A series of lessons based on the Brighton Rock Specimen Assessment Materials from AQA. The student booklet should be used with the Powerpoint lessons, which explains how to attain a Grade 4 and beyond, good examples of student work and clear explanations of the components required in student responses to each question. Very useful as an introduction to the Paper 1 or as a revision unit. Includes words of the day and recall questions. Videos of me teaching these lessons can be found at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9q_xc22DRvPTEY3sGyH8ug

Fed up of trying to get your head around the AQA mark scheme? Are you finding it impossible to convey the many features of a perfect response to your students? These marking grids will help you to understand the mark scheme and see it the different aspects of each question clearly, as well as enabling you to mark quickly and effectively. Oftsed saw these grids in action in my school and loved them as they show clear pathways to progression The teachers in my department love them as they are quick and easy to use Students appreciate them as they can identify the root of underattainment. Can be used to offer whole class or individual feedback. All you have need is a highlighter - simply highlight along the boxes to indicate the skills achieved and the levels attained. Marking GCSE repsonses will never be difficult again!

This is a resource I developed which aims to guide students through the production of a piece of work that contains most elements required in the English Language GCSE exam (Paper 1 for AQA). Let me know if you give it a go and what the results are. If you find it successful, we could even produce a webpage showcasing the results.

Unit including: full text by slide with full glossary questions for discussion ranging from low to high- ability on each slide longer tasks based on Literature and Language skills Word of the Day linked to the text and recall questions Language Paper 2 on the representation of Father Christmas over the years. I made this unit for a KS4 class who are familiar with the story, but have not yet looked at the text in any great detail. It is designed to prepare them for the GCSE Literature examination (AQA). They struggle with the vocabulary and so I have created a glossary for every single part of the text (which took absolutely ages!). The whole text is shown on these slides, enabling a teacher to use the slides as a standalone with groups, set the reading of it as for homework as a download, print off extracts from the Gutenberg copy of the text to annotate in class, or follow with their own copy. You could also use an audio version of the text to read it for you, as it is completely unabridged. Each slide comes with questions for that particular section of the text, ranging from very easy (bronze), language and structure focused (amber) and social and historical focused (yellow). I have designed these questions to develop the skills required for their Literature GCSE and also the skills required for their Language GCSE (Recall, Language, Structure, Response to Statements). These questions could be used for class discussion or you could actually get students to write the answers to the questions on some slides as class work or complete for homework. For each unit of the text, there is a task. You may want to interchange these with exam questions that have either been published by the exam boards or which have been produced by other TES authors. There are some excellent questions available for use on the TES resources pages. I have added some writing to describe and argue tasks, as well as a Paper2 Language Style paper on Santa Clause throughout the years. Best wishes, Lindsey

A paper that looks at a Guardian report of a recent peaceful gathering of crowds to protest about pollution and a description of attending a hanging by Charles Dickens. Very topical in light of yesterday’s march the People’s Vote and news footage could be viewed to give students some context and to engage the in an initial debate.

This collection includes: five full Paper 2s in both PDF and Word format, allowing you to tailor questions or format to your taste (including two additional papers that are listed as free on this page - ‘Teaching’ and ‘Refuse Collectors’) a front sheet for use with the papers, featuring the relevant boundaries from summer 2017 and 2018 (allowing students to see how close they were to the next band). an easy examiner mark sheet for each question, based on my experience of the drag and drop screen when marking as an examiner. Simply use a highlighter to indicate where skills have been met and staple or glue to students’ papers. These are useful feedback sheets for day-to-day exam practice. If you have found these resources useful, please leave feedback.

Here’s an AQA Language Paper 2 on the theme of Refuse Collectors using an extract from Henry Mayhew and The Guardian. Please take a look at my ‘Easy Assessment Sheets’ for GCSE Language. Hope you find this resource useful. It would be great if you could let me know any feedback. Best wishes, Lindsey

I’m a big fan of Charlotte Bronte so this is one of my favourite Paper 2s; via her diary we learn about her hatred for teaching (we’ve all been there, Charlotte). It contrasts with a piece from The Guardian about a student teacher full of enthusiasm for teaching. I’ve included the Word and PDF document so you can tinker with it if you want to, and I’ve put the GCSE boundaries for 2017 and 2018 on the front so that students can see how far away they were from the next grade. Please have a look at my paid resources. The ‘Easy GCSE Mark Scheme’ works very well with this for quick and efficient marking.

Here are 15 AQA Paper 1 (narrate or describe) style writing assessments that are suitable for both KS3 and KS4.

This session explains what is required of students in the final section of AQA Literature Paper 2. It incorporates an activity advised at the AQA Hub Meeting, where students work in groups to produce a poster based on a poem displayed on the wall - however, only one student is allowed to visit the poem at a time. The student should then bring back key words, images, methods, etc., to add to the poster. The posters are then presented to the class, or if in a bigger group, to another group of students. This effectively conveys the message that all responses are appropriate and that everyone can access a poem in some way. This could be run in a Hall with multiple students, in a classroom or as small group intervention. Th second part of the lesson covers the comparison question, making sure that students understand to only write about methods. It includes a writing frame and modelled examples using the AQA endorsed structure of ‘both, both, however’. This lesson could easily be repeated again and again with different poems.

A series of lessons covering all the reading questions on both AQA Language papers, with writing frames, good examples and texts. I have explained what we are looking for as examiners and what we award marks for. I used this as an intervention unit, but could also be used as revision or for Years 7-10 when preparing for a GCSE style reading test.

This lesson is the most efficient way I’ve ever found to teach students how to answer the structure question. It teaches students exactly how to explain the effects of structure, useful subject terminology and what the examiner is looking for. It is delivered through experiential learning, where the class write a class text following my prompts and then analyse this piece of work for structural choices. It is a very easy but effective way to deliver the key messages. You will need a big sheet of paper to display the class story, another whiteboard or you could use another Powerpoint or word slide and flip between the two (not the best option, but could be done). It naturally leads on to students writing their own stories that have conscious structural choices, which they can then analyse. I have also included two texts that could be analysed are free extracts of stories on lovereading.com Please leave me some feedback to let me know how you got on with it. Lindsey

Here is a lesson I created to explain the subjunctive form. The lesson requires students to make a poster at the end of the lesson, or you could have them creating a short drama using the subjunctive sentence starters displayed on the Powerpoint.

I have used this resource to develop my own understanding of the mark scheme (even though I have been an examiner for over ten years), support my colleagues in understanding the mark scheme, and also to diagnose weaknesses within classes, enabling targeted intervention, differentiation within the classroom and targeted support. Once completed, it gives the teacher a full and clear understanding of what needs to be done to succeed in the exam. Essentially, it is an audit of skills within a class, looking at either a whole mock paper, or full practice questions in books. Assess the work for each of elements for each question, writing the student initial in each box. This is a little clunky to begin with, but gets much easier after the first few pieces and is very valuable in both focusing your understanding of what is required for each question and knowing where students need attention. The statements have been taken from the mark scheme and also developed from the on-screen software used by examiners. Your end result will clearly show where the average class strengths and weaknesses lie, which students need more help and in which areas and how you should direct your teachers. This would result in outstanding differentiation. I have completed a sample of three students (whereas usually it would be for a whole class), which shows that this very small group struggle with methods on Q4. Whole cohorts could be analysed via cutting and pasting several sheets onto one, allowing HODs to oversee weaknesses across the department. These audits could also be used as a basis for conversations in progress meetings and as a monitoring tool.

A Powerpoint that clearly explains the three tenses, with examples and activities, including a worksheet with answers.

With the ever-increasing need for personalised learning, the scheme of work that is written by the Head of Department and shared across the department in a dying breed. Instead, teachers must plan their own medium-term and short-term plans to meet the needs of the students in their classes, which, considering extensive national changes over the past year or so, can be a daunting task for teachers of all levels of experience. This medium-term tracking grid supports teachers in their planning by: •listing all the Assessment Objectives for Language and Literature on the first page to prompt coverage and also to provide a list for teachers to cut and paste from. •beginning the planning with the completion of a progression matrix, effectively highlighting areas of under-performance and opportunities for support and challenge •Space for bullet point ideas of each week’s lessons, with a corresponding column for assessment objectives covered •Space for teachers to identify milestone or assessment tasks. The planning grid also works well when combined with the tracking grids for reading and writing, allowing teachers to assess students’ abilities against each assessment objective or skill and plan accordingly.

This writing mat, which should be printed on A3 couble sided and laminated for future use, has all the methods listed in DAFOREST around the edge of the page with examples. These devices are coloured coded (bronze for easy, silver for more difficult and gold for higher ability.) Use them as a guide to encourage students to include persuasive devices in their own writing, or use to support the annotation of texts by other writers. There is a space in the middle of the mat for students to place paper or they could practice writing phrases on the mats with whiteboard pens if the sheets are laminated. A handy planning grid is also provided, along with a writing to persuade lesson, ready made for you to trial your new resources.

This PowerPoint contains 87 key quotes from Macbeth for display around the classroom or school, for sorting into order or simply for displaying and discussing. There are far more quotes than you need, allowing you to choose the quotes that are important for your class.

Inspire your students by having them compete against each other in teams for house points or prizes. This Powerpoint requires students to work in teams and work together to answer each question. They should have one whiteboard and pen per team - the team captain should present their answer when asked. This is easily enough for a one hour lesson, but most probably enough for two hours.

This is another lesson that helps students create an effective piece of writing using the DADWAVERS structure, but also incorporating different elements of sentence structures such as embedded clauses and fronted adverbials. The lesson includes a timer on the spinning wheel slides, encouraging students wo work quickly. Suitable for writing portfolio lessons at KS2 and all the way to exam preparation at GCSE level.