Material I generated for the old AQA style creative writing controlled assessments - it still resonates with the new AQA Paper 1 Section B style questions (inspired by images). You'll need a copy of the film and you'll need to alter the Learning Outcomes (they are all set against the old AQA English Language Coursework criteria).

I had a lot of fun with this unit of work. The premise is simple: to explore the Shakespearean Sonnet form and to create your own Shakespearean Sonnet. There is a also a focus on spelling too. Included in this pack is a lesson I have also sold elsewhere - just saying!

I enjoy teaching this lesson in and around poetry units of work. Essentially, it demonstrates three different approaches to creating poetry, culminating in the students creating their own Shakespearean Sonnets (you'll struggle to get this done in a single lesson - I designed this for a double period). You'll need the following to complete this lesson: 2 different coloured paper types Glue Scissors The students to have prior knowledge of the Shakespearean Sonnet Form Enjoy.

I wrote these lessons a while ago, but I remember getting some positive responses to the story AND the creative writing tasks. For this, you will need some of those old AQA anthologies (the one that came BEFORE Sunlight on the Grass) - one of the short stories was called "My Shoes". The content, for those who don't remember, is rather more orientated towards KS4 than KS3, but the creative writing that comes from this resonates with the kids I taught at the time. Hopefully you'll find this useful.

PREMISE: You are going to enter the Castle of Terror to save Santa Clause. He has been kidnapped by the evil Necromancer, Alan. His devilish plan is to suck the Xmas spirit out of Santa, and use it to power his horde of undead. He has banded together with the Orcs and Goblins of the nearby Dark Forest. They will protect him whilst he finishes his experiments. You must hurry. The fate of Christmas rests with you… A mission pack that builds on the free D6 Dungeons and Dragons lesson I created. Print this off (delete the first slide though) for students, or set it up as a power point for the Dungeon Master. All the kids I tried it with loved it. Some of the quotes: "Voldemorts stolen my nose! Give me back my Magic Dagger!" "You are the worst re-animated corpse EVER!" "I use my Staff of Uncertainty to turn you into a Gibbon." A seriously creative lesson. Enjoy. PS - I've also added the initial lesson (Lesson 1) as a starting point for the kids - gets a bit complicated otherwise.

I am vexed (greatly vexed) at the generally poor quality of creative writing with students these days - they do tend to have a lot of their thinking done for them. Sadly, it seems to be something that is leeched out of them by a combination of an aggressive curriculum and teenage priorities. So, this is my answer - DUNGEONS and DRAGONS (Or D6 Dungeons and Dragons as I am now calling it). Simply put, it's a very simplified version of the original Dungeon's and Dragons - you need only a D6 (One dice), pens, paper and this power point to play. Try it out - I had some huge success with year 8, 9 and 11 classes instead of playing DVDs in the build up to the Christmas Break - it would work just as well for Easter, Summer and stand alone lessons where you have an awkward space to fill. Use this lesson when you are trying to answer this question - how can I teach kids to be more creative? There is some initial effort required on your part though - you will have to be the Dungeon Master in the example - but once you've got past this part, I am willing to bet you could leave the room and the kids won't have noticed. Additionally, I will be creating a series of themed "mission packs" for Christmas, Easter and Summer - you'll have to buy these (they take a while to make), but the start point is yours for free!!! LINK to Christmas Mission Pack - THE CASTLE OF TERROR! https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/d6-dungeons-and-dragons-christmas-mission-pack-the-castle-of-terror-11462671

5 Lessons and supporting resources that assist with the revision of this particular unit of the AQA English Literature Examination. I cover the following poems (my students identified these ones as the toughies): The Prelude Exposure Remains The Emigree Kamikaze Each poem has a revision style lesson (it assumes prior knowledge of the poem on the part of the student, but they also make good starting points if you are cracking through the poems at a fair old pace). Each poem also has a revision card attached - we use these as tools in their own right, and I will be creating one for each of the poems soon enough. The unit finishes on a GCSE style question where they have to compare Ozymandias to one of the poems they have studied. Hopefully you’ll find this useful.

An 84 page long booklet that provides you with the following: A thematic table A section for each poem where you can find a copy of the poem, a notes page (complete with helpful guidance), generic revision and exam questions and a response page A comparative table A copy of the mark criteria I have also included the documents I used to make this just in case you want to make a different version yourself. Enjoy, and be poetic. ALTERATION: I’ve updated the resource now - found one or two typos. Also, I’ve added in a grid that allows for a variety of themes to be “graded” in terms of how present a theme is: I’ve found this to be an engaging way of getting the students to compare. Finally, I’ve added a small section at the end about the different types of poetic forms.

A collection of resources I have used to introduce KS3 (specifically year 7) students to poetry with a view to them writing their own anthology, and exploring an unseen poem.

Three quick and easy tasks with supporting images. Ideal for quick and easy filler lesson, or as building into a larger scheme.

A simple spreadsheet that is designed to track the progress of an entire KS3 cohort from Year 7 to the end of Year 9. I have LOCKED each of the TABS of the spreadsheet using the NAME OF THE TAB itself (minus the spaces and as it appears with capital letters and numbers). This will stop any of the codes being deleted accidentally. Hope this saves people some time.

A resource dump for my first attempt at preparing a middle set year 9 class for the rigours of the new GCSE - some success, but the class dynamic was more of a problem than the lesson resources themselves. Some editing may be required, but if you are wondering about how to approach the Section B parts of the exams, this covers a lot of bases.

I designed this for the old AQA specification. Now that the spec is obsolete, some of you might be thinking of turning those stacks and stacks of anthologies into resources for KS3 classes (we certainly are for year 9). As a result, you may find this booklet useful. The booklet is essentially a copy of the entire anthology where on the left hand side of a double page spread you have the text, and on the right hand side you have space for notes. Each story is ended with generic questions and has TWO exam questions for revision purposes. Perfect for planning lessons when you are taking an extended period of time off. Happy reading.

A complete unit of work including source poems, videos and mp3 versions of poets reading their poems. Differentiated for higher, middle and lower ability classes (each lesson back ground has a slightly different colour for an easy visual guide), this is a unit of work I designed with my Head of Key Stage 3 hat on at my last school - an entire year group was successfully taught this unit. A real success.

Numerous lessons (though as you’ll see they can be expanded/contracted as meets your need) surrounding the teaching of Phillip Pullman’s Northern Lights (a quite awesome book) to a Key Stage 3 class. I taught this unit to a top and bottom set and got a lot out of it in terms of enjoyment and successful creative writing. I will be using it as a starting point for a reading assignment with very little modification. May your daemon guide you well. ADDITION: I have adapted the material to be more focused on GCSE Language creative skills, and incorporated material drawn from the BBC series His Dark Materials. The “newer” lessons are aimed for higher ability students and deal with some more specific creative writing issues like dialogue.

There doesn't seem to be much out there for DNA, which is a shame really as it's a great text to study. Attached are ALL of the DNA resources I have created; hopefully this will give you a few different ideas and starting points. This is a mish-mash of resources from three years of teaching this text across two schools. Some organising and sifting-through is needed here.

Attached is a spreadsheet that does an awful lot of work for you. To summarise, it does the following: Allows for easy collation of GCSE Language marks on a paper by paper basis AND as a whole examination Allows for easy identification of various student demagraphics - EAL, PP and so on Allows you to measure progress against students best, average and last marks across both papers Works out "how many marks" until you hit target grades for individual students Colour codes grades and marks to allow for at a glance progress checks Once you buy this spreadsheet, you will not need to get another LANGUAGE spreadsheet. The document contains instructions on the ARRAY tab as to how to update . Oh, and if you do get this, I suggest you LOCK the individual spreadsheets ASAP: the document is set up to allow you to do this and still enter the data, you just won't be able to accidentally delete any of the coding, thus removing any brain overloads that might ensue. I am using this at my current school and there are several other schools who are using this system with good reports. Happy spread-sheeting! PS - Yes, there is a page that reads exactly the same but for a version that caters for the AQA Literature course. The spreadsheets are different. Here's the link/address to the LITERATURE version: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/aqa-english-literature-data-collation-spreadsheet-aka-the-machine-11405407

Attached is a spreadsheet that does an awful lot of work for you. To summarise, it does the following: Allows for easy collation of GCSE Literature marks on a paper by paper basis AND as a whole examination Allows for easy identification of various student demagraphics - EAL, PP and so on Allows you to measure progress against students best, average and last marks across both papers Works out "how many marks" until you hit target grades for individual students Colour codes grades and marks to allow for at a glance progress checks Once you buy this spreadsheet, you will not need to get another LITERATURE spreadsheet. The document contains instructions as to how to update the spreadsheet. Oh, and if you do get this, I suggest you LOCK the individual spreadsheets ASAP: the document is set up to allow you to do this and still enter the data, you just won't be able to accidentally delete any of the coding, thus removing any brain overloads that might ensue. Happy spread-sheeting!

Hopefully this will spare some of you the torture of having to create your own mock exam papers within the IGCSE English format.

Another experiment with mixed success. Attempted with a particularly apathetic bottom set year 10 group and got some decent Band 3s - I felt they left a lot out on the field so to speak. There is a lot of scope for taking this idea and developing it - if Gove leaves off the specification (unlikely) I will be coming back for a second crack at this. If not, I will modify it for a KS3 scheme in the future. Happy trails.