High-quality, value for money teaching resources covering English language and literature; literacy; history; media and Spanish. With twenty-seven years' teaching experience I know what works in the classroom. Engaging, thorough and fun, your students will love these lessons.
High-quality, value for money teaching resources covering English language and literature; literacy; history; media and Spanish. With twenty-seven years' teaching experience I know what works in the classroom. Engaging, thorough and fun, your students will love these lessons.
Two lessons using the opening of 1984 to introduce students to the features of dystopian fiction with a particular emphasis on Orwell’s use of pathetic fallacy in the introduction. The lesson sequence is as follows:
Lesson 1
Starter on what students think makes a perfect world.
Explanation of origin of term dystopia.
Examples of dystopian fiction for children.
Overview of 1984 without spoilers.
Analysis of techniques used in opening to establish the dystopian atmosphere of the novel.
Zoom in on Orwell’s use of pathetic fallacy. Students identify examples. Answers on slide.
Discussion regarding living in this kind of world.
Lesson 2
Students return to their original thoughts on what makes a perfect world.
Narrative writing in preparation for AQA GCSE English Paper One Narrative Writing. Choice of writing a story about a perfect world or writing a story inspired by a picture of the Earth. Both with focus on using pathetic fallacy and sensory description.
Folder includes 24 slide powerpoint and copy of extract of opening.
Students are quite rightly fascinated by this amazing novel.
Full scheme of work comprising of lessons on each of the twenty-three chapters of the book. This powerpoint contains approximately two hundred slides. Each lesson features a starter, main and plenary and is designed to encourage students to create their own autobiographical writing, inspired by Roald Dahl’s experiences.
This folder includes a powerpoint which guides students through the poem. The first activity helps them to work out what the Latin sentence “Dulce et Decorum est…” means. This is followed by looking at the poem in terms of Owen’s use of similes, metaphors and imagery. Two example paragraphs of analysis of the first lines of the poem serve as a model to encourage students to write some analysis of their own. A storyboard worksheet is also included which students could complete for homework.This lesson could be used in conjunction with the background lesson on Wilfred Owen, also found here.
In Act One Scene One of “Romeo and Juliet”, we meet Romeo for the first time and realise that he is in love with the idea of being in love with Rosaline due to his use of elaborate oxymorons to describe his feelings. This powerpoint explains the context of the play, the definition of oxymorons. The accompanying worksheet guides students to identify Romeo’s oxymorons and then gives them the beginning of oxymorons for them to create themselves. Could be used with the play or as a stand alone lesson on oxymorons.
Teach your students how to write a ballad poem using the life of ex-slave and slave rescuer, Harriet Tubman. Celebrating the heroic life of Harriet Tubman, this twenty slide powerpoint shows how her life story was made into a ballad by Eloise Crosby Culver. Students then study the key features of ballads and are invited to add an extra verse of their own to the ballad, with historical information about the great lady. Students are then tasked with writing their own ballads about either a fictional or real person. Links in well with writing a ballad about Kissin' Kate Barlow from "Holes".
This folder contains a forty-two page abridged text version of "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", designed to make access to the text much easier for all students. Accompanying the text is a twenty-two page workbook of activities, covering ten lessons, culminating in students preparing to write an essay on the setting of the novel. As an added bonus there is also an answer book for the workbook. All in Microsoft Word so that you can adapt it to your needs and classes also.
With an activity to create compound sentences, this powerpoint also helps students to identify the effects of using both simple and compound sentences. First of all students add a conjunction to a sentence to create compound sentences. Then students change a passage of description just using compound sentences in to a combination of simple and compound, considering the effect. Finally students write a set of instructions using both simple and compound sentences.
Nineteen lessons on this classic novel, which students love. Lessons explore the key theme of friendship, as well as lots of opportunities for literacy work. Assessment material included on writing a character analysis of Stanley.
Have fun learning about the influence of the Viking language of Old Norse on the English Language. The powerpoing lesson begins with students having to guess the Old Norse words from clues; then they use spelling patterns introduced by the Vikings to guess more words introduced to the language. Finally students are given lots of examples of the Vikings’ poetic form of kennings and have to come up with five of their own to describe modern objects. They then make a poster to celebrate their success.
Inspire an interest in reading by telling your students about the fascinating life and work of Michael Morpurgo.
This thirty slide Powerpoint covers his early life, his career, marriage and work. Find out the amazing story about how he discovered the identity of his biological father and how the author’s note at the beginning of War Horse was a little white lie until 2011.
Finally there are four choices of activities for students to complete ranging from researching one of his books to writing an article about him.
Students find real lives interesting, so this is a good way to hook them into reading.
Full scheme of work with one lesson per chapter, totalling twenty-one chapters on Benjamin Zephaniah’s teen classic “Face”. Also included are narrative writing tasks; a literature essay on Martin’s character and a letter to Mr Zephaniah after reading the text. This full scheme of work would suit year 8 students and has lots of literacy activities on prefixes, suffixes, abbreviations, puns, complex sentences etc, all linked to the novel. There are also opportunities to explore in depth the key themes of friendship and bravery. Every class I have ever taught this novel to have absolutely loved it. Hook your students in with some of Mr Benjamin Zephaniah’s magic.
Teach students how great writers like Roald Dahl create their characters. This powerpoint introduces four lessons on Dahl’s iconic teacher, Captain Hardcastle, from his memoir “Boy”.
The folder includes:
Lesson 1 - analysis grid on how Dahl “shows, not tells” and exercise for students to do the same.
Lesson 2 - analysis grid on how Dahl uses similes and metaphors and exercise for students to create simile.s
Lesson 3 - analysis grid on how Dahl uses colour in his description and exercises for students to come up with more interesting colour adjectives and to use them.
Lesson 4 - write an essay on how Dahl creates this unpleasant character with 3 WAGOLL PEE paragraphs and further support.
You’ll end up despising this character, just as Dahl intended!
Five lessons on Alfred Noyes’ romantic and ghostly poem “The Highwayman”. The lesson sequence is as follows;
Lesson 1: Background information on highwaymen. Class questions on plot to clarify understanding and worksheet cloze exercise to consolidate understanding.
Lesson 2: Similes in poem with worksheet and then opportunity for students to create their own similes.
Lesson 3: Metaphors in poem with worksheet and then opportunity for students to create their own metaphors.
Lesson 4: Sound effects: Worksheet on alliteration, onomatopoeia,rhythm and rhyme. Activities for students to create alliteration poem and brainstorm more onomatopoeic words.
Lesson 5: Discussion of key themes - loyalty, betrayal, death and love. Students plan a story on one of these themes as final assessment. Links to AQA GCSE English Paper One Section B: Write a story.
56 slide powerpoint and six worksheets in folder with copy of poem.
This thirty-eight slide powerpoint contains information about the life and career of the renowned author Philip Pullman. Learn about his early work before becoming famous for ‘His Dark Materials’. There are five ideas for creative writing inspired by Pullman’s work, such as writing a story in which the character goes through a portal to making a pact with a supernatural force. Students will be intrigued by Pullman’s imaginative world.
A set of twelve comprehension questions on the opening to Ray Bradbury’s novel helps students to subsequently tackle the English Literature exam-style question ‘How does the writer present Montag in the opening of the novel’. The folder includes a Powerpoint with starter activity and an exemplary introduction to the exam question, as well as a Word copy of the opening and a Word set of comprehension questions.
In 2016 over three hundred scientists wrote an open letter to argue that the United States should not leave the Paris climate change agreement, which was under threat by Donald Trump. This folder contains a Word copy of the letter; a Word copy of the letter annotated with the language techniques used and a Powerpoint (30 slides)that introduces the letter; includes the letter; reviews the techniques and then suggests ideas for students to write their own open letters on a topic of interest to them. Step-by-step help to learn how to write to persuade and to argue a case.
This folder contains everything that you need to understand Maya Angelou’s brilliantly uplifting poem.
A 48 slide Powerpoint introduces the poem and then goes through the significant features verse by verse. A separate Word timeline of facts from the advent of slavery in America to the Civil Rights Movement contextualises the poem. Follow-up activities include visualising the positive images used in the poem. A copy of the poem is also included.
This 76 slide Powerpoint contains everything that you need to explore the key themes within the animal rights debate. Students will learn to:
Identify and use persuasive language and images.
Write an article about an endagered species.
Discuss whether zoos are right or wrong.
Write a speech for a debate on an animal rights issue of their choice.
Write a leaflet to rehabilitate the image of a maligned animal.
Present their work to the class.
Reflect on their attitudes to animal rights after the topic.
This scheme of work is designed to support students to be creative for a practical audience and encourages them to carry out their own research. As a Powerpoint it is fully adaptable to suit you and your class’s needs.
This Powerpoint introduces the historical context of witches in Macbeth with a true or false game where students have to identify the correct or incorrect statements about witches. Students are then given some information about James V1th’s role in witchcraft persecution. Before studying Act One Scene One they are presented with a modern translation so that they understand what is going on. They then read Shakespeare’s Act One Scene One and consider what was lost in the translation and why Shakespeare’s scene is much more powerful. Students enjoy reading and acting out the scene in groups. They are then asked to design three costumes for a modern version of the play, focusing on representing the witches as powerful, evil and frightening. At the end of the lesson, you can show them Roman Polanski’s opening scene and compare and contrast their costumes with Polanski’s choices. Could be used as a precursor to my lesson on the witches’ spell; as part of an introduction to Shakespeare or as part of a scheme on Macbeth.
Designed to last thirty minutes, this editable Powerpoint explains the rule of subject verb singular and plural agreement and contains three sets of exercises to clarify this rule. Firstly students are asked to choose the correct form of the verb “to be” in the present tense; next they have to choose the correct form of the verb “to have” in the present tense and finally the correct form between “was/were”. Students are also reminded about irregular foreign plurals. Help your students to become masters of standard English with this fun activity.