This half-termly unit of work is designed to help prepare students for Edexcel’s Entry Level Certificate in English Component 2 Writing with particular focus on creative writing. It supports students in developing some of the key skills required to write their own engaging pieces such as writing effective openings, writing dialogue, varying sentences and creating characters. It supports and leads them towards the creative writing task required for component 2 which they complete at the end of the unit. The 75 slide teaching PPT is included as well as a detailed set of teacher’s notes with suggested teaching approaches and all nine classroom resources in both Word and PDF formats. I have also included a CPD self-study unit for teachers on teaching creative writing for entry level students and some extra creative writing tasks based on images. I hope you enjoy teaching the unit.

This unit prepares students for their Edexcel GCSE English Language spoken presentation. The unit guides students through the process by looking at aspects of effective presentations such as openings, rhetorical devices, endings, use of cue cards to structure a talk, delivery and responding to questions. Strategies include exploring good examples of talks as well as group discussions and opportunities to try out a variety of strategies. A 41 slide teaching PPT is included as well as all seven student resources in both word and pdf formats. I hope you enjoy teaching this unit.

Research suggests that AfL or formative assessment, can have a significant impact on the motivation, behaviour and attainment of students as well as their ability to work independently. This very practical unit is intended for self-study and can also be used by teachers working together to support each other’s professional development and reflection. It includes questions and tasks throughout and focuses on some of the key aspects of AfL such as setting learning objectives and outcomes, peer and self-assessment, helping pupils recognize the standards they are aiming to achieve, written and oral feedback and target setting. I hope you enjoy working though the unit and applying some of these strategies in your classroom. Please note it has also been published on the nimbl platform by Pearsons.

This unit is specifically designed for English teachers who wish to develop their teaching of non-fiction in the secondary or upper primary classroom. It takes you through a range of active approaches to promote engagement with non fiction texts such as travel writing, news reports, feature articles,speeches and formal letters, as well as ways of linking reading with pupils’ own writing. It includes tasks and opportunities for personal reflection and is ideal for teachers preparing to teach non-fiction in the English classroom.

This engaging and enjoyable Junior Cycle English teaching unit is designed to develop key skills in reading fiction and non-fiction as well as writing creatively. It is based on the topic of Heroism with lots of activities and great texts to help students develop key reading skills such as locating information, inference, commenting on structure and comparison as well as key narrative writing skills such as opening and ending a story, writing direct speech, varying sentences, improving vocabulary and planning. Texts include extracts from non-fiction and fiction texts including 'Pat Barker’s ‘Regeneration’, Remarque’s ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ and Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’. It is ideal for a First or Second Year Junior Cycle class. All 17 well-presented student resources are included in word and pdf formats as well as a 68 slide teaching PPT and a set of detailed teacher’s notes. Junior Cycle Learning Outcomes include: Reading 3. Use a wide range of reading comprehension strategies appropriate to texts. 7. Select key moments from their texts and give thoughtful value judgements on the main character. 8. Read their texts to understand and appreciate language enrichment by examining an author’s choice of words, the use and effect of simple figurative language, vocabulary and language patterns, and images. Writing 3. Write for a variety of purposes, for example to imagine, explore, engage. 5. Engage with and learn from models of written language use to enrich their own written work. 7. Respond imaginatively in writing to their texts showing a critical appreciation of language, style and content, choice of words, language patterns, tone, images.

This unit is designed to teach key reading and writing skills in the context of travel literature and to help build some of the key skills required when studying non-fiction texts. It moves from reading to writing and is based on the study of a number of short travel extracts from writers such as Paul Theroux, Jonathan Raban and Dervla Murphy. Outcomes include analytical as well as creative writing. All ten resources including key texts are included as are a set of detailed teacher’s notes and a nicely presented 42 slide PPT. Learning outcomes (from Junior Cycle Specification) addressed in this unit include: Reading 3. Use a wide range of reading comprehension strategies appropriate to texts. 8. Read their texts to understand and appreciate language enrichment by examining an author’s choice of words, the use and effect of simple figurative language, vocabulary and language patterns, and images, as appropriate to the text. 11. Identify and comment on features of English at word and sentence level using appropriate terminology, showing how such features contribute to overall effect. Writing Demonstrate their understanding that there is a clear purpose for all writing activities and be able to plan, draft, re-draft, and edit their own writing as appropriate. Discuss their own and other students’ written work constructively and with clear purpose. Write for a variety of purposes, for example imagine, explore, engage, amuse, narrate, inform, explain. Respond imaginatively in writing to their texts showing a critical appreciation of language, style and content, choice of words, language patterns, tone, images. I hope you enjoy teaching the unit as much as I did.

When designing effective lessons, there are a number of factors to consider, all of which feed into the planning stage. Models of teaching, the learning objectives and specific teaching strategies as well as the climate for learning within a particular classroom are all part of that process. In this unit you will explore these key aspects of planning and how they can support you in preparing lessons which move the learning forward in an inclusive and engaging way. This resource has also been published by Pearsons as part of a mobile learning platform.

This self-study unit offers support and guidance in teaching the creative writing component of entry level courses in an interesting and engaging way. It will help ensure your programmes of study and lessons are well-pitched, relevant and motivating and develop the key skills necessary for success at entry level. Suggested approaches can be easily differentiated for entry level 1 and 2 students making it ideal preparation for planning an entry level course and schemes of learning. It is generic and relevant to all main exam boards who offer this qualification.

This self-study unit offers support and guidance in teaching the reading fiction and non-fiction components of entry level courses in an interesting and engaging way. It will help ensure your programmes of study and lessons are well-pitched, relevant and motivating and develop the key skills necessary for success at this level, making it ideal preparation for planning an entry level course and schemes of learning. Suggested approaches can be easily differentiated for entry level 1 and 2 students by simplifying texts, reducing the amount of content and having one clear objective per lesson. The skills referred to are relevant to all exam boards.

The aim of this unit is to support teaching assistants in developing a set of key strategies for teaching pupils how to learn and retain spellings, though teachers wanting to develop their skills in teaching spelling would also benefit. Some pupils find spelling a real challenge - your role as a TA is to reassure them, provide them with spelling rules and support them with active approaches to learning spelling. Pupils should then be able to choose the appropriate strategy to help them to learn new spellings as they arise. This unit will also help you, as a TA, to provide support for pupils in using and developing a subject-specific vocabulary which is vitally important in writing successfully in different subject areas. This unit has also been published as a mobile CPD course.

Intervention involves supporting pupils who for a variety of reasons may have fallen behind their peers in order to make rapid progress. It is, and always has been, a significant issue for schools but is particularly pertinent given recent disruption to children’s education. We also know that in 2019, 27% of students began secondary school without having reached expected standard in their Key Stage 2 SATs Reading assessments and that in 2018 fewer than 1 in 5 of those who entered secondary school not having reached expected standards in reading went on to achieve a level 4 or above in English. Intervention is therefore particularly important in relation to literacy skills as these will limit progress not just in English but across all subjects which require good skills in reading and writing. This unit focuses on how you can, as a teacher responsible for intervention, design a strategy to improve the progress of targeted pupils who are underachieving.

This half-termly unit of work is designed to help prepare students for the Junior Certificate exam with particular focus on narrative and descriptive writing. I have written it with my own lower attaining class in mind. It supports students in developing some of the key skills required to write their own engaging pieces such as writing effective openings, writing dialogue, varying sentences, creating characters and planning responses. It supports and leads them towards a creative writing task (either narrative or descriptive) which they complete at the end of the unit. The 75 slide teaching PPT is included in PDF format as well as a set of detailed teacher’s notes with suggested teaching approaches and all eleven classroom resources in both Word and PDF formats. I have also included extra creative writing tasks based on images. I hope you enjoy teaching the unit. Junior Cycle English Learning Outcomes include: Writing Demonstrate their understanding that there is a clear purpose for all writing activities and be able to plan, draft, re-draft, and edit their own writing as appropriate. Write for a variety of purposes, for example to imagine, explore, engage, narrate. Engage with and learn from models of oral and written language use to enrich their own written work. Use and apply their knowledge of language structures, for example sentence structure, paragraphing, grammar, to make their writing a richer experience for themselves and the reader.

Edexcel Functional Skills in English: Level 2 Unit - LEISURE This highly engaging and fully resourced unit of work is designed to teach some of the key skills required for tacking the Edexcel Functional Skills Level 2 English exam paper. It is built around the topic of Leisure. There are two sections: Reading section – exploration of three different non-fiction texts Writing section – culminates in an assessed piece of work This includes a well-presented 49 slide teaching PPT (editable PPT format) as well as a set of detailed teacher’s notes and all 9 resources in both word and pdf formats. Tasks and texts are relevant and engaging and ideal preparation for the Level 2 exam. **More Edexcel IGCSE Functional Skills Resources Edexcel Functional Skills in English: Level 2 Complete Course Edexcel Functional Skills in English: Level 2 Unit -Climate Change Crisis Edexcel Functional Skills in English: Level 2 Unit - Taking the Next Step Edexcel Functional Skills English Level 1 and 2: Speaking and Listening Unit

English Teaching Poetry Unit: Seamus Heaney’s 'Follower’ This short GCSE unit is designed to introduce and explore Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Follower’ as well as develop students’ ability to write analytically using a specific, taught paragraph structure. This unit is collaborative in nature with lots of opportunities for paired, group and class discussion. It includes a very nicely presented 32 slide teaching PPT as well as all 16 student resources and a set of detailed teacher’s notes explaining how you can deliver the unit. Outcomes include an analytical PETAL paragraph which could be extended into a longer essay using the structure provided. Please note that all resources are provided in PPT and Word as well as pdf format. Ideal for GCSE Anthology study. You may also like the following poetry units: You might also like: William Blake’s ‘London’ Seamus Heaney’s ‘Storm on the Island’ Seamus Heaney’s ‘Digging’ Wilfred Owen’s ‘Exposure’

Australian curriculum-aligned resource - Narrative and Descriptive Writing for Years 6-7 This highly engaging and enjoyable unit of work is designed to help students write creatively with a particular focus on narrative and descriptive writing. It supports students in actively exploring and enjoying both descriptive and narrative texts, looking at excellent and varied models from a range of literature and identifying successful features before moving to composing their own creative responses. It is ideal for a Year 6-7 class. A well presented 83 slide teaching PPT is included as well as a detailed set of teacher’s notes with suggested approaches and all thirteen classroom resources. I enjoyed teaching this unit and hope you do too.

This half-termly unit of work is designed to help prepare students for the Edexcel English Language Paper 1 exam with particular focus on narrative and descriptive writing. I have written this for my own mid to high ability GCSE class. It supports students in actively exploring and enjoying both descriptive and narrative writing, looking at excellent and varied models of texts and identifying successful features before moving to students composing their own creative responses. The 63 slide teaching PPT is included as well as a detailed set of teacher’s notes with suggested teaching approaches and all eleven classroom resources in both Word and PDF formats. I hope you enjoy teaching the unit.

Edexcel Functional Skills in English: Level 2 Unit - Climate Change Crisis This engaging and fully resourced unit of work is designed to teach some of the key skills required for tacking the Edexcel Functional Skills Level 2 English exam paper. It is built around the topic of the climate crisis. There are two sections: Reading section – students explore three different non-fiction texts including a letter, web pages and a blog. Writing section – students learn how to write a persuasive letter and a blog and complete two pieces of work which can be assessed formally. This unit includes a well-presented 60 slide teaching PPT (editable PPT format) as well as a set of detailed teacher’s notes and all 11 resources in both word and pdf formats. Tasks and texts are relevant and engaging as well as ideal preparation for the Level 2 exam. You may also like: Edexcel Functional Skills in English: Level 2 Complete Course Edexcel Functional Skills in English: Level 2 Unit - Leisure Edexcel Functional Skills in English: Level 2 Unit - Taking the Next Step Edexcel Functional Skills English Level 1 and 2: Speaking and Listening Unit