This highly engaging and fully resourced unit of work is designed to teach some of the key skills required for responding to and writing non-fiction texts. It is built around the topic of Leisure and is aimed at grade 9-10 students. There are two sections: Reading section – building key skills through the study of three different non-fiction texts including a news report, a leaflet and web pages. Writing section – focus on building the skills required to write a review. This unit includes a 47 slide teaching PPT as well as a set of detailed teacher’s notes and all 9 student resources. Common Core Standards include: CCRA R.4,6,7 W4,5 I hope you enjoy teaching the unit as much as I did.

High School English: Travel Writing Unit This highly engaging unit of work on travel writing is designed to teach reading and writing skills in the context of travel literature and to help build some of the key skills required when studying non-fiction texts. It moves from reading to writing and is based on the study of a number of short travel extracts from wonderful writers such as Paul Theroux, Jonathan Raban and Dervla Murphy. It is aimed at Grades 7-8 and would work equally well with Grade 9 groups. Outcomes include analytical as well as creative writing. All eleven student resources including key texts are included as well as a set of detailed teacher’s notes and a beautifully presented 42 slide teaching PPT.

In this highly engaging and enjoyable unit, students explore literary non-fiction texts on the theme of mountaineering as a prelude to completing their own creative and non-fiction writing. It is ideal for a grade 9-10 class. Texts include extracts from Joe Simpson’s ‘Touching the Void’ and Matt Dickinson’s ‘The Death Zone’ both of which are dramatic accounts of mountaineering expeditions. There are lots of opportunities for paired and group discussion and students learn how to write analytical responses to reading as well as their own creative pieces and an argumentative essay on the subject of extreme sports. There is a particular focus on planning and your class will be introduced to innovative planning methods including the box plan and the ‘because, but, so’ model. Common Core Standards include: CCRA W.3,W.4,W.5, R.5,R.9 Included is a 62 slide PPT as well as 20 well-presented resources to use as handouts in class. I hope you enjoy teaching the unit.

This engaging and enjoyable half-termly unit is designed to develop key skills in reading fiction and non-fiction as well as writing creatively. It is based on the topic of Heroism with lots of activities and great texts to help students develop key reading skills such as locating information, inference, commenting on structure and comparison as well as key narrative writing skills such as opening and ending a story, writing direct speech, varying sentences, improving vocabulary and planning. Texts include extracts from non-fiction and fiction texts including 'Pat Barker’s ‘Regeneration’, Remarque’s ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ and Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’. All 17 well-presented student resources are included in pdf format as well as a 68 slide teaching PPT and a detailed set of teacher’s notes. I hope you enjoy teaching the unit as much as I did.

This highly engaging unit teaches students the key skills required for delivering an individual spoken presentation on a topic agreed with their teacher. It guides students through the process by looking at aspects of effective presentations such as openings, rhetorical devices, endings, use of cue cards to structure a talk, delivery and responding to questions. Strategies include exploring good examples of talks as well as group discussions and opportunities to try out a variety of techniques. A well-presented 37 slide PPT is included as well as all six resources in both word and pdf formats. Common Core Standards CCRA.SL. 1,4 I hope you enjoy teaching this unit.

This engaging and enjoyable half-termly unit is designed to develop key skills in reading fiction and non-fiction as well as writing creatively. It is based on the topic of Exploring with lots of activities and great texts to help students develop key reading skills such as locating information, inference and comparison as well as key writing skills such as opening a story, writing direct speech, using narrative voice and varying sentences. Texts include extracts from non-fiction and fiction texts including ‘My Family and Other Animals’ , Charles Darwin’s Journal and Michael Morpurgo’s ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’. Common Core Standards CCRA W.3,4,5 CCRA R1,4 All 15 student resources are included in pdf format as well as a 54 slide teaching PPT and a detailed set of teacher’s notes. I hope you enjoy teaching the unit.

This engaging and enjoyable unit is designed to develop some of the key skills required for responding to and writing non-fiction. It is built around the topic of Music and includes three sections: speaking and listening, reading and writing. The speaking and listening section prepares students for a discussion task and an individual presentation. The reading section is built around engaging texts such as music magazine covers, an advice leaflet on setting up a band and web information pages on the history of blues music and explores aspects such as organizational and presentational features. The writing section prepares students to complete their own gig review after exploring and identifying the key features of the genre. Common Core Standards CCRA SL1,2 CCRA W2,4 CCRA RI 7.5,7.9 All 11 student resources are included in pdf format as well as a 53 slide teaching PPT (see Preview) and a detailed set of teacher’s notes. I hope you enjoy teaching the unit.

This resource was designed as a series of engaging starter activities for my English Grade 8 class to be taught across a half-term. It is a flexible resource which can be used for other year groups who require input on improving sentences. It focuses on sentences structure and punctuation and provides opportunities for students to apply new skills. It takes a visual approach to teaching simple, compound and complex sentences and provides texts and writing activities which help provide a context rather than the more traditional method of writing out individual sentences. As well as sentence structure, it covers punctuation including use of commas and punctuating direct speech. It perfectly complements teaching of narrative or descriptive writing as many of the examples and tasks are fiction based. Included are 13 starters on a 68 slide teaching PPT plus all ten resources in pdf format as well as a set of teacher’s notes. I hope you enjoy using these starters and that they help your students to improve their grammar and punctuation.

This engaging and enjoyable unit is designed to develop some of the key skills required for responding to and writing non-fiction. It is built around the topic of Hobbies and includes three sections: speaking and listening, reading and writing. The speaking and listening section prepares students for a discussion task and an individual presentation. The reading section is built around engaging texts such as a persuasive leaflet, an instructional piece on how to draw cartoon faces and an advice blog on starting up a new hobby, exploring aspects such as language, organizational and presentational features. The writing section prepares students to complete their own fact sheet after exploring and identifying the key features of the genre. Common Core Standards CCRA S.1,4 CCRA W.2,4 CCRA R.7 All 11 student resources are included as well as a nicely presented 54 slide teaching PPT and a detailed set of teacher’s notes. I hope you enjoy teaching the unit.

This highly engaging unit of work is designed to help prepare students to complete an extended piece of narrative or descriptive writing. I designed it with my own lower attaining class in mind. It supports students in developing some of the key skills required to write their own creative pieces such as writing effective openings, writing dialogue, varying sentences, creating characters and planning responses. It supports and leads them towards a creative writing task (either narrative or descriptive) which they complete at the end of the unit. The 75 slide teaching PPT is included as well as a detailed set of teacher’s notes with suggested teaching approaches and all eleven classroom resources. I have also included extra creative writing tasks based on images. Common Core Standards include CCS CCRA W.3,W.4,W.5 I hope you enjoy teaching the unit as much as I did. Best wishes, RoseandMay

This highly engaging, relevant and carefully designed unit of work is designed to teach some of the key skills required for responding to and writing non-fiction texts. It is built around the idea of preparing for the world of further education or work. There are three sections: Speaking and Listening – preparation for a discussion and presentation task Reading section – exploring and responding to three different non-fiction texts - a news report, a college prospectus and web pages Writing section – covers writing a personal statement and a formal e-mail This unit includes a 71 slide teaching PPT as well as a detailed set of teacher’s notes and all 15 student resources. I hope you and your students enjoy the unit.

This half-termly unit of work is designed to help prepare students for Edexcel’s Entry Level Certificate in English Component 2 Writing with particular focus on creative writing. It supports students in developing some of the key skills required to write their own engaging pieces such as writing effective openings, writing dialogue, varying sentences and creating characters. It supports and leads them towards the creative writing task required for component 2 which they complete at the end of the unit. The 75 slide teaching PPT is included as well as a detailed set of teacher’s notes with suggested teaching approaches and all nine classroom resources in both Word and PDF formats. I have also included a CPD self-study unit for teachers on teaching creative writing for entry level students and some extra creative writing tasks based on images. I hope you enjoy teaching the unit.

This unit prepares students for the OCR GCSE English Language spoken presentation. The unit guides students through the process by looking at aspects of effective presentations such as openings, rhetorical devices, endings, use of cue cards to structure a talk, delivery and responding to questions. Strategies include exploring good examples of talks as well as group discussions and opportunities to try out a variety of strategies. A 41 slide teaching PPT is included as well as all seven student resources in both word and pdf formats. I hope you enjoy teaching this unit.

This highly engaging and enjoyable unit of work is designed to help students write creatively with a particular focus on narrative and descriptive writing. It supports students in actively exploring and enjoying both descriptive and narrative texts, looking at excellent and varied models from a range of literature and identifying successful features before moving to composing their own creative responses. It is ideal for a Grade 7-8 class. A beautifully presented 83 slide teaching PPT is included as well as a detailed set of teacher’s notes with suggested approaches and all thirteen classroom resources. Common Core Standards include: CCRA SL1, W3,4,5, R4 I enjoyed teaching this unit and hope you do too.

This student friendly guide is designed to support GCSE students in developing their skills in preparation for the AQA English Language GCSE Paper 1 Section B: Creative Writing exam. It is intended for use at home and includes lots of interactive and practical tasks to help them embed the key skills required at this level. It was written with my own mid to high ability GCSE group in mind. It includes a work booklet as well as accompanying resources in Word and PDF formats including planning frames, narrative extracts and creative writing tasks for exam practice. It will be useful for teachers who wish to set revision tasks for their classes or for parents who wish to support with exam preparation.

This unit is specifically designed for English teachers who wish to develop their teaching of Shakespeare in the secondary or upper primary classroom. It takes you through a range of active approaches including practical drama activities to promote engagement with the themes, characters and ideas of the plays as well as suggestions for writing creatively about Shakespeare. This unit will support you in developing a repertoire of teaching strategies which you can apply to any of Shakespeare’s plays. They are based on the principles of ‘Active Shakespeare’ and includes lots of activities and advice which will help make the learning both enjoyable and effective. It includes tasks and opportunities for personal reflection and is ideal for teachers preparing to teach a Shakespeare play.