'Punctuation Marks Are People, Too' explains the main punctuation marks as characters. This clarifies the job that each one of them does. This sheet can be used to introduce a whole series of punctuation worksheets that will be uploaded here soon. Alternatively, this sheet can be used for revision. Capital letters, full stops, commas, semi colons, colons and the apostrophe are all in this cast of characters!

This worksheet goes with 'PUNCTUATION PEOPLE - Capital Letters & Full Stops'.

This is written directly for students, so you can give out the whole thing or pages from it as you wish, at any stage of GCSE English. Getting pupils to write their own examples of techniques listed in these pages is a nice quick homework for you to mark and a great way to check that they have grasped something. It helps their knowledge about language to 'stick&': they are more likely to notice techniques in others&'; writing when they have used the techniques - and named them - themselves. Hope it helps!

Here are three short, accessible poems by great French poets - Verlaine, Hugo and Alfred de Vigny. Pupils then write the fourth season - Le Printemps!

To encourage pupils of all ages to find things out for themselves, and to make links between different subjects, this labelled cartoon dinosaur can be displayed on classroom walls, in libraries. It can also be photocopied and given to classes to stimulate discussion about what we mean by 'independent learning&'.

The famous part in 'A La Recherche du Temps Perdu&' by Marcel Proust when he takes a spoonful of madeleine (cake) soaked in tea and is suddenly strangely happy, and puzzled, and remembers...A brilliant evocation of how taste prompts memory - and also of tea and cake! Worth reading aloud as the French is so delicious. This sheet starts with a short biog of Proust that suggests why he was &';in search of lost times'. Long extract; pages 4, 5 or 6 could stand alone, though. Double spaced for annotation. Pupils could write their own memories prompted by childhood sweets.

You can use all three pages of this worksheet or just sections of it. There is a version with cartoons and without. It aims to inspire pupils to read old books - fiction or non-fiction - and give them a method for understanding an extract from one of them. There is so much technical jargon in the teaching of GCSE prose analysis that it can turn pupils off reading books altogether. This worksheet - or 'thinksheet' as you can also call it - aims to explain some of the reasons why picking up a book that was written a long time ago can be worth doing in the first place. See also 'MORE TIPS ON READING OLD BOOKS' for more practical advice. Analysis using technical terminology is vital, of course. Other sheets will deal with that. However, these sheets mainly aim to motivate wider reading for enjoyment, and make students realise that they can pick up any old book and see where it takes them.

This goes with my other sheets, 'HOW TO READ OLD BOOKS AND EXPLORE NEW WORLDS'. Like them, there is a version with cartoons and a version without. These sheets offer practical advice about how to understand a book that was written a long time ago, e.g. how to spot a word that you already know when it's hiding inside another one, e.g. disembody, dissatisfied and so on. Like 'HOW TO READ OLD BOOKS', this one aims to inspire pupils by suggesting what's in it for them to explore wonderful classic novels, non-fiction etc. Analysing how those books created amazing impressions in their heads can come later.

This detailed cartoon explains three stages of creating a play: 1. The playwright choosing lines and stage directions 2. The characters onstage with various props and effects of lighting and sound 3. The audience reaction with emotions ranging from tension to anger, sadness to disgust. You can print this off and give it to pupils and then get them to practise that three-stage analysis themselves. It can apply to any play. In essays, get them to include points & even start sentences with 'Priestley', 'The stage directions' and 'The audience' to help nudge dramatic insights.

Link to YouTube audio of Juliette Greco singing this dramatic song by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht. There are some extra contractions in the lyrics so it is worth letting students know this. Pupils could write diaries or letters after listening to the song. There were a few female pirates, so pupils could write a letter from a pirate to a girlfriend or boyfriend. Or they could write a reply from the pirate to the woman in this song!

Lyrics and YouTube version of a Pirate Song in Spanish. Fun to get the class to write new verses for this song using the vocabulary of everyday life. So pirates are not only the demons of the sea - 'Lavamos los platos&' as well!

This sheet is designed to help students to think of the play they are studying as a drama to be acted onstage, not a book to read in silence. You can do some of the exercises in class or as a homework. Reading a section of dialogue with sock puppets is a fun way to explore who is speaking to whom, who has power in a scene and who is silent. Encouraging students to do this at home can make revision stimulating and memorable. Theatrical observations start to creep into essays as a result.

A filmed parody of the Kate Bush song, 'Wuthering Heights&', which sends up the original novel as much as it does the song! Fun to watch as part of a term&';s work on the Gothic genre: pupils can spot the elements of the Gothic in the whole style in which the film is shot as well as the performance itself. Good for teaching them what parody and satire are as well. Fun if you've studied &'Wuthering Heights&';, too! I enclose leadsheet (lyrics and chords) and video script. There may be some differences between the leadsheet, script & final film.

These sheets turn the apostrophe into a cartoon character. It knows it's unpopular because it confuses people. 'Apostrophe's Brain' tells you that the apostrophe only knows about two things: missing letters and things belonging to something. 'Apostrophe Unpopular' lets the apostrophe explain itself: how to use it's and its; when to use clown's shoes and clowns' shoes. Pupils can then write their own examples with explanations underneath of what the apostrophe knows and is telling us in each sentence. All this gives you a way of talking about apostrophes that makes sense to a child, e.g. 'What does it know here?' 'What is it trying to tell us?' Note: If the colours do not come out in your copy, just get the pupils to use coloured highlighters for the different functions of the apostrophe: missing letters and belonging to. See also my PUNCTUATION PEOPLE resources.

A step-by-step study guide for GCSE and A Level students to help them study any novel for exams or coursework. It helps to give pupils the pdf first: this cartoon will help them to visualise the learning process. Then you can give pages 1-3 of the notes, 'How To Study A Novel'. You can add more topics to the final section on technique, e.g. present tense, flashbacks, fallible narrator, to suit the novel studied. By going up and down the pyramid, pupils build for themselves a sense of how form, structure and language shape meanings. They learn how to move between the big picture and the details when using quotes and references in essays. They produce their own set of notes, helping them become independent learners. This is particularly valuable in helping GCSE students prepare for A Level, and A Level students prepare for university. Above all, they won’t keep asking you for examples – they will have their own! See also 'HOW TO READ OLD BOOKS', 'MORE TIPS ON READING OLD BOOKS' and my poetry sheet, 'THE POETRY FLOWER'.

This beautiful song in Spanish with the English translation on a separate sheet is suitable for all age groups as the language is simple and there is lots of repetition. The video shows the Spanish lyrics. It is by Jesús Adrián Romero, a Mexican Christian singer/songwriter, and he sings it here with his wife, Pecos.

You can print this sheet straight off and give it to students. You know your class, so you will know if the older ones are likely to feel that a dragon's cave is a bit too Year 8 for them! You can add your own titles in that &'The Someone&';s Something' format to suit any subject area or literary text that you have studied or are going to study. &'The Sorcerer&';s Cave' for &'The Tempest&'; could ignite interest in how Shakespeare paints Prospero for us. Have fun!

You can give this sheet to pupils and let them read all the words on the witch's cloak. They can then draw or write in words around her, to give her some things to fly over. Or give them the Page of Nouns, too, for lots suggestions! Finally, they can take one word on her cloak and partner it with one word that names a thing, eg &'The Ancient Tree&';, 'The Empty House&', &';The Secret Road' Later, use this in a grammar lesson (see my GRAMMAR OCTOPUS) - all the words on the witch&'s cloak are adjectives.

This song suits a final assembly for a year group that is leaving, and end-of-year song for the whole school. When under pressure we tend to look forward, anxious about what is yet to be tackled. This song is about fortifying yourself with a look back at what you have achieved: 'look back and see how far you&'ve come&';. I wrote it for a class of Matric students in South Africa for their Matric Dance (like the School Prom). So I own the copyright. You can use this song and the recording in lessons, assemblies & school events!

This sheet helps pupils to visualise the different parts of an essay. The head is the introduction etc. The essay dinosaur keeps its mind on the question. It only starts moving when it knows where it's going. You can use it in your marking, eg: ‘Good bones, needs more flesh’ or ‘Why no tail?’ You can answer the question, &'How much should we write?&'; by saying how many bones you want. You could tell younger classes to start with three bones, working up to five for older pupils. The Essay Dinosaur can help you to start an essay and write a good conclusion, too. See Lesson Plan for more details