I am an experienced English teacher and Literacy Coordinator. All of my resources are organised, engaging, ready to teach and designed to save you - the teacher - your valuable time!
Please have a look at all of my resources - at least 20% of which are free.
I am an experienced English teacher and Literacy Coordinator. All of my resources are organised, engaging, ready to teach and designed to save you - the teacher - your valuable time!
Please have a look at all of my resources - at least 20% of which are free.
24 question cards for students to use as prompts for book club discussion. I keep a laminated set with me and then students take it in turns to draw cards and answer the question. They make for great discussion!
A detailed booklet to prompt students to create their own mini anthology of poetry. This would be suitable for key stage 3 but could easily be adapted for older or younger students.
It is included as a word document (for editing) and as a pdf (for easy printing and safe formatting).
It includes grading criteria.
Please see the accompanying scheme of learning which teaches all the techniques mentioned (similes, metaphors, personification, sibilance and assonance etc).
For other English, PSHE and Media activities, see my Like An Expert shop.
A 12 lesson scheme of work overview to support students in their studies of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (play by Simon Stephens) for Edexcel English Literature IGCSE 4ET1.
All the resources are available on TES.
The first lesson can be found for free here.
If you find this resource helpful, please leave a review and have a look at other resources available in my shop.
A detailed homework/online -learning resource for students to learn about the context of the black historical figures in John Agard’s poem ‘Checking Out Me History’. Answers are provided on a separate PDF.
Students complete tasks on the following four figures:
Toussaint L’Ouverture
Shaka Zulu
Nanny de Maroon
Mary Seacole
I use this to ensure that students have an understanding of who these figures were and their importance in history. This leads to a greater understanding of the poem.
If you find this resource helpful, please leave a review and have a look at other free and paid-for resources available in my shop.
21 engaging and supportive lessons designed for home/online/virtual learning to assist students to independently read ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ by John Boyne. This is aimed at key stage 3 students and covers both English Language and Literature skills.
I have taken my popular scheme of work on ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ and redesigned it for students to be able to work through independently from home. Therefore it is a workbook style document and students type their work straight into the Powerpoint. This is ideal for students who are home-schooled or need additional support to study the novel.
This workbook comprises of 21 full one-hour lessons, and it is 225 Powerpoint slides long.
The Powerpoint/workbook contains:
A contents page
A knowledge organiser with all the key terms for the unit defined
A calendar template so that you can support your students with when they should be working on their English work.
21 fully resourced lessons with spaces for students to complete the work in it.
Extension tasks
A helpsheet
Space for teacher/parent feedback.
Freebies:
Two pre-reading lessons to introduce students to the context of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is available for free here.
A lesson on chapter 1 of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is available for free here.
A scheme of work for teaching the entire novel is available for free here.
If you find this lesson useful, please consider purchasing this ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ Bundle or have a look at other resources available in my shop. .
Leave a review and choose any other resource of up to the same value for free from my shop.
A scheme of learning overview document and end of unit assessment for an introduction to poetry; this unit is suitable for key stage 3 (particularly year 7) to build upon what they have learned in key stage 2. It embeds knowledge of poetic techniques, whilst also introducing them to poetic analysis.
All the resources for teaching this scheme of learning are available in my shop (some of them are free!)
Please leave a review!
A simple match-up activity with 16 poetic terms and their definitions. I keep a couple of sets laminated and use them for speed matching; over time my students have shown a real improvement.
If you find this resource helpful, please leave a review and have a look at other resources available in my shop.
A detailed and engaging one hour lesson to introduce the play version of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (play by Simon Stephens) for Edexcel English Literature IGCSE 4ET1. This lesson introduces students to the assessment objectives for the Edexcel Pearson IGCSE as well as exploring the background and context of autism and sensory overload as a way to understand the character of Christopher.
This resource contains:
A full PPT with teacher instructions included.
A KWL grid.
A handout for the ‘do it now’/bellwork activity.
If you find this resource helpful, please leave a review and have a look at other resources available in my shop.
A simple worksheet to help students to plan the creation of their own superhero. Students consider the main character traits that they would like their character to have and then plan backwards to think about how this could be portrayed to the reader through their costume, name, body language etc.
This would be helpful when studying characterisation, connotations and superhero conventions. Suitable for KS3.
Worksheet for use in class or homework to prompt students to write a description of household objects. It is included as a word doc and pdf for easy printing and editing.
This bundle includes fiveone hour lessons on the following topics:
1) Compound sentences and FANBOYS
2) Complex sentences
3) Colons vs semicolons
4) Commas, dashes and brackets
5) Punctuating dialogue
It also includes a writing skills SPAG knowledge organiser, dual coding images for sentence structures and a 1 hour assessment, which assesses all the skills taught in these lessons.
Leave a review on at least one of these products and choose any other resource for free from the LikeAnExpert shop.
A detailed knowledge organiser to introduce students to the knowledge needed to study WW1 poetry. It includes the following sections:
Influential poets
Poetic forms
Famous poems
Key words
Poetic techniques
This knowledge organiser can be used for designing schemes of work, revision mats for students or giving them self-quizzing homework.
Please leave a review and check out the LikeAnExpert shop.
A detailed and engaging homework menu to be used alongside a horror writing unit. This menu structures homework tasks, but also gives students creative freedom to pursue their own interests.
I tend to set one homework per fortnight to ensure that students have sufficient time to produce something of high quality. The deadlines can be set by the teacher to allow more or less time for certain tasks. This has worked exceptionally well with my classes who produced some outstanding homework.
All the tasks require student to synthesise the information they’ve researched to present it in a new way. Students of all abilities are able to access this homework and are still challenged by it.
It is provided as a pdf for easy printing.
Please have a look at some of the other resources in my LikeAnExpert shop.
This is a simple match up exercise containing key literary terms that students need to know to study Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. I use it as a starter revision exercise or I also set it as homework to have students use it to create flashcards for revision.
I have included one page of it in colour and one in black and white.
Many of these terms are included on the Romeo and Juliet Knowledge Organiser.
Please leave a review - I value all the feedback I receive - and have a look at the other free and cheap resources from the LikeAnExpert shop.
A simple poster for reference to the four assessment objectives for the current Edexcel IGCSE English Literature course. I have included it as a pdf (without text titles) for easy printing, or as a PPT file so that you can add your own text choices.
A detailed and comprehensive knowledge organiser/revision mat for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (play by Simon Stephens) for Edexcel English Literature IGCSE 4ET1. This comprises two A3 pages of information.
This knowledge organiser contains the following sections:
Literary terms
Contextual terms
Themes
Structural terms
Theatrical terms
I have included it in colour and black and white as a Powerpoint (for easy editing) and a PDF (for easy printing).
If you find this resource helpful, please leave a review and have a look at other resources available in my shop.
A detailed lesson to give students an overview of CIE 0500 Language Paper 1. This presentation breaks down what is in each question (giving examples from the specimen paper and adapted examples from past papers) and what knowledge and skills are requires. Students are prompted to consider how to time themselves effectively in this paper.
This resource contains a ready-to-teach powerpoint with printing and teaching instructions.
Learning Objective: Understand the format and types of questions on language paper 1.
**Learning Outcomes: **
Students will understand the purpose, length and question types of Language Paper 1.
Student will understand which learning objectives they are being assessed on in Language Paper 1.
Lesson Outline:
Do it now: Think-pair-share what do you already know about papers 1 and 2.
Starter: Detailed overview of paper 1 with key vocabulary shared and teacher questioning to check for understanding.
Task one: How should you divide your time?
Task two: Consolidation of paper 1 overview with students summarizing what the paper covers and assesses.
Plenary: If a friend was stressed about this exam, what would your top three pieces of advice to them be?
More Freebies:
A free lesson giving an overview of CIE 0500 Language Paper Two here.
Free marking templates for CIE 0500 here.
If you find this lesson helpful, have a look at my CIE 0500 Language Paper 1 bundle here or the Language Paper 2 bundle here. If you’re interested in both, there is a combined bundle here which is cheaper than buying them separately.
Please leave a review as I value all the feedback I receive, and have a look at other resources available in my shop. **
A spreadsheet plan for an 36 weeks of explicitly teaching word roots. This spreadsheet allocates each week a word root and gives examples of three words that contain this root and are used across a range of subjects across the school.
This can support you to explicitly teach students a word root per week to unlock thousands of words for your students.
Have a look at this bundle of resources for embedding Word Root of the Week in your school.
Related Resources
* Word Root of the Week assembly/form time slides for the whole academic year.
* Staff CPD on Whole-School Reading Strategies
* A bundle of whole-school literacy resources including this CPD, CPD on Reading Strategies and resources for implementing a Word Root of the Week in your school.
Please leave a review as I value all the feedback I receive, and have a look at other resources available in my shop.
Revision cards/posters for the five main characters in The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare - great for quizzing, introducing characters or as prompts for lessons or homework. These posters contain visual clues about the characters plus four important character quotes for students to remember.
The characters included are:
Antonio
Bassanio
Shylock
Jessica
Portia
More Merchant of Venice Resources:
A complete bundle of resources for The Merchant of Venice which includes lessons to take you through the entire play, a quiz, knowledge organiser and revision posters. .
This bundle includes:
1) A 40 Question Shakespeare Quiz
2) Introduction to Characters and Themes in The Merchant of Venice
3) Act 1 Scene 1 (Antonio and Bassanio)
4) Portia’s Choice in Act 1 Scene 2 (FREE)
5) Shakespeare’s Portrayal of Shylock in Act 1 Scene 3
6) Jessica’s Character in Act 2 Scenes 1-3
7) The Casket Test in Act 2 Scene 7
8) Shylock’s Portrayal in Act 2 Scene 8
9) Prince Arragon in Act 2 Scene 9
10) Interpretations of Shylock in Act 3 Scene 1
11) Dramatic Irony in the Casket Scene in Act 3 Scene 2
12) Independently Interpreting Shakespeare Using Act 3 Scenes 3-5
13) Act 4: The Courtroom Scene
14) Evaluate the Ending of the Play in Act 5
15) A 35-Question Quiz on the Play with Answers Included
16) A knowledge organiser with key information for studying the play.
Merchant of Venice Freebies:
For character revision posters for your classroom, click here.
For an English/Drama lesson based on Portia’s choice in Act 1 Scene 2, click here.
For a Scheme of Work overview for the unit, click here.
Leave a review and choose any other resource for free from the LikeAnExpert shop.
A 15 lesson scheme of work designed to support students through the entire play of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. This is aimed at high-ability key stage 3 (it was originally designed for a high ability year 9 class), but it would be easily adapted for key stage 4. It contains a range of tasks that have been modelled on GCSE literature tasks.
All of the lessons are available to download - some of them are free.
Resources for the lessons on the scheme of work:
Click here for a bundle of all the lessons to take you through the play plus a quiz, knowledge organiser and character revision posters.
1) A 40 Question Shakespeare Quiz
2) Introduction to Characters and Themes in The Merchant of Venice
3) Act 1 Scene 1 (Antonio and Bassanio)
4) Portia’s Choice in Act 1 Scene 2 (FREE)
5) Shakespeare’s Portrayal of Shylock in Act 1 Scene 3
6) Jessica’s Character in Act 2 Scenes 1-3
7) The Casket Test in Act 2 Scene 7
8) Shylock’s Portrayal in Act 2 Scene 8
9) Prince Arragon in Act 2 Scene 9
10) Interpretations of Shylock in Act 3 Scene 1
11) Dramatic Irony in the Casket Scene in Act 3 Scene 2
12) Independently Interpreting Shakespeare Using Act 3 Scenes 3-5
13) Act 4: The Courtroom Scene
14) Evaluate the Ending of the Play in Act 5
15) A 35-Question Quiz on the Play with Answers Included
16) A knowledge organiser with key information for studying the play.
Freebies:
For character revision posters for your classroom, click here.
For an English/Drama lesson based on Portia’s choice in Act 1 Scene 2, click here.
For a Scheme of Work overview for the unit, click here.
Please leave a review as I value all the feedback I receive, and have a look at other resources available in my shop.