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.

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.

Free worksheet explaining the different range of sentences that can be used under the mnemonic A CARPPIE. Download this, then checkout my range of Powerpoints with clear explanations and rigorous activities to embed the different types of sentences for students.

Free worksheet on spelling words ending in Y. Check out Mrs Shaw’s Shop for more new interactive spelling powerpoints with fun cartoon graphics and all answers provided, designed to engage and interest your students, at the same time as embedding the learning.

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.

Students learn to spell irregular plurals that end in -es with this sixty slide powerpoint. Students decide whether the twenty-five words presented on separate slides end in -s or -es. Cartoon graphics are used as extra clues and to help English as a second language speakers. A further consolidation worksheet is included to embed the learning, which students can fill in at the end of the activity or at home. A fun way to learn irregular plurals.

Do you add -s or -es to the end of words ending in o in the plural? Students are introduced to the spelling rule, then given a worksheet to help them learn the spellings. The powerpoint gives a clue and a graphic and the students have to spell eighteen words ending in o. The graphics will help students for whom English is a second language. All answers provided.

Four different activities allow students to become increasingly independent in their ability to create complex sentences using relative pronouns - who; whose; that which. Answers given where appropriate. Activities could be delivered as starters or as a whole lesson.

As a follow on from Nouns (Common, proper, abstract), this twenty slide powerpoint teaches students to extend their vocabularies with a range of exercises and quizzes on collective nouns, all with answers provided. The lesson then covers compound nouns, modifying nouns, countable nouns and uncountable nouns. A final cloze exercise summarises the learning. This could be two thirty minute lessons.

Focusing on four of the seven types of pronouns that are commonly mis-used, this twenty slide powerpoint explains common misconceptions with activities to embed correct usage. All answers are provided and the powerpoint is fully adaptable. The lesson should take thirty to forty-five minutes.

Did you know that sixty percent of words in English come from Greek and Latin? Consolidate your students’ knowledge of the building blocks of the English language with slideshow designed to be delivered as a quiz. Containing several clues to eighteen Greek roots, answers are provided at the end. There is also a final worksheet that can be used for consolidation of the learning.

This lesson explains simple sentences and then shows students how to identify the main clause and subordinate clause in complex sentences. Students extend some given sentence starters into complex sentences. Then they use the information about Lake Como in Italy to create a piece of exciting and sophisticated travel writing.

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. Extract from acceptance speech of Nobel Peace Prize. Vocabulary Extension Activity Worksheet. 22 slide powerpoint with answers to sixteen sentence information. Further activity ideas.

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 live of this great man with three pages of information about his life, followed by a worksheet with sixteen sentences to complete. All answers are provided on the 26 slide powerpoint. Extension activities include: Write a letter to Ghandi. Devise 10 questions to ask him in an interview. Vocabulary extension worksheet of vocabulary used in the text. A Fact File template for research into either Hinduism or the Muslim religion. Website suggestions for further research. Teach your children why he was given the honorary title “Great Soul”.

This twenty slide Remembrance Assembly Powerpoint explains the historic background of the two minute silence in a poignant slideshow with images of those who gave their lives, purposefully including black soldiers who have been omitted from the historic record. It then zooms in on two individuals - Noel Chavasse, the only man to win the Victoria Cross twice and Arthur Barraclough who went over the top six times. It ends with a request for students to consider their own lives in the light of the sacrifice of so many.

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.

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!

Support students to write a persuasive speech on the subject of school uniform by analysing an extract from Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech”. Students then apply Mr King’s language techniques to a speech either for or against school uniform. Students never tire of this eternal subject. A twenty-two slide powerpoint guides them through planning and structuring the speech with some ideas for and against the issue. Perfect for teaching GCSE transactional writing.

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!!