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.

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

A series of four lessons exploring the context, key themes and plot summary of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol for a ‘eyes wide open’ approach to teaching the novella.

A series of 7 lessons that revise expectations and how to approach the AQA Lang P2 Q5 / Section B writing Q. Lesson cover: Purpose, Audience and Form Letters Articles Speeches Practice exam Qs Scaffolded tasks and planning sheets Great for a block of lessons for year 11 prior to exams.

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

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.

Included is a storyboard of the poem, with some instructions on how you could use for Yr 11 revision: pupils to put them in order, from memory see if they can write a quotation from the poem for each of the images, pupils then to check back with the actual poem and add any quotations where needed, then begin to identify and analyse language. I have also used the story board to teach first time round, especially with lower ability pupils to help them visualise the poem better. Also included, is a storyboard image sort & language identifying task which is an A3 sheet. It consists of a copy of the poem, with space for the images to be sorted and stuck in and a table which gets pupils to identify key language techniques in the poem. The table can easily be adapted to add more advanced level techniques for idenitification, but as it currently stands is suitable for low to mid ability.

A lesson introducing the context for Seamus Heaney’s ‘Storm on the Island’, one of the poems in the AQA Power and Conflict poetry anthology. This has been planned for use in a Yr 9 bottom set, but could be easily adapted. It includes a link to a 5 min video that explains ‘The Troubles’ as well as clear presentation slides that explains a (brief!) history of Ireland. The lesson was planned to be taught after the class had had an initial lesson or two, unpicking the key themes, ideas and imagery within the poem, with this lesson highlighting the importance and significance of context in shaping our understanding. In a nutshell, the lesson follows the lines of: what is context; here’s some context; apply the context to the poem; what’s our understanding now.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A lesson exploring and comparing the characterisation of Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons in Act 1 to Act 2 (Mrs Lyons confronts Mrs Johnstone), focussing in on the power balance shift between the two women.

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.

Introduction lesson for AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2: Writer’s Viewpoints and Perspectives. A whole lesson & resources which focus on pupils exploring how to distinguish between ‘viewpoint’ and ‘perspective’.