24 spelling words for 6 weeks. A few weeks of context-specific words followed by conjunctions, verbs, emotive language.

PowerPoint 1: Paragraph writing. This ppt uses the I do, we do, you do approach. Firstly there is a slide explaining the PEEEL paragraph structure. There is also an example paragraph about Taylor Swift’s You Belong with Me music video. Afterwards, students watch another music video (Caught in the Crowd) and construct their own paragraph based on what they observed in the teacher example. PowerPoint 2: Explaining the assessment task (analytical essay). Document: Scaffolding booklet for assessment task.

A PowerPoint which lists each of the characters in the play alongside key points about them (with images from the Baz Luhrmann movie). Activities to check for student understanding (including filling in a character tree.) This is followed by an explanation of key themes in the play (fate, love, hate, authority, time/timing). It concludes with an exploration of The Prologue which opens the play (Act 1). An updated version of this PowerPoint which removed the key themes which has been replaced with information about the life and times of Shakespeare. (It also includes classroom rules as it was used at the beginning of a new term). Part of a set of resources created for a year 10 English class in Australia (ACARA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons (with extra activities as a back up if the class is advanced).

Two powerpoints used in a 8 English protest poetry unit I designed. The first explores: What is critical literacy and why do we need these skills? How will it help us to understand protest poems? It introduces key critical literacy terms (ideology, privileged, intended reading, marginalised, silenced etc.) It includes a list of things it is important to be aware of when viewing or reading a poem/text. It also begins to introduce students to Indigenous Australian issues as these are the first series of poems to be explored. It includes poems about colonisation and questions to prompt students to analyse these poems. The second is an introduction to poetic devices which includes definitions and examples of personification, rhyme, onomatopoeia, alliteration, simile, metaphor etc. Additional resource: A handout I use at the end of the poetic devices lesson to check whether the students have understood what was taught (it is a matching terms activity).

A fun trivia PPT designed for an end of the year activity but which would also be useful if you broke it up and used particular rounds as warm ups or brain breaks throughout a year. There are 20 questions per round (12 rounds in total) - each slide features 10 questions which auto appear upon clicking. Each round has a different focus or theme. There are a couple of picture rounds (famous people, famous landmarks, celebrity singers etc.) Additional round categories include: popular culture, true or false, food and drink, science and the human body, English, Geography, History, General Knowledge, Maths and lastly Animals and Birds. After each round is a slide providing the answers for that round. Questions could also be used in a jeopardy style game.

Unit plan designed for a 10-week term of 12 Essential English. It includes a subject description, a description of the unit, a list of unit objectives (from the syllabus), my planned teaching and learning cycle, the unit learning intentions and success criteria, assessment task details and a list of recommended resources. Also included are 3 word documents which I used on my word wall. Film specific language features – shot sizes, camera angles, lighting, colour, non-verbal communication, dialogue, audio, setting, props, costumes, characterisation, camera movement and symbolism. Film specific text structures – plot, character development, flashback, simultaneous time, montage, slow motion, accelerated video, time lapse, superimposition, transition, themes Colours and what they mean – blue, red, white, black, green, yellow, maroon and brown. The learning resources (PPTs, worksheets etc.) for the unit are also available in My Store.

Two PowerPoints for a 9 English Unit. The first PowerPoint includes a synopsis of the film and the film trailer is embedded. This is followed by a range of clips and viewing questions. It also includes information about how Indigenous Australians are portrayed in the film. Additionally, there is a section on exploring key quotes. Students have to pick out the slang and the beliefs of the protagonist which are indicated in the quote. The second PowerPoint is a paragraph writing lesson. It takes students through the various stereotypes in the film and includes some pre-writing (planning) steps. It reviews the PEEEL paragraph structure. It includes some scaffolding (suggested sentence starters) along with an example paragraph (which is colour coded to indicate which section it addresses). After this activity, there is information about modality and some examples of high and low modality words. There is also some information about linking words.

Part of a set of resources created for a year 10 English class in Australia (ACARA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store – Aussie_Resources. A PowerPoint designed for use in a 70 minute lesson. The lesson begins with a brainstorming activity where students reflect on the news they have seen recently and make a list of people, issues and events. This is a good prompt for a discussion about topical stories. This is followed by a survey of what category of news e.g. sports, entertainment news, political news etc. It also talks about the frequency of accessing the news and the ways that they engage with the news. Once students are settled introduce the major focus of the lesson: How do journalists / media companies shape our beliefs about / attitudes towards different people? The lesson introduces a key term ‘target audience’ and how this determines what specific news organisations report. Pose the question: Is the news a trustworthy source of information? Introduce terms for students to add to glossary: bias, empowerment, disempowerment Learn some ways that bias is omission, exaggeration, selective statistics, evaluative language and biased language choices Look at some famous people who have been shown positively and negatively in the media (images juxtaposed side by side). Great for discussion Look at an article (about Britney Spears) and how it creates a certain representation of a her through language choices, who is quoted, the balance between facts and opinions, whose views are silenced (omitted) After discussing what they have learned, the lesson ends with a definition of ‘hard news’ and ‘soft news’ and a list of news stories for them to classify into these two categories.

Part of a set of resources created for a year 10 English class in Australia (ACARA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store – Aussie_Resources. A PowerPoint designed for use in a 70 minute lesson. This unit teaches students to be media literate and prepares them to do a speech where they analyse 1 x print news item and 1 x audio visual news item. The lesson begins with explicitly explaining the cognitive verb analyse and the process of analysing. There is an outline of some things that students will need to address when analysing in their upcoming assessment. This is followed by an exploration of some visual features which students can look out for in print and online news stories e.g. illustrations, colour, font choices, layout of text and graphics, positioning (within the newspaper/magazine), body language and facial expressions within photographs and shot sizes. After this there is a front cover of a magazine for students to view and identify the features in. the next slides include the remainder of the magazine story for students to analyse.

Part of a set of resources created for a year 10 English class in Australia (ACARA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store – Aussie_Resources. A PowerPoint designed for use in a 70 minute lesson. This lesson begins by defining what a representation is and why they are so powerful. The variance in portrayals of Meghan Markle and Princess Kate are used to prompt discussion. This is followed by a series of slides about the language features that students can look for when analysing news stories. The slides include definitions and examples. Language features include: similes, metaphors, appeal to authority, appeal to emotion, connotations, emotive language, hyperbole, repetition, inclusive language, omission, groups of three, rhetorical questions, alliteration, idioms and hashtags. The lesson concludes with reading an example article about Novak Djokovic and considering whether it paints him in a positive / negative light. There are a series of questions to help students to analyse this text.

A resource designed for use with Year 12 Essential English students (Australian curriculum). Students are preparing to sit a response to stimulus exam with one seen source and one unseen source (1 x written and 1 x visual). The document includes a list of language features and text structures commonly found in visual stimulus texts (along with definitions and examples). How I used this in my teaching: I printed a class set of the LF on one colour and the TS on another colour and had them laminated. I hand them out in each lesson when students are analysing texts. I also printed one set in A3 and put them up as posters in the classroom.

A PowerPoint which provides an image and summary for the following characters from Deadly Unna? (pictures taken from the film Aussie Rules). Bob Black aka The Old Man Gwen Black (Blacky’s mum) Gary Black Dumby Red Pickles Coach Robertson aka Arks Tim Black aka Best Team-Man Darcy I printed these up and used them as posters in the classroom.

A PowerPoint explaining the assessment task (students are to write a monologue from the perspective of a character of their choosing). This resource includes: planning steps, the structure of a monologue, the language features that should go in a monologue, a list of character choices and example monologues written by year 10 students in Australia. This also includes a word document version of the planning booklet which can be printed for students or shared electronically. Part of a set of resources created for a year 10 English class in Australia (ACARA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 50 minute lessons (with extra activities as a back up if the class is advanced).

A series of resources: a handout which includes the questions on the slide (to be given to students to answer / shared electronically.) The PowerPoint. Some information pertaining to the historical context of the play. A summary of each scene with key quotes and questions. Viewing Act Five, Scene Three (the final act) both Baz Luhrmann film and the 2013 version (for comparative purposes). Important things to note from Act 5. Revision questions. Optional extras for if time: questions about themes. Role play activity. A handout - revision activity - a list of jumbled up events from this act which students have to reorganise into chronological order. An updated PowerPoint which features all of Act 5 (Scenes 1-3). It includes a warm up activity (explaining what a friar is - with notes to copy). Additionally, it features quotes from the play, checking for understanding questions (some to answer in books and some to discuss as a class) & some brain breaks (viewing activities - two excerpts of the play being staged in The Globe Theatre). This lesson is designed to fit into a unit where students must complete an exam where they respond to an essay which argues that Friar Laurence is solely to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Through studying each scene in depth, students should begin to see that a range of other characters could be referenced in their counter argument. Part of a set of resources created for a year 10 English class in Australia (ACARA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons (with extra activities as a back up if the class is advanced).

PowerPoint 1: Unit introduction including classroom expectations (rules), an explanation of the unit, key questions for the unit, explaining the 2 assessment tasks, looking at famous quotes about teens and seeing if they agree, a list of teen issues and themes, common settings and characters for teen films. PowerPoint 2: exploring teenage stereotypes. This lesson defines stereotypes and gives examples of what stereotypes are, explores why we stereotype people, looks at common stereotypes about teenagers. The PPT includes excerpts from 2 Hollywood films (10 Things I Hate About You & Mean Girls) and questions to encourage students to identify the stereotypes in them.

Introduction to the hard-boiled genre of crime fiction (Set in1930s - 1950s America) This PowerPoint examines the genre conventions of hard-boiled fiction, the typical protagonist of these tales & events that were occurring in American society at the time these tales were written, and how these influenced these texts. Students will watch a trailer for The Maltese Falcon Trailer (a famous example). The movie of The Maltese Falcon is dated 1941, during the War, but the story was published in 1930: it’s a tale of the roaring ‘20s. The PPT also includes a trailer for a recent example (the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire) which recreates this era.

These resources are for the beginning of a crime fiction unit taught to senior English students. This unit provides many opportunities for students to develop an enjoyment and appreciation of language and literature. Students will be exposed to canonical and popular culture texts that explore crime fiction. Great value for money, see the explanation of the six resources included below. Resource 1: A Brief Introduction PowerPoint (defining crime and genre, introducing students to the crime fiction genre, the three basic elements of crime fiction and listing some subgenres of crime fiction. Resource 2: One lesson from a unit entitled ‘Revolutionary texts of the past meet popular culture texts of today.’ A PowerPoint introducing students to gothic romantic literature (genre conventions). It explains the social context of the time this genre originated, it outlines its key features and looks at two prominent examples: an extract from Frankenstein and Edgar Allen Poe’s Short Story ‘Tell-Tale Heart.’ Resource 3: Homework handout with questions about ‘Tell-Tale Heart’ Resource 4: A copy of the ‘Tell-Tale Heart’ to email to students. Resource 5 & 6: Spelling words for the term and a template for students to write their definitions and sentences in. The unit focuses on the study and analysis of texts including a film, novel extracts and a range of short stories to allow students to judge and value literary works in terms of the insights and truths they offer. Students should come to realise that both popular culture and canonical texts have meaning and value in contemporary society. If you are interested in the other resources from this unit, please visit my shop.

A great resource for revisiting punctuation basics with high school students. This worksheet can be used as a one on one tutoring resource. Alternatively, you can take activities from here to use as fast finishers or homework activities. This document introduces students to the three major uses of the apostrophe: to make words possessive, to make contractions and to make odd plurals. Each section includes a range of activities for students to apply what they have learned (short response and some multiple choice questions taken from past NAPLAN tests). It also includes some follow up activities that can be set for homework.

Part of a set of resources created for a year 7 English class in Australia (ACARA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons (with extra activities as a back up if the class is advanced). A PowerPoint designed to engage students / excite them as they ‘tune in’ to the new unit. It includes: a review of my classroom expectations (as well as the positive and negative consequences). Some interesting facts about Ned Kelly. Some questions about the front and back cover of the novel Black Snake: The Daring of Ned Kelly’ by Carole Wilkinson. After getting the students to make predictions about the novel, they complete a K-W-L chart about what they already know about Ned Kelly and what they would like to know. Subsequently we go through what the two assessments for the term will be. We then review some important parts of the novel and how they work (contents, a map of Kelly Country and the Introduction). Some info about the language features in the novel is provided as well as a spelling list of 24 words taken from the novel and ACARA’s English glossary. Students will define these for homework throughout the week. Some extra information is included at the end of the PowerPoint if you happen to finish early. 2)** A handout containing the map, contents, intro and spelling words.**

This unit was designed for a year 10 English class in Australia. Within this unit students learn to analyse and evaluate how human experience is represented in new media texts and documentaries, including the use of images. Students will also develop a critical understanding of the contemporary media and analyse the differences between news media texts. This PowerPoint introduces students to what a documentary is and how they can have powerful social and political influence. The lesson goes on to outline the key features of a documentary and the two main types of documentaries (objective and subjective). It explains the difference and then includes a series of short clips for students to view and decide whether it is an objective/subjective documentary. It also includes a research activity (homework sheet) for students to investigate the works of Michael Moore.