18 posters featuring six different figurative language and writing devices. Each poster includes the Greek or Latin word roots for the device, and five quotations from literary works as examples.
The posters demonstrate:
Alliteration
Imagery
Metaphors
Oxymoron
Personification
Similes
Use as classroom posters or print as smaller handouts. Includes both UK and US document sizes, and colour, low ink, and black and white styles.
Explore the quotations and themes of the character Mr Birling, from JB Priestley’s play An Inspector Calls. The line art image of Mr Birling is peppered with quotations, acting as a graphic organiser as well as a fun visual activity.
Choose a colour for each theme on the checklist at the bottom of the sheet, and shade the sections to link the quotations and the themes. Not only does this help understanding and revision, but you get a piece of art at the end!
This resource is provided in both US letter and UK A4 size documents.
Follow me to be updated as each character sheet is added for this play!
A fun, thoughtful ‘would you rather’ slideshow and accompanying worksheets for KS3 and KS4 students with a back to school theme. For example, would your students rather do lessons one day a week without electricity, or one day a week outdoors in any weather, and why?
Encourage discussion around fifteen prompt pairs, all focused on the school theme. Great for warm-ups, bell-ringers or brain breaks. Either use the PowerPoint alone for verbal responses, use the full worksheets as a longer activity, hand out individual pairs as slips for a quick task… or a use as a combination!
US and UK document sizes included, and Google Apps versions with editable worksheets provided.
This is an Earth Day activity mat on a single A3 sheet, aimed at KS3 and 4 students. Print on a large sheet of paper for creative thinking and discussion, or on a smaller letter-size or A4 sheet if needed. This graphic organiser prompts your students to plan for writing about:
Creating Earth Day inventions
Carrying out an earth-related survey
Eco-friendly class rules
Earth colors and synonyms
Designing a school Earth Day badge
Writing an Earth Day tweet
Creating an Earth Day smoothie
Exploring hopes and dreams for the earth
Plus more!
This resource includes versions with both US and UK spellings.
Kickstart or end your lessons with some creative thinking. Use as bellringers or brain breaks - reveal comparative images for the picture in the center of the slide, and ask your students to use the comparisons to write or share interesting similes.
Google Slides version included!
This Silent Discussion pre-reading activity for Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men prompts students to collaborate on vintage book covers and movie posters with their thoughts, opinions, interpretations and predictions. Resources include two lesson formats with instructive slideshows.
Includes:
10 pages of cover and poster prompts for a seated silent discussion
10 pages of cover and poster prompts for a gallery walk silent discussion
Duplicate of the gallery version in A3 size for ease of writing
Slideshow with instructions for seated silent discussion
Slideshow with instructions for gallery walk silent discussion
Crack some codes and reflect on the school year for any subject with my codebreaker activity pack! The eight coded messages are perfect escape room alternatives.
First, students use the school-themed key to decode the messages. The messages revealed are reflective tasks and questions, which students then respond to - set all messages as a booklet, or individual pages to differentiate!
Spread them out as warm-ups or bellringers, or build a lesson around all eight tasks.
Printable support mats, posters and strategy cards for student mental health.
Start conversations and create a of individual sections in your classroom with this pack, which includes…
A3 support mat with all strategies
Smaller posters of individual sections
Quarter size strategy cards of individual sections
Aimed at KS2 and KS3, use this figurative language worksheet as a starter, main, fast finisher or homework task in October! Use the Halloween theme to build your students’ understanding of alliteration, similes, personification, and onomatopoeia.
This resource comes in US letter and UK A4 size, with a link to a Google Apps editable version. Black and white and colour versions provided.
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Guided Practice | Literature Essay Frame
Blackout Poetry is a great creative pre-reading activity, and this activity focuses on the three different versions of the lullaby in Louis Sachar’s Holes. Different worksheets allow you to explore single stanzas, pairs of stanzas, or all three versions. You also have the option to use worksheets with fully redacted words, or redacted words with grammatical prompts (noun, adjective, verb, etc).
Editable Google Apps version included, and all worksheets are provided in US letter size and UK A4 size.
Using simple countdown prompts to guide students, this resource allows your class to get on with research responsibly with clear starting and finishing points. Supplement your unit on homelessness or social issues as either a classroom or a homework task.
There are three differentiated versions of this worksheet - one with suggested search terms and foci for pupils needing support, one without prompts but including writing lines, and one without prompts for more independent students.
This resource includes:
3 differentiated versions of the task
PDF versions for quick, no-prep printing
US and UK document sizes
Students can get a feel for the setting of their story or description with this set of ten graphic organizer planning sheets - select different sheets to differentiate for the needs of individual students.
Either use nine prompts to determine as many ideas or aspects of language as possible, or give more specific sheets like the five senses, one specific sense, or location building to aid development of detail.
Students can quickly and easily jot down notes, phrases, ideas and vocabulary; laminate the sheets and use with dry-wipe pens for lower printing costs!
Suitable for a range of ages - flexible mats in both US and UK document sizes.
Great for NaNoWriMo, but please note that this resource is not associated with or endorsed by the National Novel Writing Month team.
Use WW1 poetry to bring November 11th into your lessons.
Includes both UK and US terminology - Remembrance Day or Veteran’s Day - and document sizes.
Analyse the structure and literary devices in the poem For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon through graphic organizers, summary tables and a one-pager template.
Includes:
Poem handout
Context handout
Structural comprehension
Differentiated literary device comprehension
One-pager template
Answer keys
This Bloom’s Ball template for close character study features two sides for each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy - remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create.
Each side has a prompt for character study:
Remember the character’s first appearance
Remember the character’s key details
Understand the character’s choices
Understand the character’s conflict
Apply one of the character’s beliefs to the real world
Apply one of the character’s quotes to an impression you get of them
Analyze the meaning of the character’s name
Analyze the impact of the character on the story
Evaluate how good or bad the character is
Evaluate the character’s future
Create a picture of the character
Create a meal for this character
No-Prep Group Work - a set of desk placemats to encourage groups to discuss and share information about quotations, themes and context linked to individual characters from JB Priestley’s 1940s play.
This can either be an oracy task alone, or discussion alongside the creation of a revision map on A4 or A3 paper.
Includes a double-sided ‘ThoughtPad’ sheet for students to log ideas along the way, plus a Seven Deadly Sins bonus task for those who finish early.
Includes 8 characters, multiple tasks per sheet, and works well with 4-8 groups of students. Laminate for multiple use!
UPDATED! Low prep and high engagement!
Boost interest before you even introduce the text of Romeo and Juliet by presenting students with a crime scene and asking them to solve the crime. Students take on the following roles, each taking turns to lead the investigation:
CSI Team Leader
Coroner
Toxicologist
Detective (witness statements)
Detective (evidence locker)
Investigator (suspects)
Students work through crime scene maps, toxicology reports, coroner’s reports, witness and suspect information, and cross-reference it all before feeding their conclusions back to the class.
Can be completed with groups of six or four students, and as many groups in a class as you need. Works with lessons as short as 50 minutes and as long as 100.
This resource is provided in both US letter and UK A4 document size.
A fun, imaginative task for secondary level. Students use or find quotations about Boo Radley from the early chapters of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, building a picture through the eyes of Maycombe residents.
Students draw an image of the character, using the quotations, then annotate their drawings to show close attention to detail.
This product includes…
Sheet with 16 quotations provided
Sheet with 16 quotations and space for additional ideas
Sheet with empty spaces for students to find their own quotations
…and each of the three sheets above come with three different centres: blank, gingerbread man outline and realistic outline. That’s nine formats for the same task!
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A thoughtful ‘would you rather’ worksheet and PowerPoint for older students with a summer theme. For example, would your students rather spend every day at the beach, or every day in the woods, and why?
Encourage discussion around eight prompt pairs, all focused on summer activities, then students use the ‘why’ section to explain their choice. Check out the video preview for a closer look!
This resource comes in two styles (one color and one black and white), and in both US letter and UK A4 document formats for easy printing, plus accompanying PowerPoint to make it easy for you to use these tasks as individual bell-ringers or exit tickets.
I have also ensured that US and UK spellings are included on the appropriate documents.
If you found this helpful, you might also like:
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Summer Writing | Developing Ideas | Sentence Building | KS2 and KS3
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These printable bookmarks for secondary school students add a touch of literary humour to your awards. This pack includes 59 different awards with space for you to add the year, student name and your signature, and one blank one for you to create your own award by adding text boxes. Use them year on year!
These are provided as PNG files so that you can organise them as required and to your preferred size.
Character Awards:
Most likely to be the action hero
Most likely to be a famous activist
Most likely to be an anime or manga character
Most likely to be the comedy relief
Most likely to be the mayor of a dystopia
Most likely to know too much
Most likely to be the lead character in a romance
Most likely to be the terrifying leader
Most likely to be the mad scientist
Most likely to be the terrifying matriarch
Most likely to be the terrifying patriarch
Most likely to be the President
Most likely to be the Prime Minister
Most likely to be a private detective
Most likely to save lives
Most likely to be a spy
Most likely to survive a horror novel
Most likely to be the sheriff in a Western
Most likely to quietly take over the world
Plot Point Awards:
Most likely to be abducted by aliens
Most likely to go on the road with their band
Most likely to accidentally open a black hole
Most likely to run away with the circus
Most likely to reintroduce dinosaurs to the earth
Most likely to undergo a dramatic transformation
Most likely to lead a life straight out of a Film Noir
Most likely to invent life-changing technology
Most likely to discover that mythical creatures are real
Most likely to have a Number 1 Hit
Most likely to be in a paranormal mystery
Most likely to have their diaries published
Most likely to be bitten by a radioactive spider
Most likely to reject civilisation
Most likely to accidentally release a demon
Most likely to fight against a robot uprising
Most likely to feature in a romcom
Most likely to go into space
Most likely to time travel
Most likely to travel the world
Most likely to discover the truth
Most likely to survive a zombie apocalypse
Device Awards:
Most likely to be an allegory
Most likely to be an example of dramatic irony
Most likely to foreshadow
Most likely to become a hyperbole
Most likely to become a juxtaposition of their school personality
Most likely to be a literary symbol
Most likely to be a metaphor
Most likely to be a paradox
Misc Awards:
Most likely to work with animals
Most likely to write an autobiography
Most likely to work with kids
Most likely to make national news
Most likely to work with plants
Most likely to be a pro streamer
Most likely to create a new slang word
Most likely to be a stand up comedian
Most likely to write a novel
Most likely to write a screenplay
…plus a blank version!
Kickstart or end your lessons with some creative thinking. Use as bellringers or brain breaks - reveal comparative images for the picture in the center of the slide, and ask your students to use the comparisons to write or share interesting similes.
Google Slides version included!