A lesson that takes a closer, critical look at how Gerald’s account of his meeting of Eva Smith/ Daisy Renton is presented to the audience. The lesson includes relevant extracts taken from the play, set on one page for easy annotation. Students are guided to analyse multiple interpretations of Gerald’s dialogue - how Gerald is trying to present himself (positive), but then close lang analysis to examine the more cynical, negative aspects of what he is saying. For example: the excessive use of the pronoun ‘I’ to indicate he did what was best for himself, and his feelings, as opposed to Eva’s/Daisy’s; the use of imperatives such as ‘made’ and ‘insisted’. Have used this lesson a few times now for both first time teaching of the text and as revision and have found pupils really receptive to the lesson. JB Priestley - An Inspector Calls

An introductory lesson to persuasive speeches, using Room 101 tv show.

Structured tasks on showing not telling method of creative writing. Variety of tasks, leading towards final task of writing from a visual prompt.

A powerpoint introducing the Christmas Truce of WW1, exploring how the soldiers would have been feeling. This culminates in pupils writing a letter home, as a soldier, explaining what has happened and how they feel about it. Used in conjunction with studying WW1 poetry.

DIRT tasks for AQA Lang P2, Q2 & 3 - ‘Discoveries’ with model answers. Best used for after the class have attempted these questions for themselves. I set the questions as a mini in-class assessment and then used the following for DIRT. Included are example answers for Q2 &3 where pupils are to mark and annotate the examples, from a ‘expert’ checklist, and then use ideas from the examples to improve their own: ‘magpie’. PLEASE NOTE: cannot be credited as creating Q paper, but the model answers and the PP is my own)

A whole lesson exploring the imagery used in the poem Nettles by Vernon Scannell. Initially, the tasks relate to the theme of ‘Growing Up’ and making an initial reading/understanding of the poem. Then it links to imagery of war, before returning to theme of ‘Growing Up’ and the ‘battles’ faced by children and parents. Have used this lesson with year 7 and 8 classes. Quite a good lesson to develop pupil’s to consider deeper/secondary meanings of poems.

3 lessons aimed at LA pupils to explore the presentation of characters. Included are: Birling Sheila Gerald Watch this space for resources on the other characters. Each ‘lesson’ consists of: true/false starter activity vocab match up task (adjectives used to describe the respective characters, to ensure understanding e.g: words like, ‘insightful’; ‘assertive’; 'responsible; ‘arrogant’ etc.) quotation wheel activity: a blank wheel with just the adjectives on (to print A3), with a list of quotations for pupils to cut up and stick in the correct segment of the wheel. Then to add notes to the quotations. What/How/Why template to put info from the wheel into paragraphs.

Powerpoint resource on the assessment: ‘How does the writer use language in the text to present the character of Hyde?’ from an extract taken from CH. 1 of the novel. (Can easily be adapted to ask pupils to compare to the rest of the text too.) Included in the resource is: the assessment question with scaffold to remind pupils how to respond to the Q. a DIRT lesson that includes a model answer, a model annotation of a single quotation, and then a selected quotation for pupils to then annotate themselves (with the focus on, ‘a lot from a little’ ). Pupils can then rewrite new, improved PEA paragraphs based on the quotations selected for them, and the annotations made. A peer assessment task.

Straightforward lesson to introduce the use of foreshadowing in the play, focussing on the ‘Summer Sequence’ in Act 2. Resources include powerpoint lesson with starter, main task and ‘increasing challenge’ plenary . Main task comprises of worksheet (included) that annotates the lyrics to ‘Summer Sequence’ and requires pupils to look for positive / negative imagery. This culminates in pupils writing a PEA paragraph on Russell’s use of foreshadowing in this scene. I use this lesson with my year 7 classes and believe it would be suitable for LA GCSE classes.

A lesson on exploring and reviewing the structural features used so far within the play (at the start of Act 2), with a task comparing the start of Act 1, with the start of act 2, searching for similarities and differences, moving onto specifically exploring the role of dramatic irony.

A lesson exploring the confrontation between the two mothers in Act 2, from the angle of exploring the power shift between the two mothers since Act 1.

An introductory lesson to explore the theme of Nature vs Nurture in Blood Brothers. Suitable for first time study of the play.

A lesson exploring Thatcherite Britain, responding to Thatcher’s view that everyone’s able to be successful, if you work hard enough. Pupils are to apply this view to the events in the play (Act 2), and then write a letter to Mrs Thatcher addressing their point of view (whether they agree/disagree with her statement).

A lesson exploring the topic of unemployment in Act 2 of Blood Brothers.

Two lessons exploring the characterisation of Mr Lyons across the play, leading to an assessment task. Lessons are suitable for KS3 or lower ability KS4. Easily adapted for higher ability KS4.

Article writing task on the topic of Boxing. Perfect for AQA Language Paper 2, Q5 practice. This ppt includes lots of ideas and information for pupils to read and make notes on before formulating a viewpoint for themselves and presenting in the form of a broadsheet newspaper. This ppt does NOT overly go over article features. This lesson is best suited as a lesson to apply and demonstrate what they have learned about article features. Alternately, this could be used as baseline assessment, prior to teaching article features.

I have created DIRT tasks on the AQA Lang P1 2019 paper Q2 & 3, which my class used as a mock/inidicative assessment. The slides include typed up copies of the indicative content, which pupils then used to ‘magpie’ ideas, to improve their own responses. This also enables pupils to be engaged with the markscheme and develop their understanding of have their responses are graded against 4 levels: simple, some, clear, perceptive - and what that may actually look like on paper.

A literacy work booklet focussing on Comparatives and Superlatives. Could be used for general English lesson use but also for cover lessons or homework.

Whole lesson on ‘Caged Bird’ by Maya Angelou with resources, exploring the imagery and extended metaphor. There’s also an element of looking beyond the initial ‘top layer’ meaning, and pupils are guided towards the extended metaphor. Can also be used with the focus of the role of context informing our responses, whereby pupils consider how understanding context of the poet enables pupils to identify the deeper meanings and the extended metaphor.

This resource includes two articles on the topic of ‘Elephants’. The powerpoint guides pupils to: Consider what is meant by the terms ‘viewpoint’ and ‘perspective’ and begin identifying from the texts Scaffolded paragraph as a first attempt. Model answers for EACH level in the mark scheme, for pupils to read and sort next to the correct level descriptor. Tasks to identify the differences between the model answers, getting pupils to identify what is needed to get their responses into the next ‘level’ on the mark scheme. Finishing with another scaffolded paragraph (to monitor progress), and a peer assessment task to engage with others work, as well as the mark scheme. PLEASE NOTE: I cannot take credit for the extracts, and apologies I cannot remember where I sourced them from (please do contact me if they are yours!). ALSO: This powerpoint is not set out into specific lessons however, I have used this PP with my year 11s (first time through the paper) and it took a weeks worth of lessons, to give you a guide.