Zephyr Learning - English and General Literacy Shop
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I hold an MA in literature and a CELTA in language, and over the last 20 years I've taught language and literature in the UK and USA as well as ESOL in France and Tanzania. In addition to my work as a teacher, I am the Literacy and Grammar Consultant for Zephyr Learning and Professional Development.
These resources have been refined in my own classroom and are the same ones I reference in my CPD for teachers. Prices for complete lessons are based on the current cost of an Americano at my local.
I hold an MA in literature and a CELTA in language, and over the last 20 years I've taught language and literature in the UK and USA as well as ESOL in France and Tanzania. In addition to my work as a teacher, I am the Literacy and Grammar Consultant for Zephyr Learning and Professional Development.
These resources have been refined in my own classroom and are the same ones I reference in my CPD for teachers. Prices for complete lessons are based on the current cost of an Americano at my local.
Each card includes key events from one scene in the play. Students arrange the cards in the correct order (either on the A3 placemat provided or in their exercise books, whichever you prefer). This provides an engaging and fun way to revise the plot of the drama. The task can be completed individually or in groups, allowing for friendly competition either way.
The scene cards have been organised so that this task can be a two-lesson activity or a one-lesson activity:
As a two-lesson activity, students arrange the scenes of the first two acts after they finish reading Act II, then arrange the remaining scenes in another lesson once they have finished reading the play.
As a single-lesson activity, students arrange the scenes of the entire play at once (after reading the play in its entirety).
Several different levels of challenge are provided; simply select and print the level that suits your students.
Explanations and examples of the different types of subordinate clause.
Copies are available in colour or black and white to accommodate printing capabilities and budgets in different settings.
Explains and provides examples of the five phrase classes (prepositional phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, noun phrases and verb phrases). It further explains how prepositional phrases can function as adverbials (fronted and not) as well as post-modifiers in noun phrases.
I’ve uploaded colour as well as black & white versions to suit different printing budgets and toner/ink levels at different schools.
A series of peer editing sheets for use across the curriculum, designed to develop writing proficiency without sacrificing attention to subject-specific content. Worksheets are differentiated into bronze, silver and gold levels, with increasingly challenging targets for each level in organisation, grammar, punctuation and use of language. There are separate sheets for explanatory, instructional and persuasive writing. Students simply follow the instructions on the sheet, looking for specific features in their partner's work and circling the corresponding recommendations accordingly. No specialist knowledge is required on the part of the classroom teacher.
For teachers in Wales, the targets are in line with those of the National Literacy and Numeracy Framework, with bronze targets aligning with the objectives for year 7, silver matching those of year 8 and gold matching those of year 9.
A series of peer editing sheets for use after students have finished drafting descriptive or narrative texts. Sheets are organised into Bronze, Silver and Gold levels with increasingly challenging criteria included in each. Criteria are based on the Literacy and Numeracy Framework for Wales, with Bronze corresponding to Year 7, Silver to Year 8 and Gold to Year 9 expectations.
Question paper, source insert and and mark scheme with exemplar response samples plus response planning grids for each question to help students prepare answers as well as DIRT sheets to help you provide feedback more quickly.
The source text is an extract from The Call of the Wild by Jack London.
As always, please leave a positive review if you find this resource helpful to help spread the word!
Revision activity in which students plan a five episode TV mini-series of the novel. The planning sheets lead them to look back to the novel to revise the settings and characters involved in each chapter and scene. Students must also consider physical and personality aspects of the characters to select suitable actors to play each part (as this is a hypothetical exercise, I usually give them the option of choosing any actor -- living or dead -- at any age to gain a better idea of how they visualise the characters).
This is a series of straightforward planning guides for responses to extract questions focused on:
- audience response to the extract
- the impression we get of a relationship from the extract
- mood (the feeling created by charaters and events) or atmosphere (the feeling created by objects and surroundings) in an extract.
I have found these to be very useful with students who struggle to structure a response to the extract question.
Before using any of these resources, I first ask students to draw lines dividing the extract into three sections (there are usually 2 or 3 shifts in an extract: from one event to another, one character to another, etc. Getting students to identify and focus on different sections of the extract helps them to structure their answer and to ensure that they're writing about the extract in its entirety).
This is a grid for planning a response to an extract question focused on a character (as opposed to audience response, a relationship, etc.).
I used the general label 'THE CHARACTER' throughout when designing this; whenever I use it with a text I go back and do a 'Find and Replace' search, inserting the actual name of the character in place of the general label 'THE CHARACTER'. This way I've been able to use it with a variety of texts and characters. I've found this scaffold very useful in helping students who have struggled with the extract question to plan and structure their response.
Teaches noun fundamentals (common and proper, concrete and abstract, countable and non-countable). In the lesson, students practise identifying the nouns in extracts from two classics (A Christmas Carol and The Wizard of Oz ). They must also identify and capitalise the proper nouns in each text. This provides very useful practice for helping students to analyse language (specifically lexis) on Language Paper 1 and Paper 2 as well as Literature Paper 1 and Paper 2.
In addition to explanations and examples of common and proper nouns, concrete and abstract nouns, and countable and uncountable nouns, the presentation also explains the rule for when to use ‘less’ and when to use ‘fewer’ to present quantity of nouns.
A straightforward guide for helping students to structure a response to a literature paper question. Students answer 6 prescribed questions to craft a body paragraph that contains the elements they need for success.
A sample paragraph based on Act I, Scene 3 of Romeo and Juliet is included as an exemplar.
A grammar-for-writing lesson with worksheet (answers provided in presentation). Students are given two simple sentences and challenged join them with a subordinating conjunction to create a complex sentence. Useful for encouraging sentence variety.
Worksheet that teaches students to identify the subject in sentences with unconventional word order (questions, imperatives and inverted sentences); concludes with an exercise to give them practice. This helps them to better understand sentence structure and to maintain subject-verb agreement when writing.
Lesson and worksheet - students read passages from The Call of the Wild by Jack London and identify the noun phrases in apposition/ appositive phrases that London includes in the text.
Based on the assessment objectives for AQA A Level Language and Literature combined; designed to be printed on two sides of A4.
Covers the following:
Social and historical context (the Industrial Revolution, Edmund Burke’s theory of the sublime, Rousseau’s theories regarding the nature/nurture debate, the alchemists Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus)
Biographical context of Mary Shelley
Literary context (explanations of important allusions and general characteristics of fantasy, science fiction, Romanticism, Gothic fiction and the tragic hero)
Themes (the pursuit of knowledge, nature versus nurture, justice and injustice, the importance of family, isolation and companionship, fortune versus fate, personal responsibility)
Characters (the roles and functions of Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, the creature, Elizabeth Lavenza, Justine Moritz and Safie)
Settings (untamed natural settings versus university cities)
Features of lexis, grammar, discourse and pragmatics to consider
No coloured ink used, so the resource will print equally well on different colours of paper to suit student needs/preferences.
Complete grammar lesson focusing on grammatical phrases; it includes a slide show with explanations and examples, a printable worksheet with exercises (answers included in slide show), and a knowledge organiser summarising key points of the lesson.
The lesson covers these phrase classes:
noun phrases
adjective phrases
verb phrases
adverb phrases
prepositional phrases
Students practise classifying prepositional phrases by function as either:
adverbials
post-modifiers
Complete lesson including slide presentation, exercises (with answers provided in the presentation) and knowledge organisers.
The lesson covers:
simple, compound and complex sentences
main clauses
subordinate clauses functioning as adverbials
relative clauses (defining and non-defining)
participle clauses
infinitive clauses
Complete A-level English language grammar lesson on verb phrases. Includes slide presentation and worksheet with exercises (answers included in slide presentation).
The lesson covers:
grammatical person
grammatical number
active and passive voice of verbs
verb tense (past, present and future)
verb aspect (progressive, perfective and perfect progressive)