This 23-slide lesson provides an introduction to David Almond’s ‘Skellig’. Offering a comprehensive exploration to the context behind Almond’s novel, this lesson begins with various book cover designs, prompting students to consider what the novel might be about. We then talk about David Almond himself, and read a blurb summary of the novel. The lesson’s main focus surrounds the idea of angels. Students discuss the connotations and cultural associations of angels, learning vocabulary to describe them and exploring iconic angelic figures such as Gabriel and Lucifer. Paintings and other cultural depictions of angels are analysed. The novel’s key themes are discussed, and students look up the definitions of key words linked to the story. The lesson ends with a reflective task which puts students into the shoes of Michael, the novel’s protagonist. This could be completed in the lesson or as a homework task. Questions, discussion points, and tasks are included throughout. This lesson is ideal for upper KS2 or lower KS3 pupils. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This 21-slide lesson introduces students to the key context of Alan Bennett’s ‘The History Boys’. The lesson provides an introduction to Bennett’s career, Oxbridge, Thatcherism and New Labour, as well as the key themes and ideas of the play. Students consider what makes a good teacher, and learn critical vocabulary linked to the play. The role and significance of ‘history’ is also debated, while New Labour’s focus on ‘spin’ is explained in view of its relevance to the play. Theatre reviews of notable productions of ‘The History Boys’ are also included for discussion. Questions, discussion points, and tasks are featured throughout for students. This resource is ideal for those studying the play at GCSE or A level. PowerPoint saved as pdf.

This top-band essay analyses how Shakespeare presents Macbeth and Banquo’s attitudes to the supernatural, based on the (infamous) AQA exam question from 2018. Many students found this question challenging when it appeared in the summer of 2018. This essay is perfect (for HA pupils, in particular) to see how to structure a sophisticated and perceptive essay. The extract and exam question are included on the first page.

This 33-slide lesson explores Patience Agbabi’s poem, ‘Eat Me’. Students begin by discussing key ideas around the relationship between sex and food and society’s beauty standards. We then learn about Agbabi’s work before delving into the poem and establishing its narrative. The lesson then guides students methodically through extensive key ideas related to the poem, including title analysis; intertextual allusions; analysis of language; and analysis of form, structure, rhythm and rhyme. The nature of the dramatic monologue as a form is also discussed, before looking closely at some of the poem’s key images and the use of repetition. Each character in the poem is then dissected, while also looking at key symbols in the poem (eg. the cake, the bed). We also discuss the poem’s colonial undertones. Students are given a list of key themes and key vocabulary to facilitate high-level analysis. There are then some important questions for students to answer once they have explored the whole poem, and a list of potential poems which could be used to compare to ‘Eat Me’ to strengthen comparative analytical skills. This resource is particularly useful for those studying ‘Poems of the Decade’ with Pearson, but could easily be used for any purpose. Two files are included: one has the PowerPoint saved as a PDF so that the fonts and layout are firmly in place; the other is saved as a normal PPT file so that you can edit it.

This crossword on J.B. Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls’ provides an enjoyable but academic activity for pupils to test their knowledge of the play. It always works as a great starter or plenary task.

This is a thorough and comprehensive introduction to Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, outlining the key context necessary to understanding the novel. This 25-slide lesson details the novel’s key historical context, exploring the Deep South of the 1930s and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, as well as Lee’s own life and the novel’s key themes and legacy. Questions, tasks and discussion points are featured throughout. An extended (potential homework) task is included at the end of the lesson. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This 26-slide lesson provides a comprehensive introduction to the context and comedy of Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. The lesson features information on Wilde’s life and literary career and on Victorian contexts of gender, sexuality, and morality. The genre of comedy is considered in detail, and the key themes, characters, and conventions of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ are outlined. Questions, discussion points, and tasks are included for students. This lesson would work particularly well for those teaching Wilde on AQA’s Aspects of Comedy paper for English Literature A level, but is still useful for those exploring the play for other courses. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This resource contains detailed and academically challenging PowerPoints for all five acts of Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’. Each PowerPoint goes through an act scene-by-scene, analysing language, theme, character and context, combining scholarly notes from a range of sources. These PowerPoints work well when accompanying the reading of the text in class. Students find them useful for revision of the play too. These five PowerPoints have the potential to cover several weeks of lessons. These resources are aimed at A level students (particularly those studying comedy as a genre), but could be used for the study of the play with any high attaining group.

This 40-slide lesson explores the context and background of Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’. Designed as both an introduction to the play and a revision resource for students to use when recapping the play’s context, this is a comprehensive and detailed exploration of Shakespeare’s sources and influences, as well as the play’s key themes, ideas and critical debates. Students are also equipped with important and precise vocabulary for analysing the play with sophistication. Among other key ideas, students are introduced to elements of tragedy, Jacobean ideas of kingship, Shakespearean staging and stagecraft, Christianity vs. Paganism, and the play’s preoccupation with absurdity and meaninglessness. The anonymous ‘King Leir’ is referenced along with other points about the play’s textual history, and contemporary debates around succession and the unification of Britain are discussed in detail. Images from various productions of ‘King Lear’ are included for discussion, and questions for students are included throughout the resource. The file is included here both as a PDF and PowerPoint. The latter file will not retain precise font choices and formatting.

This 30-slide lesson is a detailed introduction to the context of Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’. The lesson includes notes on Stevenson’s life; his relationship with Edinburgh and London; Deacon Brodie; science and industrialisation; theories of evolution, Degeneration and Cesare Lombroso; Victorian rationality; the Victorian class system; and contemporary gender dynamics. It also features tips on top-grade vocabulary for students to use when analysing the text. Questions and discussion points are included throughout, and the lesson ends with a research task that could be used as a homework activity. This lesson is ideal for those studying the novella at GCSE, but could be used with KS3 too. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This 27-slide lesson on William Blake’s ‘The Garden of Love’ from the ‘Songs of Experience’ deconstructs the poem as a tool of political and social protest. The lesson explores Blake’s context as a radical Dissenter, his use of the pastoral genre, and considers in detail his use of language and imagery. The poem’s themes of sexual restriction, corrupt authority, and shattered innocence are considered through a variety of questions and tasks for students. At the end of the lesson, an extended essay question is included. This lesson is ideal for those studying Blake’s ‘Songs’ through AQA’s ‘Political and Social Protest’ paper at A level. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This 20-slide PowerPoint is an introductory lesson on the context of Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’, aimed primarily at A level students (particularly those studying the genre of comedy). The lesson contains information on Shakespeare, Commedia dell’Arte, Elizabethan acting, Illyria in context, religious satire, and more. Questions and tasks are featured for students, including a potential homework task. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This 22-slide lesson explores Simon Armitage’s poem, ‘I Am Very Bothered’. The lesson encourages students to analyse Armitage’s poem as a subversion of typical love poetry, thinking about its ironic use of the sonnet form and the speaker’s distorted sense of romantic imagery. The poem’s language, structure, and form is considered. Questions, discussion points, and tasks are included for students. An extended essay question (including an exemplar introduction and analytical paragraph) is featured at the end of the lesson. A copy of the poem is also included. This lesson is ideal for Key Stage 3 or GCSE analysis. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This resource includes two comprehensive lessons for analysing William Blake’s ‘Holy Thursday’ poems from the Songs of ‘Innocence’ and ‘Experience’. The first 28-slide lesson covers ‘Holy Thursday’ from ‘Innocence’. The second 32-slide lesson covers ‘Holy Thursday’ from ‘Experience’. Both lessons include detailed explorations of the poems’ language, context, imagery, structure, and ideas, especially in relation to Blake as a protest writer and critic of institutionalised systems of power. We think about Blake’s role as a Dissenter from the Church of England, and his use of recurring symbols (such as children) throughout the ‘Songs’. The image of Ascension Day in the ‘Holy Thursday’ poems is analysed, reading the poems as Blake’s critique of ecclesiastical hypocrisy and his attempt to understand the extent of the poverty to which he bore witness. Crucially, both lessons work in tandem to read both versions of the poem alongside one another, exploring Blake’s collective message through ‘Innocence’ and ‘Experience’. Blake’s singular poetic voice and ironic tone are also deconstructed, and we consider how the poems relate to 18th century children’s literature. Questions, tasks, and discussion points are featured throughout. Both lessons end with comparative essay questions. These lessons are ideal for those studying Blake as a ‘protest writer’ with AQA at A level, but could easily be used for any KS5 study of the ‘Songs’. *This resource is new and updated in March 2021. PowerPoints are saved as PDFs.

This 30-slide lesson explores Linda Pastan’s poem, ‘To a Daughter Leaving Home’. Ideal for Key Stage 3 or GCSE pupils, this lesson deconstructs Pastan’s poem of parental anxiety and letting go, paying close attention to language, imagery, form, structure, and rhyme. Students are encouraged to think about the poem’s metaphorical and allegorical significance, and questions, tasks, and discussion points are included throughout the lesson. Biographical information about Pastan and her poetry is included. A short analytical task is included, and the lesson ends with a creative writing (poetry) activity (which could be used as a homework task). PowerPoint saved as PDF.

Help students to finally master commas with this engaging 18-slide lesson that covers all the main rules. We all know that many students struggle with commas. This lesson aims to explain the key rules alongside practical examples. It explains how to use commas in lists (including the Oxford comma), for fronted adverbials, and subordinate clauses. Humorous comma errors are included for students to identify and amend. This lesson is ideal for KS3, but could definitely be used for GCSE students struggling with apostrophes too. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This is a perfect stand-alone lesson aimed at KS3 or KS4 for thinking about how language is used every day in advertising. Have you ever thought about how many adverts you read in a day? What are the most powerful words in advertising? Are you aware of when and how advertising tries to entice you? This lesson uses a wide range of adverts to demonstrate the different techniques used by advertisers. At the end of the lesson, students are tasked with creating their own advert/brand. PowerPoint saved as PDF. 23 slides in total.

This is a thorough and comprehensive 30-slide lesson on Robert Browning’s poem ‘Porphyria’s Lover’, which is studied as part of AQA’s GCSE Literature anthology on ‘Love & Relationships’. This lesson unpicks key themes of obsession, possessiveness, delusion, control and violence with close analysis of language, form and structure. Students are also encouraged to consider Browning’s use of the dramatic monologue form and how the poem’s gender dynamics might act as a mode of satirising masculinity. Also included are many small questions, tasks and discussion points for students, as well as a ‘mock’ essay question in which students must compare ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ to another poem, just like in the real AQA exam. The lesson is aimed at GCSE students but could be adapted for KS3. PowerPoint saved as PDF.

This 25-slide lesson serves as the perfect introduction to William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’, establishing the key context and background to the novel. The lesson includes exploration of the novel’s key themes and ideas, Golding’s life and his own comments about the text, the historical background of the Cold War and Atomic Age, as well as key terms and vocabulary to unpick the novel’s ideas. Questions, discussion-points and tasks are included for students. At the end of the lesson is an extended task that could work either in class or as a homework activity. The lesson is ideal for GCSE or KS3 study of the novel. PowerPoint is saved as PDF.