Mrs Lovett's first song, shortened for the script available from my store. This plays in Media Player and VLC.

The shortened tracks to accompany the short Sweeney Todd script available from my store. First three tunes: Prelude, London and Alms here are all playable through Media Player or VLC.

This lesson uses UA Fanthorpe's poem Not My Best Side, which satirises the painting Saint George and the Dragon by Paolo Uccello, as a model for satirical writing about a series of paintings (also included on the Powerpoint). There are comprehension questions to go with each part of the poem and self-assessment criteria at the end. Makes for a good one-off lesson in any writing scheme, a Creative Writing club prompt, or as part of a scheme of work about fairytales or a PSHE lesson on subverting stereotypes.

8 adjectives, superlatives and adverbs activities which make great starters for writing lessons of all kinds or as part of a literacy lesson. Accessible for all ages and very active, including drama, team games, timed races, etc. Very versatile activities and still academic enough for any HOD to approve of. I've done these lessons with students aged from 10 to 18!

Are you falling asleep while marking your students' work? Whether descriptive or narrative, these resources are designed to help get those uninspired writing to the next level, making their work imaginative and engaging to read. I used them initially with a top set GCSE group, but quickly started rolling them out all the way down to year 7 low ability (high expectations are the key!). Each lesson has specific outcomes with resources for students to self or peer assess so they can see their progress. There are 7 complete lessons which deal with vocabulary building, word connotations, sentence structure, paragraphing, planning, etc. I found my students' marks went up by as much as two grades by using these key ideas and students who found it hard to be creative before had the confidence to take much better risks with their work and enjoy the process. I felt like I'd discovered a secret of some kind with these ideas and I hope you feel the same.

This part has lesson by lesson story writing support for students of all abilities as well as extracts from a range of fantasy stories to be performed, analysed and inspired by. There is more of a focus on spelling and grammar skills in starters for these writing lessons covering apostrophes (contraction and omission); there, their and they're; punctuating speech; paragraphing (how to develop and when to move on) and tension building techniques as well as clear instructions for acceptable and unacceptable endings (...or are there????? Yes. Yes there are.) During writing, we listened to the soundtrack from Oblivion, which is suitably epic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpqSdORmCX4 Lesson 7 was a Geography cross-over lesson to support map making. The Hogfather would make a nice extract to analyse in the run up to Christmas. The last section, writing up, was run in conjunction with ICT and Art, giving students the chance to produce their own short story collections which were then sold at school to raise money. The kids and their parents loved seeing their work in print and I'm sure yours will too! Reviews are much loved and appreciated!

15 full 90 minute lessons with all resources for a huge Fantasy SOW! There are resources for creating fantasy world, creating characters, designing a quest and writing stories with each part clearly explained for all abilities with fool-proof explanations. There is also a large focus on active reading and comprehension tests for all abilities so the students see modeled examples of well-known and less well-know authors. I have also included resources for use before, during and after watching The Never Ending Story (which worked well with my low ability group and high ability group) to demonstrate story structures. This is part 1 of 2

8 clips of characters from Fantasy and Sci-fi films speaking. The students are asked to write down the names of the characters and the films in the first round. In Seychelles we had watched clips from several of these beforehand, but in England I think it would work from general knowledge. In the second round, students are asked 4 questions about genre and comparing sci-fi to fantasy. The whole quiz is out of 20 and should challenge everyone from my EAL lower ability kids to the top set ones. The first time they are shown, the video effect should mean they cannot see the characters clearly. If your students really struggle, the videos play through without a filter at the end and the answers come up after each clip. With some of my less confident classes, I would only play this part and ask students to hold up answers on a whiteboard after each clip. I would also pause between each clip to allow writing time. I created this for my Fantasy scheme of work, but it would work well as an introduction to character building in any story writing. These particular characters were all selected because they have unusual character voices which would be written down in a way which is outside of the norm, i.e.: Hagrid's elision of h sounds; Gollum's additional s's, etc. My students went on to try to write the speech for each character phonetically, compare them to the scripts/books and then to write phonetic speech for one of the minor characters in their stories. Bonus idea! I showed my top set a clip of all the times Hodor says "Hodor" and then played them the "Hold the door" video too, to illustrate character arcs shown through speech. I'd recommend it! Please rate and review if you use it. This is my first video, so I'd happily make more if it's enjoyed. I hope it's as useful to you as it has been to me.

I hate spoon-feeding Shakespeare to students. Shakespeare deserves better! This unit of work is for GCSE and focuses on the first three acts of The Merchant of Venice. It is designed to give background information and close reading practice in order to build up to an essay on audience sympathy for the character of Shylock. The last scene with Shylock in (Act 4, scene 1) was then given for independent analysis and students watched different versions of the trial scene before writing that paragraph in class in controlled conditions. This gave me a chance to see them move from more structured group and whole class work to their personal, independent ability. Their essay results were excellent and the range of approaches to the question really paid off with a wide range of different answers, quotations chosen and analysis of language. In this unit you will find a range of interactive games, PowerPoint presentations and note-making worksheets suitable for students from D to A*

Be the first to review this new unit of work and win a free resource of your choice! This unit of work has everything: 52 resources including 20 COMPLETE lessons. Everything you need to walk into the classroom and teach this fascinating historical fiction novel. PowerPoint presentations for every lesson Complete timeline of all events, with dates, colour coded by chapter. Character and place quotation gathering templates word searches (because we all need a quiet starter every now and again) Links to videos and articles on Australia Day, Aboriginal history, New South Wales and the Hawksbury River. new vocabulary challenges - pictionary, dominoes, spelling tests, word searches revision lessons - students make their own quizzes and resources essay planning guidance 20 different potential essay or extract questions worksheets games drama and role play Silent debatewriting guidance exemplar success criteria for English Literature paragraphs exemplar analytical paragraphs the same paragraphs highlighted to show the success criteria being met in the answer family tree worksheets to be completed as they read with answers diary writing frames from Sal’s point of view AND MORE!! Each lesson covers about 20 pages which was perfect for a double lesson. Students could complete the reading at home. Lessons have titles, dates, learning objectives on every slide and activities geared towards that focus. Students progress from analysing individual quotes to structuring detailed analytical essay paragraphs and then on to essay planning, breaking down extract analysis and whole text essay questions including exemplar paragraphs. The novel follows a young man born in London as he is deported to Australia and faces conflict with the Aboriginal family who live on the land he wishes to take over. It is an unflinching novel and there were tears at the climax from several students (and me!). This would make a great addition to any GCSE or A level course programme. The questions (10 to 15 for each chapter) aim to keep notes of each chapter as well as support the students’ understanding of how to write about characters, setting, language and style. To go with lesson 3, I used a fantastic free resource on Crime and Punishment in Victorian London and one on Australian and Aboriginal culture. I have included links to those on the appropriate lessons. In fact, you’ll find lots of links and notes on PowerPoints with helpful guidance for you and the students to increase their cultural capital on Australian history.

I wrote this modern-day version of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice which became the school's secondary performance. Like The Merchant of Venice, it has a range of parts for all abilities (we had students from 12 to 18 taking part) and some more adult themes and references. It was designed to be performed in the round with various scenes filmed in advance and played on a screen for the audience. We ended up filming the entire production and selling DVDs to raise money for the school. I have aimed to be as true to Shakespeare's version as possible and it was interesting to see the humour coming through the somewhat grim situations. The prologue was rapped by one of our students while a pre-recorded video (detailed in the comments) played in the background. This was created by a small group of students in Media and Visual Arts Club after school, but there would be enough pre-recorded scenes for an entire Media Studies group to storyboard, film and edit in advance.

I always find students struggle with writing articles, despite the number they read online every day! This resource includes several resources for writing non-fiction articles including examples of paragraphs. There is a synonym vocabulary game which can be used as a card sort, matching game or for snap based on problems associated with overpopulation in cities (which could be useful in Geography too). The presentation includes several starters, a spelling section, a game of Freeze!, a planning section, a debate section, and a main section which breaks down one way to develop paragraphs. There is a section on reading articles and a success criteria for writing them too. The presentation and one of the examples of writing are based on the topic of teenage health and fitness which seems to regularly pop up in exams and should be something they have a Marmite opinion on.

A variety of whole lessons reading lesser-known dystopian literature and tying these in with students' creative writing of a dystopian narrative. There is also a practice reading comprehension and a final reading comprehension assessment. This scheme of work is designed for middle to top set students at GCSE level. I found all the students really engaged with the topic and already knew loads of dystopian works of literature, films and computer games, so had to stretch them to read lesser known works. I've tried as far as possible to make this relevant to their interests and to be representative of a range of backgrounds instead of just the classic "dead, white males". My students really enjoyed this unit of work and I hope yours do too! Contains: Structuring narratives in interesting ways (very useful for getting A*s) Analysing and writing speech in ways that show originality and flair (as well as accuracy of punctuation) Creating original dystopian worlds Creating original dystopian characters Close analysis of individual words and basic PEE reading answers Improving and extending vocabulary Recognising satire and comedy in film and literature (Idiocracy and Harrison Vonnegut) because, frankly, all this dystopian stuff could get a bit depressing otherwise! A detailed and thorough comprehension of a (student-friendly version) of Stephen King's The End of the Whole Mess with optional scaffolding which should build towards GCSE style detailed essays covering plot summaries, close analysis, evaluation of word choice, structure, messages, themes, conventions, language features and more.

Students not adding enough detail to narrative writing? Are they unsure when to go in to a new paragraph? This game for two or more players can help support them in adding depth to their ideas while clearly defining what wouldn't be acceptable. It's lead to some really fun results which kids like to read out afterwards. Less able students may only do one each, whereas more able students can have a go at later ones independently. I've used this with students from KS3, 4 and even 5 as either a starter or development activity. It makes progress really clear to you and them.