Two lessons based on Simon Armitage's poem November. The learning objective for both lessons is to understand the subject matter of November, and identify/interpret the feelings and attitudes. These two lessons contain varied and exciting activities including sequencing activities, labelling the poem with pictures and relating the subject matter of the poem to themselves. There's a strong focus on the language of the poem and the different metaphors used.

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.

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.

The first sentence of an article (often printed in bold, or capitals, or a larger font) is called the topic sentence, as it introduces the main topic/subject of the article. It aims to give you the whole story in one go – who, what, where, why and when. Explain that it’s imperative that a writer is clear, concise and correct in their topic sentence. Issue Topic Sentences to pairs of students. Ask them to write down the five Ws and see how many their topic sentence answers. Students will see how concise the topic sentence is, and what questions have been left unanswered. After 5 minutes, ask students to swap their topic sentence with another pair and do the same. Discuss: How well were the topic sentences written? How could they have been improved? (PW) Display PowerPoint. Ask students to use the facts displayed to have a go at writing their own topic sentence. Show students the sentence written in the Daily Mail article (slide 3). Discuss how they’ve focused on the mother at the start of the sentence. Students to swap their topic sentences with a partner to see whether it answers the 5 Ws. This resource is taken from my KS3 English Newspaper/Journalism SOW which you can buy from my shop.

This lesson takes students through Vernon Scannell's poem A Case of Murder. First, students are presented with the First Two Lines from their poem. Place these are students desks before they enter. They're to think about the poem and what it could be about. Next, present students with Gap-fill Poem where they are urged to fill in the gaps in the poem. This helps them to engage with the content and really think about the language of the poem. Feedback. Issue the complete poem. Discuss initial thoughts. Go through the activities in the PPT, which includes quick questions, in-depth question, discussion on themes, emotional response and then a contextual-based homework.

A simple straight-forward starter for capital letters. Students learn where to use capital letters before correcting sentences where capital letters have not been used.

This is a collection of quotations about what poetry is. Place these around the room before students enter. Ask students to 'tour' the room and find the quotations. They're to write down what quotations most resonate with them. Ask students to explain what poetry is to them. If students 'hate poetry', may be suggest to them that musical lyrics also class as poetry and ask them to express what music means to them.

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 resource offers a fun way of researching context. Before the lesson print of the questions and put them into colour-coded piles. You'll need as many questions are you have groups of students. For example, if you have 6 groups, you must of 6 print-outs of the questions. You'll need 6 x yellow questions, 6 x green questions, 6 x blue questions etc. Put students in teams of 3-4 students. Students must have immediate access to a laptop or computer to be able to find the answers to the questions. You need to put the piles of questions on your desk. Issue Q1 to all groups and 1 answer sheet to all groups. Groups must find the answer to Q1, write it down on their answer sheet and then bring their answer sheet to you. If the answer is correct, you issue them with Q2, and so on until groups have found all the answers to all the questions. It is basically a race to the finish, but the answers must be of quality because you have to 'okay' them before they're issued with the next question. Students enjoy the competitive element of this task. You may wish to give the winning group a small prize as an added incentive. Discuss the contextual research once the task is over and discuss its links with the play.

Listen to Iron Maiden’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (8 minutes). This is an edited version of the original track as the original track has a lot of instrumentals! Issue lyrics. Students are to follow in order to gauge an understanding of the story. Issue the pictures on A4 paper to individual students. On a sticky note, they’re to describe what’s in the picture. They’re to then try and work out in what order the pictures go. They can refer to the lyrics to help them. It’s all speculation at the moment; try to work it out. This should help them to understand the narrative structure. Afterwards, students are to discuss what they think happens in the story from beginning to end. They should write their plot summary as a list on a piece of A3 paper as a pair and/or group. This should give them an understanding of the narrative structure.

Students complete two starter activities in the PPT that ask them to improve sentences to make them more dramatic and impactful. Students then look at Chapter 25 in which Michael's sister is described. Issue the Worksheet and two different coloured highlighters. Students are to highlight the important features of language and structure in the extract. Allow 10-15 minutes. Discuss students' findings. Ask students what impact the features have. Display slide 6 which explains how to write an effective PEE paragraph. Students are to write 3 PEE paragraphs about what they've found in Chapter 25 in their books. After 10-15 minutes, ask students to share their best PEE paragraphs.

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.

11 examples of written reports for Year 9 English students. There are examples of reports for students making 'limited', 'adequate', 'good' and 'excellent' progress. Reports include targets for improvement.

10 examples of written reports for Year 10 students studying for their GCSEs. There are examples of reports for students making 'adequate', 'good' and 'excellent' progress. Reports include targets for improvement.

This PPT takes students through five stages of writing their own ballad. It uses the ballad 'Frankie & Johnny' to model the different features of a ballad. This is a creative writing task that could be used as a writing assessment.

Print off enough of these sheets to ensure you have one skill per student or group. When students are rehearing for a performance, hand students or groups one skill each. They have to focus on improving that skill in their rehearsals. You may swap the skills to ensure students are focusing on more than one skill.

Print off enough of these sheets to ensure you have one skill per student or group. When students are rehearing for a speaking and listening performance, hand students or groups one skill each. They have to focus on improving that skill in their rehearsals. You may swap the skills to ensure students are focusing on more than one skill.

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.

In this lesson students will develop skills in writing to argue, and structuring an argument. This is a fun and engaging approach to writing to argue. This lessons involves debate to get students actively arguing, but it also encourages students to articulate their arguments on paper, not just vocally. Two videos are also included in this lesson to encourage engagement in the central argument of: Is the internet a good thing or a bad thing? Instructions for the lesson are written on the PPT in the 'notes' section at the bottom of each slide.