This interesting and highly-stimulating lesson enables students to gain a clear understanding of how the characters of Simon and Roger are introduced and developed in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Students learn to compare and contrast the two characters, with particular reference to their respective propensities for kindness and savagery. The lesson follows a clear, logical, bite-size learning journey, which guides students towards differentiated learning objectives. Over the course of this journey, they become able to: - Use illustrations to explain what they already know about each of the characters; - Understand how each of the characters are introduced, and demonstrate an awareness of the role that they play on the island; - Read and understand Chapters Eight, Nine, and Ten of the play, with a particular focus upon how the characters of Simon and Roger can be compared, and how they develop over time; - Analyse key quotations about/by each of the characters,interpreting what this shows the readers about their characters; - Complete a comparison between the two characters, in response to an essay-style question; -Peer assess each other’s learning attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - Detailed worksheets, with answer sheets where necessary; - Links to the extracts of the text needed for the lesson (Chapters Eight, Nine and Ten in this case); - Original images for students to complete their annotations; - A logically scaffolded essay template; - A detailed lesson plan, complete with what the teacher and students should aim to achieve at each stage of the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint.

A Russian billionaire, Asman Veryrich, has approached you about setting up a new football club! This exciting, engaging investigation activity allows students to control the direction of their own learning, through speaking, listening, discussing, and reasoning. I initially created these resources to provide something interesting for the students to engage with for their English Speaking and Listening discussions, but it has since been used across Maths (e.g. managing money effectively), Art and Design, and PSHE departments, as well as by form groups and holiday activity groups, to build teamwork and collaboration skills. This version is now updated with the players for the 2023-24 football season! Students get involved in all of the fun aspects of designing and setting up a new football club, including selecting a team of players, a manager, a stadium, and a training ground. They also design the team’s club badge and football kits. They also need to use their skills of literacy to read and understand key evidence, and skills of numeracy to ensure that they keep their expenses within budget! What is more, groups can compete against one another to create the most successful team in the league, as all of the resources that they choose can help them to acquire valuable league table points! Included in this resource pack are: Full PowerPoint lesson talking students through the process; An 8 page team booklet, used to create their designs and calculate their budgets; A pack of 96 player cards and 12 manager cards to select from; Budget and recording sheets to track their progress; An A3 football pitch to strategise and select their team. Considering the time and effort that it took to create these resources, I think that they offer exceptional value. Whenever I have used this activity before, it has taken at least 3-4 lessons, including the introduction, design process, presentations, and evaluation. I originally have used this with mixed ability groups across upper KS2 and KS3, but colleagues have adapted it easily for students of all ages from KS2 upwards.

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising William Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar.’ It contains comprehensive sections on: Context; Scene by Scene Summary (with quotes); Main Characters; Themes; Dramatic Devices; Features of Tragedy. Key words and ideas are underlined for easy reference. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).

This engaging and informative lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of Act 1 Scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Through the comprehensive slideshow, learners are guided on the following learning journey: -Understanding the context of the social structure of the Roman Empire; -Reading and comprehending Act 1 Scene 1, and answering a range of comprehension questions to check their understanding; -Participating in discussions about the language and dramatic devices utilised by Shakespeare throughout the scene; -Answering an essay-style question about the Act, using the provided essay template; -Sequencing and summarising the main events of the act. The lesson includes a colourful and detailed PowerPoint presentation, and the well-structured essay template - provided in both Word (to allow editing) and PDF (to protect formatting) versions. All images in this resource are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the lesson presentation.

This engaging and informative lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of Act 1 Scene 2 of William Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar.’ Through the comprehensive slideshow, learners are guided on the following learning journey: -Understanding the context of the Feast of Lupercal; -Reading and comprehending Act 1 Scene 2, and answering a range of comprehension questions to check their understanding; -Participating in discussions about how Shakespeare uses language devices to introduce the characters Brutus and Cassius; -Using a template to demonstrate how the differences between Cassius’ and Brutus’ characters are presented throughout the scene; -Completing a storyboarding activity in order to sequence the main events of the scene. -Demonstrating their understanding of the scene through a recall quiz. The lesson includes a colourful and detailed PowerPoint presentation, a worksheet for the development activity, and a storyboarding template - provided in both Word (to allow editing) and PDF (to protect formatting) versions. All images in this resource are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the lesson presentation.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of William Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar.’ Teachers have found them particularly useful in exam revision, comprehension tasks, or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of students towards meeting the KS4 expectations within the National Curriculum framework - this makes the tasks suitable for all examining bodies. Students have found these resources extremely engaging, and for teachers there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the play ensuring that students gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: ‘Context: Shakespearean Times’ - to aid students with ‘Drawing on knowledge of the purpose, audience and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs, to inform evaluation;’ ‘Shakespeare’s Description’ - to aid students with ‘Analysing a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features, and evaluating their effectiveness and impact;’ ‘Brutus’ and ‘Cassius’ character profiles- to aid students with ‘Seeking evidence in the text to support a point of view, including justifying inferences with evidence;’ ‘Editing the Play’ - to aid students with ‘Making an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these.’ Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is around 30 pages in length!) I’ve also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on a separate document (included).

This engaging and informative lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of Act 3 Scene 2 of William Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar.’ This is the scene in which Mark Antony gives his speech against the conspirators responsible for Caesar’s assassination. Through the comprehensive slideshow, learners are guided on the following learning journey: -Researching and understanding the historical context of Mark Antony’s life; -Reading and comprehending Act 3 Scene 2, and answering a range of comprehension questions to check their understanding; -Participating in discussions about how persuasive devices are used to convince the people of Rome to turn against the conspirators; -Identifying and analysing the persuasive devices used by Shakespeare for effect, including rhetorical questions, repetition, lists of three, etc. -Demonstrating their understanding of the scene through a recall quiz. The lesson includes a colourful and detailed PowerPoint presentation, a research template for introductory task, and a copy of the necessary extract from the play - all provided in both Word (to allow editing) and PDF (to protect formatting) versions. All images in this resource are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the lesson presentation.

This engaging and detailed lesson enables students to gain a deep understanding of the Greek Myth ‘Theseus and The Minotaur.’ In doing so, students learn to interpret and infer the key meanings in a myth, analyse the descriptive language in a myth, and use descriptive language to describe their own ancient Greek monster. The lesson follows a clear, logical, bite-size learning journey, which guides students towards differentiated learning objectives. Over the course of this journey, they become able to: - Define the key terms ‘adjective’ and ‘synonym’ and use these appropriately and imaginatively to describe an image of the Minotaur; - Read the story ‘Theseus and The Minotaur’ and interpret the key meanings; - Identify, understand, and analyse the descriptive language in ‘Theseus and The Minotaur;’ - Apply their understanding of descriptive techniques by creating and describing their own mythical beast, using a model example, a success criteria, and a scaffold; - Peer assess each other’s descriptive attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - Paper copies and online links to the extract needed for the lesson; - Understanding Descriptive Language worksheet; - Creating a Beast Template, and model example; - A detailed lesson plan, complete with what the teacher and students should aim to achieve at each stage of the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint.

This engaging and informative lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of Act 5 Scene 5 (the final scene) of William Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar.’ The lesson focuses upon the role of Brutus as the ‘tragic hero’ of the play. Through the comprehensive slideshow, learners are guided on the following learning journey: -Identifying and understanding the features of tragedies (aided by a card sorting activity); -Reading and comprehending Act 5 Scene 5, and answering a range of comprehension questions to check their understanding; -Participating in discussions about how the death of Brutus compares to the earlier death of Cassisus; -Identifying and analysing how Brutus meets the role of the tragic hero throughout the play; -Using a template, with embedded structure strip, to answer an essay-style question about the role of Brutus as a tragic hero; -Demonstrating their understanding of the scene through a recall quiz. The lesson includes a colourful and detailed PowerPoint presentation, a research template for introductory task, and a copy of the necessary extract from the play - all provided in both Word (to allow editing) and PDF (to protect formatting) versions. All images in this resource are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the lesson presentation.

This engaging and informative lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of Act 4 Scene 3 of William Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar.’ This is the scene in which the ghost of Julius Caesar appears to Brutus. Through the comprehensive slideshow, learners are guided on the following learning journey: -Understanding the sequencing the main events of the text so far; -Reading and comprehending Act 4 Scene 3, and answering a range of comprehension questions to check their understanding; -Participating in discussions about how Shakespeare uses language devices to further develop the characters of Brutus and Cassius; -Working collaboratively to interpret and analyse a number of key quotations from the scene; -Using an template with embedded structure strip to consider Shakespeare’s intentions and the audience reactions in this scene. -Demonstrating their understanding of the scene through a recall quiz. The lesson includes a colourful and detailed PowerPoint presentation, an essay template for main task, a copy of the necessary extract from the play, and copies of the important quotations for the development activity - all provided in both Word (to allow editing) and PDF (to protect formatting) versions. All images in this resource are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the lesson presentation.

This engaging and informative lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of Act 3 Scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar.’ This is the ‘Ides of March’ scene in which Julius Caesar is assassinated. Through the comprehensive slideshow, learners are guided on the following learning journey: -Understanding the context of Caesar’s assassination; -Reading and comprehending Act 3 Scene 1, and answering a range of comprehension questions to check their understanding; -Participating in discussions about how Shakespeare uses language devices to develop the character of Marc Antony; -Identifying and analysing the dramatic devices used by Shakespeare for effect, including dramatic irony, stage directions and soliloquies. -Using an essay template with embedded structure strip to analyse the effectiveness of Shaespeare’s dramatic devices throughout Act 3 Scene 1. -Demonstrating their understanding of the scene through a recall quiz. The lesson includes a colourful and detailed PowerPoint presentation, an essay template for main task, and a copy of the necessary extract from the play - all provided in both Word (to allow editing) and PDF (to protect formatting) versions. All images in this resource are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the lesson presentation.

This interesting and highly-stimulating lesson enables students to gain a clear understanding of key information regarding the historical and cultural context of Ancient Greece. They also learn to logically organise the key information that they gather, and make clear links between Greek myths and their newly-gained understanding of context. This lesson enables them to construct a solid foundation of contextual understanding for future deeper learning of Greek myths. The lesson follows a clear, logical, bite-size learning journey, which guides students towards differentiated learning objectives. Over the course of this journey, they become able to: - Read and interpret key information regarding Ancient Greek gods, geography, culture, and landmarks; - Share their understanding through engagement in a jigsaw model task; -Order key events in Ancient Greek History through the creation of a dated timeline; - Link their understanding of historical and cultural context to an independently-researched Greek Myth; -Peer assess each other’s learning attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - Key information sheets on Ancient Greek gods, geography, culture, and landmarks; - Ancient Greece Timeline Events Cards (and answer sheet for teachers); - A detailed lesson plan, complete with what the teacher and students should aim to achieve at each stage of the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint. Note: The final two tasks work best with access to ICT/internet resources.

This interesting and highly-stimulating lesson enables students to gain a clear understanding of the key meanings in the Greek Myth ‘Echo and Narcissus.’ Through engagement with the story, students learn to interpret and infer the key meanings in the text, understand its predominant morals, and back up their ideas with textual evidence. The lesson follows a clear, logical, bite-size learning journey, which guides students towards differentiated learning objectives. Over the course of this journey, they become able to: - Define the key term ‘moral’ and identify the morals in popular tales; - Read the story ‘Echo and Narcissus’ and interpret the key meanings; - Identify, explain, and analyse the moral of the story in ‘Echo and Narcissus’; - Engage deeply with the text by inferring the thoughts and feelings of the key characters; - Test their understanding of the story by answering an exam-style comprehension question. -Peer assess each other’s learning attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - Paper copies and online links to the text; - Resources for ‘In Your Shoes’ Task; - Bloom’s Taxonomy worksheet; - A logically scaffolded essay template; - A detailed lesson plan, complete with what the teacher and students should aim to achieve at each stage of the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint.

This engaging and detailed lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of the lead protagonist in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Victor Frankenstein. The lesson places a particular focus upon how Victor fits the role of a tragic hero, and it studies the actions and behaviours that lead to his inevitable demise. Students also analyse how Shelley uses the character of Victor to present key messages about religion, unchecked ambition, and the treatment of the ‘others’ in society. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: - Defining the role of the tragic hero and exploring how Victor personifies these features; - Understanding prevailing attitudes towards religion, ambition, and appearances, and investigating how Victor would have been received considering these ideas; - Reading and understanding extracts in which Victor’s fatal flaws are evident, and considering how they are relevant; - Analysing how Shelley utilises Victor and his demise to present key messages to readers; - Linking knowledge of time, place, and author, and relating these to specific areas of the text; - Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and substantial; (including an animated Frankenstein’s monster to guide them through the lesson); - Mood map - to track Victor’s role in the plot and eventual destruction; - ‘Frankenstein’s Actions’ worksheet; - Analysis template with success criteria for creating well-structured responses; - Comprehensive lesson plan. There are also opportunities for group learning, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. This was originally taught to middle-ability year 10 groups, but can easily be differentiated for groups of different ages and abilities.

This whole class reading session aims to develop children’s comprehension skills through a reading of the opening extract of ‘Frankenstein’ (originally written by Mary Shelley, adapted by Gill Tavner). The resource pack includes the extract and all of the activities for the session, which the class are guided through via a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation. The reading is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop children’s retrieval, explanation, inference, prediction and summarising skills. It also contains a vocabulary check immediately after the extract is read to clarify any unfamiliar/ difficult language. The tasks are comprised of quick-check questions, solo thinking, pair/ group discussions and deeper thinking activities. The session is best suited for children in years 5-8, although with minor adaptations it could feasibly be used with slightly younger and older year groups. The session is suitable for home/ remote learning. The resources are suitable for home/ remote learning.

This engaging and thought-provoking double-lesson resource aids students in developing a secure understanding of the chapter 2 of Anne Holm’s ‘I Am David.’ In this section of the text, David begins to enjoy living on the edge of an Italian town, only to be served a stark reminder of his continuing vulnerability. The comprehensive and colourful PowerPoint presentation enables students to understand the text through: -Retrieving information; -Inferring and deducing hidden meanings; -Linking the story to its context. The sessions include a range of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, explanation and deeper thinking activities. A clear, colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation guides students through the learning. The lesson also includes an answer key for the retrieval questions, and model answer ideas for the more detailed responses. There’s a lot here (17 slides filled with questions and activities) so I would recommend breaking into two lessons. The lessons are suitable for students in either upper KS2 or lower KS3, depending upon the individual context of the school and students. I originally used them with year 6 children.

This engaging and thought-provoking double-lesson resource aids students in developing a secure understanding of the chapter 1 of Anne Holm’s ‘I Am David.’ In this section of the text, David escapes the camp, makes a vast journey by foot, van and boat, and then observes the beauty of the world for the first time. The comprehensive and colourful PowerPoint presentation enables students to understand the text through: -Making predictions; -Retrieving information; -Inferring and deducing hidden meanings. The sessions include a range of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, explanation and deeper thinking activities. A clear, colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation guides students through the learning. The lesson also includes an answer key for the retrieval questions, and model answer ideas for the more detailed responses. There’s a lot here (17 slides filled with questions and activities) so I would recommend breaking into two lessons. The lessons are suitable for students in either upper KS2 or lower KS3, depending upon the individual context of the school and students. I originally used them with year 6 children.

This lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of plot and characterisation in Mary Shelley’s gothic horror novel ‘Frankenstein,’ through critical engagement with the monster’s justification for murder. The lesson places a particular focus upon the hardship and suffering experienced by the monster, in addition to the discrimination and loneliness that he experiences. The lesson concludes with students completing a highly-informed argumentative piece, detailing whether they feel the monster was justified or not. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: - Recalling and understanding who, when, and why the monster kills individuals throughout the text; - Reading and understanding key extracts from the text, which include third-person narration from the monster discussing his actions; - Comprehending the key elements of plot development and character, through interpreting and inferring the key meanings in extracts; - Listing opposite sides of an argument in regarding the monster’s justification, in order to build a stronger case; - Using the features of writing to argue in order to contend whether the monster was justified in his actions or not; - Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and substantial; (including an animated Frankenstein’s monster to guide them through the lesson); - Comprehension worksheet (and a teacher answer sheet); - Extracts from Chapters 16 and 24; - Card-sorting resources for the introduction task; - Writing to Argue Help-sheet; - Analysis template with success criteria for creating well-structured responses; - Comprehensive lesson plan. There are also opportunities for group learning, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. This was originally taught to middle-ability year 9/10 groups, but can easily be differentiated for groups of different ages and abilities. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This engaging and detailed lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of the social and historical context of Mary Shelley’s gothic horror novel: Frankenstein. The lesson places a particular focus upon the developments in health, science, and technology at the time the text was written and set, the locations visited by the author, and the life of Mary Shelley. By the end of the lesson, students demonstrate their ability to link their understanding of context to specific sections of the text. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: - Considering how life has changed between the end of the 18th Century and the present day; - Researching key information about health, scientific understanding, and major events in the late 1700s; - Understanding the features of locations in the novel, and interpreting what they may symbolise; - Developing their understanding of the author: Mary Shelley, and considering the key events in her life that influenced her writing of Frankenstein; - Linking knowledge of time, place, and author, and relating these to specific areas of the text; - Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and substantial; (including an animated Frankenstein’s monster to guide them through the lesson, and links to helpful websites); - Comparison between 1700s and the present day worksheet (and a teacher answer sheet); - Card sorting activity based on locations in the novel; - Mary Shelley worksheet (and a teacher answer sheet); - Analysis template with success criteria for creating well-structured responses; - Comprehensive lesson plan. There are also opportunities for group learning, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. This was originally taught to middle-ability year 9/10 groups, but can easily be differentiated for groups of different ages and abilities. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation. NOTE: One of the tasks requires access to researching materials, e.g. internet or library access.

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising John Keats’ poem 'Bright Star.’ It contains comprehensive sections on: Context; Line-by-Line Analysis; Poetic Devices/ Language Devices; Themes; Form/Structure; Poems for Comparison; Links to Wider Reading. Key words and ideas are underlined for easy reference. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).