I'm currently the head of English and raising standards leader at a secondary school in Birmingham. I'm passionate about my subject and passionate about ensuring that the young people we serve leave education with a high competency in English.
Prior to teaching I worked in the radio industry as a presenter for 7 years and so when I became a teacher I enjoyed the opportunity to teach Media studies.
You'll find hundreds of English and Media studies resources.
I'm currently the head of English and raising standards leader at a secondary school in Birmingham. I'm passionate about my subject and passionate about ensuring that the young people we serve leave education with a high competency in English.
Prior to teaching I worked in the radio industry as a presenter for 7 years and so when I became a teacher I enjoyed the opportunity to teach Media studies.
You'll find hundreds of English and Media studies resources.
This presentation was used at conferences to explore the concept of work scrutiny in schools.
The presentation:
explores the what, how and why of work scrutiny
addresses the problems with work scrutiny
provides examples and non examples
is rooted in relevant research
explores how work scrutiny can become much more impactful in schools / departments
takes Ofsted into account and their implementation of work scrutiny as part of a deep dive
compares work scrutiny with a book look
provides potential templates that could be used to make the process of work scrutiny much more impactful
This resource guides students through the two AQA literature papers.
A student booklet is included that contains model answers, opportunities to practice annotation and exam responses as well as guidance on structuring an academic introduction.
A teacher power point is also included to assist the delivery and teaching of the mock.
Texts covered:
Romeo and Juliet
Jekyll and Hyde
An Inspector Calls
Unseen poetry
Resources to support the development of the following questioning and higher order thinking skills and strategies:
- Blooms taxonomy
- Socratic questioning
- No hands
- Pause time
- Secret 7
- Big question
Ideal for leading departmental or whole school training on questioning strategies.
Resources included:
- CPD power point presentation on questioning strategies with tasks for staff to complete to get them thinking about their existing practice and how they could develop this
- Socratic questioning prompt sheet to support student development of their questioning of each other within lessons
- Links to Ofsted expectations
- Departmental audit template
A quick quiz for each of the 15 poems in the conflict collection. (Differentiated by colour)
The first 3 purple questions are straight forward idea and information recall questions
The next 3 blue questions provide students with the first letter in the answer and require them to think
The final 3 yellow questions relate to techniques
Use at the start of a lesson and then come back to it at the end - student ability at recalling the poems studies becomes excellent. Then keep popping the quiz up on the board and student knowledge improves dramatically.
Could also be perfect for homework but works best as a team quiz in lessons as a starter and plenary.
Fully differentiated (by colour) resources to support the teaching of ‘The send off’ by Wilfred Owen.
Resources prepare students to access the new specification 9-1 poetry exam (context and analysis of writer’s methods) and also develop imaginative writing skills for 9-1 English language.
As many schools move in the direction of a knowledge based curriculum there has become a need in developing a more challenging and complex curriculum that builds effectively to ensure students grasp the key concepts in a given subject.
This resource has been used in staff training and covers the following areas:
Determining what it means to study each subject and why it is an important subject to study
Ascertaining what is meant by a key concept
Exploration of why students should be given the most important knowledge
Determining the key concepts and sub concepts that make up a subject
Mapping key concepts across a LTP
Justifying and articulating how students encounter each concept/sub concept and how the complexity increases as they journey through the curriculum
Exploration of the curriculum as the progression model
All content is based on educational research and researchers have been referenced.
A walking talk mock (power point presentation and student work booklet) to build skills for AQA English language paper 2 question 5.
The resource:
explores the mark scheme
explores examiner feedback
explores stronger and weaker answers
provides exemplar student answers with annotations
explores ethos, logos, pathos as a method for persuasion
provides an effective sample structure
provides a step by step approach to creating an impactful response
A document of questions that can be used when interviewing the head of a department around curriculum intent and implementation in line with the new Ofsted framework.
A student booklet and teacher power point that takes students through how to answer and revise for the Jekyll and Hyde AQA literature question.
Model answers included and guidance on how to plan and then structure an academic introduction and essay.
Opportunities for students to write their own answers with and without scaffolds.
The resource uses two different exam questions.
Differentiated resources to support the teaching of 'Pig Heart Boy.' Lessons are numbered for ease of use.
Ideal for year 7 or year 8
Resources provide opportunities for students to:
- explore and research context - Xenotransplantation
- explore themes such as perseverance, friendship, optimism, forgiveness,
- explore and analyse characters and themes
- write persuasively
- develop speaking and listening skills
- develop sympathy and empathy skills
Fully differentiated (by colour) resources to support the teaching of a one - two week Media based English project on advertising.
Differentiation:
yellow = higher
blue = middle
purple = lower
Resources provide opportunities to:
- explore target audience for advertising campaigns
- explore existing advertising campaigns
- explore the use of persuasive language
- explore the use of presentational features
- analyse the effectiveness of advertising campaigns
- explore the narratives of advertising campaigns
- design a new soft drink and develop the advertising production plan
- peer and self assess
- explore representation
- justify own design choices
These resources could also be useful as part of an enrichment day/activity.
Over 10 fully differentiated resources to support the teaching of print and TV advertising and the creation of own advertising campaign.
Lessons are ready to go and are numbered for ease of use. These lessons were planned in order for students to complete AQA assignment 1 coursework but can be used to meet any advertising success criteria.
Differentiation:
purple = lower ability
blue = middle ability
yellow = higher ability
Resources provide opportunities to:
- explore media language
- explore media audiences of print advertising
- identify and analyse presentational and persuasive techniques
- analyse the narratives of adverts - print and TV
- Explore how products promote themselves across three mediums (TV, print and web)
- explore synergy
- use a brief to create an advertising campaign for a new fizzy drink
- conduct primary and secondary research
- gather qualitative and quantitative data
- analyse existing fizzy drink adverts including diet coke and pepsi
- explore how adverts play on consumer fears and dreams
- create an advertising campaign
- evaluate own production work
- peer and self assess regularly
These documents outline what makes a student a HAP, MAP or LAP now that curriculum levels have been removed.
HAP = High achieving pupil
MAP = Middle achieving pupil
LAP = low achieving pupil
The documents outline the skills required (in both reading and writing) for each student in year 7 through to year 11 to be categorised as a HAP, MAP or LAP in English language. The skills are bullet pointed to allow ease of use for all department members.
For KS4 this information is separated into both language and literature.
For literature this is broken down even further so that teachers can determine whether students are a HAP, MAP or LAP in specific components of English such as:
- poetry
- 19th century literature
- Shakespeare
- modern novel
These documents would be ideal for teachers to use when assessing student progress in specific components of their English studies be it language or literature. Once used, the student work can then be compared to their target in order to track progress.
Fully differentiated resources to support the revision of 'Of Mice and Men.'
Opportunities to:
- revise characters
- revise themes
- practice exam style questions
- study model paragraphs in response to exam style questions
- revise the context 1920s and 1930s America
- extract to whole
Differentiation:
yellow = higher ability
blue = middle ability
purple = lower ability
Fully differentiated lessons to support the teaching of 'Half Caste' by John Agard.
2 lessons that include pupil talk tasks, assessment, outcomes and cover:
- context of the poem
- language analysis
- form and structure exploration
Differentiation:
purple = lower ability
blue = middle ability
yellow - higher ability
Resources to support the teaching of imaginative writing for low ability KS3 pupils. This resource was planned to provide 4 lessons and was planned to allow students to create a short story to enter in the BBC radio 2 500 words competition.
Covers:
- story openings
- plot development
- descriptive writing
- show not tell
- character development
Comment back for English teachers in an excel file.
The comments cover the following areas:
- Pupil effort
- Pupil attitude
- Pupil homework
- Pupil classwork
- Pupil targets for improvement
Also broken down to provide comments for:
- Poetry
- Prose
A series of lessons exploring the lyrical ballad ‘Goody Blake and Harry Gill’ for Key stage 3.
In these lessons students will:
summarise differences
analyse use of language
write a persuasive letter
explore the context of lyrical ballads
develop inference skills
A CPD journal template.
The idea behind this is to front load a term/half term with the relevant reading that will be the basis for CPD to allow staff to read and engage ahead of a CPD session.
The reading included is based around the school priorities and ensures that CPD is research based.
Space is provided for staff to reflect on each CPD session and prioritise their actions.
A series of lessons following the I do, we do, you do structure that guides students through how to write an academic response to the GCSE exam question on ‘An Inspector Calls.’
Students are guided through:
how to tackle the question
how to plan their response
how to write an effective introduction
how to structure an academic essay
Three exam questions included for students to work on.