English teacher for the last decade; huge passion for teaching and creating interactive resources that lead to better engagement, better outcomes and better classroom environment! Have a look through my items for sale!
English teacher for the last decade; huge passion for teaching and creating interactive resources that lead to better engagement, better outcomes and better classroom environment! Have a look through my items for sale!
* students absolutely loved these lessons! If you're looking for something to engage students - this is the download for you! *
A great, ready to go resource! No planning required.
This resource was fantastic with both my year 9 and GCSE classes (differentiated for each). It outlines the conventions of writing/speaking to argue/persuade, then goes onto discuss some higher order rhetorical devices that Trump employs. There is plenty of differentiated work in the 9-slide PowerPoint, including Argue/Persuade features, as well as flaws in logic.
The lesson includes:
- An explanation and example of many persuasive/argumentative features such as direct address/hyperbole/triadic structure
- An example of four annotated paragraphs from the speech
- A student model of a comprehensive paragraph response
- Several printable resources from the PowerPoint including a reminder of common techniques and features to argue/persuade
- A success criteria for the written response.
* New - annotation of the whole speech as a PDF file.
There is enough work here for at least two hours; I broke the lessons down into one lesson looking at features and annotating and then the second writing an essay and reviewing the success criteria. All in all, the lesson could probably fill a week's worth of lessons if you do the following:
Lesson 1 - annotate the speech
Lesson 2 - consider the effect and plan the included essay
Lesson 3 - write the essay.
You could then follow it up by asking students to write a speech using the conventions they've covered. If you did this, there would be several weeks' work here.
There are printable sheets that make up the slides, such as a model annotation and a model paragraph for students.
This is a fab resource and I hope you find it as useful as I did!
This resource was designed for my GCSE class but I've used it with a number of groups. It's been absolutely fab! If you've seen my Donald Trump lesson, it takes a similar route through the lesson:
- First of all, features of persuade and argue are outlined
- A couple of quick leaflets/posters are discussed (from dog charities) in order to allow some Q+A on students' understanding of the techniques
- Students watch the Emma Watson video along with the transcript (attached)
- The teacher has the annotated copy (attached) and can either keep stopping the video or allow students to annotate it themselves depending on students' proficiency
- A model annotation is on the following slide so students can see an example of what a good one looks like
- Students are introduced to the essay. A model paragraph is displayed
- Students reflect using a peer marking/self assessment grid (attached)
This took my class two hours but if you make the dog charity activities written, there is a week's work here.
* Ready to teach lesson with some fab independent prompts for students and video resources *
I put this lesson together for my year 11 class in order to prepare them for the AQA English Literature 8702 (New Spec) Unseen Poetry (Section C). This is a really engaging and interactive lesson which is ready to go. There are three resources within the pack:
1. The lesson itself. This outlines the AQA Literature mark scheme for top marks (can be adapted to suit other specs), a model paragraph and some really thought-provoking videos. I have used ‘The Manhunt’ from last year’s Anthology and you could hear a pin drop in my class. The students took it incredibly seriously and were able to really get to grips with the themes within the poem.
2. I have included a poetry overlay that I created. You can simply print this and you’re ready to go. It helps students to work independently and asks them prompt questions about the poem (unseen or otherwise). Feel free to adapt this but like I said, it’s ready to go as-is.
3. Finally, I have included a copy of the poem.
This is a fab resource and has always worked really well for me; the poem and clips come with a bit of a warning as they discuss serious themes of war. I always start with a bit of a disclaimer but my students have always taken the whole things incredibly seriously!
A ready-to-go resource!
These have worked really well with my year 11 class. I actually made them last year but modified them for the new specification.
The first resource is a great wheel (you also get the PowerPoint so you’ll have the template) that I made in order to put all of the AOs in one place. I wanted my class to understand the importance of sophisticated vocabulary in their exam response so I created this first resource in order to help them with their topic sentences. These look great printed in colour - or if you really want to go to town - laminated.
The second resource is a paragraph building tool which I used as a prompt sheet for students.
Both resources are fab - the first one took me ages to create (getting the lines right was a nightmare!) so just think, you won’t have to spend ages fiddling around to get it right!
Check out my other resources as I have something similar for A Christmas Carol.
An absolute bargain! Save 32%!
A half term's worth of lessons for a two/three hour-per-week class. Three sets of PowerPoints, annotated examples, models and success criteria.
My suggested route through teaching:
- Trump on immigration
(Lesson 1 - Annotate, Lesson 2 - Essay plan, Lesson 3/4 - Essay)
- Nicola Sturgeon on the referendum
(Lesson 1 - Annotate, Lesson 2 - Essay plan, Lesson 3/4 - Essay)
- Emma Watson on gender equality
(Lesson 1 - Annotate, Lesson 2 - Essay plan, Lesson 3/4 - Essay)
Bonus Lesson: Trump's plans to leave the Paris agreement (climate change).
Bonus Lesson: Hung Parliament!
Once those 12 lessons are over, students can be assessed on their writing by creating a speech using some of the language techniques they have studied. Options I gave:
- Feminism/Gender Equality
- In/Out Europe
- Referendum
- Banning Trump from the UK
All four lessons are really well themed and some include video resources too! They look at a whole range of language features, techniques and stylistic devices that are unique to each speaker.
All come with fully annotated speeches, examples of essay paragraphs and clear success criteria for students to follow.
This is a resource that I put on a whole-school display for students to reflect on their revision. I also asked form tutors to discuss revision strategies with their students in order to ensure students were not wasting their time making lots of notes that didn’t really help them.
This resource is perfect for students to stick in their books, discuss with their form tutors, include on a whole-school display or simply give to students to get them thinking about how they revise.
Two hours’ work here at the very least. An analysis of Trump’s language (with teacher annotation for ease). Guide your students through this analysis with clear examples (included) of language analysis, lots of techniques for writing to argue/persuade, a model paragraph and a framework for a final essay. A clear and easy-to-follow lesson with everything required to download and go!
My GCSE/Higher ability KS3 students love doing this kind of analysis and it’s a fab way to get into political rhetoric analysis.
A great lesson (with a video clip) during which students investigate Meghan Markle’s speech on the topic of gender equality.
I’ve attached an annotated version of the transcript for the teacher or team leader if you want to set students up on an independent task.
The lesson structure is as follows:
Quick starter looking at some persuasive techniques in print media
Look at the transcript and video
Annotate the extract
Look at model paragraph structure together
Write an essay
Peer Review
Students loved it!
This ideal one page resource gives eight different ways to start a sentence and is really useful with weaker Key Stage 3/4 students, as well as those who continually start a sentence with the subject of the verb.
Ideas for use: simply as an aide memoir, a revision tool, descriptive writing homework or to help with descriptive writing.
Has been invaluable with my year seven and eight students!
This resource begins by drawing a comparison to analysing a film trailer - first of all, you will look at a spooky trailer and then comment on the transitions, the fades etc. and discuss how it creates a spooky effect.
The lesson works well if you really engage the students and get them talking about the effect of the transitions, fades, spooky sounds. Following that, a similar link can be drawn to the attached text. Students think about the way they are guided through the text in the same way they thought about the film trailer. I found it really effective. A number of my students who didn't get question 3 said this really made it click for them!
Following on from this, you will look at the attached resource and comment on how the changes of focus give a particular effect.
This went down incredibly well with my year 11s and helped them to finally understand the requirements of the question!
I made this resource to decorate my classroom with. They are posters that can be displayed around the room to help students remember to use a variety of punctuation in their work. Each poster is themed in the same way so students know where to look for the information and they are not too heavy with information so are suited to a range of students.
1. Apostrophe
2. Colon
3. Semi-Colon
4. Commas
5. Full Stops
I have included sentence types posters too:
1. Simple Sentences
2. Compound Sentences
3. Complex Sentences
I have included several posters which help students to vary their sentences:
1. Adverb start
2. 'ing' start
3. 'ed' start
4. Relative clause
5. One word sentence start
I have also included commonly-made errors to remind my students to be mindful of ensuring they are proof reading their work for literacy errors.
1. Comma splicing
2. Fused Sentences
I have also attached the template if you want to adapt them or make additional ones suited to your class.
* Tremendous resource to simply give to the students as a revision prompt; put them out as desk mats, send them home with students, allow struggling students to use them to support mock exams - really useful little document to support progress and embedding knowledge for the new spec GCSE exam *
I created this resource in order to help students with their sentence starters and responses to the exam questions in Paper 1 and 2 for the new AQA English Language papers (reading only).
The resource covers what students should say for each question, how long to spend on answering them and any banned terms to avoid using.
This can be used by students when sitting mocks, responding to feedback or just as a revision helper. It has been great for feedback too as I can signpost students to where they need to look/where they need to revise/where they have gone wrong!
Please review if you find it useful!
A Prompt Sheet (revision poster) and a Mock Exam Paper 1 (adaptable Word file so you can edit it yourself afterwards if you want to create more mocks).
A 39-slide PowerPoint that takes parents through the English Language Paper 1 and 2 examination papers and requirements of each question. A very valuable document if you want to discuss exam prep with parents, either on a one-to-one or at a parents’ evening/assembly session.
It also touches on the Literature towards the end of the PowerPoint.
Have a look through the previews for these files.
- 16 literacy posters
- Prompt Sheets
- Comprehensive Revision Guide
- Language Analysis Lesson on Trump's immigration policy
- Unseen Poetry Literature Lesson with desk mat
- Various other resources
Save 25% on this bundle!
Students present the stave themselves using this prompt sheet. They use the middle of the page to plan and the questions on the outside as prompts.
You can either allow them to make notes in their books or simply make a few notes on the page itself before presenting.
A lovely visual worksheet.
A quick reference list of features to persuade:
- Anecdote
- Alliteration
- Facts
- Opinions
- Repetition
- Rhetorical Questions
- Emotive Language
- Statistics
- Triplication
- Hyperbole
- Direct Address
- Conditional Tense
See my Trump analysis which has this resource thrown in for free!
Now with an automatic PowerPoint that loops continuously - ideal to prompt students during assessments and writing!
9 Posters that I made for my students to encourage them to consider the effect of language; they helped students to consider language rather than simply writing things like 'it makes me want to read on...'
Happy to adjust and adapt on demand but these are a really great way to encourage students to analyse language and work independently.
Techniques/Features:
Anecdote
Alliteration
Facts
Opinions
Repetition
Rhetorical Questions
Emotive Language
Statistics
Triplication
Other features mentioned on one slide: first person, second person, hyperbole, expert opinion, conditional tense.
These are student-friendly resources that are intended as a revision helper. There are instructions on the first slides that let students know they need to be proactively analysing these poems in their own time. The resources are intended as an aide memoir for students to simply sort the poems into categories and verbalise how they will compare in the exam.
There are several points for AO1 and AO2 to help students compare the poems (aimed at a middle-ability group). Having said that, you are free to adapt as I am including the template. My aim when creating this resource was to give some good prompts for AO1 topic sentences.
Enjoy!
Printing tip: Look great on A5 but if you can’t print to A5, simply select ‘Print’ in PowerPoint and choose the ‘2 slides per page’ option. Or just print them on A4.