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Stupendous Similes and Miraculous Metaphors!
This is an exciting and engaging lesson/set of tasks aiming to build students’ skills at using similes and metaphors in their writing . It was taught during an observation lesson where the teacher received an Outstanding judgement.
Students learn to:
- Define and give examples of what similes and metaphors are;
- Identify similes and metaphors on funny posters and captions;
- Analyse what makes similes and metaphors effective;
- Create their own simile and metaphor filled writing piece;
- Peer assess and learn through fun interactive tasks.
It comes complete with:
- Engaging and visual PowerPoint to guide students (and teacher!) through the lesson;
- Colourful and thought-provoking worksheet for the main analysis task;
- Lesson plan/ teacher guidance sheet, which goes through the lesson step-by-step;
- Resources to enable the teacher to make ‘flags’ for the introductory task.
All pictures are licensed for commercial use, and image authors cited on the final slide.
This lesson can also be bought as part of the Descriptive Devices bundle for just £5. The bundle leads students through each language device needed in order to write to describe confidently.
Alternatively, you can buy the Descriptive Writing Big Bundle (All descriptive devices lessons, structuring and organising writing lesson, capturing the readers attention lesson, and the literacy writing mat) for £6.
The Merchant of Venice - Shakespeare's Dramatic Devices!
This engaging and informative lesson enables students to make clear and precise interpretations regarding Shakespeare’s use of dramatic devices in The Merchant of Venice. In particular, students read and understand several extracts from the play, before identifying and then analysing the effect of the dramatic devices that Shakespeare employs throughout.
The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through:
Defining and exemplifying a variety of dramatic techniques;
Reading and comprehending a number of key events from the play, identifying the dramatic devices utilised;
Analysing Shakespeare’s use of dramatic devices through considering context and the effect on the audience;
Creating their own dramatic device-filled playscripts, and evaluating their partner’s attempts;
Self assessing their learning through the lesson;
Included is:
Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive;
Dramatic devices cards for the card-sorting activity;
Analysis worksheets - different degrees of difficulty (asides, dramatic irony, dramatic tension & soliloquy);
A model example of a completed analysis worksheet;
Comprehensive lesson plan.
Resources are provided in PDF (to maintain formatting), Word (so that they are easily editable) and also in zipfiles.
The lesson contains opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 10 and 11 classes, however colleagues have used them for between year 9 and year 13 with some adaptations.
All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.
The Merchant of Venice - Antonio and Bassanio!
This engaging and informative lesson enables students to make clear and precise interpretations regarding the relationship between Antonio and Bassanio in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. In particular, students read and understand Act one scene one of the play, interpreting how Antonio and Bassanio’s relationship is introduced, before tracking how their friendship develops over the course of the play.
The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through:
Considering the key components of strong friendships;
Reading Act One Scene One and comprehending how Antonio and Bassanio’s friendship is introduced;
Tracking how their friendship develops over the play, using apt textual evidence;
Considering multiple interpretations of Antonio and Bassanio’s relationship;
Applying their understanding of Antonio and Bassanio’s relationship to create an original composition;
Self assessing their learning attempts;
Included is:
Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive;
Antonio and Bassanio development worksheet;
Extract - Act One Scene One
Character profile template
Comprehensive lesson plan.
Resources are provided in PDF (to maintain formatting), Word (so that they are easily editable) and also in zipfiles.
The lesson contains opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 10 and 11 classes, however colleagues have used them for between year 9 and year 13 with some adaptations.
All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.
The Merchant of Venice - Shylock!
This engaging and informative lesson enables students to make clear, detailed and well-informed interpretations of Shylock from The Merchant of Venice. In particular, students develop their contextual understanding of how Jews were perceived in Shakespeare’s time, make precise interpretations about his character using evidence from the play and link their findings to their understanding of social and historical context.
The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through:
Knowledge harvesting their understanding of the Judaism and the treatment of Jews throughout history;
Researching and sharing how Jews were perceived in Shakespeare’s era;
Reading selected quotations from the play and interpreting what these reveal about Shylock’s character;
Plotting Shylock’s development over the course of the play;
Linking their knowledge of Shylock’s character to their understanding of historical context;
Understanding Shakespeare’s intentions/messages in presenting Shylock in the manner that he did;
Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts;
Included is:
Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive;
Shylock character development graph;
Jigsaw pieces for the group jigsaw activity;
Essay template
Comprehensive lesson plan.
There are also opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 10 and 11 classes, however colleagues have used them for between year 8 and year 13 with some adaptations.
All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.
The Merchant of Venice - Portia!
This engaging and informative lesson enables students to make clear, detailed and well-informed interpretations of Portia in Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice.’ In particular, students develop their contextual understanding of the role of women in Shakespeare’s time, make precise interpretations about her character using evidence from the play, and link their understanding to their knowledge of social and historical context.
The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through:
Knowledge harvesting their understanding of the role of women in Shakespeare’s era;
Researching and sharing multiple aspects of life for women in Shakespeare’s era;
Reading selected quotations from the play and interpreting what these reveal about Portia’s character;
Linking their knowledge of Portia’s character to their understanding of historical context;
Peer assessing each others learning attempts;
Included is:
Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive;
Researching context worksheet;
Essay template
Comprehensive lesson plan.
Resources are provided in PDF (to maintain formatting), Word (so that they are easily editable) and also in zipfiles.
The lesson contains opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 10 and 11 classes, however colleagues have used them for between year 9 and year 13 with some adaptations.
All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.
Kensuke's Kingdom - The Ending!
This engaging and informative lesson enables students to make precise interpretations regarding the ending in Michael Morpurgo’s ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom.’ In particular, children identify the features of successful endings, analyse these features in Chapter 10 of the story, and create their own logical, imaginative story endings.
The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through:
Storyboarding the key events of the text leading up to the ending;
Reading the ending of the story and answering comprehension questions to demonstrate their understanding;
Defining and identifying the key features of effective endings;
Analysing the effectiveness of the features that Morpurgo uses in his own ending;
Creating their own alternate ending, utilising the features that they have learnt over the course of the lesson;
Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts.
Included is:
Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive;
Storyboard Template;
Story Detectives Worksheet;
Comprehensive Lesson Plan
All resources are provided in Word (for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure formatting remains fixed between different computers).
There are also opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 4 and 5 classes, however colleagues have used them for between years 3 and 8 with some adaptations. The word documents are within the zip file.
All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.
My Last Duchess Knowledge Organiser/ Revision Mat!
This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising Robert Browning’s power and conflict poem 'My Last Duchess.’ It contains comprehensive sections on:
Context;
Line-by-Line Analysis;
Poetic Devices/ Language Devices;
Themes;
Form/Structure;
Poems for Comparison;
The Poet’s Influences.
Key words and ideas are underlined for easy reference. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).
Cirque Du Freak - The Introduction!
This engaging and informative lesson helps students to infer and deduce the hidden meanings in the introduction section of Darren Shan’s ‘Cirque Du Freak.’ Students act as ‘Text Detectives’ reading between the lines to find out deeper meanings in the introduction, using this information to make predictions about what may happen in the text.
The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through:
- Understanding why individual subject content was chosen for the introduction (e.g. the fear that spiders can arouse in many people);
- Reading the introduction, and answering comprehension questions to demonstrate their understanding;
- Functioning as ‘Text Detectives’, inferring and deducing the hidden meanings about narrator and plot that are provided within the introduction;
- Using inferences from textual evidence to make insightful and evidence-based predictions about the story;
- Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts;
Included is:
- Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive;
- Newspaper Article - ‘The shape of fear - why spiders scare us so much;’
- Extract from ‘Cirque Du Freak’ - The Introduction;
- Text Detectives worksheet (and teacher model answer sheet);
- Comprehensive lesson plan.
There are also opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 7 and 8 classes, however colleagues have used them for between years 4 and 9 with minimal adaptations.
All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.
War Horse - Whole Class Reading Session!
This whole class reading session aims to develop children’s comprehension skills through a reading of the opening chapter of Michael Morpurgo’s ‘War Horse.’
The resource pack includes the extract and all of the activities for the session, which the class are guided through via a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation. The reading is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop children’s retrieval, explanation, inference, prediction and summarising skills. It also contains a vocabulary check immediately after the extract is read to clarify any unfamiliar/ difficult language.
The tasks are comprised of quick-check questions, solo thinking, pair/ group discussions and deeper thinking activities.
The session is best suited for children in Year 5 and 6, but it could feasibly be used with slightly younger and older year groups. The session is also suitable for home/ remote learning.
Australia Knowledge Organiser - Geography Place Knowledge!
This clear, detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students revising knowledge relating to Australia, as a part of their study of place, human and physical geography.
Overview and Maps;
Physical Geography;
Human Geography;
Comparison with the United Kingdom;
Australia Timeline;
Key Vocabulary.
The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).
Picasso Cubism Self-Portraits Project - Lessons 3 and 4!
These engaging and purposeful lessons guide children towards creating their own Pablo Picasso cubism-style self portraits.
Included in this resource pack are the third and fourth lessons in a series of six lessons. They focus on helping children to explore and develop creative ideas for their cubism portraits.
This third lesson helps children to:
-Recall important facts about self-portraits, Picasso and cubism;
-Consider how they can present each facial feature in the cubism style;
-Reflect on the feeling, tone and effect of their sketches, deciding on which ideas to develop further in the next lesson;
This fourth lesson helps children to:
-Consider, adapt and edit the use of lines and shapes in their designs/ sketches;
-Develop the use of objects, symbols and colour in their work;
-Put all of the ideas together from the sessions thus far to produce a final draft design.
Included are eye-catching and comprehensive PowerPoint presentations which guide the learners through each aspect of the exploring and developing ideas phases. Each presentation is 12-13 slides long.
These lessons were originally created for children in years 5-6, but may be adapted for slightly older and younger year groups. The other lessons in the series are available on this site in packs of two (like this resource), or the entire unit of lessons can be purchased as a part of a bundle.
The Secret Garden - KS3 Comprehension Activities Booklet!
This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s ‘The Secret Garden.’ Teachers have found them particularly useful in comprehension or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the KS3 expectations within the National Curriculum framework. Children have found these resources extremely engaging, and for teachers there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the story, ensuring that children gain a deep understanding of the text.
Activities within the booklet include:
‘Burnett’s Description’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Know how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, present meaning.’
‘Mary Lennox Profile’ and ‘Colin Craven Profile’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Study setting, plot, and characterisation, and the effects of these.’
‘Context: Edwardian Era’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Know the purpose, audience and context of the writing and drawing on this knowledge to support comprehension.’
‘Vocabulary Inspector’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Learn new vocabulary, relating it explicitly to known vocabulary and understanding it with the help of context and dictionaries.’
Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is 23 pages in length!) I’ve also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer.
All images are licensed for commercial use.
Creative Writing - Prompts and Activity Ideas for Effective Writing Sessions!
This 50-slide pack contains activity ideas and prompts for 12 creative writing sessions. I used these for weekly sessions over one full term with an upper KS2 class, although they could be used for lower KS2 or lower KS3 children with minimal adaptations.
The goal of the sessions is to give children a stimulus and the basic information that they need to write with as much freedom as possible. They begin each session with one slide, which outlines what they need to do in the first paragraph/ section, and ordinarily contains a picture stimulus, suggested techniques to use and example sentence openers/ lines. After 10-15 minutes (depending on the nature of the task and the class) the teacher introduces the next slide. There are four slides for each session. By the end of the 45-60 minutes, children should have a coherent first draft of a creative composition.
Prompts, support and guidance are provided for 12 individual creative writing sessions:
-Description: Haunted House
-Narrative: Journey Back to the Land of the Dinosaurs
-Newspaper Report: An Alien Landing
-Persuasive: Competition for a Dream Holiday
-Informative: A Police Statement
-Poem: My Favourite Place
-Diary: Climbing Mount Everest
-Persuasive: Letter to the Headteacher
-Narrative: Story of a Scar
-Explanation: How to Play (My Favourite Sport);
-Diary: Journey to Mars
-Narrative: Recreating a Fairy Tale
I hope that these prove as useful to you as they were to me!
The Wind in the Willows - Whole Class Reading Session!
This whole class reading session aims to develop children’s fluency and comprehension skills through reading the opening to Kenneth Graeme’s ‘The Wind in the Willows.’
The reading is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop children’s VIPERS skills: vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval, sequencing and summarising. It also contains a vocabulary check immediately after the extract is read to clarify any unfamiliar/ difficult language.
The tasks are comprised of quick-check questions, solo thinking, pair/ group discussions and deeper thinking activities. The extract needed is provided as a PDF and a link to a web-based version is also included on the first slide.
The session is best suited for children in years 5-6, although with minor adaptations it could feasibly be used with slightly younger and older age groups.
Race to the Frozen North: The Matthew Henson Story - Whole Class Reading Session!
This whole class reading session aims to develop children’s fluency and comprehension skills through reading an extract from the beginning of Race to the Frozen North, written by Catherine Johnson.
The reading is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop children’s VIPERS skills: vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval, sequencing and summarising. It also contains a vocabulary check immediately after the extract is read to clarify any unfamiliar/ difficult language.
The tasks are comprised of quick-check questions, solo thinking, pair/ group discussions and deeper thinking activities. The extract needed is provided as a PDF and a link to a web-based version is also included on the first slide.
The session is best suited for children in KS2 - in the past, I have used the resources in the past with children in years 4 and 5.
Y6 Fractions - Maths Knowledge Organiser!
This clear, detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for Year 6 teachers, parents and children when covering ‘Fractions’ in mathematics.
The content is organised into the following sections:
-Overview: Learning areas covered, key definitions, why this learning is important;
-Mixed Numbers and Improper Fractions;
-Equivalent Fractions, Simplifying Fractions and Ordering Fractions;
-Four Operations and Proper Fractions;
-Fractions of Amounts;
-Key Vocabulary.
The resource is designed to be printed onto either A3 or A4, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).
The Boy Who Would Be King - Michael Morpurgo - Reading Comprehension Lesson!
This whole class reading session aims to develop children’s fluency and comprehension skills through reading the opening to Michael Morpurgo’s ‘The Boy Who Would Be King.’
The reading is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop children’s retrieval, explanation, inference, prediction, sequencing and summarising skills. It also contains a vocabulary check immediately after the extract is read to clarify any unfamiliar/ difficult language.
The tasks are comprised of quick-check questions, solo thinking, pair/ group discussions and deeper thinking activities. The extract needed is provided as a PDF.
The session is best suited for children in years 2-3, although with minor adaptations it could feasibly be used with slightly younger and older age groups.
Bundle Sale
Fantastic Mr Fox Lesson Bundle!
These engaging, varied, and informative lessons have been designed to help students gain a valuable understanding of the plot, characters, language, and key messages in Roald Dahl’s ‘Fantastic Mr Fox.’
All of the resources that you need to teach are included in the bundle: Whole lesson step-by-step PowerPoint presentations, informative and engaging , worksheets, activities, and lesson plans.
Contained in the bundle are lessons based on:
- 1. Boggis, Bunce and Bean;
- 2. The Very Clever Mr Fox;
- 3. The Structure of the Story;
Stimulating, visual, and easily adaptable, these lessons provide suggested learning objectives and outcomes for students of a wide-range of abilities - The vast majority of tasks are differentiated to allow for different abilities and needs in your classroom. Each lesson loosely follows this logical learning journey to ensure that students learn in bite-size steps:
- Engaging
- Defining/ Understanding
- Identifying/Remembering
- Analysing/ Creating
- Peer or self evaluating.
All of the lessons are interactive, employ a variety of different teaching and learning methods and styles, and are visually-engaging.
Bundle Sale
Poetry from World Cultures Comprehension Activity Booklets Bundle!
These 16-page resource booklets contain a wide range of challenging and engaging comprehension activities to aid the teaching of 9 different poems from other cultures. Teachers have found the activities particularly useful throughout practicing for unseen poems, for teaching as part of a poetry unit, or to support guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of students towards meeting the key English Literature assessment objectives - suitable for all examining bodies. Students have found these resources extremely engaging, and it is clearly highlighted within each task regarding which assessment strands the task is designed to demonstrate.
Each booklet is provided in both Word (to allow for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure for consistency of formatting between computers).
Activities across the booklets are as consistent, to provide an equal understanding of each poem, and include (amongst many others):
‘Analysing Context’ - helping students to ‘Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written.’
‘Analysing Subject Matter, Language and Structure’ - to help students to ‘Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.’
‘Diary Entry’ - to help students to ‘Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation. Make an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these.’
‘The Speaker’ - to help students to ‘Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to: maintain a critical style and develop an informed personal response use textual references, including quotations, to support and illustrate interpretations.’
Bundle Sale
David Walliams Comprehension Activity Booklets Bundle!
These resource booklets based on David Walliams’ stories contain a wide range of purposeful, age-appropriate and engaging comprehension activities for use in guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the KS2 comprehension expectations within the National Curriculum framework. Children love learning from these resources, whilst they are also of great use to teachers, as there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate.
Included are activity booklets to accompany the following texts:
Bad Dad;
Gangsta Granny
Demon Dentist
The Boy in the Red Dress
Awful Auntie
Ratburger
Billionaire Boy
Mr Stink
Please note that each comprehension booklet contains the same tasks, but tailored to the characters, events and ideas in each book. Each booklet is around 20 pages in length!