About the author:
I am currently a teacher of English in a wonderful West Midlands secondary school, having prior experience as a Literacy Lead, Specialist Leader of Education, SLT Lead, AQA examiner and Head of English. I am in my fourteenth year of teaching and as such am keen to share resources I have used successfully, both in my own lessons and across my school / MAT.
About the author:
I am currently a teacher of English in a wonderful West Midlands secondary school, having prior experience as a Literacy Lead, Specialist Leader of Education, SLT Lead, AQA examiner and Head of English. I am in my fourteenth year of teaching and as such am keen to share resources I have used successfully, both in my own lessons and across my school / MAT.
This resource contains 12 examination questions for Inspector Calls. They have all featured on past AQA papers and so are suitable for revision and for seeing what sort of question might be asked.
This resource is a 6 page document of key quotations for An Inspector Calls, divided into characters. Characters included are:
Sheila
Gerald
Eric
Mr Birling
Mrs Birling
Inspector
The quotes have been taken from the entire play and are mostly quite short to aid with revision and memory retention. There are around 15-20 quotes selected for each character.
This resource includes a massive 140 slide PPT, updated in 2022, of lessons designed for the teaching of An Inspector Calls for GCSE students. The PPT is suitable for all abilities, with challenge and stretch elements that can easily be omitted for weaker pupils. It has been written for AQA, but could be adapted for other examination boards with a few tweaks.
The PPT contains around 20-25 lessons depending on how you choose to divide the activities up. There are a range of task styles and information collated across 10 years of teaching this play. The PPT covers the following aspects:
Social/ historical context - research activity and image interrogation
notes on socialism, capitalism, Priestley and Churchill
Non-fiction cross-over lesson, writing an article about the Titanic. Also includes a real article published for analysis
Props and setting - illustrating and labelling task
First impressions of characters
Morality exercise (linking the play to modern day)
Attitude and language - analysing language used by characters
Focus on Sheila, including a model exam response
dramatic devices in act 1
Review of act 1, including timeline of events, purpose and intent of author, key plot points
theme discussion - social responsibility and contrasts, linked to London riots and the contrast between the younger and older generations
comparing Mr Birling and Inspector, with 2x modelled paragraphs
reference to exam mark schemes
comparing Sheila and Eva - plotting their attitudes
Key themes and info on each (group task) Ouspensky and Dunne theories for challenge and stretch
Entrances and exits (specifically in act 2)
Exam skills and exam practice (with scaffolded method for responses, model paragraphs and reference to mark schemes)
Context - women in 1912, Suffrage, power balances etc
Revision of plot
Now including a bonus extra introductory lesson - a CSI style discussion of the play!
This resource contains a 2 sided A4 key quote handout for pupils revising Macbeth.
The key quotes are organised into themes/ by character and starts with a rundown of key themes, context, characters and symbols before a brief outline of each act plot.
The themes/characters covered are:
appearance v reality
Lady Macbeth
Macduff
Hallucination
Cycles
Tragic hero
Guilt/ anxiety
Macbeth
Deception
Duncan
Banquo
Macbeth’s thoughts
Quotes have been carefully chosen so as not to be too lengthy and to match a range of questions
This resource is a Macbeth booklet including key scenes necessary for GCSE study. The booklet can be used flexibly, highlighting further scenes that can be omitted, should you wish to work with less of the text with a lower ability set.
The full play has been carefully edited, removing parts of dialogue not entirely necessary for GCSE pupil understanding, whilst maintaining the integrity and flow of the narrative. There is a cover page and the booklet totals 27 A4 pages, helpfully formatted into columns with a contents page for easy navigation.
The original text sits at 18121 words, whereas this edited version brings it down to 11754 - far more manageable with the time constraints of GCSE.
The scenes included are as follows:
Act 1 scene I: witches
Act 1 scene II: camp after battle **
Act 1 scene III: Macbeth and Duncan meet witches
Act 1 scene V: Lady Macbeth – the Raven
Act 1 scene VII: Lady Macbeth and Macbeth argue
Act 2 scene I: Macbeth and Duncan
Act 2 scene II: Lady Macbeth covers up
Act 2 scene III: Porter and discovery of Duncan **
Act 2 scene IV: Old man and Lennox **
Act 3 scene I: Banquo betrayed
Act 3 scene II: shielding Lady Macbeth
Act 3 scene IV: banquet and ghost
Act 4 scene I: Witches and Macbeth – prophecies
Act 4 scene II: Macduff’s castle
Act 4 scene III: Macduff meets Malcolm **
Act 5 scene I: Doctor tends to Lady Macbeth
Act 5 scene II: soldiers **
Act 5 scene III: Scotland is sick **
Act 5 scene IV: Birnam wood moves
Act 5 scene V: Young Siward **
Act 5 scene VI: The ending
** these scenes can also be omitted entirely for lower ability pupils.
This bundle contains 3-4 lessons on Clown Punk and Salome, originally written as part of a scheme for year 9 looking at a range of poetry in preparation for GCSE.
It was written for AQA but could be tweaked for other boards. It contains full lessons on each poem, in a pupil-centred approach (encouraging students to explore the poetry for themselves rather than rely on teacher dictation of notes), which helps develop unseen poetry skills. It then moves on to compare the two poems to each other, exploring a possible approach to this. The PPT is flexible in that you can teach it as unseen comparison, or use it to help develop comparative skills for the anthology cluster.
When sold separately, these resources retail at £3.30
This bundle includes a range of poetic study with a lot of cross over to creative tasks, designed originally as a scheme for year 9 as an introduction to poetic study. Roughly 12-16 full lessons included.
The scheme aims to develop approaches to understanding and interpreting poetry in a pupil-centred way, without the teacher dictating notes. It builds analysis skills and aims to help pupils understand why people write poetry. It would form a great introduction to poetic analysis, or for developing unseen skills required for the AQA literature exams.
This bundle contains a whopping £18 worth of resources (when sold separately) and every lesson has been tried and tested. It also touches on creative writing and oracy, with built in tasks that springboard from the poems studied.
Poems included:
Medusa
Hitcher
Salome
Last Duchess
Clown Punk
About His Person
Sonnet 18
The Raven
Resistance (Armitage’s new Ukraine-Russia poem)
PLUS an introductory lesson looking at 4 other poems!
This resource includes a full lesson on creating a poem featuring a character, using their own voice. It originally formed part of a scheme for year 9 looking at a wide variety of poetry in preparation for their GCSE study, but would be suitable for any GCSE group as light-hearted practice.
The lesson utilises Medusa (Duffy) as a starting point, before getting pupils to create their own poem in the voice of a character of their choice.
The PPT includes:
Introduction to Medusa, by Duffy and discussion of her character
Intro to the creative task, providing suggested characters
Guided planning for the poem
A framework of sentence stems if required, and an exemplar poem in the voice of Homer Simpson
This resource includes a full lesson on Poe’s poem ‘The Raven’, shortened and edited to enable teaching of it in 1 lesson. It originally formed part of a scheme for year 9 looking at a wide variety of poetry in preparation for their GCSE study, but would be suitable for any GCSE group as practice.
There are 2 lessons in total which approach the poem as an unseen text, helping pupils develop poetic analysis skills (for AQA, but would work for any exam board); before moving into a creative writing cross-over task where pupils write their own Gothic story opening (as per English language paper 1 on the AQA spec).
The PPT includes:
Introduction to the poem through an image
Introduction to the Gothic genre and recap of what it means through key images and features
A video reading of The Raven if required
guided light touch annotation through hints and an exam style question (optional paragraph writing task)
A creative writing task of a 100-200 word story, based around key vocabulary from the poem
Creative writing cross over (where pupils write their own Gothic story opening, using the poem and images as inspiration. Guided planning an peer assessment).
This resource includes a full lesson (possibly 2) on Shakespeare’s poem ‘Sonnet 18’. It originally formed part of a scheme for year 9 looking at a wide variety of poetry in preparation for their GCSE study, but would be suitable for any GCSE group as practice. The lesson approaches the poem as an unseen text, helping pupils develop poetic analysis skills (for AQA, but would work for any exam board).
The PPT includes:
Introduction to the poem through images
Brief contextual info to aid understanding
More in-depth discussion through key questions
Pupil-centred annotation task with brief guidance info
Creative writing cross over (where pupils write their own contrasts poem - including scaffolded planning sheet if required)
This resource includes 2 full lessons in a 15 slide PPT on Duffy’s poem ‘Salome’ , comparing to ‘Clown Punk’ (NB there is another package available where a lesson on ‘Clown Punk’ is also included). It originally formed part of a scheme for year 9 looking at a wide variety of poetry in preparation for their AQA GCSE study, but would be suitable for any GCSE group as practice.
The lesson approaches the poem as an unseen text, helping pupils develop poetic analysis skills before progressing on to drawing comparisons under an exam style question. This lesson should not be taught to lower years due to the suggestive content of the poem.
The PPT includes:
oracy task retelling the story of Salome in pairs
guided reading of the poem with key questions
discussion of key questions and themes
Group analysis task with a worksheet provided, breaking down the poem into 4 sections with guiding questions
A brief intro to comparing poems
A Venn diagram comparison with exam style question to be completed by pupils
Possible answers to the Venn diagram question and sentence stems to direct pupils
A strategy for responding to the unseen comparison question (PEEZL) with further guidance to assist pupils in writing their own comparison
An extract from an example response (focused on Salome) with opportunities to either extend or use as a model
This resource includes 2 full lessons in a 15 slide PPT on AQA’s unseen poetry element. It originally formed part of a scheme for year 9 looking at a wide variety of poetry in preparation for their GCSE study, but would be suitable for any GCSE group as revision, an introduction or practice. The lesson approaches the poems as unseen texts, helping pupils develop poetic analysis skills and focusing on 2 short and relatively simple poems.
The PPT includes:
Introduction to the unseen poetry aspect
10 possible steps for looking at an unseen poem
Focus on the poem ‘The Handbag’
Pupil task writing a question for the poem
Focus on the poem ‘My Parents Kept me from Children who were Rough’
Looking at an exam style question on this poem with suggested points to include in a response
Brief reference to the mark scheme
This resource includes a full lesson on Amitage’s poem ‘Clown Punk’. It originally formed part of a scheme for year 9 looking at a wide variety of poetry in preparation for their GCSE study, but would be suitable for any GCSE group as practice. The lesson approaches the poem as an unseen text, helping pupils develop poetic analysis skills (for AQA, but would work for any exam board).
The PPT includes:
Introduction to the punk movement through images
A task comparing clowns and punks
A gap fill exercise encouraging pupils to consider the poet’s vocabulary choices
guided light touch annotation (including focus questions to help pupils)
Debate/ oracy cross over (where pupils plan and complete a Harkness style discussion)
This resource includes a full lesson on Amitage’s poem ‘Hitcher’, updated March 2022. It originally formed part of a scheme for year 9 looking at a wide variety of poetry in preparation for their GCSE study, but would be suitable for any GCSE group as practice. The lesson approaches the poem as an unseen text, helping pupils develop poetic analysis skills (for AQA, but would work for any exam board).
The PPT includes:
Introduction to the poem through an image
A creative writing task of a 100-200 word story, based around key vocabulary from the poem
guided annotation through a suggested question (as per unseen poetry in the exam)
collated, suggested annotations for the poem, on the PPT
Creative writing cross over (where pupils write their own poem from a different viewpoint- including scaffolded gap fill if required)
This resource includes 1-2 lessons on Amitage’s poem ‘About His Person’, updated March 2022.
It originally formed part of a scheme for year 9 looking at a wide variety of poetry in preparation for their GCSE study, but would be suitable for any GCSE group as practice. The lesson approaches the poem as an unseen text, helping pupils develop poetic analysis skills (for AQA, but would work for any exam board).
The PPT includes:
Introduction to the poem through an image
Pupil task to write a suitable question for the poem
guided annotation through a suggested question (as per unseen poetry in the exam)
suggested annotations included on the PPT
Creative writing cross over (where pupils write their own poem in a similar style, about themselves)
This resource includes 3x large PPTs for the teaching of paper 2, all questions, alongside various source materials from across the 19th- 21st centuries on key topics, reminiscent of the AQA English Language paper 2 examination.
The non-fiction sources vary in difficulty, making them suitable for a variety of abilities.
The 3 PPTs feature one that is approx 4 lessons purely on question 4 (child labour and travel) and a mammoth 42 slide PPT on Qs1-4 (approx 7 lessons). Also included is a separate explanatory writing lesson for Q5. The final large PPT is titled ‘grade boost’, looking at strategies for improving Q4 responses, alongside some paper 1 tips. Finally, there is a checklist for examinations, written for pupils.
The total cost of this bundle as separates is £12.90.
This bundle includes a whopping £24.30 worth of resources on AQA conflict and power poetry for GCSE English Literature. Resource include:
1-2 full lessons on ALL of the power and conflict cluster poems:
Checking Out me History
Emigree
Bayonet Charge
Charge of the Light Brigade
Last Duchess (2 options, including a Halloween / Gothic themed lesson)
Ozymandias
Kamikaze
Exposure
London
Poppies
Storm on the Island
Prelude
Tissue
Remains
War Photographer
Each of the named lessons as above approaches the poems from zero base knowledge, adopting a pupil-centred approach, building skills of analysis rather than teacher dictation of meaning. Many of the lesson PPTs include:
group work/ discussion tasks
video links to aid analysis
language and structure focus questions or hints
exploration of meaning and ideas, with historical/ cultural context where required (building cultural capital)
exemplar paragraphs or responses
examination style questions
possibilities for cross over work to English language
full annotations for poems
Extras as following:
How to write intros and conclusions PPT (focused on Remains)
An intro to poetry PPT - what it is for/ why we study it
15 power and conflict exam questions, written into venn diagrams (worksheets)
A 30 slide PPT on comparing power and conflict poems and how to answer these questions
This resource contains 15 venn diagrams designed for practise of comparing poetry for AQA English Literature, power and conflict cluster. Each page has a question at the top (as pictured), covering every poem in the cluster.
An excellent way to promote independent work and revision of poetry, this way of comparing has been tried and tested by both myself and my department. Venn diagrams can be blown up to A3 to encourage group work, or used in circulation around the room so pupils can build on each others’ ideas.
This resource includes a checklist for pupils of how to respond to each literature question, including timings and possible approaches to questions.
Key texts mentioned can easily be changed to reference those taught in your own school.
This resource includes a full lesson on Rumen’s poem ‘Emigree’ for the AQA English literature power and conflict cluster. Pupils should approach the poem from zero prior knowledge for this lesson to be most effective. It could potentially span 2 lessons and includes a 10 slide PPT as follows:
discussion of dictatorships and what this entails
approaching the poem cold from a pupil-centred stance (their interpretation)
guided analysis on key aspects (starting with positive and negative imagery)
guided analysis through key themes
investigation of the title and its significance
links to key videos to boost analysis
creative writing crossover piece
Updated Jan 2022