What this Resource Includes 6 A4 pages: 7 steps: just tell me what to do to get 100% Sample question Sample Text Model answer Explanation of the mark scheme 4 Common mistakes which students make 4 great jokes

This resource includes: Timing of Questions Paper 1 Exam Tactics Timing of Questions paper 2 Explanation of Grade 8: Critical reading and comprehension Reading skills checklist for papers 1 and 2 Grade 8 Writing Skills Papers 1 and 2 How the Grades 8 and 9 are Calculated 8 Reasons not to read the exam paper first, before you start answering questions The importance of handwriting The importance of spelling The marking tolerance per question, which shows why spelling and handwriting are so important

Students struggle to create interesting plots and characters. This story and presentation shows students how to use a celebrity they know a bit about, and choose a moment of crisis in their lives. Yes, it covers all the usual techniques we all teach: alliteration, simile, metaphor, the senses, etc. But it also pays particular attention to: Repetition Allusion Powerful Verbs Contrast. Overdoing some techniques Minimising adjective and adverb use Showing the character's state of mind. Each paragraph has 3 explicit teaching points. You get two copies of the story - one as a Word document for you to customise or read. The other, in Word, to teach each of three explicit points for each paragraph.

There are 59 ppt slides giving historical context, quotation and interpretation to five key purposes Stevenson may have had in the novella: 1. to tap into the Victoria psyche and fascination with crime and violence 2. to expose the hypocrisy of the middle classes, who he sees as morally corrupt 3. to question the role of God and Christianity 4. to examine the possibility that we are all, at root, simply animals, without a soul. 5. to suggest the homosexuality should not be a crime. Students who understand all of these will almost inevitably be able to access grades 7 and above. You can also find accompanying videos for each of these viewpoints on my YouTube channel, Mr Salles Teaches English, to accompany the slides.

What This Resource Includes 15 Steps: Just tell me what to do The mark scheme Sample question Examiner’s Advice 10 ways to think about structure How to write about the structure of an ending Extract of the ending of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens How to work out Dickens’ purposes as a writer Sample Question Sample Answer Text based on Brighton Rock, by Graham Greene Understanding the context of historical texts Sample text: The Doll’s House, by Damon Runyon How to analyse the structure of each of the 10 paragraphs of The Doll’s House Model Answer getting 100% Model Answer rewritten to 300 words, and still getting 100% 12 things to learn from the model answer How to edit your answer to improve your writing, using far fewer words 7 techniques to reduce your word count 10 great jokes

What This Resource Includes 11 Steps: Just Tell Me What to Do Sample Question What the mark scheme says Why students should always write about complex sentences How to write great complex sentences in students’ own writing How to write about contrast and juxtaposition Model text, based on Brighton Rock 3 Further texts for practice: Little Dorrit, Oliver Twist, Household Worlds extracts Model Answer, to get 100% Model Answer which can be written in the 12 minute time limit, to get 100% 15 skills to learn from the model answer How to move on from PEE paragraphs so students can write more in fewer words, and sound like an expert 10 great jokes

AO1: The Ability to Quote and Explore Interpretations, Including Personal Response The presentation takes students through these four skills: Begin with the author’s purpose Link the author’s purpose to symbolism Refer to the characters as a construct Propose an alternative interpretation Watch my video to see how to teach it.

This story is written to model exactly what students should do to write a story that they can finish within 40 minutes, which is roughly the amount of writing time they get at GCSE. There are no published stories of around 500 words, so I have begun to write my own. Writing one on a real character takes away the fear of planning - students already know how the story starts. There are three copies of the story: 1. Without any annotation 2. With a key to the annotations which teach a range of skills many English teachers ignore: a. The Power of Verbs b. How to introduce the character in an interesting way c How to use humour, not jokes d How to build tension using contrast and juxtaposition e How dialogue must reveal character before plot f The power of repetition and rule of three, or triplets, in building a rhythm h Paragraphing for impact 3. With a key to the annotations which teach the more conventional story writing skills: a. Metaphor b. Similes c. Personification d. Alliteration e. Assonance, Half Rhyme and Hidden Alliteration Finally, you also get a completely free video on how to teach this at: http://bit.ly/WriteAboutARealCharacter The PowerPoint slides which teach this lesson, and which I use in the video are available as a separate resource.

This comprehensive analysis of all 5 questions breaks down AQA Paper 2 into a series of very clear do's and don'ts that students and teachers can easily follow. Examples accompany the advice. The PowerPoint slides are all linked to videos on my YouTube channel, Mr Salles Teaches English, so it is much easier to see how to apply the advice.

What this resource includes: 10 Steps: Just tell me what to do Sample Question 4 Student misconceptions The marks scheme explained Exam tactics Glossary of terms: 15 of them, with 3 examples of each Sample texts: The 39 Steps, by John Buchan, CHAPTER ONE, The Man Who Died Sample texts: Call of the Wild, Jack London, Chapter I. Into the Primitive 11 techniques to teach from these extracts What does the examiner really want? Model Question Model Answer Colour coded Model Answer to show how to get rid of PEE paragraphs and write like an expert The Magic Finger: the technique for finding quotations to write about 14 Skills common to questions 3 and 4

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.

This resource has numerous examples of language features for you to teach your students how to both recognise the writer’s craft, and use them in their own writing. Here is a sample: Juxtaposition: two things that are put close together in order to emphasise the difference between them. • “Give us a pound, mister,” said the beggar, scrolling through the internet on his phone. • The mother, tortured with pain, now smiled beatifically, while the baby, newly released, screamed incessantly. • While the battle raged, the generals sat behind the front lines, drinking beers and stuffing three course meals. Repetition: repeating a word, phrase, or idea. This can be done to emphasise, to create a rhythm or tone, or to reveal a contrast or comparison. Register: In linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular setting. What words give this the register of colloquial, American teenage language? “(Candace runs out to the backyard, she stares in shock upon seeing the rollercoaster, along with horror music) Candace: Phineas, what is this?! Phineas: Do you like it? Candace: Ooh, I’m gonna tell Mom, and when she sees what you’re doing, you are going down. (runs off) Down! Down! Down! D-O-W-N, down!” Which words deal with the idea of writing a novel? “In my mind, I continually entertain myself with fragments of narrative, dialogue and plot twists but as soon as I’m in front of a blank page, they evaporate. I feel stuck. Sometimes I think I should give up, but I have convinced myself that if I can find a way to write more freely and suppress my inner critic, I could finally finish that first draft.”

16 pages of incredible detail made relevant to the play. Obviously, socialism and capitalism are defined. But it includes some amazing parallels between the 1940s and the present day, where the figures for the richest and poorest in society are nearly identical. Explore the extraordinary similarity between the Inspector’s words, and those of the Labour party manifesto of 1945. See how the great unrest, including strikes and killing of workers influened Priestley and his play. Discover the literary tradition Priestley’s play was responding to, and the impulse not to write about WW1. Find out why Priestley chose the cotton mills as his manufacturing business, and why this was so important in 1945. All these facts are explicitly matched to the play, so students can see how to use them in their essays.

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:

What does the examiner’s report teach us about getting top grades when answering questions on Macbeth? Show students how to consider alternative interpretations. How themes and characters develop over time in the play. How to link context to each interpretation, so that it scores highly, and doesn’t just get added in as an irrelevant paragraph. How to come up with interpretations which go beyond what most students will write. The danger of getting subject terminology, and why naming words as parts of speech is likely to lead to lower grades, and will probably preclude a grade 8 or 9. Consider how Macbeth might actually have a deep love for his wife. Or how Macduff deliberately sacrifices his family. Or how Banquo needs Macbeth to become a tyrant king in order to fulfil the prophecy of Fleance’s kingship Or how the supernatural element might not just pander to King James, but actually undermine his belief in the power of witchcraft. The attached video will also teach you this in much more depth, so that you can share it with your students.

This presentation will help you teach the poet’s tone and point of view. It outlines the historical context and the political nature of the poem. It helps you teach the allusions to Macbeth, Ozymandias, Hamlet, and Dulce et Decorum Est, as well as looking at the imagery. Finally, it helps you analyse the poem’s structure and link this to Armitage’s purpose. The accompanying video gives you an indepth instruction on how to link your teaching to the slides.

Mrs Birling as you’ve never thought of her before. This is an analysis which goes much deeper than you would expect. Here is a sample to show you what I mean: But What if Mrs Birling is Right? However, a counter argument to that is how Priestley reveals Eric’s exploitation of Eva last, as though to emphasise that his actions were worse. There is also a further counter argument. Eva could actually have accepted the stolen money. She could actually have accepted Eric’s offer of marriage. And she certainly did tell the charity and Mrs Birling a number of lies: • That she was called Mrs Birling. • That she was married. • That her husband had “deserted her”. So, in terms of the facts, she is quite right to say “The girl had begun by telling us a pack of lies.” When Eva tells her that she wouldn’t take stolen money, Sybil’s reaction “all a lot of nonsense – I didn’t believe a word of it” is not just snobbery. It is also a logical doubt to have given the lies which preceded it. Another psychological problem for Mrs Birling to accept is that Eva would rather commit suicide than take the stolen money, or marry Eric, even though she describes him as “he didn’t belong to her class, and was some drunken young idler”.

What if you could teach your students 3 key skills which would make their essays worth grades 7-9? What if you could show your students 7 mistakes students make, which reduce their marks? And then, what would happen if your students learned to correct those mistakes? Then they would get grades 7, 8 and 9. A poll of over 600 students on my YouTube channel shows that 79% of students think my resources earned them at least one extra grade, and 38% think that they went up by at least two grades. You can find the video which teaches this presentation on Mr Salles Teaches English so that your students can also dramatically improve their grade.