Analyse the figurative language and literary devices from eight Tiktok sound trends and viral songs seen during April 2021! Use either as a full lesson in preparation for a bigger analysis task, as individual recap tasks for skills, or as a series of engaging starters for figurative language and device lessons. Best suited to upper KS3 and KS4.
This resource comes in both US and UK document sizes (letter and A4), features eight sets of lyrics (recognisable to many students who use Tiktok), colour-coded answer keys, and an additional PowerPoint version for class collaboration.
If you love this resource, follow me for an update when I release the sound trend tasks for May 2021 and beyond!
Coach your students through the close reading and annotation of extracts from the opening chapters of Holes, then instruct them in the use of the differentiated essay frame to challenge and stretch pupils at all levels.
The extract and annotation sheet includes focused extracts and chapter references, and the essay frame shows a clear route of progress with a built-in example and extension column to model development of ideas. Easel version included!
This resource includes US letter and UK A4 size versions, and editable Google Docs version of the essay frame.
This resource is a great alternative to ‘First Chapter Friday’ or ‘Taster Tuesday’. Blurbsday tasks focus on the blurb on the back of the book, and encourage students to look at vocabulary, genres and editing skills.
There are three tasks included, increasing in difficulty and length (half page, full page, and double sided), and all worksheets are provided in US letter and UK A4 size document. Editable Google Apps version also included!
This graphic novel reflection task can be used with any part of any graphic novel! No prep required - just print and go. After reading, give your students either an A3 one-pager or a back-to-back smaller version of the sheet. This resource acts as a graphic organizer to explore and reflect on the pages that have just been read, whether that’s one page or one hundred!
There are four A3 version and four letter-size double-sided version, making this resource 12-pages for you to select from as necessary. All sheets prompt your students to think closely about…
The characters
The way the images and frames are used
Personal reactions to the content
Questions raised
Predictions for the upcoming pages (or post-novel if you finish the text)
Evaluation of the final three frames of the day’s reading
Drawing of a frame in a different style of the student’s choice
This activity focuses on the idea of a time capsule - what would your students put in a time capsule to be opened more than 100 years from now? The resource features three formats:
What eight items would you put in a time capsule, and why?
What six items would you put in a time capsule, and how would people react if they dug it up in 100 years?
What six items would you put in a time capsule, and how would the people in the society in your novel react if they dug it up?
This makes this set of worksheets suitably flexible for one-off lessons, or linked to a range of tasks and subjects, or linked specifically to the study of a dystopian or futuristic novel or story.
All worksheets are provided in US letter size and UK A4 size, and also as a Google Docs editable version.
Looking to engage students with an interest in gaming? This differentiated resource allows your gamer students to design or describe a live stream similar to those seen on Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok and Facebook. Bring their world and your world together with this alternative writing task!
One version of this task allows students to design or draw their ideas, and two versions offer prompts for written descriptions on a computer screen style graphic organiser.
All three versions of the sheet are provided in both US letter and UK A4 size document.
This activity focuses on the idea of a time capsule - what would your students put in a time capsule to be opened in the past? The resource features three formats:
What eight items would you put in a time capsule, and why?
What six items would you put in a time capsule, and how would people react if they discovered it 100 years ago?
What six items would you put in a time capsule, and how would the people in the historical society in your novel or story react if they dug it up?
This makes this set of worksheets suitable for one-off lessons, or linked to historical study, or linked specifically to the study of a novel or story.
All worksheets are provided in US letter size and UK A4 size, and also as a Google Docs editable version.
A fun, thoughtful ‘would you rather’ slideshow for secondary school students focused on Halloween. Great for October or autumn!
Encourage discussion around 20 prompt pairs, all focused on the winter season. Perfect for warm-ups, bell-ringers or brain breaks.
A fun, thoughtful ‘would you rather’ slideshow for KS3 and KS4 school students focused on winter traditions and festivals around the world. Great for Christmas!
Encourage discussion around ten prompt pairs, all focused on the winter season. Perfect for warm-ups, bell-ringers or brain breaks.
Guide your students in the close reading of any quotation from any text with these Quote Marks - bookmarks with differentiated mix and match activities. Perfect for rounding off a bigger reading task!
Features three options for a front side and two options for the reverse, or print any of them as single-sided bookmark tasks.
Four repeated bookmarks per sheet in black and white allow for easy printing and ink-saving. Includes US letter and UK A4 document sizes, plus a quick guide for printing.
Tasks include:
Identifying a quote
Who said it and when
Meaning of quote
Tone of language
Key words or impact
In your own words…
Word group categorizing
Star ratings
Change a word to alter the meaning
This print and trim resource includes three differentiated bingo grids of 24 prompts for the topic: “The best part of a festive meal is…”
The three levels of differentiation are a bingo grid of instructions, a bingo grid of persuasive devices, and a bingo grid of sentence starters.
Print back to back versions to cover all levels of support, and laminate for repeated use; students simply cross off the squares with a dry-wipe pen!
All prompts encourage students to share their opinion about the best part of a Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving or other festive meal. Will they talk about the food, or something deeper? Great for competitive classes in middle and high school!
Colour and greyscale worksheets included, and large/small printing sizes. Check out the video preview for a closer look.
Round up independent reading or book tasting sessions by asking your students to fill out the sides of a hexagon with information about their own book. Then instruct them in the creation of a whole-class hex diagram by matching the sides, drawing links between the books to make a fantastic wall display.
This resource includes quick-print sheets of large, medium and small hexagons, and two differentiated versions.
Version 1 has sides for protagonist, antagonist, genre, theme, favorite quote, and setting. Version 2 has sides for hero, conflict, setting, favorite moment, genre, and pages.
An exciting activity that will also help your students to recommend new novels to each other!
Four reading comprehension questions focused on setting for any novel, poem or extract.
Use this list of differentiated questions as ideas for lessons, or print and hand out all questions and determine which students should complete.
Use the worksheet version of each question as note-making activities or visual guides.
The four questions explore: gathering evidence for inferring the setting, changes in the setting, details and features of the setting, and evaluating the importance of a setting.
Perfect for literature stations, lit circles, or homework tasks.
This fun descriptive writing task includes everything you need to support your less able students and stretch your gifted ones.
First, students explore ideas for describing a turkey, pumpkin or pumpkin pie as individuals, or in pairs or as a class, using the visual prompts on the first sheet.
Some students might wish to express some of their ideas through color as well as words.
Next, share the differentiated word bank of sensory words to support and stretch your students as needed.
Included are banks for sight, sound, smell and touch - taste is not included, but you could always do this as a separate bank or as another collaboration project. There is also a vocabulary bank for verbs, and space in each section for students to add ideas of their own.
The outcome will be interesting and vivid descriptions of the humble turkey or pumpkin pie. Enjoy!
Support social-emotional learning or start a conversation about mental health by prompting your students to explore their negative thoughts and emotions through the metaphor of trees.
Use in:
one-to-one counselling sessions
smaller nurture groups
with classes to help students share their experiences
This resource includes step by step instructions, interactive trees activity, and an optional reflection task in both US letter and UK A4 document sizes.
Decorate your classroom with this pack of nine posters showing nine different reading strategies. Each poster has the name of the strategy, a description, and visual prompts. The strategies are…
Reading back and forth
Close reading
Empathising
Inferring
Predicting
Questioning
Scanning
Skimming
Visualising
These posters come in both US letter and UK A4 size documents, and there are black and white versions for printing onto plain or colour paper, and versions with a pop of colour in the borders.
Engage your class with a pre-reading task by presenting the climax or outcome of the plot as a crime scene. Use this editable Word template to organise the victims, statements, evidence locker timeline, and any other information you wish to include. Add or remove sections to suit the text or your students.
This starting task allows students to work in groups to work out the plot before you read the text; it also gives you a chance to flip the classroom and get them to engage themselves. It is adaptable so that you can plan for the task to last fifteen minutes or a whole lesson. You choose!
Please note: This template is not for commercial use.
A challenging but differentiated grid-style frame to guide and support pupils in planning 5 paragraphs for a sophisticated close study of any literary character.
Each row represents a paragraph, and each column represents a layer of understanding which boosts their understanding of a quotation or point. Simply use the pre-populated guide questions, or insert your own to tailor the essay focus to your needs. Fully editable Google App included. This resource is provided in both US letter and UK A4 size documents.
Students use the stages of the planning grid to analyse:
Precise quotations
Character impressions
Impactful words
Tone
Sentence structure
Punctuation effects
Both aspirational and differentiated - make achieving easy!
No-Prep Group Work!
Just print, pass and problem-solve! A set of desk placemats to encourage groups of students to discuss and share information about quotations, characters and context linked to specific m the novel. This can either be an oracy task alone, or discussion alongside the creation of a revision map on A4 or A3 paper.
Includes a double-sided ‘Thoughtpad’ sheet for students to log ideas along the way.
Includes five characters, six tasks per sheet, and works well with groups of 4-8 students. Laminate for multiple use!
Support your students in structuring a story with this pre-made editable frame. This resource works as a mat or handout, and is available in A4 size format. It can also be given to older students for them to plan their own stories.
The frame coaches students through five paragraphs with suggestions for content, sentence starters, vocabulary and punctuation.
Want some pre-populated, ready to go frames? Check out the pre-filled versions:
Primary | The Perfect Story | Narrative Frame | Guided Writing
Secondary | The Perfect Narrative | Story Frame | Guided Writing
If you liked the look of this, check out…
Writing with Alliteration
Writing with Onomatopoeia
Writing with Personification
Writing with Similes