This series is a question by question guide to the non-fiction paper, starting with reading. Each question begins with a ‘quick-fire starter’ when the technique required by the question is practised in its simplest form, usually a very visual text. This gives students confidence. It also keeps the time pressure on so that working quickly becomes a habit. Then the question requirements are explored through the exam board’s directives and again quick and easy examples with answers build up to more demanding practise through the series. Visual texts and Extracts of both 19th century and 21st century texts are used in the series to ensure students are undaunted by older texts. In all cases answers and a simplified mark scheme are provided. Although this series is preparing students for the Eduqas Component two English paper, it can easily be adapted to suit the question style of other exam boards: all have retrieval questions, inference questions etc. The focus of this resource is A1, so time has been taken to explain how the whole CP2 paper works. The starter introduces retrieval type questions, the main lesson looks at the overview of the exam, then moves on to a closer focus on retrieval, before the text becomes more demanding as students work independently. A hwk sheet is introduced and then assessed via a third PP. Because work has been simplified to ensure a firm foundation, this task is also suitable for y9s beginning their GCSE work early.

Use Halloween as an excuse to focus on close-up description to cut out the waffle, create atmosphere and promote concise writing. This resource offers a lesson on how to make monsters seem scary using extracts from 19th century novels, on PP with the text extracts available as a handout. The cre-ATE PP hyperlinks you via pictures to vocabulary that can help get the description started - great for letting students refer to when they're stuck. The 'you try' worksheet suggests a step-by-step structure illustrated with quotes from 'Game of Thrones' that can be used as a model.

Little and often is the best way to prepare students for the demands of GCSE English, so this task would suit y9 students as well as those doing GCSE already. Based on a paragraph of just 6 lines from William Corbett’s 1821-22 ‘Cottage Economy’, the task comprises a close reading to analyse tone, argument and structure. Being so short, this passage is an ideal ‘taster’ of a 19th century text. Students are also given a ‘typical’ reading question to consider. Feedback on the analysis is supported by the PP, which covers the whole lesson from Introduction- which also offers contextual information - to the writing task. Students use the persuasive techniques they have already learned to re-work Corbett’s argument in a modern way.

Starting with a visual and example of '3-D' writing including an 'X-factor' exercise, the PP focuses the lesson on structure both at sentence level and text level. The plenary sets a writing task based on the extract, where the superficial description is actually showing something more complex. The PP can easily be adapted for different abilities, just leave out the more demanding concepts till students are ready for them. The main part of the lesson is a close reading of an extract from Chapter 4 of James Joyce's 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man', while the starter uses Stephen Crane's 'The red badge of Courage'. As such it is also a good resource for exposing students to a wide range of reading in preparation for their GCSE English exam.

There is so much fantastic stuff out there on Romeo & Juliet there seems no point in more of the same. So this is not about the main thrust of your teaching. What this resource offers is alternatives for differentiation, especially in homework and starters. Budget constraints often mean students can't take the text home and time constraints mean there is little time in the lesson to allow students to engage with the text independently - these tasks try to rectify this by a 'little and often' approach, making starters and homework more 'open' than has been the recent trend. To help you sort out the order of relevance I've numbered the work that clusters together. Hope you and your class can bring a little enjoyment back into studying Shakespeare.

Something for you, to help you plan for a work-life balance. The charts are intended to be enlarged to A3, laminated and filled in with board pens which can be wiped clean. Where students follow individual activity plans you could adapt the chart to suit. They are made to be customised and to that end there are also additional quotes to choose from. You can insert your own photos too.

This revision lesson is aimed at encouraging students to notice what they're looking at. As they come into the lesson, a PP with two word-clouds should alert them to their topic and they have 5 minutes to brush up on the information. Thereafter they look at slides of coastlines and jot down what they notice. Annotated slides follow, offering opportunity for discussion and then a question is set on each slide. Posters of the coastal features are included as separate poster, printed A4 and enlarged or A3 or used as A4 handouts. For differentiation of the lesson, weaker students can be given the A4 printouts to annotate.

Typical AQA questions begin with a critical stance to be applied to an extract and then the play as a whole. The starter PP gives the critical stance and asks students to formulate the question [a paper version is available to cut time wastage ] and chose - in groups with discussion- a suitable extract for the question. The homework is a log to fill in for each Act, providing a key focus and some key quotes. A note on essay writing outlines a strategy to follow as well as giving feedback from AQA on the way they prefer essays written.

The PP looks at what is meant by 'problem play' and quotes various opinions - the class should apply the quotes in discussion and explore to what extent they agree and find them helpful. Students can use these quotes either to sharpen their own insights or as supporting evidence in essays. End the lesson with a discussion or debate, as a class or in groups, about how they think the actors should end the play - does she or doesn't she?! The 'so what' worksheet is versatile as a starter or homework - its aim is to develop a sense of Shakespeare's like experience as a context for the play.

Here are the three different stages leading up to and including the trial exam paper and its feedback. The focus is on learning a strategy for coping with unseen poetry by taking it slowly, focusing on the process while exploring the poems: 'Sonnet 65' and 'Meeting at Night' and comparing the two.

This resource brings together the work done on poems individually to focus on a strategy for comparing and the actual comparison of the two poems.The PP begins the task with planning, then continues with self- and peer- checking. Targets are suggested in the last slide, to be adapted by the teacher as suits the actual class. A planning sheet handout to be enlarged to A3 ensures the AOs are covered at the planning stage. A further handout focuses on effective openings, stimulating discussion and then serving as a model for the essay opening. For very weak students there is a generic note on comparing poems with some useful words, phrases and prompts. The trial exam paper follows the style of the AQA exam.

These 7 ice-breakers are fun, easy to administer and also help you get to know the class and them to get to know each other. You need a soft ball, a timer and maybe some music. The PP has icons hyperlinked to the activity explanation. 4 of the tasks need no resources. The ‘bingo’ sheet, 'tell us’cards and the ideas for ‘get in line’ are all provided for printing before the lesson. Suitable for tutor or subject lessons.

This is a poem where structure undergirds the meaning of the poem more obviously than often, so it is a useful 'unseen' to explore. As well as the lesson on PP and the fill in worksheet, there is a detailed note on Metre, using examples from the poem. Avoid with a weak class, but worth doing with a mid- to able class, provided the focus is on how the rhyme and rhythm support/ enhance meaning. The teacher's notes has two links, one to a reading of the poem and another to a youtube clip that could be used as a 'flipped learning' style preparatory homework task [under 20mins]: particularly useful with weaker students - an easy differentiation.

Using a variety of sentence openers is an effective and easy way to improve writing. The PP begins with a reminder of the ways in which sentences can be opened more effectively. The worksheet task - 2 to a page to cut costs - is to label the openers in a piece of writing, using the reminder slide if needed. Students check their own work from the next slide, writing in correct answers. This task is also useful preparation for any task that requires close reading. A final slide challenges students to complete the story in at least 4 more sentences, each with a different opening, a task which could be set as homework, a plenary or extension work.

Being able to summarise is a vital skill. It is a particularly good way of checking understanding of what has been read and the ability to foreground the most important information when writing. It impacts other subject areas as summarising aids revision. The PP begins with a few guidelines and a starter exercise, models how to summarise and then gives an independent summary task using an extract from 'Out of Africa'. This task is also on the worksheet, which should be handed out at that point. There are two to a page to save printing costs. Students can check their own from the penultimate slide. The last slide plenary challenges students to think of other ways in which we summarise information, as in mind-maps & lists...

Unseen poetry can seem daunting, especially when it could come from any period. So this resource begins to inculcate a simple, yet effective, strategy for approaching unseen poetry in general, while also focusing on 'Sonnet 65' in particular. The PP runs through the strategy with specific instructions to be followed on the worksheet by students. There are also feedback slides where some points are made as a stimulus - the idea is that students should contribute there ideas. The student worksheet contains the poem to be annotated and some fill in space to consolidate information. Page 2 gives an essay title and information in the guise of notes from 3 students that can be used along with the student's own ideas- this allows for subtle differentiation. The 'lesson plan' sheet is actually notes for the teacher in case they are unfamiliar with the poem. The sonnet handout is a note on the sonnet form, with the same information on A6 to save costs. Be aware that the AQA unseen poetry requires students to compare poems, but as this is a first there is no comparison. More unseen poetry will lead to comparison. Other than that, the question for the essay is modelled on the AQA style task.

Gathering a wide vocabulary is a matter of regular exposure over time. This resource offers exposure, engagement and, hopefully, enjoyment of the words. Encourage students to say the words, be silly with them, learn to spell them. The PP hyperlinks each of 6 icons to a different vocabulary activity; synonyms, antonyms, odd one out, T&F, choose the correct word and find the word. The first slide of each activity sets out the task, the second the answers for easy self checking [a good habit to instil is to write in correct answers ] and the third slide suggests an extra challenge which could be set as homework, given as a task to early finishers in the main lesson or to add differentiation. Each task has a paper version to aid differentiation, accommodate slow workers or to be set as homework. I call vocabulary a ‘word-hoard’ to impress on students that words are treasured currency - all our thoughts, experiences and feelings are known to ourselves and others through our words ; if we get our words wrong we miscommunicate; if we have no apt words we’re impoverished.

These quick starters are all self-mark and focus on vocabulary and spelling.

Both these starters aim to fine-tune vocabulary so that students actually say what they mean. The vocabulary match gets definitions right to expand their word-hoard, while the connectives exercise picks up on some common mis-usage and gets students to choose more appropriate connectives. In each case the first slide gives the task which is also on the handout and then the students can check their won work from the PP. A drip-feed of SPaG starters will keep students mindful of using language correctly while improving their knowledge of how the language works.

Keep students mindful of the need to proof-read with regular starters and short SPaG exercises. These self-mark starters consist of an instructions slide and an answer slide PP and the text to be corrected on a handout, either for the whole class to aid speed or as differentiation to aid weaker/slower students.