This engaging and interesting lesson enables students to make clear and developed interpretations regarding Willy Russell’s use of dramatic devices throughout Blood Brothers. In particular, students define eight advanced dramatic techniques used by writers, identify these in selected extracts from the play, and analyse their effectiveness. They then apply their new understanding to their own dramatic scene. The lesson utilises a range of tasks, that require students to be both independent and collaborative learners. It follows this learning journey: Defining and exemplifying each of the dramatic devices; Reading and comprehending extracts from the play, identifying and analysing Russell’s use of dramatic devices throughout; Understanding the writer’s intentions and the anticipated audience reactions through some of the dramatic devices; Creating revision cards demonstrating full understanding of the dramatic devices: definitions, examples, effects; Applying their understanding of dramatic devices to their own imaginative and emotional playscript scenes; Self-evaluating their learning in the lesson. Included in this resource pack are: A well-presented, thorough, and informative, whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; Appropriate extracts from the play; Dramatic devices cards for the card-sorting activity; Templates for creating the revision cards; A comprehensive teacher guidance form/lesson plan to assist delivery. Resources are provided in both Word (for easy editing)and PDF (to prevent formatting issues between computers). All images in this resource are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the lesson presentation.

These colourful, comprehensive, and well-structured revision cards have been creatively designed for students securing their understanding of George Orwell’s allegorical novella ‘Animal Farm.’ Each card is visually-appealing and highly-detailed, covering aspects of each feature including a full summary, cited quotations from the play, definitions/ examples, and a consideration of audience reactions. They are tried and tested, with teachers incorporating them in revision games, using them as essay writing aids, or utilising them as home revision aids. They are provided as both PDFs (to prevent formatting issues between computers) and as Word documents (for easy editing). The revision cards included in this pack are: Characters - Napoleon, Snowball, Squealer, Mollie, Moses, Benjamin, Boxer, The Dogs and Old Major; Context - George Orwell, The Russian Revolution, Joseph Stalin; Events - Old Major’s Speech, The Battle of the Cowshed, The Ending; Themes - The Corruption of Socialist Ideals, Naivety, Fate and Religion. For any questions or comments, please contact TandLGuru@yahoo.co.uk - Many thanks!

This engaging and interesting lesson enables students to make clear and developed interpretations of the characters of Mickey and Edward in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers. In particular, students infer and interpret key information about the characters from their introductions into the play, before tracking how their characters develop through close analysis of their key actions and quotations. The lesson utilises a range of tasks, that require students to be both independent and collaborative learners. It follows this learning journey: Considering the idea of money ‘buying happiness’ and applying this concept to characters in the play; Engaging with the opening to the play and interpreting how Mickey and Edward are presented; Tracking how the characters are developed throughout the play, through engagement with their key actions and quotations; Creating character profiles which demonstrate their understanding of Mickey and Edward’s introduction and development throughout the play; Self-evaluating their learning in the lesson. Included in this resource pack are: A well-presented, thorough, and informative, whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; Appropriate extracts from the play; A template morale graph to enable students to track the development of characters; Character profile templates to help scaffold the main task, complete with quotes from the text; A comprehensive teacher guidance form/lesson plan to assist delivery. Resources are provided in both Word (for easy editing)and PDF (to prevent formatting issues between computers). All images in this resource are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the lesson presentation.

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ It contains comprehensive sections on: Context; Chapter by Chapter Summary (with quotes); Main Characters; Themes; Lee’s Language Devices; Influences on the Writer. 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).

These checklists provides an academic overview of the writing curriculum content to be covered year-by-year from Year 1-6. I provided these to teachers in my own school, who marked the individual elements of the curriculum as they were covered (their aim was to ‘tick’ each element twice over an academic year). They have found it extremely useful, as it offers a useful breakdown of the curriculum statements into the individual components to be taught, which is not always as self-explanatory as one would assume! It is broken down into Composition, Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation, Spelling, and Handwriting sections. Please note that the spellings listed are indicative of the patterns to be learnt - it is not the exhaustive list. Furthermore, the composition section details our interpretation of what needs to be covered over a year, some schools vary from this. For this reason, the document is provided in Word, for easy editing. It is also provided as a PDF, to prevent formatting issues between computers. Hope that this proves helpful to you too!

This engaging and informative lesson enables students to understand the key techniques used by writers when opening narratives, and to use these features in their own story openings. In particular, students analyse the features that make the openings to famous children’s narratives effective, before utilising this understanding to compose their own imaginative story opening. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: Collectively defining the features of effective story openings; Reading the opening to several famous narrative opening examples, identifying the story opening techniques; Analysing the effectiveness of each of the authors’ story opening techniques; Creating their own engaging story openings, utilising story opening techniques effectively and imaginatively throughout; Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts. Included is: Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; The opening chapters of Mr Stink, Holes, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (freely available online); Stupendous Story Openings analysis template; Teacher answer sheet; -Comprehensive lesson plan. All resources are provided in Word (for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure formatting remains fixed between different computers). There are also opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 7/8 classes, however colleagues have used them for between years 4 and 9 with some adaptations. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This resource is perfect for enabling students to build both their persuasive writing and their speaking and listening skills. Based upon the popular BBC series 'Dragons' Den', students have the opportunity to research, design, pitch, and evaluate arguments for their own inventions, whilst simultaneously analysing persuasive pitches, revising persuasive techniques, structuring arguments and articulating convincingly. Included is a 16 page booklet (I would say at least 4-5 hour lessons of tasks) that lead students to: - Introduce themselves and their interests; - Watch persuasive pitches (links included) and identify persuasive devices; - Analyse why persuasive devices are effective; - Structure an analysis appropriately; - Brainstorm ideas for an invention using imagination and helpful aiding questions; - Formulate an argument by considering key questions and counter arguments; - Write and present a persuasive pitch; - Peer-evaluate and self-evaluate persuasive pitches. I have also provided some examples of news stories featuring the worst and best pitches from the den, in order to provoke discussion about what makes a strong pitch. All images are licensed for commercial use and are cited throughout.

These informative and engaging resources enable students to build the skills needed to interpret and analyse 19th Century fiction texts. This will aid students through the new Paper 1 Section A of GCSE English Language - for which they need to become confident readers of 19th, 20th, and 21st Century texts. These resources give students a strong foundation of knowledge of features of fiction texts in the 19th Century, using Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as the predominant example. There are easily enough resources for at least two lessons within this resource pack. Students learn through the following tasks: - Gauging and collaborating previous knowledge through an interactive starter task; - Identifying the descriptive devices in sentences written about 19th Century characters; - Building close reading skills through a study of a fiction extract from Frankenstein - Answering exam-style questions interpreting and inferring the key meanings in the text; - Using models and templates to write extended analysis responses about the descriptive language used in the fiction extract; - Peer assessing their partners' learning attempts. The following resources are provided: - Engaging and colourful step-by-step PowerPoint - Frankenstein extract - Teacher lesson guidance; - Interpretation worksheet; - Analysis worksheet; - Writing to analyse help-sheet All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint.

This colourful writing mat categorises, defines, and exemplifies the different types of determiners. I found it really useful when teaching determiners to both KS1 and KS2 children. Hope that you also find useful! Note: This mat works well with the 'Delightful Determiners' lesson, available at just 2 pounds.

Welcome to Jargon Hunt! This engaging and exciting activity is perfect for building students' literacy skills; helping them to understand key vocabulary through cryptic rhyming riddles and teamwork. Once the game is introduced and the rules are shared (on the presentation) students are given a riddle card and an answer card. The only catch is that their answer card does not match their riddle! Through reading their riddle to others, and allowing others to read their riddles to them, students learn the English vocabulary as prescribed for teaching at KS2 in the new National Curriculum. Provided in this pack are: - 30+ slide presentation, hosted by David Dictionary-son, who walks students through the game in a step-by-step fashion. -Class-size pack of riddle cards and answer cards. They simply need to printed on card, or printed on paper and laminated. This resource is a valuable tool for helping students to comprehend the words that they will need to understand in the New Curriculum, build valuable speaking and listening skills, and also have lots of fun! This resource can be bought alone. or as a part of a Jargon Hunt KS2 bundle (English, Maths, and Science) for just £1 more!

This visually-engaging and informative resource is perfect for helping Media students to understand the key concept of Representations. Through a range of different and interesting tasks , students learn to identify and understand representations at work in the media, and become familiar with key terms such as 'stereotyping; and 'aspects of character.' The learning journey is progressive and step-by-step, allowing for bite-size chunks of progress to be evident and regular intervals. Students learn to: - Understand that everyone sees images and ideas differently; - Define the key terms 'representations' and 'stereotypes;' - Understand some common representations and stereotypes; - Analyse the reasoning and effects of different representations; - Analyse how different characters are represented in a key media text. The key media text that I have chosen for the main analysis task is the movie 'Warrior' (2011) starring Tom Hardy, but the resources can be easily adapted to suit different media texts should you choose to. All images are licensed for commercial use and are cited on the final slide of the presentation.

These handy help-sheets have been employed by Media Studies teachers and teachers of literacy across the curriculum in order to build students' vocabularies, and assist their Media Studies analysis. There are help-sheets for each of the main concepts of Media: - Representations - Audience - Media Language and Forms - Institutions Each help-sheet defines what the key concept is (and gives examples), details the key terms and ideas to consider when looking at this area, and offers key questions for students to contemplate and kick-start their analysis. There is also a short example of analysis for each key concept in order to model some of the language, in addition to a variety of other hints and tips. These help-sheets have also been blown up to A3 or A2 size to become engaging and interactive media classroom or literacy across the curriculum posters.

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising Carol Ann Duffy’s poem 'Valentine’ 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).

These creative writing structure strips are designed to help children with formulating creative writing pieces based on Theseus and the Minotaur. They are tried and tested in the classroom - they are loved by teachers and students, and have helped to enable some incredible compositions! These structure strips were initially designed for KS2 children, however (perhaps with a tweak here and there) they could be used for lower KS3 or upper KS1. Provided in both PDF (to prevent formatting issues between computers) and Word (to allow for easy editing). Each A4 page contains 4 structure strips. Hope that they prove useful for you too - Enjoy!

This checklist provides an academic overview of the writing curriculum content to be covered in Year 6. I offered this to teachers, who marked it off as they covered individual elements of the curriculum (their aim was to ‘tick’ each element twice over an academic year). They have found it extremely useful, as it offers a useful breakdown of the curriculum statements into individual components, which are not always self-explanatory. It is broken down into Composition, Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation, Spelling, and Handwriting sections. Please note that the spellings listed are indicative of the patterns to be learnt - it is not the exhaustive list. Furthermore, the composition section details our interpretation of what needs to be covered over a year, some schools vary from this. For this reason, the document is provided in Word, for easy editing. It is also provided as a PDF, to prevent formatting issues between computers. Hope that this proves helpful to you too!

This is an exciting and engaging lesson/set of tasks aiming to build students' skills at using alliteration, assonance, and sibilance in their writing . It was taught during an observation lesson where the teacher received an Outstanding judgement. Students learn to: - Define and give examples of what alliteration, assonance, and sibilance are; - Identify alliteration, assonance, and sibilance in tongue twisters;; - Analyse what makes them effective; - Create their own alliteration, assonance, and sibilance filled writing piece; - Peer assess using a clear and succinct success criteria. It comes complete with: - Engaging and visual PowerPoint to guide students (and teacher!) through the lesson; - Colourful and thought-provoking worksheet for the main create task; - Lesson plan/ teacher guidance sheet, which goes through the lesson step-by-step; - Resources to enable the teacher to make 'cards' for the development task. All pictures are licensed for commercial use, and image authors cited on the final slide. This lesson can also be bought as part of the Descriptive Devices bundle for just £5. The bundle leads students through each language device needed in order to write to describe confidently. Alternatively, you can buy the Descriptive Writing Big Bundle (All descriptive devices lessons, structuring and organising writing lesson, capturing the readers attention lesson, and the literacy writing mat) for £6

This highly engaging and informative double lesson (around 1.5 to 2 hours of teaching materials) helps students to build skills in demonstrating appropriate, sophisticated, and original structures in their writing, and provides them with theories and techniques to help them to organise their writing adequately. I wrote this lesson because I noticed that there are an extremely high volume of students that approach extended writing tasks (even in their GCSEs) with practically no sense of organisation. Even though they have clearly learnt a number of writing techniques from their teachers, their writing can be extremely short, repetitive, and in some cases the topic is confused. This lesson aims to address each of those issues. Students learn: - What structure and organisation mean; - Narrative structure theory and 'plot mountain;' - How time order can effect a creative text; - How to expand using the five key senses; - How and when to use paragraphing; - Plan for their own extended piece of writing; Included are all worksheets, and detailed and visual PowerPoint presentation, which explains each concept clearly, and a lesson plan for teacher guidance. Alternatively, you can buy the Descriptive Writing Big Bundle (All descriptive devices lessons, structuring and organising writing lesson, capturing the readers attention lesson, and the literacy writing mat) for £5. All images are licensed for commercial use, and authors are cited on the final slide.

Based on the popular game show 'Pointless', this resource is perfect for use as a starter activity, plenary, or revision tool. Editable, so that you can change to any other topic or change the questions/answers. Containing almost 30 slides of sound clips, engaging visuals, and suitably challenging questions, this resource is effective at both promoting engagement and enhancing learning. There are several full rounds of questions to build students' understanding of adjectives, including: 1. Finding synonyms of dull adjectives 2. Defining adjectives 3. Unscrambling anagrams of adjectives 4. Finding the most complex and interesting adjectives. The nature of the game ensures that this resource can challenge students of all levels. NOTE: You can buy this resource alone, or in a bundle of 8 Pointless games, for only £1 more!

Perfect for English lessons, or as part of a literacy across the curriculum scheme, the VCOP lessons aim to build students' fundamental writing skills. Engaging, differentiated, and easily adaptable, this lesson aims to improve students' skills at using varied and appropriate punctuation, following a logical learning journey to ensure that students learn in bite-size steps: - Defining punctuation marks; - Identifying varied vocabulary in humorous writing examples; - Analysing varied vocabulary in an interesting descriptive passage; - Creating their descriptive piece, using varied vocabulary; - Peer or self evaluating their varied vocabulary attempts. Resources, worksheets, and a lesson plan are provided. This resource can either be bought alone, or as part of a VCOP bundle (see resource VCOP - All lessons & scheme - vocabulary, connectives, openers, punctuation) for just £1 more.

This 16-page resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Benjamin Zephaniah’s poem ‘No Problem.’ Teachers have found them particularly useful throughout teaching, or for exam revision or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of students towards meeting the key English Literature assessment objectives - suitable for all examining bodies. Students have found these resources extremely engaging, and it is clearly highlighted within each task regarding which assessment strands the task is designed to demonstrate. Activities within the booklet include: ‘Analysing Context’ - helping students to ‘Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written.’ ‘Analysing Subject Matter, Language and Structure’ - to help students to ‘Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.’ ‘Diary Entry’ - to help students to ‘Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation. Make an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these. ‘The Speaker’ - to help students to ‘Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to: maintain a critical style and develop an informed personal response use textual references, including quotations, to support and illustrate interpretations.’ Plus many, many more activities! I’ve also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer.