A lesson aimed at low ability boys which uses the topic of Tyson Fury to teach the skills required for Language Paper 2 Question 4. Rather than use a 19th century text, I chose to use two 21st century texts to provoke the comparison to help build the comparative skills required for this question…
Students read two articles about Fury. One was written in 2020 and one in 2015 when Fury was a more controversial figure. They then find quotations and follow a writing frame to compare the writers’ viewpoints about Fury in the two texts.
There is also an example grade 6 paragraph to help guide students.
I have also added a similar task looking at two contrasting articles about Peppa Pig. This works well with introducing KS3 students to the style of question they will encounter at KS4.
A full lesson analysing the character of Old Benjamin in Animal Farm that offers support for weaker students and challenge to higher ability students.
The PowerPoint/pdf includes the following:
3 question starter with detailed answers on slide 2.
Then student attempt to explain 6 key quotations before comparing their explanations to the teacher explanations.
Students are then given a grade 5/6model paragraph and asked to write their own paragraph analysing Benjamin.
Higher level students can instead be shown an aspirational grade 9 paragraph.
The included writing frame is optional for weaker students.
A lesson comparing the leadership of Snowball and Napoleon in Animal Farm to prepare students for answering an exam style question on the theme of leadership in the novella. A range of activities include:
What makes an effective leader
Explore Orwell’s message about how power corrupts
Adjectives to describe each character
Analyse 5 quotations by each character with answers
Find alternatives to This shows/This suggests
Writing frame included for lower ability students
A list of alternatives to this shows, this suggests, this highlights and this interests the reader to help sharpen your academic expression.
Includes a PDF version and an editable version
Lesson introducing the character of Squealer.
It starts by looking at adjectives to describe Squealer and his function of the play.
Then students make inferences about 11 Squealer quotations and then compare their explanations to my teacher explanations.
The lesson is aimed at a mid ability class. However, there are some concepts aimed more at higher ability students such as obfuscation and gas-lighting and contextual links to Molotov and Pravda that can be explored in greater depth with higher-ability classes.
A handy revision grid containing key quotations for the main characters in Animal Farm. Can be used in lots of ways such as to help plan exam responses on characters and themes.
Contains an activity where students convert the character revision grid into a theme revision grid by finding character quotations to transfer onto the theme grid.
I also have a similar version which also includes brief explanations of the key quotations:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/dashboard/resource-management/add-resource/12272556/published
A simple blank table to encourage students to recall 3 quotations for the following combination literature texts: Macbeth, A Christmas Carol, An Inspector Calls, Power and Conflict.
Useful when used in conjunction with my other revision sheets on the site.
A task involving transforming a simple 3 paragraph grade 3 piece of narrative writing into a grade 4/5 response.
Students rewrite the grade 3 description with improvements in the following areas:
varied sentence types
varied openers
varied punctuation
ambitious vocabulary
similes and metaphors
Worksheets aimed at helping students consciously use a range of simple, compound and complex sentences to describe an image.
Task 1: Students combine the sentences already provided to describe the image.
Task 2: Students must come up with their own examples of simple, compound and complex sentences and then produce their description.
This task is very repeatable - just change the image each time. It is worth repeating until students find it easy to come up with simple, compound and complex sentence examples.
20 questions to accompany a reading of the short story.
The first column are simple retrieval comprehension questions.
The second column are more analytical questions.
A PowerPoint lesson with starter, detailed animated line by line annotations of the poem, along with questions, extension activities and a grade 9 exemplar comparing Bayonet Charge with Remains.
This learning journey contains 10 tasks to prepare students for a descriptive writing task based on an image for AQA Paper 1 Question 5.
The 10 tasks gradually increase in difficulty.
Linking the completion of a set number of tasks to rewards works as a motivating factor for students.
9 High level Macbeth responses to a range of GCSE style questions.
Includes essays on guilt, Macbeth, Banquo, women, Lady Macbeth, witches.
All responses have been designed to reflect the realistic achievements of the highest achieving students in Year 11.
Some responses are clearly grade 9. Others you may feel could be grade 8 depending on the grade boundaries in any particular year but all have moments of critical exploration required for the top band.
A grade 9 response to the AQA May 2017 power and conflict question in which Bayonet Charge was the named poem.
This response was completed in 45 minutes so replicates the amount of writing expected within the time frame of the examination.
In other grade 9 power and conflict responses on Tes I wrote comparative-style paragraphs.
For this essay I used a different method. In the first half of the essay I focused solely on the named poem Bayonet Charge and then referred back to Bayonet Charge in the second half of the response when analysing Remains.
Both methods are effective.
This resource can also be purchased as part of the bundle of multiple grade 9 power and conflict comparative responses:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/power-and-conflict-grade-9-model-essays-12213236
Or as part of a bigger bundle covering revision materials for all 15 poems:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/power-and-conflict-bundle-2018-11881499
A grade 9 critical and exploratory response to an exam-style generic question about how Romeo and Juliet’s relationship develops during the play.
Also contains a response adapted for a question on Romeo’s feelings for Juliet.
I have included the extract and a brief examiner commentary to help explain why the response would achieve grade 9.
The response is 662 words along which is about the average length of a grade 9 essay in 45 minutes of exam conditions.
Also available as part of a group of model responses:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/romeo-and-juliet-grade-9-grade-8-and-grade-7-model-responses-to-aqa-gcse-questions-11580421
A differentiated simple activity involving colouring in visual representations of quotations before attempting to analyse the quotations for various layers of meaning.
For more Macbeth resources try the following links:
grade 9 model responses:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/macbeth-6-grade-7-9-model-responses-12187985
Revision Cards
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/macbeth-revision-cards-12173097
Full bundle
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/macbeth-revision-bundle-2019-12115685
Other popular Macbeth resources include:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/macbeth-revise-20-extracts-11868136
Revision cards
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/macbeth-theme-revision-cards-ambition-supernatural-guilt-violence-deceit-courage-11868831
Grade 9 model ansers
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/macbeth-6-grade-7-9-model-responses-12187985
Knowledge organisers
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/macbeth-character-revision-sheet-quotations-themes-context-aqa-9-1-11868119
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/how-is-lady-macbeth-presented-in-act-5-scene-1-worksheets-and-a-model-response-11422450
A differentiated end of term colouring-in exercise to help revise 16 key quotations from A Christmas Carol. Ideal for the end of term to fill some time.