Section B is often just left to students to manage as teachers focus on the reading component. But being well prepared for writing tasks can win students time and if they follow the 5 golden rules given here they can boost their scores. A starter PP shows students how important accuracy is, then the ‘how to’ lesson takes them step-by-step through from decoding the task to proof-reading. Along the way they have ‘you try’ opportunities and homework under timed conditions, which will be checked in the following lesson. There is a paper version of the starter to allow for differentiation. Although designed particularly for the Eduqas exam, the skills taught in this resource suit all exam boards.

This series is a question by question guide to the non-fiction paper, starting with reading. Each question begins with a ‘quick-fire starter’ PP when the technique required by the question is practised in its simplest form, usually a very visual text. This gives students confidence. It also keeps the time pressure on so that working quickly becomes a habit. Then the question requirements are explored through the exam board’s directives in the lesson PP and again quick and easy examples with answers build up to more demanding practise through the series. Visual texts and Extracts of both 19th century and 21st century texts are used in the series to ensure students are undaunted by older texts. In all cases answers and a simplified mark scheme are provided. This series is preparing students for the Eduqas Component two English paper and the focus of this particular resource is question A5. Here two text are given for work in class and two more homework texts are given. All these texts will be used in the A6 lesson, but re-issued to make that a stand-alone resource too. Hwk can always be done as an extra lesson, if students are struggling particularly. Because work has been simplified to ensure a firm foundation, this task is also suitable for y9s beginning their GCSE work early.

This series is a question by question guide to the non-fiction paper, starting with reading. Each question begins with a ‘quick-fire starter’ when the technique required by the question is practised in its simplest form, usually a very visual text. This gives students confidence. It also keeps the time pressure on so that working quickly becomes a habit. Then the question requirements are explored through the exam board’s directives and again quick and easy examples with answers build up to more demanding practise through the series. Visual texts and Extracts of both 19th century and 21st century texts are used in the series to ensure students are undaunted by older texts. In all cases answers and a simplified mark scheme are provided. Although this series is preparing students for the Eduqas Component two English paper, it can easily be adapted to suit the question style of other exam boards: all have retrieval questions, inference questions etc. The focus of this resource is A3 & A4. The questions are largely similar, though slightly more demanding that A1 & A2, which is why they have been done together. Because work has been simplified to ensure a firm foundation, this task is also suitable for y9s beginning their GCSE work early.

The focus of this second lesson is writing in a way appropriate for the form, audience and purpose of the task. In the process, students are introduced to the mark scheme, do peer assessment of last lesson’s homework and get a note on strategy. Their plenary is to match extracts to text types, but as these text types are written by the same author, their challenge is to see how one person adapts their writing to the required TAP. The quick fire starter focuses on TAP appropriate openings; the lesson PP then focuses on assessment criteria angled towards TAP, giving students a checklist and a strategy as handouts; and the plenary asks students to TAP three extract. Answers will be checked in the next lesson. Although designed for the Eduquas exam, these skills are relevant for all exam boards.

Starting with a visual and example of '3-D' writing including an 'X-factor' exercise, the PP focuses the lesson on structure both at sentence level and text level. The plenary sets a writing task based on the extract, where the superficial description is actually showing something more complex. The PP can easily be adapted for different abilities, just leave out the more demanding concepts till students are ready for them. The main part of the lesson is a close reading of an extract from Chapter 4 of James Joyce's 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man', while the starter uses Stephen Crane's 'The red badge of Courage'. As such it is also a good resource for exposing students to a wide range of reading in preparation for their GCSE English exam.

With more and more pressure on teachers to ignore Christmas and keep working till the last day, we need something subject related to lighten the mood. All the activities are easily adaptable, you just have to fill in your subject and maybe change the examples to suit. Have some subject related topics in mind for those who need extra guidance. There are 6 tasks to choose from, suiting certain classes and subjects slightly better, some more homework oriented, others will cover several lessons, some make a perfect starter or plenary, depending on ability and age- but the task sheet explains the essence of the task, what you might need to tweak and how to make each task educational. The icons on the first slide of the PP are hyperlinked to the relevant activity, so you can guide the class into choosing which one they’d like to do [please prepare beforehand though, there are places to insert your subject etc.]. There are templates for the games and a fill-in letter to Santa for classes that need guidance. And if you really haven’t got time this Christmas, you can still use the activities later in the year, just change the icons if you want to use the PP. So, an ultra versatile, fun-learning resource adaptable to most subjects AND 6 activities for the price of 1: its a gift!

As these 4 terms, denotation/connotation; explicit/implicit, come up throughout KS3 & 4, it is worth taking time to ensure that weaker students understand them. Included are the 'notes' students will be making from the power point, with key words written in a 'join the dots' font for the slow and those whose handwriting is illegible. This lesson can be used with any topic where the terms feature in lessons, or as a stand-alone literacy task.

The focus on this resource is AO1. First an exam type test which follows the style of the AO1 questions in both papers - the point is to focus attention on the skill of finding explicit and implicit information, as well as to show how tasks become progressively more demanding. This can be set as a previous hwk or a lesson starter. Remind students to be aware of time constraints, but allow time for reading. The answers to these questions are given on the PP. Next the focus is on the summary question, using 'AQA-87002-Q2-FI-TS GCSE P2 teaching synthesis' and making it accessible to students with explanations of quotes from AQA's directive. This gives students confidence in the instructions you give them. The sample answer comes from the same directive, with an explanation of the implications of the choice of approach.

Something for older students: the lesson begins with a halloween word builder, with answers to self-mark; then there is a reading phase, where students are told about three different divination rites associated with traditional Halloween games. Students will choose one of these as a vehicle for their horror story. Next, they read 4 extracts describing horrific moments, to glean words and phrases they can use, as well as to see there is no need to be gratuitously graphic to create horror. Able and eager students can get straight on with writing, while a work sheet puts the lesson into perspective with 5 clear steps to follow as a planning stage for the story. For those who don't know how to begin, a line from either reading extract [divinations or extracts] will set them on course.

Vocabulary - The Bad Spy’s Guide by Pete Johnson. A quick vocabulary starter which doubles as a recommended read.

An addition to past papers on which it is based, with an unseen poem. The unseen feedback w/s enables students to self- or peer-assess each other's work. It can also be used to teach poetry analysis.

This fill in sheet structures how corrections are done and helps students monitor and record where they’re going wrong.

The aim of this series of starters is to show students that they do possess the skills required for the course; also, that the skills required for the non-fiction media paper is the same as for the literature paper and visa versa. There is also a quick test to see if they can evaluate the effect of design or structural features.

In this writing lesson, students exercise both their close reading of fiction - learning from published authors - and writing creatively ‘to demonstrate their narrative and descriptive skills in response to a written prompt, scenario or visual image’, which is the requirement for AQA's new English Paper 1 Section B creative writing question. Whether you're preparing KS3 students for what will be required at GCSE , or revising skills with KS4, these tasks focus on writing for effect and noticing how published writers have done so, which can only promote improvement.

The new AQA English Spec. for teaching from 2015 includes a whole reading and writing paper [Paper 1 in the specimen material] given over to both reading and writing creative material. These exercises can be 'drip-fed' to KS3 and KS4 to help them hone the skills for this task. This set of tasks focuses on descriptive vocabulary and figures of speech. I've marked them A-C in order of how I use them, but they stand alone; the extract handout goes with PPT C. All photographs by Graham Hobbs.

Kids love playing teacher and in this exercise they get to 'mark' Clarence P. Clapp's spelling. The answers are on the second page and can be projected or handed to a group or table to check their marking. If you can, let pupils mark in red pen to add to the game. This work is aimed at weaker KS3 students, but should also suit KS2. 'The Boy who Swam with Piranhas' is written by David Almond, published by Walker Books and is illustrated, so ideal for reluctant readers. As an extra challenge, project a letter table containing a 9-letter word from the task. students should find the 9letter word as well as 4-or more letter words using the letters. Answers are on slide 2.

This 'trial' exam paper is based on the AQA specimen paper for the 2015 Spec to be examined in 2017. The tasks are different, but the style is similar, so this work sheet can be used as exercises with current KS3s to familiarise them with the type of task, or as revision with KS4 in the future. The PP starter gives them a strategy when faced with a similar exam paper and some extracts to inspire their writing. On the last slide an extra click of the mouse [when they've had time to try] reveals the answers.

This resource covers two lessons or a lesson and a homework for Chap.3 and . I set the Chapter 3 questions as homework and went over the answers on the PP in class and ended with the newspaper article, but the lesson could as easily begin with the questions and the newspaper article set as homework. Handout sheet 1 has the differentiated questions for homework or independent class work, including a word game for those who enjoy them. The second handout sheet is to help weaker students with the newspaper article. Time taken going over the answers and explaining them will be well spent as even the basic retrieval questions require some thought. Help the students notice how the author gives the reader a lot of information, some of which will be vital clues to future events, but ensures that it is not boring even though very little actually happens. With the newspaper article, emphasise that the factual information comes first, the 'story' is there for those who are interested in more information. Chapter 4's lesson is covered by a PP and focuses chiefly on Sig's character. A word document worksheet allows for 2 levels of help with the task.

This quiz is foremost about remembering key quotes by remembering the covered word. Students discuss the relevance of the quote and what points it could evidence as well as which story it belongs to. In this way it could be used as a starter. To build on this, students could create their own quote quiz, perhaps working in groups and focusing on a particular story. An alternative strategy is to give students the fill-in sheet to do first, in pairs or groups, thus making the feedback ‘quiz’ session livelier (recommended with a weaker group). If there isn’t time for students to make their own quizzes as a plenary, they can at least find one more quote to share with the class. Having a filled in sheet (corrected) gives students handy notes for revision. However, don’t despair if paper use / printing/copying is limited: so that each student can be given a different slide [or slides] to prepare, the page is arranged to make cutting it into strips do-able.