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.

Teach your students how to use the indicative content to write their revision essay. Then show them how to refine this to a grade 9 essay which can be done under exam conditions. Next teach them from the model. Show exactly how it meets all the exam criteria for AQA and Edexcel. Here is an extract:

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.

Students can achieve grade 7 and above just from reading this - they wouldn’t even have to read the novel! When they do, it will make so much more sense to them. They get a very clear summary, linked to lots of top grade interpretations, ready to simply fit into their essay writing.

A full analysis of the purpose and role of violence in the novel, and a grade 9 essay for your students to learn from or retain for the exam.

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)

This is a 20 minute assembly, or tutor period, or presentation to parents, showing students exactly how to revise so that they remember more of what they study. It shows them the cognitive science behind why revising in very small chunks works over time, and why only revising in the last month before the exams is a very poor strategy. It uses the analogy of eating an elephant to make clear why the best strategy is to revise in 10-20 minute chunks over the whole of year 11, or 10 and 11. It has a highly engaging embedded video of Twilight, Bad Lip Reading, in which you test students on what they have heard. It works - they all chant out the ridiculous answers. Example, what did he slap? Answer: A fish. You can use this to show how dual coding works: marrying images with speech really helps memory and explains why YouTube is your friend or, if you have bought it for your school, GCSEpod. Other explanations are of spaced learning, retrieval practice, interleaving, and elaboration. It also explodes three key myths about revision: reading, cramming and highlighting. You can see what the assembly might look like by watching my video on it in the link with this resource. There are over 50 slides - more than enough to adapt to your context.

Dickens is a master of his craft, but by God, you can tell he was paid by the word, can’t you? Never was a man so in love with a sentence, loaded with clauses, garnished with phrases and then, to add to the confusion, the main clause tagged on at the end. What 16 year old wouldn’t struggle? I’ve abridged this great novel down to 20,000 words, from 27,000. That’s a quarter less time to read it, and a quarter more time to teach the content. Better than that, it actually makes for a more entertaining read. The conversation feels much more natural, and has some real pace. You can easily have your students taking parts. And of course, none of the essential quotations are left out! Here is a sample:

Dickens is a master of his craft, but by God, you can tell he was paid by the word, can’t you? Never was a man so in love with a sentence, loaded with clauses, garnished with phrases and then, to add to the confusion, the main clause tagged on at the end. What 16 year old wouldn’t struggle? I’ve abridged this great novel down to 90,000 words, from 163,000! So each chapter can be read in 20 minutes or less. That’s a 45% reduction in reading time, which buys you an 45% more time to teach your analysis! Better than that, it actually makes for a more entertaining read. The conversation feels much more natural, and has some real pace. You can easily have your students taking parts. As a bonus, I’ve placed in bold the most important quotation in each chapter. This means your students should find it much easier to make notes, and you can find it easier to decide on key passages to approach in your teaching.