I dictate this story. Give the pupils some plain paper. Draw some lines to make a room. Add a window. Add snowflakes - it's snowing outside. Add a table, a sofa, a cooker, a TV and then, an old lady. Is she rich or poor? How do you know? Her husband died 10 years ago. She has no children. She has no brothers and sisters. The date is December 25th... Why is it special? The old lady turns around. There is a cat on her window sill (Draw it). It is skinny. Do you think she will let it in? Why? Why not? She opens the window and lets it in. It rubs her leg. (Draw the cat by her leg). She shares her turkey... Keep asking questions... Then, I do a hotseat. The pupils prepare the questions. Put the old lady in the hotseat. 'Are you married?' 'Have you got any children? 'What did you see on the window sill?' Higher level questions; 'How did you feel when you saw that cat?' And so on.

A great picture, with activities to practise the present continuous tense.

It’s a worksheet about the recent school strike. It is designed for EAL learners but may be of wider use, maybe in Citizenship or tutor period. I’m sure we don’t want them all downing pens, but knowledge is power!

This is an EAL newsletter for staff that is fully editable. I have included boxes for a 'student of the month&' feature and an interview with a member of staff. This was very welI received at my school and we had a competition to choose a name for the newsletter. We are undecided between The ReadEMA&'; and 'The Chitchat&'. I will be uploading issue 2 very soon!

This is a short passage in the past simple about a nervous teacher's first lesson. Cloze and match up exercises provided.

A play with 14 parts (easily adapted). I wrote this for a year 9 class with a high proportion of EAL students. They really enjoyed it.

The students decide which comment refers to which character. You could develop this by asking them to back up their decisions/give examples.

This is a questionnaire for the students to do in pairs. There is a match-up exercise on page 2. I have prepared it for my EAL students, but it could be used as an ice breaker after the holiday. Or they could answer the questions as a written exercise.

This is a powerpoint of 52 slides. I uploaded it previously to test the waters as I was going to charge for it. From 23 views, it got 21 downloads! I was pleased. Since then, I have done nothing to make it sale-worthy, like checking image derivation and one or 2 layouts that are not really mine. However, I have faffed about with fancy borders and stuff to make it look presentable. Time to let this go live! So - there are youtube clips with exercises, match-ups, comprehensions, picture description, making inferences, games… All sorts! I hope you can use it and I hope to get a few reviews:-)

Take a basic plot and build it up into an outstanding lesson, with your students producing a piece of writing at the end. No resources are needed. Of course, you can produce resources to complement the lessons if you want. I have provided one differentiated question sheet which would be useful for EAL students. This is based on an idea by 'Lauriane'. I would love to meet her.

Short story based on five images with a twist in the tale. A good model for third person narrative controlled assessment practice, (audience young readers). I get my students to mind map the images first. Some exercises provided.

There are two lists, one taking a positive view of a Trump action, and the other, a negative take. The students match these up, then describe what the images represent. Finally, they weigh up their own opinions about Trump’s policies. This sheet could be used in a debate about Trump. Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list, but hopefully it will encourage them to find out more. Actually, I have put quite a bit of effort into this, so I hope it will be useful!

This is a Venn diagram with a list of adjectives and phrases. Students decide which describe Curley's wife, which describe Crooks and which describe them both.

Two pages - a great picture, by Laurie A. Conley. With a picture, I normally 1) play Splat! 2) Memory game 3) Barrier game (pupil A facing picture, pupil B not allowed to look) 'she&'s wearing a pink top - what&';s she doing? 4) Hot seat - e.g.you are Will 'what are you doing?&' &';what can you see?' etc.... Here, I have made a variety of exercises for writing or homework.

This is a 12 slide power point, featuring ten famous refugees. Each slide comes with a short activity and some questions. It will suit year 7 and will serve as starter activities to accompany books about refugees, for example ‘Boy 87’. I have used Comic Sans and this font is not available for preview on here , surprisingly! It looks fine on download. I hope this will be useful.

This is a guide on how to describe a picture. It's useful for mainstream teachers to use as an exercise or wall chart and also as a hand out to students. I love the picture! Who are they? What were they doing?

A great picture, with activities to practise the present continuous tense.

To go with the youtube clip. Pictures and words for Splat! Gap fill, with past simple focus.

Useful in Business Studies - language activities to support EAL students around the process.

Match up the word and the Christmas item. Use the pictures on screen for a 'Splat' game. Ask them to draw their own diagrams to the words.... I have made this for my EAL pupils. Bought the clipart from here - best 2 quid I ever spent!