Unique resources created by an experienced Secondary English and History teacher. These are academically rigorous resources that target children between 13 and 18 years of age.
Unique resources created by an experienced Secondary English and History teacher. These are academically rigorous resources that target children between 13 and 18 years of age.
1) PowerPoint - This lesson focuses on teaching students about the context of World War One so that they have some frame of reference for approaching the poems written in this period. Afterwards, it explores how the perceptions of war in poetry changed during this period from patriotic beliefs in its valour to disillusionment as World War One saw a complete change in the way wars were fought and the attitudes towards them. This lesson opens with checking students prior knowledge of WW1. It then explains what the world was like during the 19th Century and the imperialist ideology. The beliefs of Europe’s’ Great Powers, the major causes of WW1, The assassination of Franz Ferdinand: A Shot that Changed the World, societal beliefs about war at the time, exploring propaganda posters from World War One, new technologies used in this war and the outcomes of the war. Things we will learn by the study of poetry from the First World War.
A lesson designed for use in a 12 Essential English classroom in Queensland, Australia as part of Unit 3: “Language that influences.” During this unit students learned how to create and shape perspectives on community, local and global issues in texts. Their assessment at the end of this unit was to write a 4-6 minute persuasive multimodal (speech) to be delivered live or pre-recorded about an issue of their choice.
A PPT which structures the lesson. It began with 10 minutes of silent reading as a settling activity. This is followed by a reminder of what social issues are. This is followed by a viewing activity on ABC iView – You Can’t Ask That’s episode on ‘Domestic Violence’ (from series 4). There are 7 questions for students to answer as they watch. This is followed by some slides of research I found. It includes a definition of domestic violence and the types. There is some information about the QLD Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act (2012). Some key points from the Act are included in dot point form. After this students were split into groups and had to design a poster. There were 7 different options. This was followed by some information about conjunctions as a cool down.
A worksheet with the viewing questions
A lesson designed for use in a 12 Essential English classroom in Queensland, Australia as part of Unit 3: “Language that influences.” During this unit students learned how to create and shape perspectives on community, local and global issues in texts. Their assessment at the end of this unit was to write a 4-6 minute persuasive multimodal (speech) to be delivered live or pre-recorded about an issue of their choice.
A PPT which structures the lesson. It began with 10 minutes of silent reading as a settling activity. This is followed by expectations for the viewing activity and a link to the clip on iView (You Can’t Ask That’s Alcohol Episode). Students have 9 questions which they need to listen out for as they view the episode (on PPT but also on a worksheet). After the viewing activity there are some answers which can be used to prompt a discussion. This is followed by information about where students can learn more about this topic if they choose to focus on it for their speech. After this, students are tasked with creating a PSA (public service announcement) poster about alcoholism. There are some prompts on the slide and some examples on the subsequent slides for before students get started.
A worksheet with the viewing questions
A lesson designed for use in a 12 Essential English classroom in Queensland, Australia as part of Unit 3: “Language that influences.” During this unit students learned how to create and shape perspectives on community, local and global issues in texts. Their assessment at the end of this unit was to write a 4-6 minute persuasive multimodal (speech) to be delivered live or pre-recorded about an issue of their choice.
A PPT which structures the lesson. It began with a think, pair, share activity to define mental health. This is followed by some online definitions from the WHO and Beyond Blue & a 2-minute viewing activity. Some information about the benefits of staying well are provided. Students are then to brainstorm some strategies they could use to maintain good mental health. There are some tips that I’ve saved over the years from various places (e.g. Headspace) which I have scanned and use as discussion prompts. Then there is some information about stress and some stress triggers and anxiety and some symptoms of anxiety. There is a visual infographic from Beyond Blue containing statistics about Australians impacted by anxiety or depression. This is followed by a viewing activity about Post Natal depression from ABC iView (an episode from Season 7 of “You Can’t Ask That”).
A lesson designed to help students apply what they have learned about evaluating hospitality locations (restaurants and cafes) in a previous theory lesson. There is a PPT and a worksheet. The worksheet contains two scenarios and a graphic organiser for structuring their evaluation. The first scenario is about a venue which offers a buffet (displayed in a Bain-Marie. A range of flaws are described. Students need to select 5 of them to complete the graphic organiser.
The second scenario includes some customer service faux-pas and also describes issues with the food when it is brought out. i.e. cold, dry, overcooked, stale. Additionally, some common errors for beverage making have been included (as an opportunity to see if students can troubleshoot what has gone wrong). There are also some hygiene issues. Again, students need to find at least 5 flaws to fill in the graphic organiser.
Resources designed for use in an 11 Hospitality Practices class in Australia (2019 curriculum). Unit 1: Introduction to Hospitality, Topic 1: Beverage operations and services. My school has 70-minute lessons. The assessment at the end of this unit was an examination (short response).
A worksheet designed for use in a revision lesson. It includes an image of an espresso machine and a list of parts which students have to then label on the machine. Following this, students have to explain their purpose. Students must also write the procedures for making 3 specific coffees. Students must recall the correct way to store coffee beans and what to do with beans left over in the grinder at the end of the day. They must remember the 4 mixing techniques for mocktails. There is a café scenario for students to read and evaluate. There is an image of a kitchen with a range of Workplace hazards. Students identify and explain 5 of these. There is also a question where the student has to make recommendations for the hospitality sector in a town of their choice. They must provide options for – accommodation, tourism, food/beverage & recreation.
A sheet with teacher answers is provided to aid with marking.
Resources designed for use in an 11 Hospitality Practices class in Australia (2019 curriculum). Unit 1: Introduction to Hospitality, Topic 1: Beverage operations and services. My school has 70-minute lessons. The assessment at the end of this unit was an examination (short response).
A PPT used to structure a lesson for evaluating hospitality locations (restaurants and cafes). The lesson begins with some settling activities. The first is a question asking students whether they know the difference between sanitising and disinfecting (a poster pops up which explains the differences). There is an activity where they have to look at a series of images of a worker doing something wrong and identify the hazard + explain why it is dangerous + recommend what should have been done.
This is followed by an explanation of the criteria they will be assessed with for their upcoming exam (and the relevant cognitive verbs).
Following this the students are introduced to an acronym (W.A.T.C.H.E.D) which they can use to explain the personal presentation markers that people expect of hospitality staff. The cognitive verb ‘evaluate’ is explained. Then a list of criteria for evaluating a restaurant / café is put forward and explained over a series of slides.
Some factors that come into play when evaluating restaurants and cafes include:
the atmosphere,
the cleanliness,
the service and
the food.
There is a bank of words to describe the atmosphere of a premises. There are some images of places for students to practice describing the atmosphere – Cactus Jacks (Townsville) and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co (New Orleans). Students are asked to consider how music can contribute to the atmosphere of a venue.
The importance of cleanliness and prompt service is emphasised. Another priority is having staff who are aware of the ingredients in the various orders so that they can provide advice to people with specific allergens. Some rules for serving are included in dot point form. There is information about when to serve from the left and when to serve from the right + how to know when a customer is ready for you to clear the plates. Some table clearing etiquette.
Some tips for evaluating food offered by the venue is provided. criteria include plating and presentation, vale for money, appropriate portion sizes, taste, options for people with dietary requirements etc. Some tips about good plating (and examples of bad plating) are provided. A word bank is provided for describing food appearance, aroma, texture and taste. To conclude, some things that can go wrong with beverages and recommended solutions are included.
Resources designed for use in an 11 Hospitality Practices class in Australia (2019 curriculum). Unit 1: Introduction to Hospitality, Topic 1: Beverage operations and services. My school has 70-minute lessons. The assessment at the end of this unit was an examination (short response).
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). The focus text is ‘Black Snake: The Daring of Ned Kelly’ by Carole Wilkinson.
1) The lesson PowerPoint
Discuss that ‘One Stray Bullet’ is one of the passages that students can choose for their written literary transformation {imaginative recount / short story}. Read this excerpt and make predictions about what the various characters would have done after this event {aka the Fitzpatrick incident}. Discuss the use of foreshadowing in the title. Discussion questions about the various characters’ viewpoints follow. There are also some short response (comprehension / analysis) questions for students to respond to. The remainder of the slides sum up the rest of the events in Chapter 3. There are video clips to cater to visual learners.
2) Handout - ‘One Stray Bullet’ excerpt of Black Snake
3) Week two and three spelling words handout (24 words per week).
A PowerPoint designed to introduce students to their new topic: Russia. It begins with a popular culture text that some students may be familiar with (Fox’s animated Anastasia movie). This is used as a launching pad to introduce the last Tsar of Russia and his family. This is followed by a short clip about Anastasia and her fate (with questions for students to answer). This is followed by information about our IA2 assessment. Then the focus of the lesson begins with an introduction to the historical context of Russia (prior to the revolution). Students have to add key terms to their glossary (autocratic & tsars). Information about autocratic rule is included and the idea of ‘Divine Right’ is explained. There is a diagram of the feudal system to help students understand how society was structured. Students are introduced to terms including bourgeoise, proletariat and intelligentsia. This is followed by a brief bio of Nicholas II, his wife and the Tsaravivh Alexei. This is followed by a viewing activity about another key figure: Rasputin (and some viewing questions). The lesson ends with a look at Boney M’s song about Rasputin’s death. A reference list is also provided.
Designed to meet the requirements of the senior Modern History syllabus (implemented in QLD in 2019), this unit falls under the category of ‘Ideas in the Modern World.’
This is a worksheet to the SBS series First Australians Episode 1: They have come to stay. This resource was made for use in an 11 Modern History classroom in Queensland, Australia. I have also included a scanned copy of my teacher answer sheet.
According to SBS, “First Australians chronicles the birth of contemporary Australia as never told before, from the perspective of its first people. First Australians explores what unfolds when the oldest living culture in the world is overrun by the world’s greatest empire.”
Episode 1 focuses on Sydney and New South Wales (1788–1824). It includes the first contact, friendships formed between powerful men such as Governor Arthur Phillip and the Aboriginal Bennelong. The smallpox epidemic. The bloodshed and conflicts which arose as settlers spread out across the land.
This lesson was designed for the second phase of the unit where students are preparing to write a persuasive text about Ned Kelly. This lesson focuses on reading the events in Chapter Four of Black Snake, responding to questions and considering whether Ned’s actions make him a hero or a villain (or a victim of circumstances). There is a video excerpt of the shootout at Stringybark Creek (from the Heath Ledger film). There is also a clip from the Victoria Police which is intended as a memorial for the policemen killed in action by the Kelly Gang members. It also includes information about the two letters Ned famously wrote expressing why he turned to a life of crime (The Cameron Letter and the Jerilderie Letter). It concludes with information about how the public opinion of Ned shifted from a negative one to a more positive one after the 1960s. The lesson tries to present all points of view so that students can make up their own minds about Ned Kelly and whether he deserves to be held up as an Aussie icon.
Handout - proofreading activity (an excerpt from the novel).
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). The focus text is ‘Black Snake: The Daring of Ned Kelly’ by Carole Wilkinson.
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).
This powerpoint introduces students to key terms which are necessary for a study of documentaries e.g. intertitle, masked interview etc. After these terms the lesson introduces students to audio and visual devices which are used to position audiences in documentaries e.g. narration / voice over, music, sound effects, slow motion and other visual editing effects. After copying these notes students view a small clip about climate change from a biased documentary and have to practice identifying these features.
100 quiz questions which can be used for a range of games including 'around the world.'
Topics include famous texts like Harry Potter, the works of Roald Dahl, Lord of the Rings, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, Jungle Book and some Greek Mythology questions.
A unit introduction PowerPoint for a unit entitled Literary Representations of Australia. Within this unit, students learn about Australian identity and then consider how this is represented in the novel Deadly Unna? By Phillip Gwynne.
The PPT includes an assessment overview, a discussion of what it means to be Australian and how our Australian identity is constructed and defined. Students completed a brainstorming activity based on texts they viewed in the last few weeks of the previous term. A thought-provoking poem entitle ‘How Australian are You’ is included to prompt discussion of the many ways of being Australian and some of the stereotypes which exist about us. This is followed by a think-pair-share activity.
Following this, students are introduced to the term representations. They are then shown the first two verses of the Australian national anthem to explore (with 4 questions). This is followed by a paragraph writing task to consolidate what they have learned.
If time permits, students are introduced to some critical literacy terms: marginalised and silenced. Students are also talked through the elements of their novel study booklet.
Resources designed for 10 English in Queensland, Australia. It is part of a novel study unit which culminates in a 90-minute examination (500 to 800-word essay). Students had 1 week notice of the question and could bring 100 words of notes in with them.
Within this unit students explored how an author’s use of language features, images and vocabulary contributed to the representation of themes in the novel. They also gained a deeper understanding of key literary techniques, including (but not limited to) characterisation, plot, and setting.
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). The focus text is ‘Black Snake: The Daring of Ned Kelly’ by Carole Wilkinson.
1) Lesson PowerPoint
The PowerPoint begins with teaching students some important features of narratives as students will be writing a short story {aka imaginative recount} for their first assessment task. There are slides on how to write in first person and the difference between first person and third person. The use of full stops to create short, sharp sentences in narratives (and the effect of this technique) is explored. As a class read the ‘what if you were there?’ section at the beginning of chapter 2. There are 5 ‘quick quiz’ questions and some discussion questions {related to the assessment}. An introduction to key narrative features {point of view, contrast & juxtaposition} with examples from what we just read. There are tips about how to write dialogue in a narrative and punctuate it correctly. There is some information about considering the aesthetic and social value of texts (to be discussed). Students read the remainder of Chapter 2. Finally foreshadowing is discussed with an example from Chapter 2.
2) A handout to be used in conjunction with the PowerPoint.
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. The focus text is ‘Black Snake: The Daring of Ned Kelly’ by Carole Wilkinson.
1) A PowerPoint for a lesson designed for the introductory phase of a 7 English unit on Ned Kelly. It is designed to provide context (teach students what Australia was like during Ned Kelly’s lifetime). By the end of the lesson, students should be able to explain what you think life would have been like for early settlers (and add some key points to the ‘L’ section of their KWL chart). There are slides on: what men and women wore, the various social groups {convicts/ex convicts, free settlers, selectors, squatters, troopers & hawkers}, bushrangers, transportation, housing and housekeeping, common foods, lifestyle, the gold rush and tools/resources. The slides include descriptions and images. Subsequently, students glue in the character table (retrieval chart) and begin reading the ‘What if you were there’ section at the opening of Chapter 1 of Black Snake. They should be recording key details about the various characters they come across as they read. The students should also be developing novel-specific vocabulary – keeping a track of any slang words, idioms or other language features we notice as they read. There are 3 checking for understanding questions at the end.
2) Character Retrieval chart (handout)
The Key Focuses of the unit are teaching students about:
○ Christian vocation: working for Christ (living his mission by serving other people.)
○ Seven sacraments esp. Baptism and confirmation
○ Gifts of the Holy spirit (character traits)
○ Serving Christ through worship and prayer (through communion & Eucharist)
○ doing God’s work when we speak out against injustice (CSTs)
○ Human dignity
○ Authentic freedom
This is a PowerPoint designed to teach students about the Gifts of the Holy spirit. It begins with a film explaining why we are baptised as at Baptism, we receive seven special gifts from the Holy Spirit. These gifts help us to make good choices, and to serve God and others. Subsequently the PowerPoint goes through each of these gifts. The presentation also includes information about the twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit and a journal writing activity to finish off the lesson.
A PowerPoint designed for a year 9 Theology unit on Social Justice. It introduces students to each of the Catholic Social Teachings (What they are and how they can be upheld). This can be a useful starting point for discussion of students own values or can be used to then encourage students to identify scripture which supports each of these CST's.
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.