This is a straightforward comprehension activity using an excerpt from George Gissing’s letter in which he airs his views about bank holidays. There are 12 questions, answering which will ensure that the student thinks about Gissing’s viewpoint and the effects of the methods used to express this viewpoint. Could be used for homework or set as cover. Alternatively, the questions could be used to structure a guided reading or a revision session. Straightforward enough to be set for home learning.

A straightforward comprehension activity, useful for homework, for cover, for home learning - or the questions could be used to structure a guided reading session. There is a short extract from the Sherlock Holmes story, “The Five Orange Pips” and then there are 11 questions focused, in the main, on analysis and inference.

This is a straightforward comprehension activity using a recount by George Finch and describing extreme weather during an expedition to climb Mount Everest. There are ten questions requiring a focus on analysis of the writer’s methods as well as some inference. The questions could be used as a starting point for a guided reading session and are useful for revision of key reading skills.

This is a straightforward comprehension activity, useful for home learning, for homework, for cover or to structure a guided reading activity (perhaps to assess and support the key reading skills of inference and anaysis). There are ten questions.

This is a multiple-choice quiz with 14 questions used to support the teaching of “A Christmas Carol” by giving students a bit of context in terms of Victorian poverty. Answers are provided. This could be used as a starter activity, as (originally planned) as homework or to structure a guided reading activity with less confident learners - some questions lend themselves to further discussion of ‘how’ and ‘why’ the writer’s methods work as they do.

This is a short and simple activity that could be used as a homework, as a starter activity or for cover. It focuses on some of the reading skills that will be tested on AQA English Language Paper 2 and could be used to build students’ knowledge of the context of “A Christmas Carol”.

This is a 30 slide powerpoint (intended to go across more than an hour!) planned for a year 11 group who are lacking in confidence. The texts used are excerpts from “Frankenstein” and “Dracula” (older texts than would be used in the exam, but not infringing copyright!) and the focus on reading is interspersed with some recall questions focusing on writing as well as a short writing task based on an image. Modelling is used prior to asking students to tackle questions independently. There are two examples of question 1 (information retrieval). Easily editable so that you can remove/add slides to increase the level of challenge for your own class. My intention was to ask students to glue into their books the shorter extracts which is why they appear at the end of the ppt for ease of printing. The longer extract from “Frankenstein” is a separate Word document.

This resource uses a poem called “The Walkers” by Robert William Service. The poem uses strong contrast to explore ideas about wealth and poverty - and gender. As a consequence, this poem would sit neatly alongside the teaching of “An Inspector Calls”. The resource features a multiple-choice quiz with 14 questions (answers provided) which is intended to furnish students with some ideas that they can then use in a response to the question: How does the writer express the two speakers’ ideas about where and why they walk? Suitable for use in class, for homework or as a task for home learning. *Please be aware that the female speaker has been driven to prostitution through poverty and there are references to this in the poem. *

This is a simple and straightforward activity using the opening of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula’s Guest”. There are four, short tasks dealing with vocabulary, information retrieval, inference and analysis. Useful for homework or as home learning. Could be used to structure a guided reading activity. Could be used for flipped learning prior to analysing the next (more gothic) segment of the story in class. Useful for students at KS3 or to embed key sklls and build confidence at KS4.

This is a simple and straightforward resource using an excerpt from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story, “The Terror of Blue John Gap”. There are ten questions, focusing on vocabulary, inference and analysis. This resource could be used for homework or set as cover. Alternatively, the questions could be used to structure a guided reading session.

This straightforward activity uses an excerpt from Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story, “The Horror of the Heights” in which an aviator discovers a new ecosystem at a height of 40,000 feet. The tasks increase in difficulty and focus on: vocabulary, information retrieval, inference and analysis. Useful for homework, home learning or cover. Could be used with a small group to structure a guided reading activity.

This activity uses an excerpt from “The Beetle” by Richard Marsh which could slot into a unit on monsters, horror, tension and so on. It could be used for homework, as a cover activity or for small group work, to structure a guided reading session. The resource has the extract, taken from early in the novel, and the questions focus on vocabulary, information retrieval, inference, comprehension (of the structure) and analysis. The questions could be tweaked for greater depth or alternatively used as a springboard into a discussion of greater depth. The resource was planned for KS3 but could be used at KS4 to develop students’ confidence in reading this kind of challenging text.

This straightforward task uses a couple of paragraphs of Charles Dickens’ impressions of travelling in France and there are 20 multiple-choice questions (answers provided) which could be set as homework to form part of a unit on Dickens, used for pre-reading or flipped learning or used to structure a guided reading or catch-up session.

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.

This is a multiple-choice quiz on Oscar Wilde’s poem, “La Mer”. There are 14 questions. Answers are provided. I have set this as homework prior to using class time to explore the poem as an unseen in response to this question: How does the poem present ideas about the natural world? Answers are provided so that peer/self assessment can be used. Alternatively, the questions could be used to struture a guided reading/catch-up session. Some questions lend themselves to further exploration - for example, having identified that the alliteration is on the letter ‘s’ the students could be prompted to think about what that sibilance suggests about the natural world.

This is a multiple choice quiz with 25 questions (answers provided) that could be used as a homework, as a revision activity or as a flipped learning activity, to support students working from home as they work through the poem independently - and then for the teacher to identify gaps in knowledge and understanding prior to teaching the poem. Alternatively, the questions could be used to structure a small-group revision or catch-up session. Some questions lend themselves to further exploration of the poem; others assess whether basic knowledge is in place.

This is a 20-question multiple-choice quiz on Thomas Hardy’s “Neutral Tones”. It could be used for revision, for homework after the poem has been covered in class or as a flipped learning activity so that the students read the poem and attempt the quiz prior to teaching - that way, subsequent teaching can be targeted towards gaps and misconceptions. Answers are provided so that the task can be self or peer-assessed.

This is a very basic powerpoint display - one ppt is a list of language methods; one is a list of structural methods. Useful on the classroom wall for students to remind themselves which is which so they don’t analyse language when asked to explore structure - or vice versa. Could be made more detailed with examples of each method or could be jazzed up with colour or images.

This powerpoint was used very early in my teaching of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ to year 7. The overall aim is to establish whether Puck is a typical or an atypical fairy. The lesson begins with a focus on the meaning of ‘typical’, after which the pupils are asked to work together to create an acrostic poem using ideas about typical fairies. After that, the pupils are asked to work independently to write a cinquain about a typical fairy. The lesson then shifts to focus on a prose description of the fairy wood (from a re-telling of the play’s story) and the pupils are asked to identify aspects that are typical of fairies and aspects that are atypical, explaining their choices. This skill is then developed with a focus on Puck’s conversation with the fairy in which he outlines his role as Oberon’s jester. First of all, the extract is read and there is a quiz to aid understanding. Once any misconceptions have been identified and addressed through peer marking of the quiz, the pupils are asked to complete a grid explaining which aspects of Puck’s character are typical of a fairy and which aspects are atypical. Also provided is a multiple-choice quiz for homework, the intention of which is to embed and consolidate some of the learning from the lesson.

This short and simple activity could be used for cover or set as homework. Alternatively, the questions could be used to structure a guided reading session. The excerpt is Oberon’s short speech about the part of the enchanted wood where Titania sleeps. There are thirteen questions requiring some simple analysis - and the final question could be used as an extension task - asking the pupils to evaluate a simple statement. Suggested answers are provided