tracking on each exam question without the burden of marking full mock exams for large classes at a singular time. This assessment focus on a section of text from Warm Bodies for paper 1 question 4 (critical thinking). The lesson includes group tasks and a video to help warm your students up. It also comes with a helpful scaffold to allow students to form ideas to use as their assessment answers, this can be edited to suit the level of your class. Hope it helps.
A full lesson to introduce the concept of comparison of writers opinion for paper 2 question 4. This lesson uses modern celebrities and scandals, such as Marilyn Monroe and Johnny Depp and Amber Heards divorce to help students identify bias language with the larger aim of being able to compare two piece of writing based on the same topic. The lesson PowerPoint comes with guidance notes rather than a lesson plan and slides which can be used to either stretch and challenge strong students or support weaker ones. Resources include 2 videos and various worksheets to be used in group or paired work. The lesson is designed to be fun and engaging but also challenging as this question is often the one most students struggle or worry over the most. Hope you find it helpful.
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 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
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 resource is useful tool to encourage independent learning and self / group study. It can be used to reinforce learning, as a workshop or developed further in to a lead session or as homework tasks. As my sessions were quite long I found it useful to create small study groups in the classroom, using booklets to work through together, this was successful in creating confidence and independence among my students whilst also being supported and supervised. The resource uses an extract from The Kite Runner, has student reflections and self assessment tasks. The ultimate aim is for the student to be able to identify structural features and to formulate appropriate answers which will prepare them for the coming exam. Hope it helps.
I love trying to encourage a love of reading in my students. To help do this I created a book list, which takes from best sellers and books which were turned into modern classic movies . I distributed these lists freely around the classroom for students to look at or take home if they choose to. I offered it to both my GCSE and Functional Skills classes to great success and was commented upon as good practice within a recent Ofsted inspection.
The book list covers a wide range of styles, brings in topics such as equality and diversity and also covers a range of reading abilities.
Please take a look at my TES store for more engaging and fun resources which you may find useful for your sessions.
Many thanks and hope it helps.