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 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, fun lesson all centered around the theme of monsters in literature. The pack comes with the full lesson on powerpoint and 5 separate worksheets which include an extract from Frankenstein and an ideas board to help students who struggle to come up with ideas. This session focuses on the EDEXCEL exam, paper 1 question 5, it consolidates DAFOREST and POSHIMP acronyms for language features and introduces ROW of CLONES acronym for structural features. The session comes with a fun starter which can be achieved by all levels and progresses in difficulty, team activities, handouts and ideas boards are in place to help those who struggle. The final task is to improve on a piece of writing they completed earlier in the session. A task which is designed to show students their own progression through-out the session / in real time rather than waiting for feedback at the end or in the next session 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 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 5 page questions worksheet is based on the new book by Philomena Cunk -“Cunk on Everything”. Although this is a modern, comedic text, I often find that by using resources from current pop culture helps students to engage with English and helps learning or consolidation of learning take place , it also helps to give a light hearted and fun tone to your classroom however I mostly like to use resources such as these to help show students that what they learn in English is relevant and used in the everyday / real world and not just the classroom. This resource can be used with any exam board but I would suggest that some prior teaching on structural features take place first. The resource focuses primarily on the use of structural features within the extract and uses a range of questioning techniques which allows for differentiation of all levels and can be used in pairs / small groups or as an individual task. It ends with a final exam style question focusing on the structural question within the GCSE exam. You could use this resource as a part of the lesson, homework or as an extension. Please keep in mind that TES preview can distort 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 7 page booklet id designed to help students with the reading component of their Functional Skills exam. The booklet can be used as in class resources, revision or as self study. Based on a article by Friends of the Earth, the booklet focuses on simple and easy ways we can help become more green in our every day routines and underpins purpose of text and audience questions from the exam. The questions in the booklet are a combination of low level, opinion based and exam based questions. They range from multiple choice to more structured answers asking for reasons or quotes to support . The booklet ends with an extension activity which focuses on language and writing elements of the exam and a self assessment plenary. Please keep in mind that the TES preview can at times distort the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps.

Climate change is a hot topic of the moment and is engaging young people around the world to help start make a difference. To help support this and raise awareness in young people I have created this full lesson based around the subject of climate change and changes a everyday person can make. This pack is a complete lesson with enough material to fill a 3 hour session. It contains plenty of group and paired activities, 5 - 10 minute reading and discussion activities, video clips, an information pack which can be used for independent research for the final writing task based on paper 2 question 5 of the GCSE English language exam. It also underpins issues regarding climate change and also aims to raise awareness among young people by looking at the Nobel peace prize candidate Greta Thunberg, an amazing young lady who started the “School strike for climate change” protests at aged 15. There are various articles in which students look at language, sentence structure, language and tone and is best suited to classes who have already done work on language features. The resources are selected to include a range of levels and abilities and can be altered to suit your students needs and tasks not used in the session could be set as homework. This session can also double up to set presentations to help hit all the requirements of the GCSE spec. Please be aware that the TES preview can sometimes distort the look of the resources and is not always a true reflection. 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

This quick paced, vibrant session is designed to introduce students to the comparison question on the exam paper. I have geared it towards the AQA exam paper, but can be easily adapted to suit any exam board. To help students become more familiar with this question, this lesson uses the Manchester 2017 MEN bombings as its subject and underpins the message of unity, one love and tolerance. As this is an introduction, it only uses current day articles and resources to ease the students in to this tricky question. This resource contains enough material for a 3 hour session. You have a full powerpoint lesson with starters, paired / team / individual tasks, self assessment plenary, videos, articles, activities and a mini class discussion. The lesson gives a small break down of the exam question and a simple example of an answer to helps students become familiar with the answer structure. The session contains tasks which are achievable at a wide range of levels. When delivering this session, I often will invite youth workers to help support as it’s over arching message is one of tolerance and British values and not terrorism, therefore youth workers / support workers will be a valuable assist in this session and help give a more holistic approach to your students education. This is something both my department heads and Ofsted have commented positively on in the past. Please keep in mind that the TES preview does at times distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. I hope this session 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 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 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.