Created for a year 8 class but suitable at the top of KS2 as well as KS3, this lesson uses the poem “Leisure” by William Henry Davies and asks the pupils to update the poem for their own context. Prior to that, however, the pupils are asked to explore and comment on the effect of the long vowel sounds and the simile used in the poem, being able to explain what is Davies’ message in the poem. My own class worked in pairs to create their own poems and I was genuinely impressed by many of the outcomes! They seemed to find that matching their ideas to Davies’ structure worked as a scaffold.

Planned for my year 9 class as part of a unit of work on Journeys, introducing the skills and tasks of English GCSE, I have also used this with a year 10 group as we begin to tackle the unseen poetry question for English Literature. It uses Shakespeare’s sonnet 50 and is an opportunity to explore the sonnet form as well as the poet’s use of language and structural features.

This straightforward task uses an excerpt from Oscar Wilde’s story “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime” and the questions are divided into sections echoing many of the reading skills that will be tested at GCSE: information retrieval, inference, analysis of language, analysis of structure and evaluation. Useful as a homework or cover activity. Created as part of a unit of home-learning during lockdown.

A simple powerpoint that can be used for first teaching of the poem but which would also work as cover or as a homework activity. Easily adaptable to set more or fewer tasks from the grid. Could also be extended to explore what aspects of Dunbar’s life and experience could have inspired the poem.

Created as a cover activity for a KS4 class, this uses an image and a GCSE-style task. There are prompts for sentence starters, verb and adjective use and proof-reading. Could be used as a homework activity or for revision. It could also be used to structure and lead a guided writing activity.

This is a simple and straightforward multiple-choice quiz using a charming poem (public domain) with a focus on onomatopoeia as well as some questions to test inference, comprehension and recognition of personification. Answers are provided. Useful as a homework or as a starter.

This is a simple comprehension activity drawing pupils’ attention to the effect of language and structure. Created as a homework task but could also be used for cover or to structure a guided reading activity. Suggested responses are provided to make this more useful for someone who’s not a subject specialist.

This 9-slide powerpoint has the aim: link ideas about the moon to characters in the play. Pupils are invited to think about how the moon is used to deepen the characters of the fairies. The lesson invites discussion and the sharing of ideas, to be recorded in a Venn diagram which is then used as the basis of a more formal written response.

This lesson uses questioning to elicit students’ knowledge of methods used by the writers and understanding of some of their effects. Students are asked to annotate their copies of the poems in the questioning phase of the lesson so that they can then use their notes to spend 40 minutes working independently on both sections of an exam-style question. The two poems used are by John Clare and Walter de la Mare, both called “Winter” (and both in the public domain so no issues with copyright).

This is a straightforward comprehension activity using a recount (from 1883) of an unusual street performer. Made to support students in developing their skills of reading pre 20th century non-fiction, this might come in handy as preparation for AQA English Language paper 2, particularly if you pair it with a more modern text about street performers. Suggested answers are provided.

This is a powerpoint that I have used to take my class through the whole of “A Christmas Carol”. There are 99 slides in total.

This is a straightforward comprehension activity, useful for developing students’ understanding of the context of “A Christmas Carol” and why “some would rather die” than go to the workhouse. There are 10 questions and the activity could be used in class, as a cover activity or for homework. Suggested answers are provided.

This is a multiple choice quiz with 20 questions (answers provided) on Puck’s speech from near the end of the play - “Now the Hungry Lion Roars”. Could be used as homework to secure and embed knowledge once the speech has been studied in class. Could be used as a pre-reading/flipped learning activity. The questions could be used to structure a guided reading session.

This activity uses the description from “Oliver Twist” in which Oliver accompanies Mr Sowerberry to a district of extreme poverty in order to collect a corpse. Accompanying the extract are 12 questions designed to practise and test comprehension. This could be used in class, as a cover activity, to structure a guided reading session or as homework. Useful as part of a unit of work on Charles Dickens. Could be used to add some contextual understanding to the study of “A Christmas Carol” at key stage four.

This is a short powerpoint created for an after-school revision session. It uses an excerpt from a short story by Saki (in the public domain). The last two slides are printables. The first couple of slides are animated to allow questioning. Slide 3 is an opportunity for some shared modelling. Slide 5 is an opportunity to discuss the selection of evidence. Slide 7 is a teacher-created model or demonstration, after which students can be asked to work independently on evidence that they have selected.

This task uses two short extracts, one from Barnardo and one from Dickens. Both describe homeless children living rough in markets. There are 14 questions, two requiring knowledge of “A Christmas Carol” (but this is an editable document so these questions can easily be removed if your students have not studied the text). This task is a good springboard for AQA GCSE English Language paper 2, question 4 - beginning to hone the reading skills which will be tested on that paper.

There are 7 questions here on Thomas Hood’s poetic grumble, “November”. It’s a lyric poem centering on the gloom of a November day in London. Written in 1844. Suggested answers are provided, although these are not definitive. This could be used to structure a guided reading activity. Children could work in pairs or groups and work through the questions, discussing answers. Alternatively, this could be used as a homework activity, for home learning, or for cover.

The text used is abridged from John Steinbeck’s war correspondent reports. This is an account of an attack on a cinema in London, 1943. It is a harrowing account of children’s deaths and injuries and you will be able to decide whether it’s suitable for use with your class. There are ten questions with suggested answers provided. The answers are merely indicative - some students will come up with different, though equally valid, responses. This could be used for cover, set as homework or allocated for home study. Alternatively, the questions could be used to structure a guided reading session.

This is a classroom display. There are three paragraphs of writing with certain features picked out in colour. The second document is the colour-coded annotations, naming the methods used and (very briefly) commenting on their effect. In my classroom, the writing is printed out on A3 paper and the annotations are cut out in strips and stapled around the writing. It’s a Word document so editable.

This is a short and straightforward activity giving students an opportunity to practise and develop the skills of writing an analytical essay about an unseen poem. The poem is “Autumn” by Walter De La Mare. The first slide of the ppt has a copy of the poem and the essay question. The second slide gives students a suggested pattern for tackling the task, the idea being that they should go through each of the steps in every paragraph of their response. The third slide can be used for self/peer assessment and developing the response further.