A song that tells a story: so you can use it to help students understand ballad form. The use of quatrains, dialogue, repetition and rhymes will then make more sense. You can also use the song to inspire creative writing e.g. 'The Soldier&'s Letter&'; and 'The Maid&'s Diary&';. Pupils can write their own ballads & learn about rhythm é rhyme. Enjoy using this song as a resource for lessons and concerts! This is my arrangement é recording of a traditional song. See base of lyric sheet for details.

This song tells the story of a tooth fairy who wants to become a surgeon. It may comfort children worried about a wobbly tooth or going into hospital. As well as performing it, pupils can write their own songs/poems about a character who is fed up wants a change. Other creative tasks: diaries, letters, posters &c. The subtext for anyone worried about career choices is: one thing can lead to another. Enjoy using the song as a resource for lessons é concerts! This is my own song é recording so I own the copyright. See base of lyric sheet for details.

A song which creates a character mostly through setting, detail & imagery. As well as performing it, pupils can write their own songs/poems é learn about rhythm é rhyme. Other creative tasks: 'Meeting a Witch&', diaries, letters, posters éc. it can also introduce ballad form. This helps quatrains, dialogue, imagery, repetition, refrains é rhymes to make more sense. The use of metaphor é simile to create mood can be studied, too. Enjoy using the song as a resource for lessons é concerts! This is my own song é recording so I own the copyright. See base of lyric sheet for details.

This song tells a story through first-person description. As well as performing it, pupils can write stories, poems, songs e.g. ‘Letter from a Ghost’. They learn about creating atmosphere with detail, imagery, rhythm & rhyme. In literature lessons, the song can introduce storytelling poems, monologues, setting, repetition é cyclical structure. Enjoy using this song as a resource for lessons é concerts! This is my own song é recording so I own the copyright. See base of lyric sheet for details.

This works as an introduction to Shakespeare's characters and stories for young children. It also gives older pupils the experience of working with Shakespeare&'s raw materials of character, motive and props. This makes them think about how he wrote for the stage: crucial for gaining marks in Shakespeare exams!\nPlease read Lesson Notes to understand how it works.\nI have provided two of the sheets in a version with cartoons: Characters and Props. Useful if you are doing this in an MFL. The other sheets would probably need a translation on the back. Have fun!

A practical, hands-on way to get pupils to understand that Shakespeare wrote for the stage. You can print this out and give it to pupils as an introduction to speaking Shakespeare themselves - there are examples and things to listen out for, as well as connections made with how song lyrics use imagery to convey emotion. The idea is simple: these aren't books: they&'re plays - so play with them! You may want to give this sheet out one page at a time - it&';s up to you!

A puppet lobster explains the bizarre imagery that Dickens uses to influence our feelings throughout ‘A Christmas Carol’. ‘Like a bad lobster in a dark cellar,’ for example. This five-minute film engages pupils in finding their own examples of Dickens’ figurative language. It emphasies how important it is not just to label them ‘simile’, ‘personification’ and so on, but also to feel their emotional power. This in turn helps pupils to remember them and to write more perceptively about them.

This song is a ballad which tells a story through dialogue & third-person description. As well as performing it, pupils can write their own ballads é learn a lot about rhythm é rhyme. Other creative tasks: diaries, letters, posters éc. In literature lessons, the song can introduce ballad form to pupils. Then, when they study ballads in various GCSE Eng Lit anthologies, quatrains, dialogue, imagery and rhymes will make more sense. Enjoy using this song as a resource for lessons é concerts! This is my own song é recording so I own the copyright. See base of lyric sheet for details.

The pupils’ activity is simply the lyrics for the song ‘When This Lousy War Is Over’, with guitar chords. The MP3 is a recording of a female voice. Also find the song on YouTube from the film, ‘Oh What A Lovely War’, with male voice choir. The other website has lyrics for the same song and a few others.

A Powerpoint about Pindar's Victory Odes at the Greek Olympics, prepared by Professor Edith Hall, Kings College London, for a Poet in the City event: Poetry and the Greek Olympics. Teacher can tell the class how the athlete's training was military, the victory odes were performed for the victors in front of thousands and some of the games were very violent!

‘I Shop Smartly’ presents the main advertising techniques as a mnemonic that can be learnt. ‘If Seal Puppies Shop Smartly, Do You?’ is more detailed, and you might just want to select from this sheet in your own way. Pupils could pick the techniques they tend to forget & make up their own mnemonic! The last page of this has ideas for written work. One way to teach the idea of target audience is to get pupils to design adverts for different year groups. They are so close to the distinctions between Years 7, 8 and 9 that their observations on concerns and language can be very sharp and funny!

Click on the links in this Word Document to websites which advise advertisers about how to use language and images to sell products. Stimulating and thought-provoking for discussion, e.g. if you copy and paste selections from the advice and give it to a class when they have begun their study of advertising and already gained some confidence in using the terms. Reading about advertising from the advertising copywriters' viewpoint is quite revealing! The list of techniques with their effects shows how adverts carefully group consumers, then make them feel like special individuals.