This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use in guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the Year 1 expectations within the new National Curriculum framework. Children love learning from these resources, whilst they are also of great use to teachers, as there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. The tasks are also generic enough to ensure that they can be used with all texts. Activities within the booklet include: - Word Treasure - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'explain the meaning of words that they know, and try to talk about the meaning of new words;' - Book Inspectors - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Make some comments about some of the things/ features that you notice in stories;' - Someone Else's Shoes - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Say how a character may feel in a story based on what they have said or done;' - Recipe for a Great Story - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Make some comments about some of the things/ features that you notice in stories;' Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is around 20 pages in length.) All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on a separate document (included.)

I have recently taught a descriptive writing unit, and devised this assessment to gauge how students descriptive skills have progressed over the term. It includes the question paper, the mark scheme, and the reading insert. Formal enough to ensure that the students took the assessment seriously, but engaging enough to ensure that all students wanted to complete all of the tasks, (they hate some of the practice exam questions that exam boards provide on the past papers) all of my students seemed to enjoy completing this more than they normally enjoy assessments! The assessment is designed to gauge students' skill in: - Defining and giving examples of descriptive devices; - Identifying descriptive devices in texts; - Analysing the effect of descriptive writing in a vivid description of a 'Nightmare World.' - Creating their own descriptive piece about a their own nightmare world. This lesson can either be bought individually, or as part of the Descriptive Writing Big Bundle (which works out cheaper.)

These handy helpsheets have been employed by teachers across the curriculum to aid students completing extended writing tasks for a particular purpose. There are helpsheets for: - Informing - Describing - Analysing - Arguing - Explaining - Evaluating - Persuading - Instructing Each helpsheet defines the aim of the writing purpose, details the key writing features to be used, offers sentence starters, and gives a short example of the writing purpose, alongside other hints and tips. These helpsheets have also been blown up to A3 or A2 size to become engaging and interactive literacy across the curriculum posters.

This is an exciting and engaging lesson/set of tasks aiming to build students' skills at using varied verbs and adverbs 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 verbs and adverbs are; - Identify verbs and adverbs on funny posters and captions; - Analyse what makes verbs and adverbs effective; - Create their own verb and adverb filled writing piece; It comes complete with: - Engaging and visual PowerPoint to guide students (and teacher!) through the lesson; - Colourful and thought-provoking worksheet for the main analysis task; - Lesson plan/ teacher guidance sheet, which goes through the lesson step-by-step; - Resources to enable the teacher to make 'flags' 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 engaging and informative lesson enhances students’ skills in understanding the significant meanings in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and in particular the influence of the deceitful and mysterious weird sisters. Students gain an understanding of some of the attitudes towards witches in Shakespeare’s times, and attempt to link this knowledge to the events of the text. They also engage with Shakespeare’s intentions in utilising dramatic elements to reveal the witches use of the supernatural and deceit. The lesson follows a clear and logical learning journey, involving progressively more challenging tasks in which students: - Portray their understanding of witches and witchcraft; - Learn more about witches in a historical context through a fun ‘true or false’ game; - Define, identify, and understand dramatic irony; - Read sections of Macbeth and complete tasks to demonstrate their understanding; - Answer key questions about the witches that test their knowledge in relation to each of the English assessment outcomes; - Evaluate a modelled example of an analytical paragraph in relation to the witches; - Analyse the witches’ characteristics in their own responses; - Evaluate each others’ analytical responses. All images are cited on the final slide of the presentation, and are licensed for commercial use.

This is a great resource for lesson starters, building literacy across the curriculum, plenaries, or simply for fun. Based upon the popular mobile app, this visually engaging activity is highly effective at promoting engagement and getting students thinking about words - many of whom seem to love playing the game on their phones! It is particularly useful for Literacy practitioners who are looking to expand students' vocabularies and/or raise the subject of homonyms. There are a range of challenges: Green = Beginner level Amber= Intermediate level Red = Expert level The document is easily editable, so you can also add in your own pictures and challenges. Also, all of the pictures used are licensed for commercial use, and all authors are cited.

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 vocabulary, following a logical learning journey to ensure that students learn in bite-size steps: - Defining word types; - 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 resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Roald Dahl's 'George's Marvellous Medicine.' Teachers have found them particularly useful in comprehension or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the KS1 expectations within the new National Curriculum framework. Children love learning from these resources, whilst they are also of great use to teachers, as 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 story, ensuring that children gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: - 'Feed Grandma' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'talk about their favourite words and phrases in the story;' - 'Dahl's Description' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Explain meanings of words that they know and ask the meaning of new words. Link the meaning of new words to words that they already know;' - 'George's Idea' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Say what might happen next in a story based on what has happened so far;' - 'Grandma' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Enjoy reading and discussing the order of events in books and how items of information are related.' Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is around 20 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 fun and informative helps students to gain a deeper understanding of the main character in Roald Dahl’s ‘Fantastic Mr Fox:’ Mr Fox himself! Students use their skills of inference and deduction in order to establish key information about Mr Fox’s character, likes, dislikes, and mannerisms. They then create a character profile using the information that they have gathered! The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: -Considering how Roald Dahl was influenced by real-life foxes in his characterisation; - Reading and understanding extracts from the opening of Fantastic Mr Fox, in which Mr Fox's character traits are revealed; - Inferring and deducing key features about Mr Fox from across the text; - Creating a character profile for Mr Fox, utilising knowledge that they have gathered from over the course of the lesson; - Self assessing their own learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; - Text Detectives Worksheet (and answer sheet); - Selected extracts - Fantastic Mr Fox; - Character Profile Template (Word and PDF); - Comprehensive lesson plan. There are also opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with a mixed-ability year 3 class, however colleagues have used them for between years 1 and 8 with some adaptations. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the 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 'Much Ado About Nothing.' Teachers have found them particularly useful in comprehension or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the KS3 expectations within the new National Curriculum framework. Children 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 story, ensuring that children gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: - 'Context: Life in Shakespeare's Times' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Know the purpose, audience and context of the writing and drawing on this knowledge to support comprehension.' - 'Shakespeare's Description' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Know how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, present meaning.' - 'Hero' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Study setting, plot, and characterisation, and the effects of these.' - 'Vocabulary Inspector' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Learn new vocabulary, relating it explicitly to known vocabulary and understanding it with the help of context and dictionaries.' Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is 22 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 is an exciting and engaging lesson/set of tasks aiming to build students’ skills at using similes and metaphors 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 similes and metaphors are; - Identify similes and metaphors on funny posters and captions; - Analyse what makes similes and metaphors effective; - Create their own simile and metaphor filled writing piece; - Peer assess and learn through fun interactive tasks. It comes complete with: - Engaging and visual PowerPoint to guide students (and teacher!) through the lesson; - Colourful and thought-provoking worksheet for the main analysis task; - Lesson plan/ teacher guidance sheet, which goes through the lesson step-by-step; - Resources to enable the teacher to make ‘flags’ for the introductory 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.