I hate spoon-feeding Shakespeare to students. Shakespeare deserves better! This unit of work is for GCSE and focuses on the first three acts of The Merchant of Venice. It is designed to give background information and close reading practice in order to build up to an essay on audience sympathy for the character of Shylock. The last scene with Shylock in (Act 4, scene 1) was then given for independent analysis and students watched different versions of the trial scene before writing that paragraph in class in controlled conditions. This gave me a chance to see them move from more structured group and whole class work to their personal, independent ability. Their essay results were excellent and the range of approaches to the question really paid off with a wide range of different answers, quotations chosen and analysis of language. In this unit you will find a range of interactive games, PowerPoint presentations and note-making worksheets suitable for students from D to A*

8 adjectives, superlatives and adverbs activities which make great starters for writing lessons of all kinds or as part of a literacy lesson. Accessible for all ages and very active, including drama, team games, timed races, etc. Very versatile activities and still academic enough for any HOD to approve of. I've done these lessons with students aged from 10 to 18!

I wrote this modern-day version of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice which became the school's secondary performance. Like The Merchant of Venice, it has a range of parts for all abilities (we had students from 12 to 18 taking part) and some more adult themes and references. It was designed to be performed in the round with various scenes filmed in advance and played on a screen for the audience. We ended up filming the entire production and selling DVDs to raise money for the school. I have aimed to be as true to Shakespeare's version as possible and it was interesting to see the humour coming through the somewhat grim situations. The prologue was rapped by one of our students while a pre-recorded video (detailed in the comments) played in the background. This was created by a small group of students in Media and Visual Arts Club after school, but there would be enough pre-recorded scenes for an entire Media Studies group to storyboard, film and edit in advance.

Are you falling asleep while marking your students' work? Whether descriptive or narrative, these resources are designed to help get those uninspired writing to the next level, making their work imaginative and engaging to read. I used them initially with a top set GCSE group, but quickly started rolling them out all the way down to year 7 low ability (high expectations are the key!). Each lesson has specific outcomes with resources for students to self or peer assess so they can see their progress. There are 7 complete lessons which deal with vocabulary building, word connotations, sentence structure, paragraphing, planning, etc. I found my students' marks went up by as much as two grades by using these key ideas and students who found it hard to be creative before had the confidence to take much better risks with their work and enjoy the process. I felt like I'd discovered a secret of some kind with these ideas and I hope you feel the same.

A complete lesson or two including interactive starter, specific questions for analysis, quizzes with answers and an AFL plenary which clearly shows progress. There is also a creative writing structure sheet provided for homework which is accessible for all abilities. These resources make a fantastic introduction to or recap on * any poetry SOW * language features and effects, particularly covering imagery. It clearly builds towards essay writing skills. * lessons on different accents and dialects (Scots) * poems from around the world / variations within English language. * 18th century Literature * Romanticism This was used as my first lesson for iGCSE poetry coursework and nearly half of the students wanted to analyse this poem in their essays because they felt so confident with it. That's with a male and female mixed-ability group of EAL students in year 9. If they loved it, so will your students! Check out my Love Poetry bundle to get extra value! Everything you need here for an excellent lesson. Enjoy!

10 starter games which help students with memorising lines, characterisation, imagery etc. Plus a bonus one! These are all tried and tested and beloved by my classes from 11 - 19! Examples are given of any more complicated games. No printing or resources needed apart from this Powerpoint (and not even that necessarily if you know the rules!) (These also make fun games for parties either at the end of term or, frankly, after a few pints at the pub!)

Ten games which cover a range of skills and focuses in English. These have made my lessons really fun and kept the kids hooked and happy, not realising that there's some serious learning or revising going on. Want to trick them into reading? I got you. Want to introduce them to different word types? Here you go. Want them to revise key quotations? It's here. I hope there's plenty here to keep you going and examples are given wherever needed so very little preparation is needed. Enjoy!

An introduction to a SOW on podcasting and radio for KS3 students. Designed for students in groups of 4 - 6. The final game could also be played in groups with a mini-whiteboard or as a whole class. There are two articles on podcasting and radio with a reading race (or just standard questions if you prefer), activities and worksheets to help with new vocabulary (three versions for different ability groups) and a brainstorm to help students KWL their learning. The homework structures their research of podcasts. A selection of recommended and student-friendly podcasts are given. These are differentiated (green for my EAL students, blue for more able or native speakers). I would suggest downloading a select few from some of the blue list as certain episodes can have more adult themes than others. Questions to structure each week's homework are included. There is an overview on the first slide which explains what will be covered in the unit for students. This can be adapted as you need, of course.

A baker's dozen of revision creative tasks and activities. Little to no preparation time needed. These are student-focused, varied for different abilities and to keep students engaged. These make the student work hard, not you. These would form either the main focus of a lesson or part of a carousel of activities which students tackle over the lesson. They could also be set as homework tasks with opportunity to feedback in the following lesson. These are revision tasks, so students should have already read the book and discussed the themes and issues.

A great couple of high-quality cover lessons or mini-SOW for Romantic poetry or poetry from the 18th century. Everything you need is here: the poems, questions for different abilities, differentiated outcomes, differentiated tasks, a vocabulary quiz, in-depth self-assessment plenary and some fun games to do with rhyming. No planning required and possibly no printing. There are also differentiated assessments on two unseen poems for upper and lower abilities. The responses to these can be peer-assessed by students first to help them understand how to respond to literature questions. Enjoy!

EVERYTHING YOU NEED!! This is a lesson-by-lesson scheme of work with EVERY SINGLE WORD of the ENTIRE book covered in a sequence of 19 lessons. Every lesson has objectives designed to help your students not only understand the characters, themes, events and messages but to make excellent PROGRESS in manageable steps. A range of activities including group work, speaking and listening, essay writing and extract analysis, Q&A, quizzes, games, wider reading, webquests and active reading strategies to help your students stay ENGAGED. Starters and plenaries to hook the students and then help them reflect on the progress they've made. Structured examples of how to get to a C grade and an A grade and how to self- and peer-assess their writing. 10 different homework tasks, none of which are "read pages blah blah to blah blah". This is a must-have resource if you're teaching Cry, the Beloved Country and will save you hours of time and energy which you can put into the teaching! If you have any requests for additional CtBC resources, or resources for any other topic, please contact me. And if you love this resource, please review it to help others. Thank you :)

A range of games and activities to make students work on their vocabulary. These work fantastically with any group from EAL KS3 to KS5. They can all be done independently, in pairs or in teams and most have a competitive element. I use these as starters in English lessons, but my school used to have a Literacy Form Time every Monday when we would play one of these. Most don't require any printing but can be adapted into a more physical resource if this suits your group. These always make fun and engaging links into creative writing lessons or literacy lessons. My students love them! I even caught some of my year 7s playing the Alphabet Game at lunch! I hope your students enjoy them just as much.

These resources focus on essay writing skills and revising knowledge of characters in an active game (though this could be done with students just writing notes on each character - feel free to adapt it to your needs). There is essay writing guidance including grade C and grade A mark scheme, colour-coding revision of essay paragraphs and an interactive plenary with a venn diagram for students to place themselves on. These are resources which will challenge every student to take part. They are easily adaptable for any essay question. These work really well in conjunction with the other resource packs I have for sale. The PowerPoint has been re-uploaded from the working copy I have.

FIVE different activities to help students refresh their memories of the characters, events and quotations from The Secret River. These could be spread out over several lessons or combined into a couple. Students should have their own copies of the books, but there is no specific need for them here. I would suggest using these in the first week of revision. They are enjoyable, engaging, team activities with a bit of something for every learning style. Some notes on using the resources: Answers are provided for all of the quizzes on the same PPT. Cut up the dominoes beforehand because they are currently in the correct order. The pictures are taken from the TV mini-series, but should be obvious even if the students haven't seen it. The only ones who seem a little nondescript are Dan and Ned. Enjoy!

This resource pack is aimed at helping students analyse the text in close detail for a passage question and to structure that kind of response, and at students who will tackle a whole-book essay question. There are some activities which focus on Grenville herself and the information is provided for students along with some active reading challenges. This background information then links into a lesson helping students develop an empathetic response and a question on where our sympathies as readers lie. It succinctly takes them through the steps of structuring sentences, paragraphs and the whole response. There are clear objectives for each task, breaking down the C grade descriptors and A grade descriptors and helping students push themselves to the next grade. Best of luck to all of you guiding students through iGCSEs! I'm sure they will be a credit to you!

Several lessons which help students recap on the characters and plot of Spies by Michael Frayn and then some engaging activities to help students think more deeply about the text. There are slides to help with paragraph structure to ensure students are getting the level of detail required for an A grade and to help them self- or peer-assess their essay writing. As well as this there are some quizzes on spying and on memory to link in with another essay topic (available online). Best of luck to all the iGCSE students out there and to those tackling Spies for A level! Well done to all the teachers too! I hope this saves you some time and energy!

A listening quiz to go with the podcast Lore, episode 22 on the legend of Spring-heeled Jack. Great for Victorian history or Gothic literature.

A listening quiz to go along with the BBC's 6 Minute English podcast on Superheroes. Useful for building vocabulary for a range of different abilities. Suitable for ESL EAL students and fluent English speakers.

This lesson uses UA Fanthorpe's poem Not My Best Side, which satirises the painting Saint George and the Dragon by Paolo Uccello, as a model for satirical writing about a series of paintings (also included on the Powerpoint). There are comprehension questions to go with each part of the poem and self-assessment criteria at the end. Makes for a good one-off lesson in any writing scheme, a Creative Writing club prompt, or as part of a scheme of work about fairytales or a PSHE lesson on subverting stereotypes.