I provide high quality, tried and tested materials, developed over 17 years of teaching KS3-5. There is material to support G3/4 students as well as material to push for G8 and G9s.
I provide high quality, tried and tested materials, developed over 17 years of teaching KS3-5. There is material to support G3/4 students as well as material to push for G8 and G9s.
This Midsummer Night’s Dream unit is lots of fun and fantastic for stretching high ability KS3 students. It contains 18 lessons, focusing on the playwright’s use of language, how the playwright uses dramatic devices, creative writing and the effect of staging. It comes fully resourced with PowerPoints, contextual information to illuminate understanding of the text, extracts and IWB activities. The page numbers refer to the Cambridge School Shakespeare edition. The unit includes:
Lesson 1: Elizabethan context
Lesson 2: Online research
Lesson 3: The Globe
Lesson 4: The Characters
Lesson 5: The language
Lesson 6: Plot and Characters
Lesson 7: Act out the play
Lesson 8: Set design in A1S1
Lesson 9: Creating characters in A1S2
Lesson 10: Exploring fairies in A2S1
Lesson 11: Oberon and Titania in A2S1
Lesson 12: Persuasive language in A2S1
Lesson 13: Shakespeare’s language
Lesson 14: Writing spells in A2S2
Lesson 15: Insults in A3S2
Lesson 16: Analysing character in A4S1
Lesson 17: Themes review at the end
Lesson 18: Blockbuster revision
If your students find Shakespeare dull and inaccessible, this is the unit for you. The lessons are focused on staging a shipwreck, costume, props, bringing the play to life and contextually understanding Elizabethan views of slavery, love, revenge and violence.
This scheme of work designed as a way into Shakespeare at KS3. It includes opportunities for online research and extract analysis from the most popular plays. It is fully resourced with fun facts, quizzes and creative writing lessons. It also works well with Roland Emmerich’s 2012 ‘Anonymous’ , as the plays studied match the plays performed in the film, allowing the students to see the words come to life on the stage.
Lesson 1: Othello
Lesson 2: Othello feedback
Lesson 3: Romeo and Juliet
Lesson 4: Agony Aunt writing for Juliet
Lesson 5: Romeo and Juliet movie analysis
Lesson 6: Anthony and Cleopatra
Lesson 7: Sonnet 130
Lesson 8: Macbeth witches
Lesson 9: Iago
Lesson 10: Midsummer Night’s Dream
Lesson 11: Midsummer Night’s Dream
Lesson 12: Hamlet
Lesson 13: Richard III
Lesson 14: The Tempest
Lesson 15: Caliban
Lesson 16: Staging
Lesson 17: Henry V
Lesson 18: King Lear plot
Lesson 19: King Lear A1S1
Lesson 20: Midsummer Night’s Epilogue
This unit has everything you need to teach ‘The Woman in Black’ at KS3. It is a fantastic gothic horror novel, and the children are genuinely enthralled by this novel as the secrets are revealed, complimented by the movie with Daniel Radcliffe as an end of unit treat!
This unit of work includes 18 lessons and comes with lesson powerpoints, contextual information, exemplar paragraphs, activities to exploit drama, extracts from the text and opportunities for creative writing. Page numbers refer to the 1998 Vintage edition.
Lesson 1: The gothic genre
Lesson 2: Creating a gothic atmosphere
Lesson 3: How Susan Hill uses pathetic fallacy
Lesson 4: Tracking Arthur’s progress north
Lesson 5: Creating mystery and expectation
Lesson 6: Character reactions
Lesson 7: Leaving clues
Lesson 8: Creative Writing
Lesson 9: Writing a formal letter
Lesson 10: Hiding secrets
Lesson 11: How Susan Hill creates tension
Lesson 12: Using rhetorical devices
Lesson 13: Using clues to form predictions
Lesson 14: The letters
Lesson 15: The Ending
Lesson 16: Prepare your assessment
Lesson 17: Write your assessment
Lesson 18: Feedback and improvement
There is an opportunity to assess the students’ progress at the end of the novel in an essay on how Susan Hill creates a sense of mystery.
This unit is ideal as an introduction to non-fiction texts at KS3. It has 18 lessons focusing on evaluating non-fiction texts, opinion writing, describing travel destinations, writing a letter of complaint and more. It comes fully resourced with PowerPoints, travel guide extracts, example answers and newspaper articles.
Lesson 1: Introduction to travel writing
Lesson 2: The Road to Manali by Melissa Bell
Lesson 3: The Red Dust
Lesson 4: Describing Antarctica
Lesson 5: Writing a speech to reduce tourism
Lesson 6: Pole to Pole by Michael Palin
Lesson 7: Narrative tenses in The Beach
Lesson 8-9: Designing a travel advert
Lesson 10: Designing the ultimate trip
Lesson 11: Describing holidays
Lesson 12: Holiday web quest
Lesson 13: Holiday narrative writing
Lesson 14-15: Holidays from hell
Lesson 16: Designing a promotional video
Lesson 17: Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks
Lesson 18: Travel TV Shows
This unit contains everything you need to teach the Love and Relationships anthology and will save you hours of preparation! It is focused on AQA Paper 2 for English Literature. It includes 23 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson powerpoints, examplar essays, past papers, introduction examples, mark schemes, quizzes and opportunities for self-assessment. It is extremely thorough and allows the students multiple points for reflection to ensure they are confident of which poems to compare on which themes when they sit their GCSE English Literature.
Lesson 1: An introduction to poetry
Lesson 2: Poetic techniques
Lesson 3: Scansion: rhythm, rhyme and meter
Lesson 4: When We Two Parted by Lord Byron
Lesson 5:Love’s Philosophy by Percy Shelly
Lesson 6: Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning
Lesson 7: Sonnet 29 by Elizabeth Browning
Lesson 8: Neutral Tones by Thomas Hardy
Lesson 9: Letters from Yorkshire by Maura Dooley
Lesson 10: Quote quiz
Lesson 11: The Farmer’s Bride by Charlotte Mew
Lesson 12: Comparing Farmer’s Bride with Porphyria’s Lover
Lesson 13: Walking Away by Cecil Day-Lewis
Lesson 14: Eden Rock by Charles Causley
Lesson 15: Comparing Walking Away and Eden Rock
Lesson 16: Follower by Seamus Heaney
Lesson 17: Mother any distance by Simon Armitage
Lesson 18: Before You Were Mine by Carol Ann Duffy
Lesson 19: Comparing Before You Were Mine and Walking Away
Lesson 20: Winter Swans by Owen Sheers
Lesson 21: Singh Song! by Daljit Nagra
Lesson 22: Climbing My Grandfather by Andrew Waterhouse
Lesson 23: Which poems compare well
This unit has been designed for teaching the ‘Mean Time’ option for the AQA poetry section C for A-level English Language and Literature. It has 20 lessons and covers every poem in the anthology. It is fully resourced with past papers, exemplar answers, poetic technique quizzes, mark schemes and notes on the poems.
Lesson 1: An introduction to poetry
Lesson 2: Rhyme, rhythm and meter
Lesson 3: An introduction to Carol Ann Duffy
Lesson 4: Context reading and research
Lesson 5: Context quiz
Lesson 6: Captain of the 1964…
Lesson 7: Nostalgia
Lesson 8: Before You Were Mine
Lesson 9: Beachcomber
Lesson 10: First Love
Lesson 11: Valentine
Lesson 12: Planning an essay
Lesson 13: The Biographer
Lesson 14: Litany
Lesson 15: Stafford Afternoons
Lesson 16: The Cliche Kid
Lesson 17: Small Female Skull
Lesson 18: Never Go Back
Lesson 19: Close
Lesson 20: Mean Time
Do you want to teach a play that will demystify the language of love and relationships?
This unit of work is fantastic for stretching high ability KS3 students. 18 lessons covering the whole of the play, focusing on playwright’s use of language, how the playwright uses structure, creative writing and the effect of staging. It comes fully resourced with PowerPoints, contextual information to illuminate understanding of the text, chapter extracts and IWB activities. Page numbers refer to the Cambridge School Shakespeare Edition.
Lesson 1: Elizabethan context quizzes
Lesson 2: Shakespearean language
Lesson 3: the theatre
Lesson 4: act out the play
Lesson 5: the soldiers return in A1S1
Lesson 6: the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick in A1S1
Lesson 7: Don John in A1S3
Lesson 8: the masked ball in A2S1
Lesson 9: deception in A2S1
Lesson 10: focus on the villain in A2S2
Lesson 11: focus on Benedick in A2S3
Lesson 12: appearance and reality in A2S3
Lesson 13: review of Acts 1-2
Lesson 14: Beatrice is tricked in A3S1
Lesson 15: Claudio is tricked in A3S2
Lesson 16: the marriage in A4S1
Lesson 17: Beatrice and Benedick in A4S1
Lesson 18: Leanato and Antonio in A5S1
Lesson 19: the ending
This scheme of work contains everything you need to teach Descriptive Writing at KS4. This unit of work is focused on AQA Paper 1 for English language. It includes 18 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson ppts, exemplar essays, IWB interactive resources, quizzes, activities to exploit drama, fiction extracts and opportunities to exploit online research. It focuses on tense changes, structure, linking paragraphs, grammar and different approaches to tacking the question.
Lesson 1: Using ‘On The Road’ to describe a desert
Lesson 2: How to create characters with depth
Lesson 3: Describing a beach with sophisticated language
Lesson 4: Describing place in ‘Lord of the Rings’
Lesson 5: Describing a funfair with a focus on structure
Lesson 6: Writing ‘An Ode to Christmas’
Lesson 7: Changing Narration to Description
Lesson 8: Sustain, develop and contrast your paragraphs
Lesson 9: Focus on grammar
Lesson 10: Using metaphors to describe a school canteen
Lesson 11: Describing a playground with a focus on language
Lesson 12: Describing an old person with originality
Lesson 13: How to choose a question
Lesson 14: Describing a mansion with flashbacks
Lesson 15: Describing Paris through ‘Perfume’
Lesson 16: Describing a market with ‘Game of Thrones’
Lesson 17: Vocabulary Challenge
Lesson 18: Focus on punctuation
This unit is ideal as an introduction to non-fiction texts and multi-media at middle school. It contains 17 lessons focusing on newspaper bias, presenting a radio report, website design, opinion pieces, film reviews and the register of broadsheets and tabloids. It is fully resourced with PowerPoints, newspaper articles, reviews and exemplar answers to stretch the top end. The unit includes:
Lesson 1: News values
Lesson 2: The structure of a newspaper
Lesson 3: Analysing website design
Lesson 4: Online website analysis
Lesson 5: Radio broadcasts
Lesson 6: Snack Attack perspective
Lesson 7: Writing a formal report
Lesson 8: Writing a film review
Lesson 9: Travel writing
Lesson 10: Writing a job application letter
Lesson 11: Writing Horoscopes
Lesson 12: Identifying bias
Lesson 13: Tabloid vs Broadsheet
Lesson 14: Headlines
Lesson 15: Jamie’s Dream School
Lesson 16: Writing a music review
Lesson 17: Writing a speech on technology
This unit is ideal as an introduction to how the writer creates setting at KS3 and will save you hours of preparation time! It has 13 lessons focusing on how a writer creates a setting, characters, mood and atmosphere. This unit extends into creative writing so the students can create their own settings and characters. It is fully resourced with PowerPoints, dramatic activities and quizzes. This is perfect for early GCSE preparation on writing to describe.
Lesson 1: describing workhouse in Oliver Twist
Lesson 2: analysing the workhouse
Lesson 3-5: Monkey’s Paw by WW Jacobs
Lesson 6: act out Monkey’s Paw and write your own story
Lesson 7: describing Dracula’s castle
Lesson 8: describing Frankenstein’s laboratory
Lesson 9: writing a London ghost tour
Lesson 10: the legend of Jack the Ripper
Lesson 11: analysing and evaluating the suspects
Lesson 12: Dracula assessment
Lesson 13: assessment feedback
Are you looking for an original way to hook visual learners into creative writing?
This unit of work contains everything you need to teach Descriptive Writing at KS3 and is fantastic early preparation for English language descriptive writing. It includes 13 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, exemplar answers, IWB interactive resources, intriguing pictures, activities to exploit drama and poems. It uses classic art as inspiration, such as Bird in an Air Pump, Thomas Chatterton and The Lady of Shalott.
Lesson 1: Bird in an Air Pump by Joseph Wright
Lesson 2: Chatterton by Henry Wallis
Lesson 3-4: The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse
Lesson 5: Voice in Not My Best Side by UA Fanthorpe
Lesson 6: Original Writing
Lesson 7: How to create original characters
Lesson 8: Describing alien planets in Star Wars
Lesson 9: Describing The Iron Islands in Game of Thrones
Lesson 10: Narrative Viewpoint in Assassin’s Creed
Lesson 11: Planning your assessment on ‘The Scream’
Lesson 12: Writing your assessment
Lesson 13: Assessment feedback
Are you looking for a fresh and creative way to teach Romeo and Juliet? I recently studied for my Certificate for Teaching Shakespeare at the RSC in Stratford and it has revolutionized the way I teach the bard.
This unit contains everything you need to teach Romeo and Juliet at KS4. It is focused on essay writing skills, analyzing extracts for English Literature and bringing the play to life. It includes 31 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson powerpoints, contextual information, exemplar essays, IWB interactive resources, quizzes, activities to exploit drama, extract analysis and opportunities for online research. Page numbers refer to the Cambridge Shakespeare edition.
Each lesson is focused on a scene from the play, so you can easily cut this unit down to focus specifically on a key scene and a theme from the play. I have designed this unit to make it relevant to teenage audiences, so we look at themes like:
the role of women, both then and now
expectations of masculinity in men
the role of the theatre
why set it in Verona?
toxic masculinity in Act 1 Scene 1
the role of a father
suppression and rebellion
violence
role models
and much more…
Everything you need to teach Unseen Poetry at KS4. This unit of work is focused on AQA Paper 2 for English Literature. It includes 19 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson powerpoints, contextual information, exemplar material, IWB interactive resources, quizzes, activities to exploit drama and performing poems.
Lesson 1: An introduction to unseen poetry
Lesson 2: Poetic techniques
Lesson 3: Rhyme, rhythm and meter
Lesson 4: Reviewing poetic techniques
Lesson 5: Mother any distance by Simon Armitage
Lesson 6: Before You Were Mine by Carol Ann Duffy
Lesson 7: Comparing family relationships
Lesson 8: Anne Hathaway
Lesson 9: Miss Havisham
Lesson 10: Comparing marriage
Lesson 11: Mid point assessment
Lesson 12: On My First Sonne by Ben Jonson
Lesson 13: Mid Term Break by Seamus Heaney
Lesson 14: Autumn by Alan Bold
Lesson 15: Comparing Autumn and Today
Lesson 16: Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker
Lesson 17: Island Man by Grace Nichols
Lesson 18: Comparing Blessing and Island Man
Lesson 19: What is Pink? by Christina Rossetti
This unit contains everything you need to teach Lady Windermere’s Fan at KS5. It includes 22 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, contextual information, exemplar material, IWB interactive resources, quizzes, extracts and critical articles. The page numbers refer to the New Mermaid’s edition. Each lesson focuses chronologically on a different scene and analyses a different aspect of the play.
Lesson 1: Plot and characters quiz
Lesson 2: Context research
Lesson 3: Context presentations
Lesson 4: The aesthetic movement
Lesson 5: Expectations of Victorian women
Lesson 6: Socialism
Lesson 7: Marriage
Lesson 8: Society and morality
Lesson 9: Fin de siecle
Lesson 10: Comparing the female roles
Lesson 11: The importance of marriage
Lesson 12: The “new” woman
Lesson 13: DVD and plot lesson
Lesson 14: Mrs Erlynne
Lesson 15: The Dandy
Lesson 16: Comparing the male characters
Lesson 17: the moral messages of the play
Lesson 18: A “good” woman
Lesson 19: Secrets and lies
Lesson 20:Reputations
Lesson 21: Character reviews
Lesson 22: Extract practice
This unit is a great way to teach language, structure and evaluation skills at KS4. It is focused on AQA English Language GCSE Paper 1. It prepares students for Q2 writer’s use of language, Q3 writer’s use of structure, Q4 statement evaluation and Q5 descriptive writing. It includes 26 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson powerpoints, exemplar material, IWB interactive resources, quizzes, extracts and opportunities for online research. Page numbers refer to the Faber and Faber edition. It is best used with a high ability set aiming for G6 to G9.
Lesson 1: An introduction to Lord of the Flies
Lesson 2: William Golding and rules
Lesson 3: How Golding describes characters
Lesson 4: Describing the island
Lesson 5: Jack evaluation question
Lesson 6: Creative Writing
Lesson 7: How Golding uses language to describe Jack
Lesson 8: Language to describe the mask
Lesson 9: Mood and atmosphere on the hunt
Lesson 10: Order and chaos
Lesson 11: Evaluation of the boys
Lesson 12-13: Group behaviour
Lesson 14: The Beast
Lesson 15: Describing a person
Lesson 16: Exploring the island
Lesson 17: Creative writing
Lesson 18: Evaluating the impact of the beast
Lesson 19: Human nature
Lesson 20: Jack’s tribe
Lesson 21: Golding’s use pathetic fallacy
Lesson 22: Symbolism
Lesson 23: Writer’s use of structure
Lesson 24: Evaluating the death of Piggy
Lesson 25: The message of the novel
Lesson 26: Building tension and expectation
This unit contains everything you need to teach Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan at KS3. This is a sequence of 21 Cirque du Freak lessons that aid KS3 students in developing their understanding of plot, character, language and structure through studying Darren Shan’s text. The unit of work includes:
Lesson 1: Narrative Hooks
Lesson 2: Initial impressions of Darren
Lesson 3: Analysing characters
Lesson 4: Comparing the boys
Lesson 5: Describing setting
Lesson 6: The Freakshow
Lesson 7: Language to describe the snake
Lesson 8: Vampire webquest
Lesson 9: Steve and friendship
Lesson 10: Forming a plan
Lesson 11: The relationship between Steve and Darren
Lesson 12: Building tension
Lesson 13: Analysing Mr Crepsley
Lesson 14: Writing a letter of application
Lesson 15: Designing a vampire
Lesson 16: Writing effective endings
Lesson 17: Assessment Planning on Steve
Lesson 18: Writing your assessment
Lesson 19: Assessment feedback
Lesson 20: Designing a front cover
Lesson 21: The film
The unit ends with an assessment that evaluates the character of Steve Leonard. It is supported with a feedback sheet, writing frames and exemplar answers to mark afterwards.
This unit of work is designed as a pathway through the text Wild Boy at KS3. The unit contains 21 lessons and looks at areas such as plot structure, character relationships, aspects of a detective novel, the author’s use of pathetic fallacy and more. It is fully resourced with an extract assessment, descriptive language worksheets, plot quizzes, contextual information and assessment writing frames. Page numbers refer to the Walker Books edition.
Lesson 1: The Prologue
Lesson 2: The Circus: setting the scene
Lesson 3: Fairground characters
Lesson 4: Clarissa Everett
Lesson 5: The author’s use of animal imagery
Lesson 6: Creating mystery
Lesson 7: Character foils: Clarissa and Wild Boy
Lesson 8: Escape through the sewers
Lesson 9: Designing a WANTED poster
Lesson 10: Use of pathetic fallacy
Lesson 11: Analysing the murder scene
Lesson 12: Discovering the hidden room
Lesson 13: A Victorian Workhouse
Lesson 14: The Church
Lesson 15: How the writer builds tension
Lesson 16: The Machine
Lesson 17: Circular Structure
Lesson 18: The Suspects
Lesson 19: The Finale
Lesson 20: Planning your assessment
Lesson 21: Writing your assessment
This Unit of Work has been designed as a way through the novel ‘Holes’ by Louis Sachar. It contains 19 lessons and is designed to exploit areas like descriptive writing, writing a summary, analyzing characters, constructing the plot, the format of a letter, how writers build tension and designing a film storyboard. It also contains two assessment opportunities on Stanley Yelnats and the significance of the title. The page numbers refer to the Bloomsbury edition.
Lesson 1: An introduction to Holes
Lesson 2: Chapters 1-3: Camp Green Lake
Lesson 3: Chapters 4-6: Impressions of Stanley Yelnats
Lesson 4: Chapters 7-9: Use of flashback in literature
Lesson 5: Creating a factfile
Lesson 6: Survival guide poster and plot quiz
Lesson 7: Chapters 10-12: Writing a letter home
Lesson 8: Chapters 13-15: The Warden
Lesson 9: Chapters 16-18: Kate Barlow’s lipstick
Lesson 10: Chapters 19-21: Building tension
Lesson 11: Chapters 22-24: Using flashbacks
Lesson 12: Chapters 25-28: Kissin’ Kate Barlow
Lesson 13: Chapters 29-30: Using pathetic fallacy
Lesson 14: Chapters 31-33: Zero’s escape
Lesson 15: Chapters 34-36: Comparing Stanley and Zero
Lesson 16: Chapters 37-39: Climbing Big Thumb
Lesson 17: Chapters 40-43: Formulating an escape plan
Lesson 18: Chapters 44- 47: Buried treasure
Lesson 19: Chapters 48-50: The End
This unit contains everything you need to teach War Poetry at KS3. It gives a balanced view of patriotic poems that glorify war (Brooke and Pope) with more realistic poems from the front line (Sassoon and Owen). This unit of work is focused on preparing students for a final poetry assessment, whilst fostering a love of poetry. It includes 17 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, contextual information, exemplar material, IWB interactive resources, quizzes, activities to exploit drama, original redrafts and opportunities for online research.
Lesson 1: Context reading
Lesson 2: Poet online research
Lesson 3: Rhythm and rhyme in poetry
Lesson 4: Poetic techniques
Lesson 5: Techniques review
Lesson 6: Write your own war poem
Lesson 7: Anthem for Doomed Youth
Lesson 8: The Charge of the Light Brigade
Lesson 9: Base Details
Lesson 10: A Remembrance Tale
Lesson 11: Dulce et Decorum Est
Lesson 12: The Hero
Lesson 13: Who’s for the game?
Lesson 14: The Soldier
Lesson 15: Explosure
Lesson 16: Assessment Preparation
Lesson 17: Write your assessment
This unit contains everything you need to teach Midsummer Night’s Dream at KS4. It is focused on essay writing skills, analyzing extracts for English Literature and bringing the play to life. It includes over 25 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson powerpoints, contextual information, exemplar essays, interactive resources, quizzes, activities to exploit drama, extract analysis and opportunities for online research. Page numbers refer to the Cambridge Shakespeare edition.
Each lesson is focused on a scene from the play, so you can easily cut this unit down to focus specifically on a key scene and a theme from the play.
Lesson 1: Context
Lesson 2: Online research
Lesson 3: The Globe
Lesson 4: Character research
Lesson 5: Language
Lesson 6: Plot and characters
Lesson 7: Act out the play
Lesson 8: A1S1 Theseus and Hippolyta
Lesson 9: A1S2 The Mechanicals
Lesson 10: A2S1 Puck
Lesson 11: A2S1 Oberon and Titania
Lesson 12: A2S1 Demetrius and Hermia
Lesson 13: Language
Lesson 14: A2S2 The love potion
Lesson 15: A3S1 The rehearsal
Lesson 16: A3S1 Bottom and Titania
Lesson 17: A3S2 Oberon and Puck
Lesson 18: A3S2 The lovers
Lesson 19: A3S2 Young love
Lesson 20: A4S1 Bottom
Lesson 21: A4S1 Explanations
Lesson 22: A5S1 The play
Lesson 23 A5S1 The end
Lesson 24: Blockbusters review game
Lesson 25: Revision cards