This is an hour-long lesson which has been the most effective lesson I have taught on the importance of listening skills and respect for each other. Every time I have ran this lesson, either at the beginning as an introduction or during the term, I have seen a marked improvement in listening skills and behaviour. This lesson introduces the importance of listening and understanding others; it does it through hands-on, practical group work. This comes in the form of a series of speaking and listening exercises, each introducing the students to common problems teachers find. - Exercise One: playing with pens, no eye contact. - Exercise Two: no reaction. - Exercise Three: losing attention, short attention spans. - Exercise Four: talking over each other. I always encourage the students to vocalise their thoughts and feelings after they have done each exercise; by experiencing what we deal with, albeit small-scale, it makes them much more receptive to being told to be quiet or that their behaviour is not respectful. It is also a lot of fun! I usually time each exercise, aiming for about 2 minutes on each, but with some the students may run out of things to say very quickly. It is important that they only see their numbered cards (rather than the whole set) as the whole exercise is set on them not knowing what everyone else has. I have included both the PowerPoint and the cards used - I usually print off the cards and have a set per group of three in an envelope. The final part of the lesson is to get them to vocalise why your subject is valuable. Getting them to decide why they should study your subject gets them engaged really quickly. In terms of getting them to also tell you what they like doing and what they don't like really gives you a feel for the group as a whole.

A great resource for engaging students with difficult literary techniques using Disney films as examples. I have found that these have worked incredibly well, especially with low ability students, in order to help them understand what each technique means and how it is used. I have used these resources with both Key Stage Three and Four, and have found them particularly helpful with GCSE low ability. The techniques explained are as follows: - Theme - Symbolism - Dramatic irony - Archetype - Foil - Allusion - Foreshadowing - Mood - Breaking the fourth wall - Exposition - Conflict - Climax This resource has been produced from an article, with permission from the author.

A full scheme of work, complete with new specification GCSE Assessment Objectives. The focus is on key extracts, found here: http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-8702-19C-KS3.PDF . The scheme introduces students to pre-19th Century literature with a variety of activities: group work; descriptive writing; peer and self assessment. The scheme also includes a cover slide for each lesson which contains key words along with 'aspire, challenge and excel'. The scheme has been ran with a top and bottom set Year 9 class and been modified accordingly. The Medium Term Plan is also included. All resources, bar the resource described below, are included on the slides; links to the YouTube clips are in the notes below the slides. Extracts needed for lesson (Slide 22-25) can be found in this book 'Rollercoasters: 19th Century Fiction and Non-Fiction' (ISBN:0198357400).