All my resources are aimed at teaching students to the top, that's the USP! You can find them on the UK's second largest English teaching channel, Mr Salles Teaches English, and also see how I deliver them there. If you want to be an even better teacher, try The Slightly Awesome Techer, https://amzn.to/2GtQu6l
All my resources are aimed at teaching students to the top, that's the USP! You can find them on the UK's second largest English teaching channel, Mr Salles Teaches English, and also see how I deliver them there. If you want to be an even better teacher, try The Slightly Awesome Techer, https://amzn.to/2GtQu6l
The document contains every word spoken by the witches, or about them. Very useful for annotation.
However, each page is highlighted with the most relevant quotations.
The real merit of this resource is the video which goes with it. Students can take notes from this and consider;
The context of Jacobean England.
King James and his views on witchcraft.
Shakespeare’s possible view of witchcraft.
Shakespeare’s politics.
The nature of the patriarchal society and Shakespeare’s possible views on this.
How the witches mirror Lady Macbeth.
This complete scheme of work teaches students through:
Lesson activities to develop the skills of reading and writing
Examiners's advice as well as the criteria
Links to demonstration videos
Ways to improve spelling and punctuation
Assessments
Model answers of varying quality for students to assess and improve
A teaching sequence to use and remember Rhetorical techniques
A mnemonic to remember these techniques: AH!FASTERCROCH
A PLC (Personal Learning Checklist)
What the resource includes:
13 Steps: Just tell me what to do. These steps will make sure any story or description is at least grade 7
Sample question
What does the mark scheme say? Translated for students to understand.
Model Answer, at under 600 words, possible for a student to write under exam conditions.
The Importance of Planning the Ending - this is much easier than planning the whole story, especially under exam conditions.
11 things the model teaches, and that the examiner really wants
Where do ideas come from? Guidance on how to get started.
3 great jokes
Here’s the beginning. Hope you like it.
Tycoon
I loved being a Geezer, a wheeler, a dealer. Loved it. Every Christmas we’d celebrate; a great family get together. And I was always The Man, Top Dog, El Numero Uno.
I started out in stations, really small. You’d barely notice me: one more ant in the ant hive. Nostalgia was my USP then. I set up as a shoe shine boy and many passengers enjoyed the anachronistic joke. I made a few bob. But coins, and I wanted some of the folding. Who doesn’t love money? The crisp feel of it, fresh out of the bank.
And then it hit me. The Victorians. Top hats, bowler hats, starched collars, canes. I started to dress the part, and the customers began to flood in.
What next? Moved to a bigger station: King’s Cross, then franchised a mate in Euston.
Here’s the beginning. Hope you like it.
Amarillo Slim
So it happens one time in Mindy’s, which is a favourite with many prominent citizens on Broadway, when I get to talking to Amarillo Slim about this and that. Amarillo Slim is well known to one and all on account of his nose for the Vig. Indeed, many have got plenty potatoes following Slim’s nose and like many citizens, I am always happy to put more potatoes in my pockets.
I notice Slim is not holding his whiskey and soda, which is his usual liquor, but is holding a bottle of cola which, as most citizens will tell you, does not offer a good time. Slim talks about this and that, being mostly horses, and five card stud, and I notice he has the Daily Post open to a page that has no horses on it.
Slim says nothing about this and I ask him about the disappearing whiskey. He says, “you should try this cola, there’s plenty potatoes here.”
Slim is not seen at Mindy’s for some time, but I get to think about him anyway, because he leaves behind the Daily Post open to a page on table tennis, which is little followed on Broadway. Indeed, there are many guys and dolls who suppose it is another name for making eyes and sneaking peaks at each other in a crowded restaurant when plans are made without words.
What this resource includes:
Mnemonic to remember rhetorical, persuasive techniques: MAD FATHERS CROCH
How to plan an answer
9 skills necessary in a top answer
The mark scheme explained
Model answer
Model answer, annotated and explained
Why exam topics will never be interesting
Sample topics and question
Here is the beginning of the text:
Countdown to Grammar Schools
I’ll have an opinion please Rachel. And a hyperbole. And another hyperbole. Yes, now an opinion…(repetition)
Michael, you have a six letter word: Brexit. Congratulations. Yes, it is now in the dictionary. And Theresa, you have a seven letter word: grammar, where would we be without it? Congratulations, you are today’s winner. (anecdote and humour)
And so we sprint towards an uncertain future, stiffened by the shouts of opinion and hyperbole: parents of progress or decline? The countdown clock will tell. (several metaphors, using emotive language, alliteration, contrasting pairs)
But what if we count up, instead of down? What if we looked at some numerical facts about grammar schools? What if, unlike the fact-free Brexit debate, everything we needed to know were contained in one place, indeed, one spreadsheet? Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Gov.uk performance tables. Make yourselves at home in a world of facts.* (rhetorical questions, rule of three, creating an enemy, alliteration, emotive language, direct address, metaphor)*
Opinion 1: grammar schools increase social mobility.
Fact: The number of disadvantaged students in year 11 in selective schools in 2015 was 1389, 4% of their year 11. Social mobility, or mobility scooter? How do these students do? With these cherry picked few, 89% make expected progress in English, and similarly in maths. Not shabby. So, for disadvantaged students, grammar schools could work, if only they could push through the weighted doors. We need to dramatically increase their number. *(fact and opinion, statistics, metaphor, contrasting pairs, emotive language, metaphor, direct address) *
By this stage, then, I have already used all the rhetorical techniques in MAD FATHERS CROCH. That’s in the first 215 words. You have 45 minutes, in which you ought to be able to write double this length. If you practise using these techniques, one at a time, they will become second nature to you.
Here is an interesting fact for you. Yes, I am an English teacher, but I have only been commissioned to write articles since I published my book on the 15th of August 2016. In other words, the only training I have had in using these techniques is teaching them in class. This means that over the course of year 10 and 11 you can practise them at least as many times as I have.
This resource includes two model pieces of writing, one at grade 6, the other at grade 9.
Apart from the marking criteria, the grade 6 is characterised as such because it has several weaknesses:
It’s too short for 40 minutes of writing
Too many paragraphs start the same way
Too many sentences start the same way
There are few rhetorical devices (MAD FATHERS CROCH)
Although it shows off with commas, it doesn’t show off other punctuation
Although the beginning is a little original, the ending isn’t
Paragraphs are organized, but not crafted for impact
The grade 9 piece is divided into one sentence per slide, to show 3 rhetorical devices in each, which are made explicit.
These are rhetorical devices contained in the mnemonic MAD FATHERS CROCH. The most powerful one of these, in that it helps facilitate most of the others, is the use of Triplets.
There are also two instructional videos for this resource, one aimed at why students get stuck at grade 6. The other is explicit about how to get grade 9.
Teach students how to write about sentence forms.
How to narrow this down to complex sentences, and see why nearly any description will have a list.
How to write about the effect on the reader.
See three texts which use complex sentences in a list.
Teach students how good writers use complex sentences with contrast to manipulate the reader’s thoughts or feelings.
Apply this to the specimen papers.
Here’s the beginning. I hope you like it.
The Face
I don’t think you understand, do you? I mean, how could you, how could you possibly? I suppose, when you look at me, when you truly look at me, you don’t really see what’s there. That’s the point. My eye, how it fixes you with an open stare, how it dares you to look away. You’re not used to that, are you?
You remember me. Everyone remembers me. England’s queen of starts, going on the B of Bang. The gold medals, always the gold medals, the impossible comebacks. 2020, 2024. I’m a legend, a national treasure, an inspiration. And of course the honours – Sports Personality of the Year, twice, Dame: Kathy Stringer, invincible, indomitable, incredible me.
This resource includes a sample text, with a key for difficult vocabulary. It has a sample question and answers. It dovetails with the specimin paper you may have used as a mock, with different questions.
The best way to use this is as part of the bundle on Paper 2, Questions 1-4!
Here is the beginning.
Question 1
Remember, you will get a 20th or 21st century text to go with your 19th century text in the exam. However, for copyright reasons, I will avoid a modern text. This does have the added benefit for you of getting familiar with the kind of convoluted sentences older texts use, so that you will be better prepared for the exam.
Here is an example of a text from Dickens that is used in the specimen papers:
Greenwich Fair: Where Dickens let his hair down
Charles Dickens is writing in 1839 about a fair in London which was a popular annual event he enjoyed.
The road to Greenwich during the whole of Easter Monday is in a state of perpetual bustle and noise. Cabs, hackney-coaches1, ‘shay’ carts2, coal-waggons, stages, omnibuses3, donkey- chaises2 - all crammed with people, roll along at their utmost speed. The dust flies in clouds, ginger-beer corks go off in volleys, the balcony of every public-house is crowded with people smoking and drinking, half the private houses are turned into tea-shops, fiddles are in great request, every little fruit-shop displays its stall of gilt gingerbread and penny toys; horses won’t go on, and wheels will come off. Ladies scream with fright at every fresh concussion and servants, who have got a holiday for the day, make the most of their time. Everybody is anxious to get on and to be at the fair, or in the park, as soon as possible.
The chief place of resort in the daytime, after the public-houses, is the park, in which the principal amusement is to drag young ladies up the steep hill which leads to the Observatory4, and then drag them down again at the very top of their speed, greatly to the derangement of their curls and bonnet-caps, and much to the edification of lookers-on from below. ‘Kiss in the Ring5,’ and ‘Threading my Grandmother’s Needle5,’ too, are sports which receive their full share of patronage.
Sheila Birling as you have probably never thought about her before, and in more detail than your students have thought about before.
Here’s a sample from the beginning:
“He must be deformed somewhere”.
This is part of a series of 5 short extracts on Hyde. They will enable your students to answer any essay on Hyde. Each extract is explicitly linked to the following 5 themes. Understanding any two of these fully ought to be enough to gain a grade 7. Referencing more than 2 is likely to propel students into grade 8.
Key words and phrases are analysed in each slide and linked to each of the 5 themes.
I’m pricing this as cheaply as TES will allow! If you really want a bargain, buy all 5 extracts in the bundle!
If you want any help on how to teach them, follow the links to thee videos.
Christian Morality Tale
Fear of Scientific Progress
Repressed Homosexuality
Love of the Gothic and Detective Genres
Hypocrisy of Middle Class Men
This beautiful presentation will help your students remember the 14 most important quotations to think and write about Macbeth’s character. They are also presented in the order you would use them in an essay on Macbeth. Print them off as revision cards. Get your students to write paragraphs on the back, incorporating the quotation. Put them together to construct the essay. Use the best essays to teach the rest of your class how to succeed.
AQA likes to test the novel by asking students to compare Pip to another character. This is my top tip for 2018.
Students often struggle to find interesting comparisons and fail to write about Dickens’ purpose.
This resource introduces four big ideas which will allow your students to write confidently about Dickens’ purpose.
It also provides 20 ideas and 20 quotations for them to use in their essay.
Most quotations, as you can see, are detailed, so that you can give your students practice in selecting judiciously, and so that they learn to embed quotations in their sentences.
Below is a sample of the first 4 ideas:
This is a really in depth analysis of Gerald, and you will see him differently after you have read it. Your students will have a completely new perspective.
Here is an extract to show you what I mean:
Gerald’s Affair with Daisy Renton
Although Sheila is the first to expose Gerald’s affair at the start, the language they both use strongly hints that she will forgive him after breaking off the engagement and that, after the end of the play, they will marry.
Gerald’s first impulse is to lie, because Priestley wants to present all capitalists as hypocrites. He denies knowing any “Eva Smith”. Sheila points out that she knows he is simply using his intelligence to maintain a veneer of honesty, as he knew her as “Daisy Renton”. This is called sophistry – using clever arguments which appear true but which the speaker knows to be false.
Although Sheila insists on the truth, her language is also a kind of sophistry. She uses euphemism. Instead of asking for how long he had sex with Daisy, she only insists he “knew her very well”. This is important, as while she is at her most angry now, her own language minimises what he has done. This will make it much easier for her to forgive him in the future. Clever as he is, Gerald picks up on this weakness in her resolve, calling her “darling” in order to manipulate her.
He immediately asks her to keep the affair secret from The Inspector. This might seem astonishingly arrogant. However, Priestley is again showing the corruption of the patriarchy. He expects a woman to protect him even at the expense of her own happiness, in return for the financial security and status that marriage to him will offer her.
“With ape-like fury”.
This is part of a series of 5 short extracts on Hyde. They will enable your students to answer any essay on Hyde. Each extract is explicitly linked to the following 5 themes. Understanding any two of these fully ought to be enough to gain a grade 7. Referencing more than 2 is likely to propel students into grade 8.
Key words and phrases are analysed in each slide and linked to each of the 5 themes.
I’m pricing this as cheaply as TES will allow! If you really want a bargain, buy all 5 extracts in the bundle!
If you want any help on how to teach them, follow the links to thee videos.
Christian Morality Tale
Fear of Scientific Progress
Repressed Homosexuality
Love of the Gothic and Detective Genres
Hypocrisy of Middle Class Men
We all know rhyme and music aid memory. What if you could get your students to learn their quotations this way? Here is a rap, based on Eminem’s Slim Shady, to help your students remember 50 quotations! Most struggle to reach 10, because they don’t challenge their memory.
Students will also love the challenge of setting their own quotations to a song they love - the rap need only be a way in to their own creativity. Students learn what they think hard about, and showing them how to adapt quotations to their own favourite songs is a tried and tested way to do this.
You’ll find my video to help you - students will like this, as I am unable to rap, and feel they can do much better. There is also another video, by Spitting Ink, a real rapper, showing how to adapt the quotations to a song of their own.
Here is a sample of the lyrics:
AQA typically asks students to write about two characters, Pip and another. This can lead to very superficial comparisons, or uneven essays.
The attached resource gives students 20 ideas, and 20 quotations they could include in their essay.
It also shows students the three big ideas connected to Dickens’ purpose, which will lead to grades 7, 8 and 9.
Quotations are deliberately long, so that your students learn to select telling detail.
Here is a sample of the first 3 ideas:
This resource teaches students how to use
Here is an extract to show you what this resource teaches.
What does the AQA mark scheme say?
Convincing
Critical analysis
Conceptualised
Exploration of context to author’s and contemporary readers’ perspectives
Give interpretation(s)
Response to the whole text
Analyse it as a play, and deal with the structure
Precise references
Analysis of writer’s methods
Subject terminology used judiciously
Exploration of effects of writer’s methods on reader
They basically mean this:
What you must do
Give more than one interpretation of the characters or events.
Make sure you write about Priestley’s viewpoint and ideas about his society at the time, in 1945
Write about how the society of 1945 would respond to these ideas, characters and events.
Write about the ending of the play, to show how characters have or haven’t changed
Write about the ending to show Priestley’s viewpoint.
When you do it, make sure you
Embed quotations all the time
Only use terminology if it helps explain an idea
Better still, go back and look at the words in bold in the short essay. This is subject terminology.
What does “subject terminology” mean?
The words a student of literature at university would use in nearly every literature essay. You could argue that connectives fall under this category as well, if you want.
How do you integrate context?
All the italics in the short essay is context. Sometimes this is the context of the world inside the play, at other times it is Priestley’s viewpoint and history, and at others it is the shared experience or viewpoints of his contemporary audience.
You should notice that it is impossible to write about any author’s purpose or viewpoint without delving into context, which makes it very easy to integrate as part of the evidence for your interpretation.
Now we’ve read the key criteria from Edexcel, you can see that “what you must do”, and “make sure you” work perfectly for this exam board as well. There’s a reason for that, whichever exam board you study: literature essays always demand the same skills.
Eric is analysed in more depth than you’ve ever read before. You’ll know him better than you’ve ever done before, and your students will be able to excel.
Here is a small sample so you can see what I mean: