A detailed PowerPoint with accompanying printable worksheets for students to explore the context of Shakespeare’s Macbeth before embarking on their reading of the play. This lesson prompts students to dive deep into the historical and cultural backdrop of the play while honing critical skills like summarising, analysis, and collaboration. The lesson includes a thorough exploration of Macbeth’s context, including the reign of King James I, the Gunpowder Plot, witchcraft and the supernatural, family life, and gender roles. Through teacher modelling, students learn effective summary writing techniques, equipping them with the tools to distill complex information into concise and impactful summaries. They then put this into practice by using one of the worksheets to summarise information on their given topic. Students then engage in a carousel activity, where they delve into each of the context topics, learning from their peers, and collaboratively constructing their understanding. Learning Objective: Summarise contextual information about British society in the Jacobean period. Learning Outcomes: Students will read and comprehend new information and life in Jacobean times. Students will summarise this information in their own words. Students will clearly articulate what they have learned to your classmates. Lesson Outline: Do it now: Students think – pair – share about the importance of understanding a text’s context. Starter: Walkthrough of how to write an effective summary using an example text about James I. Activity 1: Students write their own summary of one of the contextual topics (King James I and the Gunpowder plot, Witchcraft, Family Life and Gender – these are differentiated by ability as shown by notes on PPT slide). Students spend 15 minutes creating their summary and then self-assess. Activity 2: Summary carousel – students move around the classroom sharing their summaries and taking notes on the various topics. Plenary: Mini whiteboard questions on the topic from this lesson. Leave a review and choose any other resource, of up to the same value, for free from the LikeAnExpert shop.

A GCSE/IGCSE revision quiz on the social and historical context of Of Mice and Men as assessment preparation. The rounds included in the full quiz are: Context Setting, Structure and Symbols Literary Devices Descriptions - Name the Character Animals Character Names and First Lines George and Lennie Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapters Five and Six If you find this useful, please leave a review and consider purchasing the full 100 question quiz with 12 rounds or this Of Mice and Men revision bundle (more free resources in there too!)

This treasure hunt activity is a great way for you and your students to check their understanding of how to use different punctuation marks and simple, compound and complex sentences. For this treasure hunt, each student starts of at a station with a question. Their task is to find the next card with the correct answer. That card will give them the next question. They will know that they have completed the task with the correct answers once they are taken back to their original station. You can either arrange these cards on clearly-identifiable desks around the room or you can hide them. The latter works particularly well as a fun end-of-term activity. This works well for Key Stage 3, but Key Stage 4 students have also enjoyed it as a fun activity to practise writing skills for their GCSE revision. I really hope you and your students enjoy this! Leave a review and choose any other resource, of up to the same value, for free from the LikeAnExpert shop.

One academic year’s worth of Word Root of the Week slides (36 weeks) for displaying in during assembly and/or form times. These are very effective for normalising the breaking down of words into their component parts and digging deeper into how they affect the word’s meaning. Each slide displays the definition of the word root followed by three examples of words containing it which are broken down into their component parts. These words correspond with this free Excel file which provides a yearly plan with 36 word roots and example words. For more Word Root of the Week resources, have a look at this bundle. Leave a review and choose any other resource for free, of up to the same value, from the LikeAnExpert shop.