Thank you for visiting my shop. My aim is to provide high quality teaching resources that reduce the
need for hours of planning and help learners to achieve their potential in English and English Literature.
Please feel free to email me at sdenglish18@gmail.com with any queries, requests or comments.
Thank you for visiting my shop. My aim is to provide high quality teaching resources that reduce the
need for hours of planning and help learners to achieve their potential in English and English Literature.
Please feel free to email me at sdenglish18@gmail.com with any queries, requests or comments.
A 527-slide PowerPoint bundle that provides the full text of Macbeth’, translated and annotated. The PPTs use layered text boxes with translations appearing first in blue, followed by analysis and critical commentary in different colours. The annotations include:
AO3 detailed contextual background information and its relationship with the text (e.g. features of Greek tragedy, biblical allusions, cultural expectations of women, fear of witches etc.)
Analysis of writer’s methods
Analysis of effects of structural devices
There are a series of comprehension and analysis activities to work through and the PPTs will indicate when these should be undertaken.
With the appropriate school licence, this bundle could be uploaded onto a network and accessed by students for revision.
A 12-slide powerpoint that guides an exploration of ‘Kamikaze’ by Beatrice Garland in the AQA P&C anthology.
After thinking about the meaning of the word ‘Kamikaze’, learners explore the historical context of the poem using a context notes sheet and accompanying worksheet. Learners explore the poem using a range of questions for each stanza. This could be done in pairs, groups or individually.
The exploration of the poem is followed by a GCSE-style question that encourages learners to think about how ‘Kamikaze’ compares with ‘Remains’ in terms of the impact of conflict. There is a comparison table for learners to fill in (teacher answers provided) and then learners undertake the question. The lesson concludes with peer assessment using a mark scheme with indicative content for each lesson.
The whole session should take approximately 2 hours.
The lesson is aimed at middle-upper ability learners.
If you choose to purchase this resource, please also ensure that you also download my free Power and Conflict Mark Scheme that is based on the AQA original:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/power-and-conflict-mark-scheme-11931715
A lesson that follows on from this introduction to speech writing for KS3:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/an-introduction-to-speech-writing-for-ks3-12049010
This is a speech-writing lesson based on the issue of gender equality. It includes:
Starter - learners say to what extent they agree with a series of statements relating to men and women.
Feedback slide
Key Facts about Gender Equality sheet
Links to Emma Watson’s HeForShe speech
Planning sheet task
Sample GCSE question (AQA-style)
Writing time
Peer assessment and review
This lesson is aimed at lower-middle ability learners and should take about two hours.
**UPDATE: WAGOLL now included and Slide 9 question corrected. **
This assessment tracker uses the 2024 grade boundaries for AQA 8702 Paper 1 and 2 (English Literature).
It will generate a grade for individual sections, each paper and the overall course.
Please email me using the address on my store front if you would like any adjustments made to your tracker, e.g. additional columns.
Please do not send any pupil data when requesting adjustments.
A lesson on Browning's 'My Last Duchess' aimed at lower ability learners. It includes:
Do Now Task: Learners read four context-related questions and say to what extent they agree and why.
Feedback slide
A conxtext sheet with accompanying true or false activity (answers included)
A summary of the poem + storyboarding activity
Link to YouTube video of the poem being performed
The poem broken down into eleven slides with suggested translation and annotations
Comparison with Ozymandias table to complete
Learning Review
A 46-slide PowerPoint that provides a short course in narrative and descriptive writing for GCSE. It is aimed at middle-ability KS4 and is oriented towards AQA English Language 8700, Paper 1, Question 5.
The PowerPoint covers:
The writing AO’s, unpacked and turned into 7 ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions
The structures of 8700 Papers 1 & 2
The difference between narrative and descriptive writing
Descriptive techniques organised into the acronym MRS VAN SOAPS
Descriptive writing success criteria
Sample descriptive writing tasks (students choose 1 of 2)
A teacher-written response (presented as an extract from a full response)
Peer assessment
Short story structure (Freytag’s Pyramid)
Exploring Freytag’s Pyramid in relation to ‘A Christmas Carol’
Sample narrative writing tasks with planning activity
Narrative writing success criteria
Showing and telling in fiction
4 showing tasks with sample responses
DIRT tasks
Narrative choice: 1st or 3rd person with picture prompt activity
Self-assessment
Final writing tasks (descriptive or narrative)
Peer assessment
Reflection opportunity.
This resource incorporates others that have previously been on sale in my shop, either in their current form or slightly tweaked. If you already have these but wish to purchase this unit of work, please contact me at and we’ll try to work something out.
Resources also sold separately:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/descriptive-writing-techniques-match-up-activity-11749389
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/descriptive-writing-techniques-summary-mat-11747011
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/short-story-planning-flow-chart-11747165
These files were last saved in Office 2016.
This is a ‘crash course’ in Act Five aimed at lower ability learners who need to get through the text quite quickly. It includes:
An overview of Act 5 (see cover image) with tasks.
Scene summaries for Scenes 1, 5 and 8.
A storyboard for learners to fill in for Scenes 1 and 8. On a basic level, they can use the scene summaries to create captions for each scene, although you can increase the challenge by removing the quotations as well.
An activity which encourages learners to contrast the presentation of Lady Macbeth in Acts 1-3 with the sleepwalking scene.
A focus on Macbeth’s ‘Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow’ speech. Learners number the images according to when they appear in the speech.
These resources were created for low-ability learners who only had a limited amount of time in which to approach Act 5. However, you could use these as starters or revision tasks for more able learners.
This lesson on ‘The Emigree’ is aimed at lower ability learners and includes:
Do Now Task: Learners reflect on a range of scenarios which encourage them to think about how they would react if they were living under a totalitarian regime.
Feedback slide
Context sheet that focuses on Rumens’ interest in the poetry of Anna Akhmatova and Osip Mandelstam
Quotation Hunt
Focus on Imagery worksheet
Feedback slides
Learners then reflect on the presentation of power and conflict in the poem, with worksheet
Comparison with Blake’s ‘London’ Venn diagram activity in terms of the presentation of place
Feedback slide
Review Learning
A two-page guide to writing a discursive essay. The topics covered are:
The purpose and content of the introduction
The role of topic sentences
Different forms of evidence
Concluding sentences
The use of counterargument
The content and purpose of the conclusion
This revision sheet is suitable for upper-ability learners at GCSE.
A ready-to-go lesson on ‘Remains’ in the P&C Anthology. It is aimed at low ability learners whose primary goal is understanding the poem.
The lesson includes:
A starter that encourages learners to think about PTSD and how they might advise someone who is showing symptoms of PTSD
Feedback slide
What is trauma? What events could be considered traumatic? Discuss in pairs.
Feedback slide with link to YouTube video
A storyboarding activity in which learners read the poem and then label the nine scenes with quotations from the poem. This comes with two additional challenge tasks.
A straightforward comparison table with ‘Poppies’, by Jane Weir, on the subject of internal conflict.
Review.
A free lesson on ‘Poppies’ can be found here:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/poppies-for-lower-ability-12073600
You may wish to undertake this lesson before moving onto ‘Remains’.
A PPT that enables an exploration of Blake’s ‘London’. It is aimed at lower ability learners whose primary focus is understanding with some analysis of language and contextual ideas.
The starter/Do Now task is a multiple-choice, general knowledge quiz about London as a city.
Learners then read a context sheet for the poem and respond to the associated tasks.
They then read a translation of the poem and annotate their copies in their anthology. Suggested annotations included.
After this, they compare ‘London’ with ‘Tissue’ in terms of the presentation of human power.
The PPT concludes with a learning review.
Estimated time required: 1.5 hours.
Following on from this introduction to speech writing…
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/an-introduction-to-speech-writing-for-ks3-12049010
This is a speech-writing lesson based on the issue of social media. It includes:
Starter/Do Now task - learners examine a range of images and suggest what they all have in common (the answer is they represent the dangers of social media in some way)
Feedback slide
Social media dangers true or false with teacher answers.
Feedback slide
Paired discussion: is social media good for our society?
Key points in the social media debate with mind-mapping activity
Sample GCSE question (AQA style) with speech planning sheet task
Writing time
Peer assessment and review
This lesson is aimed at lower-middle ability learners and should take about two hours.
Information/statistics correct as of 30/3/19
This is a newly differentiated version of this resource:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/macbeth-annotated-act-two-11875453
This lower ability version contains:
The full text of Act 2, translated (same as original)
Scene summaries for Scenes 1-4
Scene 2 (the immediate aftermath) full text with corresponding questions
5 Worksheets to be carried out alongside the reading of Act 2.
This unit contains fewer resources than the corresponding unit for Act 1, but this reflected in the price. It was created with the issue of time pressure in mind.
The sixth in the KS3 Basic Literacy Series. It includes:
A starter based on the homophones there, their and they’re, effectively revising the material covered in the previous lesson.
What is an inference + several examples
A series of photos as a basis for whole class discussion on the inferences that can be made from different visual cues.
A worksheet: read ten short extracts and make inferences from them, with extension task
Review
This lesson can stand alone but it assumes some pre-teaching of there, their and they’re.
Aimed at middle-upper ability GCSE groups, this PowerPoint teaches the layout and language of a formal letter. It is oriented towards AQA 8700/2/Question 5 but could be adapted for other boards.
In order, the PowerPoint contents are:
A multiple-choice entry task
AQA advice on features of format
A sample AQA-style question. Students identify PAF and reflect on the importance of being mindful of PAF in relation to Question 5. Extension task included.
The layout of a formal letter, which students copy. Extension questions included.
Notes regarding the formal greeting and formal sign-off
A re-cap on the features of formal and informal language. Students cut the features out, organise them under two headings and stick them into their books.
An example response to the given question. Students read and identify different features (differentiated)
An opportunity for independent writing, with success criteria provided.
Peer assessment and self-reflection.
These files were last saved in Office 2010.
An extended lesson that follows on from this introduction to speech writing for KS3:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/an-introduction-to-speech-writing-for-ks3-12049010
This lesson can stand alone but assumes some pre-teaching of AFOREST.
A starter tasks invites learners to examine a range of images relating to plastic waste (see cover image).
They then examine a list of keywords and attempt to match them to the correct definition. This is accompanied by a challenge task for more able learners, in which learners attempt to make connections between the keywords. The answers to the definitions tasks are provided.
After this, learners discuss in pairs whether there is a need to ban plastics in the UK. A YouTube video link on the ‘plastic problem’ is also provided but optional.
Learners then read the arguments for and against a plastic ban and transform these onto a summary sheet of six boxes. The aim is for each box to contain one point, one relevant image and one piece of evidence.
They go on to thinking about how they could apply their knowledge of AFOREST to this debate.
There is a sample GCSE question (AQA style) with a WAGOLL for annotation according to 5 success criteria.
Learners then write their own speech in relation to the plastics debate.
The lesson ends with learners peer assessing each other’s work.
The material is aimed at middle-ability KS3 but could be used with KS4 with some tailoring.
These resources were created for lower ability KS4 groups looking to study ‘Macbeth’ over the course of around five weeks.
For each act, there is a PPT with the full text translated into modern English. There is also a range of worksheets to develop understanding.
Act One also contains simplified contextual notes with a corresponding worksheet.
Five mind maps on different aspects of J&H:
The presentation of Jekyll
The presenetation of Hyde
The presentation of Lanyon
The presentation of Utterson
Women in the novel.
NB. This is an updated listing. If you have previously paid for this resource and need a copy, please email me using the address on my store front.
This lesson provides an introduction to leaflet writing for GCSE English.
Do Now Task
Students identify the purpose of different pieces of short text, giving reasons for their answers.
Main Task
Students plan and write their own leaflet.
There is a planning sheet which can be used in your own, independent lessons in the future, should you wish to revisit the topic of leaflet writing at a later date.
The exam style question focuses on the idea of parents helping students with revision in Year 11, and a sample answer is provided.
Learning Review
Revisiting the learning objective and checking understanding through questioning.