Explore the life of the legendary hero, Dr Martin Luther King, with this bundle of activities. The folder includes: Two-sided information on King’s life and struggle. Worksheet with sixteen sentences to complete from information. Extension tasks such as writing a letter to the great man; creating interview questions. Extract from “I have dream speech” with language technique analysis sheet. 5.Extract from acceptance speech of Nobel Peace Prize. 6.Vocabulary Extension Activity Worksheet. 7.22 slide powerpoint with answers to sixteen sentence information. 8.Further activity ideas.

Help your students to recognize and identify bias in newspaper reports. Students are presented with two newspaper reports which they have to make more biased using the techniques that they have identified throughout the lesson. Help your students to become more savvy readers of the media.

You could use these resources to simulate working in a news room for the day. Students receive a news in bullet point format that there has been an accident in a ski resort. They then have to shape the material into a professionally structured news report. Included in the folder is my lesson on how to write intros for news reports which is key to adopting the correct style for the newspaper report. There is also a WAGOLL illustrating the drafting and re-drafting process. All you need to become news reporters for the day!

To amuse us tabloid newspapers often use puns and innuendos in their newspaper reports. Using a real report that was published in the 1990s about George Clooney playing the part of Batman and how his costume was too small for him, this lesson explores how and why tabloids use these techniques. After identifying the techniques, students are then given prompts to create their own puns. A fun lesson that will induce a lot of groaning!

Shock. Horror! One day a woman went to her local shop and guess what she found inside her newly-purchased bag of bread? Unbelievably, to her amazement the whole bag was full of crusts of bread!! And you probably wouldn’t believe it either, but this story did actually make it onto BBC online news. This lesson takes this story and shows students how to blow trivial things up out of all proportion in order to sell newspapers. You can expose the serious nature of newspaper sensationalising while having some fun. Students add even more emotive language into the already existing newspaper report. The newspaper report with blanks for students to fill in is included, along with a twelve slide Powerpoint to introduce the subject. This is also a good introduction to the ethics of the press.

In order to successfully achieve the style of a newspaper report, students need to understand how to construct an news report intro. This 24 slide Powerpoint breaks down the structure, then gives five examples of intros for students to analyse, followed by three exercises to write their own intros. A good exercise in getting students to use complex sentences also. The lesson starts by reading a real newspaper report so students are presented with a WAGOLL. Turn your class into budding reporters with this fun lesson.

Calling all budding journalists. This twenty-three slide Powerpoint helps your students to analyze the key features of headlines and the key language techniques used. They are then prompted to write their own headlines for fictional news stories, culminating in them creating their own intriguing headline to grab the reader’s attention. Worksheet with techniques included. A fun lesson that might inspire your students to become the hacks of the future.

I recently saw a photograph of Gold Hill, Shaftesbury, Dorset and was blown away by how picturesque it looked. I started to research it on the internet and discovered that it was used by Ridley Scott in his advert for"Hovis" bread called “Boy on a Bike”. There were so many photos of it on the web that I thought it would make great inspiration for some writing to describe a place. The folder includes a 23 slide Powerpoint with a choice of two writing tasks - either write two paragraphs contrasting day with night or four paragraphs describing the hill during each of the four seasons. Lots of support is given with sensory description and a planning sheet is included. The Powerpoint includes lots of views of the hill and a link to the Ridley Scott advert. A worksheet with ideas for describing places is also included.

First students design their dream bedroom onto paper. Then they can enter ‘The Ideal Room Competition’. Students write a formal letter describe their ideal room and persuade the judges that their ideas are the best. Next they design a robotic assistant to help them keep their superb, new bedroom spotlessly clean. Finally, as their robots will be so amazing, they must share them with the world and create a print advert to sell it, so that others don’t miss out!

A fun quiz with twenty logos that students have to guess before designing a logo to represent themselves. Could be done as a one-off lesson or as part of a Media Studies scheme.

Have fun revising key language techniques with this enjoyable quiz. Students can work in pairs or groups to guess the product being advertised. For extra bonus points they have to name the language techniques used (imperatives; direct address; rhetorical questions; bold statements; rhyme; puns etc). In the second round they are given ten new brands and they have to come up with slogans themselves. Finally, if you want to take it further, they choose one of the brands and slogans and turn it into a full-blown advertising campaign. A great way to launch them into several lessons worth of work!

This apprentice-style group task begins with a look at the case study of Lucozade and how it was successfully rebranded from a medicinal product to an energy drink. Students are then tasked with rebranding boring old Snugfit Thermal Underwear. In groups they have to work together to diversify the range; create a storyboard for a TV advert; create the script for a radio advert and design a billboard poster. Finally, they have to present their ideas to the rest of the class. You decide on the success criteria and the winning group. This twenty-two slide Powerpoint has all you need to get them doing an enjoyable and challenging speaking and listening activity. It also introduces them to the world of marketing.

Remind your students of the danger of fireworks at the same time as teaching them how to write a persuasive speech to warn others of the danger of fireworks. Folder includes: Two-sided information leaflet on fireworks with background and history. Comprehension activity worksheet. Planning advice sheet. Sentence starter advice sheet. Powerpoint with starter, answers to comprehension and a reminder of DAFOREST techniques. Keep it relevant with this engaging resource.

Inspired by Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade”, I have been searching for original sources that describe the battle. I’ve found diary extracts from the longest-living charge survivor, Sir George Wombwell. His vivid account of having his horse shot from under him, his capture, then escape from the Russian Cossacks makes exciting reading and is ample material to encourage your students to write about a desperate cavalry charge. Also included is an extract from William Howard Russell’s newspaper report on the Crimean War. As if that wasn’t enough, the folder also contains an extract from Michael Morpurgo’s “War Horse” which describes a cavalry charge. All of this is accompanied with a lively powerpoint with contemporary images to illustrate the key players in the drama. My lessons and worksheets on Tennyson’s poems are also thrown in free, so that your classes become absolute experts on this memorable battle in British history. Go forth and write!!

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!

Using an extract from Daphne Du Maurier’s eternally fascinating novel “Jamaica Inn”, teach students how master writers create characters. The lesson includes: Background information on the novel and writer. Extract from novel describing Joss. Worksheet on language analysis. Prediction exercise for how extract continues. Character Profile Proforma for students to create their own characters with quirky questions to provoke thoughts. Your students will be so fascinated by this rough villain that they will be desperate to read the book or watch the BBC adaptation at least!

Enable your students to focus on effective structure and language features by inspiring them to write a story with the title “The Rescue” by giving them a real life newspaper report on a dramatic mid-sea rescue of a cargo ship. The report contains all the details they need and all they have to do is to transform the structure of the report into the five-part story structure, enabling you to focus on what makes an effective narrative. The folder includes: A powerpoint with pointers and tips. A Word version of the report. A Word planning sheet. Designed for both AQA and Eduqas GCSE narrative writing.

Inspire your students to write a story using the five part story structure with the title “The Capture”. Share with students the article on real life World War Two bomber survivor Eddie Gurmin and let them imagine what it must have been like to have to bail out of a Halifax bomber at 15,000 feet, only to be captured by the Luftwaffe and sent to a prisoner of war camp for four years. Eddie’s gripping story is presented as an article with real quotations, enabling students to concentrate on creating tension and suspense and using language techniques. Designed to capture the imaginations of boys, this gripping story will equally inspire girls. You can also commemorate the World Wars with this work. Folder includes: Three page article on Eddie Gurmin’s experience in editable Word format. Planning sheet with hints and tips for narrative viewpoint and structure.

Teach your students to write effective letters with this example from Dorothy Brooke, an animal welfare campaigner from the 1930s, who rescued World War One war horses which had been sold as working horses in Egypt after the war. Her letter was so successful that it raised £20,000 in today’s money, allowing her to found the charity Brooke, still in existence to this day. Analyse the techniques that Dorothy used to persuade newspaper readers to donate funds and encourage your students to write their own persuasive letters on animal rights or another topic of their choice. Two worksheets - one with background information and the letter and another with an analysis grid and ideas for follow-up activities. Helps prepare students for the letter writing element of GCSE English language.

Celebrate the life of the remarkable Edith Cavell with this two-page information sheet, accompanied by comprehension activities and a vocabulary extension worksheet. A Powerpoint with starter and answers to the questions with lots of ideas for further activities is also provided. Designed to commemorate both World War One and the sacrifice of women in that conflict, Edith Cavell is an inspiration to all.