This is a fun, engaging starter which gets students excited about writing. Firstly, they watch the McCain Wedges advert before completing a guided writing activity where students write from the perspective of an inanimate object with question prompts. This often has hilarious results. The final activity offers student complete creative freedom, but please note, googly eyes are required.

The idea of this exercise is to show students how a writing-to-describe question can be answered in a clever and interesting way. The question being 'Describe an average day at school', and the answer being given from the perspective of a pair of scissors.

Looking at both tragic and comic features, students decide whether Act 4, Scene 1 of Much Ado About Nothing conforms more to a tragedy or a comedy. Students find evidence for each feature before making a decision. This could lead into some effective class discussion and debate. Students are asked to consider the phrase 'tragicomedy'.

Issue 'Poem Analysis' and tell students that they're going to analyse a poem (cue students' inevitable groan). The 'poem' is really the lyrics from Eminem's and Rhianna's Love the Way you Lie, but DO NOT tell students this. Allow students to analyse the 'poem'. They're to: Underline the word/phrase you and your partner really like (you can do one each) What is this poem about? How do you know? What makes this a poem? Underline and label things that make this a poem. Discuss after students have had 10 minutes to analyse the poem and annotate it. Without saying anything, just play the beginning of Eminem's and Rhianna's song and watch students' faces. They'll be amazed and suddenly quite engaged with poetry which they thought they hated. Lead into a discussion about how musical lyrics are a form of poetry. As an extension task, you could ask students to bring in their favourite musical lyrics and analyse them like a 'poem'. A similar activity I've created is in my shop called: KS3 Poetry Starter - Engaging Students Who 'HATE' Shakespeare - Shakespeare or Singer QUIZ

This is a glossary of terms / features of spoken language. This is far from an exhaustive ‘list’ – just some basic terms that you should be familiar with for analysis of spoken language data. It's organised in alphabetical order. It can be used as a guide for students to annotate and identify features in spoken language date. Example of resource: Accent: the ways in which words are pronounced. Accent can vary according to the region or social class of a speaker. Adjacency pairs: parallel expressions used across the boundaries of individual speaking turns. They are usually ritualistic and formulaic socially. For example: ‘How are you?’/ ’Fine thanks’ Back-channel features: words, phrases and non-verbal utterances [e.g. ‘I see’, ‘oh’, ‘uh huh’, ‘really’] used by a listener to give feedback to a speaker that the message is being followed and understood. Blend word: words that are formed by combining parts of other words – e.g. jeans + leggings = jeggings.

Ask your students to graph the build-up of tension in each act. Differentiation would include asking students to add quotes to their graph or illustrate pictures to help their understanding.

A printable classroom aid for students to use to remember the necessary language skills for writing to describe - SIMPLES, with each letter standing for a different language skill. I used this with my GCSE classes and it proved really helpful for the writing section of the AQA non-fiction exam - the meerkat helped!

In Act 2, Scene 1 Macbeth is deciding whether to kill Duncan or not. Read Macbeth’s soliloquy to students from ‘Is this a dagger which I see before me?’ Ask students to listen carefully as you read aloud to them – try to be quite dramatic and theatrical! Instruct students to jot down any words or phrases that they think are especially important. With a copy of Macbeth’s Soliloquy, give pairs three highlighters to share. They must identify how Macbeth is feeling at the prospect of murdering King Duncan, exploring three possible choices: 1) Macbeth is intent on the murder. 2) Macbeth is undecided. 3) Macbeth is horrified by the prospect of murder. They’re to use 3 different colours to represent each of the three choices. They should try to highlight each line in a colour. Issue the Macbeth Chart to students. They’re to create a line graph which illustrates Macbeth’s decision making. This resource is taken from my KS3 Macbeth SOW which you can buy from my shop.

This is a list of 'symptoms' of Asperger's syndrome. Display these around the classroom before students enter. As a starter activity, ask students to tour the room, find the 'symptoms' and jot them down in their books. This opens up a discussion about Asperger's Syndrome. Video also attached which offers a very intriguing insight into autism and Asperger's Syndrome. This resource is taken from my KS3 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time SOW which you can buy from my shop.

Before the lesson display the difference words/phrases used to describe Macbeth 'Rise and Fall of Macbeth'. Students are to walk round the room and pick one phrase written on white paper and one phrase written on grey paper. They should jot these down in their exercise books. Once they’ve done that. Ask students to think carefully about the ‘grey paper’ phrase. They should think about how they say it. Instruct students to walk around the room and say it to whoever they meet. Feedback – Ask students how they said it? In what tone? Why? Do the same again but for the ‘white paper’ phrases. Feedback – Ask students how they said it? In what tone? Why? Explain to students that these are all phrases used to describe Macbeth throughout the play. What does this suggest about the character of Macbeth? This resource is taken from my KS3 Macbeth SOW which you can buy from my shop.

Put students in pairs and give each pair a piece of A3 paper. Ensure that each person in the pair has a different coloured pen. Explain that students are going to have a silent debate. One person will write down reasons why Macbeth should kill King Duncan; the other person will write down reasons why Macbeth shouldn’t kill King Duncan. Allow students 10 mins to do this exercise. Students write down reasons one at a time; students should try to respond to what’s been written previously. Use the resource above as an example. This resource is taken from my KS3 Macbeth SOW which you can buy from my shop.

Ask students to create a social network for the characters using this user-friendly sheet. On the characters' connecting lines write how the characters are connected. Around each character's face write key quotes and characteristics. An example is shown.

Grid for students to use to analyse and record their own day of talking, considering the participants, the purpose, the content etc. A grid is also included for students to analyse their parents' day of talking.

Print off the slides from the PPT. It is the students' task to match up the 'types' of connectives with the 'examples'. Once students have completed the match-up activity, ask them to come up with three example sentences using three different types of connectives.

Students must look at the definition on each slide and identify which type of 'voice' it is. The answer will appear at the bottom of the screen.

Students are shown a collection of objects on the screen. They have two minutes to try and remember them all without writing them down. After the two minutes they must write down as much as they can remember. They are then able to see their age equivalent test score. For example, if they remember 10 objects, then they have the memory of an 8-year-old.

In this PPT are seven fantastic brain teasers. These will definitely get your tutees' brains whirring away. For example: What is light as a feather, but even the strongest man cannot hold it more than a few minutes? Answer: His breath.

Students are to correct a sentence which has used several incorrect homophones. They are then asked to create their own sentences using incorrect homophones for their partner to correct.

This resource offers students an 8-step guide to approaching poetry, divided into: 1. Title 2. Shape 3. Personal response 4. Voice 5. Vocabulary 6. Imagery 7. Structure 8. Interpretation There are prompt questions under each 'step' to help students. This resource can be applied to any poem to encourage students' independent analysis of poetry.

On this graph students are to read Candy's key moments in the story, written at the bottom of the graph, and then plot how much sympathy the reader feels towards Candy. Depending on ability, students can write a quotation and/or explanation beside their plots on the graph.