A lesson exploring the theme of crime and violence in the play, exploring the context of high unemployment in the 1980’s and Thatcherite Britain.

A post-study lesson exploring the idea of censorship. LO: To reflect on the writer’s intentions and the context of the book’s publication The lesson explores both how censorship is presented IN Animal Farm as well as issues relating to censorship OF Animal Farm, recognising Orwell’s difficulty in getting the novella published.

Booklet to accompany study of Of Mice and Men (OMAM), considering the differences between dialect, accent and standard English. Can be used as part of a SOW on the text, but has also been successfully set as cover work too.

A powerpoint which encompasses revision of key events of the whole play, mapping a timeline with key quotes, which all lend themselves to the theme of power, which leads on to a practice exam question which students began in lesson and completed for homework. Originally used as a 2 hour revision lesson prior to their mock exam (where they sat the June 2023 Macbeth Q).

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.

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 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.

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

A homework sheet for pupils to completed, locating quotations / lines that reflect themes. Used in a LA set.

8 week’s worth of homework on Macbeth to support the study and revision of the play. Tasks focus on supporting vocabulary of pupils, linking vocabulary to our study of the play, as well as tasks on context, SPaG and a ‘Elizabethan pronoun’ challenge. All tasks have been designed so they can easily be marked in class either as self/peer assessment (to reduce teacher marking!) but also designed to be purposeful to student’s learning. Pupils will need to know the plot / summary of the play in order to complete these tasks (i.e. I always begin teaching Macbeth with context and summary / main plot, before studying in more detail).

A lesson introducing pathos exploring how we are lead to feel sympathy for Mrs Johnstone at the start of Blood Brothers.

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 homework activity to build pupil’s vocabulary when discussing characters and themes in An Inspector Calls. Task asks pupils to look up definitions for key vocab and then apply and find the links to characters in the play. This can then feed into lessons.

A lesson reviewing the events of Blood Brothers (post-reading) and exploring Russell’s intentions for the play.

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

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 reading log for pupils to keep track of where they are.

Shakespearean language Starter activity - Thou, thee, thine and thy Activity Task, with answer slide.

Activities on ‘accept’ and ‘except’; ‘affect’ and ‘effect’. Have used for cover lesson. SPaG revision / adapt into starter activities