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.

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!

With this thirty-two slide Powerpoint, your students are introduced to the language techniques used to advertise and sell ice lollies. They then create their own ice lolly and design an advertising poster to sell it. Lots of examples to stimulate students’ imaginations and the work can be extended into creating a script for a TV advert.

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 fourteen-page Word document contains all you need to design your own box of chocolates containing eight unique chocolates that have come from your imagination. The booklet begins with information on the history of chocolate with a timeline to fill in. Then there are opportunities to analyse the language features of real chocolate box advertising campaigns. Your brief is to rescue the floundering Thornbury Chocolate Group with your new box of chocolates and marketing campaign. Can you rise to the challlenge? The booklet includes hours of fully-guided fun.

A 350 word ghost story callled “The Lighthouse” is animated on Powerpoint. The teacher reads the ghost story to the class to create a spooky atmosphere. Then students discuss how the writer creates irony and the supernatural atmophere. Finally, in pairs or groups, students write their own ghost story of no more than 350 words. A slide gives ideas for five different ghost stories. Teach your students the power of stories this Halloween or at any time with this perfectly structure, succinct story. A Word copy of the story is also included in the folder.

Using Shakespeare’s famous spell from the witches in Macbeth, this Powerpoint allows students to explore Shakespeare’s language in a fun and interactive way. After considering why people might cast spells, students are given a cloze exercise and fit the missing ingredients into the spell. They then complete a matching exercise focusing on the meaning of the ingredients. Thirdly students categorise the ingredients and then finally they come up with appropriate ingredients for a sleeping spell. This could be a stand alone lesson introducing students to Shakespeare’s language; part of a scheme on Macbeth or a precursor to my follow-up lesson when students write their own spell. Powerpoint with answers and worksheet included.

This Powerpoint uses Bernard Levin’s fantastic poem “On Quoting Shakespeare” to illustrate to students the huge influence that Shakespeare had on the English language. The slideshow introduces how many words Shakespeare was responsible for creating; a brief biography of Levin and then the poem split up over 30 slides so that it can be read/performed to the class in a fun way. Students are then asked to explore what some of the idioms that he created mean. The zipped folder includes a worksheet with the idioms split up to be cut up and given to students and a copy of the poem itself.

This twenty-two slide powerpoint introduces the poet and her relationship with her husband; focuses on key language features; scaffolds students to write two PEE paragraphs on language and allows them to investigate the sonnet form. It concludes with them considering how love is presented in the poem in preparation for an exam-style question.

Did you know that sixty percent of English words are derived from Latin and Greek? This Powerpoint contains a range of clues to words in English which are derived from Latin and Greek quantities. Designed so that students can have fun working in groups, all answers are provided. There are twelve roots in total with between two to five clues to words per root, so it will definitely keep your students engaged. Beginning with a short explanation of how Latin and Greek came to be such an influence on English, this activity went down a storm when trialled with year 7 students. Cross-curricular links to both maths and science.

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.

Two lessons on using antithesis inspired by John F Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address. The lesson sequences is as follows: Lesson 1 Students brainstorm what one thing they would change in the world if they had the power. Context to JFK inaugural speech. Identification of persuasive devices in speech. Explanation of antithesis. Identification of antithesis. Consideration of effect of antithesis. Worksheet writing frame to encourage students to use antithesis. Peer marking - What went well and Even better if. Lesson 2 Re-consideration of starter from lesson 1. Students write a speech on the topic of their choice using persuasive devices and the antithesis they created from the previous lesson. Folder includes 21 slide powerpoint; extract of speech and worksheet writing frame to create antithesis.

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!!

Engage your weaker students with this sixteen lesson workbook covering literacy topics, as well as creative and imaginative work, inspired by Dav Pilkey’s hilarious comic duo, George and Harold. As George and Harold attempt to foil another of Captain Underpant’s dastardly deeds, your students can create their own superhero. Supplementary Powerpoints include apostrophes of possession and complex sentences, all linked to the book. My class of boys with special educational needs absolutely loved this scheme of work.

This powerpoint contains three separate lessons on punctuating speech. First of all students revise the rules and then complete two exercises - adding punctuation to a dialogue, then using picture stimuli to write their own original dialogue. The second lesson covers speech tags and the three places tags can be positioned with exercises. The third lesson helps students to make writing dialogue more interesting using adverbs and character description. The lessons culminate in students creating their own dialogue from a scenario, all designed to support increasing independence with punctuating speech

Encourage your students to write a powerfully persuasive formal letter from a choice of five letter writing tasks. After studying an extract from Mahatma Ghandi’s 1940 open letter to Hitler, designed to persuade him to stop World War Two, students choose a subject that they are passionate about from the following choices: A letter to your local council arguing that the building project should not go ahead. . Write a letter to the organisers of an expedition persuading them that you should be on the team. Write a letter to a well-known person persuading them to visit your school or college for the benefit of the students. Write a letter to a celebrity of your choice persuading him or her to support a campaign to end world poverty. Write a letter to the Manager of the School Meals Service in which you offer your advice. Key persuasive features are identified on a twenty slide powerpoint. Students are encouraged to use emotive language; antithesis; rhetorical question; simple sentences; repetition and direct address. Perfect for teaching GCSE transacational writing.

Three lessons of material on lexical change; how words broaden, widen, narrow in meaning. The first lesson covers the ten ways that neologisms are formed in languages with consolidation activities. The second lesson covers the way words broaden, decline, elevate and narrow in meaning with identification and research activities. The final lesson looks at less well-known forms of lexical change such as metonymy and euphemisms, ending with a game of bingo. A fifty slide powerpoint creates a fun way to teach this fascinating subject.

Using two sources, students imagine that they were a soldier at the Dunkirk evacuation and write an eye-witness account of it. The first source is a powerpoint with two with background information and historical contest. The second source is a an extract from Churchill’s famous "We shall fight them on the beaches speech. This could be used as stimulus for creative writing for English or empathetic writing for history.

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.

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.