Writing non-fiction such as an article or opinion piece for AQA Language Paper 2 Question 5 involves abstract ideas and technical terms. Young learners can struggle with these. Dave the Dog, a writer for Sports Hound, describes each stage of writing a non-fiction piece. How to get ideas, planning the bones of an argument and writing with flair - Dave the Dog walks us through it all. There are three worksheets: How to Plan and Article, How to Plan an Article if Your Mind Goes Blank, and How to Write an Article. Download each one as a PDF or a Word Document so you can edit it if you like. These three sheets provide a clear and memorable way into non-fiction writing. Once learners have gone through them, you can set simple topics for opinion writing, such as ‘Which make better family pets - dogs or cats - and why?’ ‘Which would you rather be - a cat or a dog - and why?’ You can get some quite moving pieces from a title such as ‘What My Dog Taught Me About Love’. Learners can focus on what they want to say and how to say it - drawing on their own experience and/or that of their peers. The third worksheet has spaces for learners to fill in their own examples of each technique. It’s well worth making sure that learners do these, maybe in pencil so they can change their minds! It’s a quick mark to check their grasp of the techniques. They often come up with some wonderful sentences, free from the pressure writing a whole piece. If a child who struggles can come up with a really good simile that makes the whole class laugh, this can boost their confidence no end. This can also lead to great discussion about reader response. You can give Dave the Dog to young learners and then bring him back for revision in Years 10 or 11. That way, GCSE learners will be drawing on long-term memory, which is stronger than short-term memory. Exam students may also feel surprisingly nostalgic about something they were given so many years ago, when they were young!

These two illustrated sheets explain a way of looking at handwriting which transforms the task of improving it from a vague worry to a fun task. Instead of saying ‘I have terrible handwriting,’ learners are encouraged to think of their handwriting as a class of little people. Very often, I find that there are just a handful of letters that are unclear. When these are noticed and practised, the handwriting as a whole improves. Learners can find it quite fun as well as helpful to think of their own handwriting as a class of little people over whom they have friendly but firm control. This creates a way of talking about handwriting in a way that is easier to visualise and remember. Your marking can be included in this, too. For example, ‘Can you see which letters are falling asleep here?’ or ‘Your ‘g’ is kicking the letters on the line below again’ are comments that create a vivid yet also helpfully specific image for a learner to act upon. I always find it a pity if someone ‘hates their handwriting’, as an unruly blob that cannot change and over which they have no control. Instead, these two pages describe an approach which combines friendly curiosity in the small details that can make a big difference. Check out my PUNCTUATION PEOPLE too!

This single-page sheet helps students to spark an idea for a great story about an unusual friendship. It can be used at any time of the year, not just Halloween. They can discuss in pairs or groups what they think the different creatures in the picture are like and maybe think of names for them. Names make characters seem real in the mind and give them a life of their own. You could have fun with alliteration, e.g. Bob the Bat, and with setting a mood, e.g. Snooty Candle. Old-fashioned or unusal names can sound mysterious, e.g. Winona the Witch, while nicknames can sound funny and approachable, e.g. Mike the Monster. It can also be funny if a name has absolutely nothing to do with the nature of the creature, e.g. Colin the Coffin or Tim the Ghost. ‘The Something of Something’ is another useful pattern, not just for a character’s name, but for a story title, e.g. ‘The Creatures of Castle Spooky’, ‘The Mummy of Mortlake’, ‘Mutterings in the Moat’. Letting your characters talk to each other is fun and unpredictable: you can never be quite sure what they are going to say. Don’t let the difficulty of punctuating direct speech inhibit learners. After all, if they type this, they can always correct things like paragraphing and punctuation marks afterwards. They could illustrate their work or even turn a key scene from it into a storyboard or a strip cartoon for a younger audience than themselves. Have loads of spooky fun! SEE ALSO ‘HOW GOTHIC BEGAN AND WHAT IT UNLEASHED!’

This set of handouts, illustrations, websites and spooky photos of ‘Strawberry Hill House’ includes an editable Word Document. Together, they tell the story of how the Gothic Novel began - and how its author, Horace Walpole, unleashed a host of strange, entertainingly frightening and imaginative elements into the English Novel! Students can read the handout with its illustrations, then lose themselves in the photos of the House in its many moods. These could then inspire their own Gothic stories. Students could even decorate the classroom - or part of it - to make it more Gothic, just as Walpole did with his ‘little Gothic castle’. The handout starts with a list of Gothic elements. The drawing ‘WALPOLE LET THEM IN’ does not label the strange creatures. So get students to discuss their own ideas of what they all are, what’s happening, and what the images remind them of in popular culture today! The final document is a list of four useful Gothic websites for further research. The drawings may also be helpful with students who might otherwise find this quite a disturbing topic. I don’t think my zombie would scare anybody. SEE ALSO ‘UNUSUAL FRIENDSHIPS IN CASTLE SPOOKY’ - CREATIVE WRITING.

This two-page worksheet uses explanations, quotations and cartoons to help students grasp that the murder of Duncan is a crime against God that upsets the whole natural order. ‘Macbeth’ is stuffed with animal references which are fun for students to look out for in lessons and extract questions, but they need help first to grasp why Shakespeare uses them. These sheets are designed to do this. You can use these sheets at any point during your study of the play. Act 2 Scene 4 is a good moment for them, though. You can show my video - ‘MACBETH - ANIMALS IN CHAOS!’ after going through the scene, then give them the worksheets. I have also included two images from the video: the simple diagram of the Great Chain of Being and my cartooned extract from Act 2 Scene 4.

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 video can be used with my ‘MACBETH’ - ANIMALS IN CHAOS! Worksheets. Two puppet horses explain ‘Macbeth’ with reference to beliefs about natural order in Shakespeare’s time. They focus on ‘Macbeth’ Act 2 Scene 4: 'Duncan’s horses…Turn’d wild in nature…‘Tis said, they eat each other.’ The horses then explain the Great Chain of Being, to help us understand the whole play in the context of its time. This eight-minute film will help anyone studying Shakespeare’s tragedies or history plays to grasp the beliefs about God, man and nature that underpin the plot, characters and language. It is particularly helpful to GCSE English Literature pupils who need to place Shakespeare’s plays in context. I’ve included two images from the video: the Great Chain of Being Diagram and the cartooned extract.

Dramatic Irony in Shakespeare explained with a model of the Globe Theatre. Catherine Paver, English Tutor, made the mini theatre to bring Shakespeare to life for GCSE students and A Level students. This video starts with a definition of Dramatic Irony using a green plastic dinosaur. It then discusses examples from ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Page to Stage - bringing Shakespeare to life! Terms used in the video: Dramatic Irony: When the audience knows something important that the character or characters do not. This may be something that has happened, is happening or will happen in the future. Heavens The roof over the Globe stage, painted with stars, moons, and signs of the zodiac. This image reflects the Renaissance belief in the influence of the movements of the stars upon the world below. Hell The area underneath the stage where the stage trap door leads. It might be used for graveyard scenes by Shakespeare’s company, as a tomb or a place from where devils or witches appear.

This goes with my other sheets, 'HOW TO READ OLD BOOKS AND EXPLORE NEW WORLDS'. Like them, there is a version with cartoons and a version without. These sheets offer practical advice about how to understand a book that was written a long time ago, e.g. how to spot a word that you already know when it's hiding inside another one, e.g. disembody, dissatisfied and so on. Like 'HOW TO READ OLD BOOKS', this one aims to inspire pupils by suggesting what's in it for them to explore wonderful classic novels, non-fiction etc. Analysing how those books created amazing impressions in their heads can come later.

You can use all three pages of this worksheet or just sections of it. There is a version with cartoons and without. It aims to inspire pupils to read old books - fiction or non-fiction - and give them a method for understanding an extract from one of them. There is so much technical jargon in the teaching of GCSE prose analysis that it can turn pupils off reading books altogether. This worksheet - or 'thinksheet' as you can also call it - aims to explain some of the reasons why picking up a book that was written a long time ago can be worth doing in the first place. See also 'MORE TIPS ON READING OLD BOOKS' for more practical advice. Analysis using technical terminology is vital, of course. Other sheets will deal with that. However, these sheets mainly aim to motivate wider reading for enjoyment, and make students realise that they can pick up any old book and see where it takes them.

These sheets turn the apostrophe into a cartoon character. It knows it's unpopular because it confuses people. 'Apostrophe's Brain' tells you that the apostrophe only knows about two things: missing letters and things belonging to something. 'Apostrophe Unpopular' lets the apostrophe explain itself: how to use it's and its; when to use clown's shoes and clowns' shoes. Pupils can then write their own examples with explanations underneath of what the apostrophe knows and is telling us in each sentence. All this gives you a way of talking about apostrophes that makes sense to a child, e.g. 'What does it know here?' 'What is it trying to tell us?' Note: If the colours do not come out in your copy, just get the pupils to use coloured highlighters for the different functions of the apostrophe: missing letters and belonging to. See also my PUNCTUATION PEOPLE resources.

A step-by-step study guide for GCSE and A Level students to help them study any novel for exams or coursework. It helps to give pupils the pdf first: this cartoon will help them to visualise the learning process. Then you can give pages 1-3 of the notes, 'How To Study A Novel'. You can add more topics to the final section on technique, e.g. present tense, flashbacks, fallible narrator, to suit the novel studied. By going up and down the pyramid, pupils build for themselves a sense of how form, structure and language shape meanings. They learn how to move between the big picture and the details when using quotes and references in essays. They produce their own set of notes, helping them become independent learners. This is particularly valuable in helping GCSE students prepare for A Level, and A Level students prepare for university. Above all, they won’t keep asking you for examples – they will have their own! See also my poetry sheet, 'THE POETRY FLOWER'.

You can give this sheet to pupils and let them read all the words on the witch's cloak. They can then draw or write in words around her, to give her some things to fly over. Or give them the Page of Nouns, too, for lots suggestions! Finally, they can take one word on her cloak and partner it with one word that names a thing, eg &'The Ancient Tree&';, 'The Empty House&', &';The Secret Road' Later, use this in a grammar lesson (see my GRAMMAR OCTOPUS) - all the words on the witch&'s cloak are adjectives.

To encourage pupils of all ages to find things out for themselves, and to make links between different subjects, this labelled cartoon dinosaur can be displayed on classroom walls, in libraries. It can also be photocopied and given to classes to stimulate discussion about what we mean by 'independent learning&'.

This sheet helps pupils to visualise the different parts of an essay. The head is the introduction etc. The essay dinosaur keeps its mind on the question. It only starts moving when it knows where it's going. You can use it in your marking, eg: ‘Good bones, needs more flesh’ or ‘Why no tail?’ You can answer the question, &'How much should we write?&'; by saying how many bones you want. You could tell younger classes to start with three bones, working up to five for older pupils. The Essay Dinosaur can help you to start an essay and write a good conclusion, too. See Lesson Plan for more details

Zeus or Poseidon? Let your class decide! Is he throwing a thunderbolt or a trident? Photo 3 shows his arm: what do you think was in it? Get pupils to look at the rest of him, & stand up, maybe look at other sculptures of both gods, to help decide. Apologies, I am hopeless at PowerPoint - but I took these photos, so you can them as you wish. This incredible bronze statue was found at the bottom of the sea off Cape Artemision (aka 'The Artemision Bronze&'.) C. 460 B.C. &';Severe' Classical Style. One of the few preserved original works of the Severe Style. National Archaeological Museum, Athens.

This song suits a final assembly for a year group that is leaving, and end-of-year song for the whole school. When under pressure we tend to look forward, anxious about what is yet to be tackled. This song is about fortifying yourself with a look back at what you have achieved: 'look back and see how far you&'ve come&';. I wrote it for a class of Matric students in South Africa for their Matric Dance (like the School Prom). So I own the copyright. You can use this song and the recording in lessons, assemblies & school events!

This song tells the story of Friendly Shoeman Jake whose red shoes suddenly learn to talk. They want to do different things so they start fighting... Enjoy using the song as a resource for lessons & concerts! This is my own song é recording so I own the copyright.

This lesson gives pupils ways to dig themselves out of ‘going blank’. You can give the Worksheet to pupils & put up a choice of photos for them to write about. Example from Worksheet: Start by asking yourself some simple questions. There are no right answers. Just see what comes up in your mind: 1. Am I warm or cool? Hot or cold? See Worksheet for more ways to get ideas from your own mind! Note: You can use the Worksheet with any photos of places. (These were all taken in Greece; the tomb pix = Mycenae.) See my ‘WORD WITCH’ for another way to get ideas: rub two words together like sticks...

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.