This chart is a great revision resource. It enables students to view all of the poems on one page and to see thematic connections between them. This is helpful for both remembering the poems and exploring their themes. Because 'power' has been added to the collection this year, the first column provides space for students to think about how each poem fits within the collection title. There are then 9 themes (and two spaces for extra ideas) that students can tick if they feel they apply to each poem. When the chart is complete, it can be used to think about how the different poems respond to a theme in different ways (e.g. memory as cherished or as tortuous; being rejected or rejecting something, etc). This can lead into selecting poems from the chart for practice at comparative essays around one of the themes.

This is quite a fun little exercise to get students thinking carefully about the difference between these similar sounding words. It is a fill-in-the-blanks exercise based on a short dialogue.

This is a great resource for students who understand the basics of point-evidence-analysis paragraphs, but sometimes get a bit stuck! It shows clearly how to talk about broad techniques in point sentences, how to focus in on specific examples, and then how to link techniques to themes, atmosphere etc. by way of analysis. I have found this really useful, especially for helping students to understand what is required from them when we ask them to analyse. Lots of ways that students might start their sentences at each stage are included to encourage variation in their writing.

Five sentences for students to change the meaning by adding commas, plus one extra funny example. It's a fun little exercise that will help students to understand the concept of ambiguity and the importance of commas!

This resource provides the examination criteria that are required to achieve the top marks in Paper 1 and Paper 2 of the Edexcel IGCSE in English Language. For each criterion, tips are provided to help students understand how they can meet them. Additionally, because there's quite a lot of information to digest here, helpful summaries are provided for Paper 1 and parts A and B of Paper 2. Overall, this is an extremely valuable resource for ensuring that students know exactly what is required of them, and it would be ideal for reading and discussion in relation to a sample questions.

This is a brief passage that I have written as an exercise to practice identifying and checking homophones. I read it aloud for students to write down, and then we work through and see how many homophones we can spot, checking that the students have spelt them correctly as we go. I have highlighted 25 homophones in red, but there are definitely more in there!

This resource is modelled on the Edexcel IGCSE English Language paper, but it would work just as well as practice for any specification that requires response to an unseen text, or as a more general reading comprehension exercise. The text is an edited excerpt from Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which I chose because the author paints such vivid images and constructs incredibly deep characters. There's a lot that can be taken from this text when it is read carefully! Following the text, there are three basic comprehension questions, one question requiring a more in-depth response and an essay question with space for planning under each of the criteria that the student is required to consider.

This resource is jam-packed with information and exercises on how to use colons and semi-colons properly. The exercises are quite challenging, so this is really only for students that have mastered more basic punctuation!

I often find that knowing what to write about in terms of structure is something that students struggle with. This resource provides a short excerpt of text taken from the first pages of The Hunger Games and breaks down Question 3 (How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?). Students are prompted on the different things that they could write about for each part of the question, helping to demystify it, make it a bit less scary and provide practice at writing excellent answers!

Fourteen sentences that increase in difficulty, where students can fill in the blanks with either there, their, they're, there's or theirs. They're bound to get these homophones right after this!

This is a fun way to show students that metaphors, similes and personification are more common than they realise! Cut out the lyrics into squares and lay them face down on the table. Play pairs: a student turns over one square and has to identify whether it is a metaphor, a simile or an example of personification. They then chose another and see if it matches. If it does, they keep both squares. If there's no match, they put both squares back face down and the next student gets a turn. The student with the most pairs at the end of the game wins! Students can then select four of the squares to stick in the boxes to the left of the second sheet. They then write what the song-writer compares with what and why. This provides an introduction to (or reinforcement of) how to analyse these poetic techniques.

This resource consists of two pages. The first provides some basic information about Wilfred Owen and his experiences in WWII. Pictures are included to provide further context and potentially to provoke further discussion (e.g. about how attitudes towards war were affected by propaganda). The second page then provides four questions to prompt thoughtful engagement with the poem Disabled. These could be used for individual responses or would be ideal for group discussions.

This is not your average end of term time-filling word search! I give it to students without the list of words that they are looking for and challenge them to find as many as they can out of 24. The word search subtly requires students to think carefully about the spelling of these difficult words. In a class, I run this as a competition, sometimes in pairs. When tutoring one-on-one or in small groups, I ask the student(s) to define each term as they find them. Overall, it's a fun way to build familiarity and confidence with some really tricky vocabulary!

Fifteen easy-to-understand sentences where students can fill in the blanks with either effect or affect. A simple but effective worksheet to help students overcome this common confusion!

This worksheet considers how adverbs can be used to create drama or add colour to writing. The first page explains how adverbs can be used within a sentence (beginning, middle or end), and considers how ambiguity can sometimes arise from their use. Some guidance will probably be required here to ensure that the student understands what is meant by ambiguity and to discuss how the example sentence is ambiguous. The second page then contains some exercises that encourage students to think about how they can use adverbs to make their writing more effective, including a brief creative writing exercise.

This is a fun little exercise that will engage student imaginations as they practice using persuasive writing techniques. The Exercise begins by establishing a scenario where they are a spy who has just been caught out (place names can be changed to match your local area). I normally start by using this as a brief reading comprehension exercise, asking students to explain the situation back to me in their own words. This has the effect of engaging and challenging them, as well as making sure that they understand! They are then required to use each of the techniques listed (which form an anagram of spier's fright) to persuade the people who have caught them not to kill them!

There's more in here than you could fit into an hour-long lesson, so choose your favourites and/or set homework! I like to start with the *plot overview*, drawing attention to the way that each chapter is set at a particular time of day and in one particular place. I also talk about the structure of the novel, about how both hope and a sense of impending trouble build and build until the death of Curley's wife, at which point tragedy prevails and all hope is lost. I then move onto *the creation and function of characters*, explaining how different techniques are used to create characters, different characters represent different themes, and different themes are used to communicate particular ideas/the author's main messages. Some techniques for creating characters are given - can students think of any more? Can they name nine characters and give two words to describe each in the next row? Then, can they think of themes that each character represents? Then finally, what does Steinbeck tell us about these themes? What are his main ideas/messages in the novel? This works well as a group activity as it gets students talking about the characters in depth and thinking about their role in the book. The idea is to help them to understand how the characters have been created very deliberately and purposefully to help Steinbeck communicate something. As an extension, there is then space where three characters can be analysed in more depth. There are three AQA *exam-style questions*, where the first part of the question asks the student to respond to an excerpt and the second asks how something is presented in the rest of the novel, considering the historical context. Question C on ambitions and opportunities is my favourite and ties in well with the above analysis of characters. I like to discuss the first part of the question, then briefly revise context with the *US in the 1930s* sheet before moving on to the second part of the question. These questions could be used for group discussion, essay plans or full independent essay-writing practice. Some *quotes* are also included. Each quote has a point sentence; students could be asked to pick a few and add analysis.

These resources are designed to help students begin to think critically about the difference between figurative and literal language and to understand how imagery is effective. *Literally or figuratively* draws attention to a top pet peeve among teachers - the misuse of the word literally. However, it's worth explaining that while the misuse of the word 'literally' is technically wrong, it creates a certain effect that might be desirable in colloquial language. This can lead on to discussion of hyperbole and humour. *Analysing figurative language* helps students to then further explore the effects that figurative language and imagery can create. This is great for helping them to understand what they have to do when they are told to analyse language. *Types of imagery* aims to visualise the different senses that imagery might draw upon. It helps to emphasise that imagery is not just about images, its about all of the different ways that you might imagine something/somewhere/someone. In the *writing poetry with imagery* document, there are two options. The first is a football scenario. Students prepare to write a poem about a penalty shoot out by coming up with their own imagery for each of the three stanzas - before, during and after the shot is taken. They can chose whether to write in first or third person. Prompt them by asking what they/the player hears, sees, feels etc, ask about how the crowd moves, the temperature, the movement of the ball etc. Alternatively, students can come up with their own scenario, preferably one that has a before, during and after element so that contrasts can be developed. Students can then write out their poems, using their best imagery. This is a good time to talk about line and sentence length and how these can be used to create pace and mood. Finally, students can be asked to write some analysis of their own poems. This can be invaluable for helping students to understand how to talk about the choices that poets have made and their effects. Now that they are poets and have gone through the process of using imagery, they will have a clearer understanding of why other poets use it.

When it comes to writing analysis, students often get stuck in the habit of repeating "This shows..." This resource gives students three ways that they can break this habit, leading to more variation in their writing and challenging them to use more expressive terms. The resource includes a long list of alternative verbs and a page where they can practice rewriting "This shows..." sentences. As I work one-on-one with students, I tend to get them to rewrite sentences from their own essays, but some sample sentences might be required for group/class teaching.

This exercise is about a real life disagreement about building on a stretch of land known as the Eynsham Orchard (very close to where I grew up). The first download contains excerpts that I have sourced from the internet, including information provided by the building company, a report from a residents' association, correspondence from the county and local councils, a letter from residents and an interview with a young resident. These sources are laid out with space alongside the text for annotation. The second download provides space for students to draw comparisons and conclusions about the different types of language that are used in the sources, the different issues and themes that they focus on, and the main problems/benefits of building on the land that are identified on each side of the debate.

This is a real brain-bender! Starting from the red word, students draw a line to an aural rhyme (word that sounds the same), then from there to a visual rhyme (word that looks the same), then to an aural rhyme, then to a visual rhyme and so on until they have a chain that links all of the words in each of the three exercises. It’s tough because you have to keep switching the way you think! As an extension, students can then be asked to come up with some other words that are spelt the same but pronounced differently. Older/more able students can be challenged to make their own alternating aural/visual chain, maybe even with a prize for the student who makes the longest.