Many students struggle to get into the top band (level 4) for AQA Paper 1 Question 2. This resource is aimed at helping students move from level 3 to level 4. Students look at and compare level 3 and level 4 sample responses to 6 different Paper 1 Question 2 short extracts. For each, they must attempt to explain in their own words why the level 4 response is better than the level 3 response.

6 Paper 1 Question 5 responses all describing a very hot place - a desert island. This is a useful task for departmental moderation or for getting students to engage with the markscheme to gain a greater appreciation of the style of writing required for the upper bands.

This resource contains 3 different responses to the following question: ‘Mitch is presented as a one-dimensional character who contributes little to the tragic impact of the play’. There is a band 3 response, a band 4 response and a band 5 response. This is useful for helping students to clearly see the difference between the attainment bands on the mark scheme. Also contains a revision sheet on Mitch’s character.

A timeline focusing on how the character of Macbeth changes during the play. There is also a question template to help students explore their own interpretations of the different stages of Macbeth’s descent into evil. Also includes 2 exemplar high grade exemplars to the question for students to compare and consider which are the most perceptive in meeting the criteria for level 6/grade 9. Also includes 12 character flashcards to help trace how the different aspects of Macbeth’s complex personality are communicated in the play.

2 page Animal Farm revision worksheet. Page 1 has 3 key quotations for each of the main characters and themes which have been carefully selected from roughly the start, the middle and end of the novella for students to comment on and analyse to help them show knowledge of the whole text. On page 2 there is then a writing frame to guide students on how to write these plans up as 3 paragraph responses covering the whole text. This resource has been successful at supporting students looking to achieve grades 4-6.

A detailed lesson, inspired by teaching tip 3 on the recent AQA 2022 examiner report, that guides students on how to write grade 9 topic sentences for a range of literature texts. There are multiple examples for A Christmas Carol, Macbeth, Lord of the Flies and Power and Conflict that all follow the same structure. At each stage of the lesson, students use the models to try and generate their own topic sentences for each studied text.

PowerPoint with click-animated text which goes through 4 big ideas in the collection concerning the power of nature, conflict over identity, abuse of power and the power of memories. For each big idea, I go through key quotations from specific poems with detailed analysis written in short form to assist with note-taking. Students then move on to try using big ideas to help plan responses to 3 exam-style questions. My most comprehensive resource on Power and Conflict poetry is available here with revision posters on every poem: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/power-and-conflict-revision-sheets-12884928

Perhaps due to the recent coronation, many experts are predicted kingship would be the theme for the exam in 2023. They were wrong. Maybe 2024 will be the year for this key theme to be on the exam. Therefore I have created a 20 slide PowerPoint that guides students through how to plan and respond to a question on kingship in Macbeth. Students go on to write their own response and then compare it to the model response. I believe the model response is full marks and would easily achieve grade 9; however, there will always be some teachers who claim nothing short of postgraduate level writing will receive the much coveted 9 so I am reluctant to make the claim that it would definitely achieve a 9.

Free basic but effective template for planning responses comparing Handmaid’s Tale and Feminine Gospels. There are 8 questions that try to predict the theme that might come up in the AQA 2B modern times exam.

Two A* responses to the following question. Compare the significance of inequality in two texts (The Handmaid’s Tale and Feminine Gospels). I get students to compare both responses to compare the merits of both. I think version 2 is slightly better because it offers a wider coverage of quotations and also includes more critical debate for A05.

100 Key quotations for The Handmaid’s Tale on one A3 for ease of printing and to assist revision.

200 slides containing notes, analysis of key quotations and questions covering the key chapters in the novel.

Detailed annotations for all 15 poems on one PowerPoint. 60 animated slides in total. Ideal for revision lessons. My most comprehensive resource on Power and Conflict poetry is available here with revision posters on every poem: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/power-and-conflict-revision-sheets-12884928

An A3 sheet containing 100 key quotations in chronological order from The Handmaid’s Tale alongside brief explanations. Students find this useful. Start with asking students to RAG rate. Red - Little understanding/unlikely to use in an essay Amber - Some understanding/some chance of using in an essay Green - Good understanding/likely to use in an essay After this, I would ask students to group quotations in terms of different themes such as the following: The Body Rebellion Duality Fertility

My attempt at writing a grade 9 response to the AQA 2022 question about Macbeth’s fears.

A high grade response to a question about how Romeo’s feelings for Juliet are presented.

A large collection of critical interpretations of the play collated to help assist with students revising for A05.

Two attempts at responding to a question about the effects of Scrooge’s loneliness and isolation from society. I anticipate that these would achieve grade 8/9 depending on the leniency of the grade boundaries in any particular year. The 2 responses are structured differently so they are useful to help students see different ways of trying to meet the assessment objectives.

Walkthrough for the AQA Paper 1 2017 Rosabel extract.