This stimulating and informative lesson aims to improve students’ ability to adapt the style of their writing to suit their audience and purpose. In particular, they attempt to meet the purpose of writing diary entries. Students follow a clear and logical learning journey, in which they: -Define diaries and their key content features; -Read extracts of diaries, and explain which content features different writers employ; -Work collaboratively to ascertain the language and structure features of diary entries; -Create a success criteria for effective diary writing (although a ready-made success criteria is included) -Write a diary entry for a famous character from their favourite movie, using the techniques that they have learnt; -Peer/self-assess their diary writing attempts. There are enough resources here really for two lessons, including: -Visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint; -Diary extracts x 4 (Adian Mole, Anne Frank, etc.) -What's in a Diary Entry worksheet; -Success Criteria; -Step-by-step lesson plan. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final page of the slide.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Susan Hill's 'The Woman in Black.' 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: The Rural North' - 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.' - 'Hill's Description - The Horse and Trap' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Know how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, present meaning.' - 'Mr Jerome' and 'The Woman in Black' - 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 21 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 detailed and engaging lesson enables students to gain an understanding of simple, compound and complex sentences, and to use a variation of sentence types in their own writing for clarity and effect. Students learn through a number of fun and interactive tasks, which enable them to: - Define and exemplify simple, compound, and complex sentences; - Identify them in writing; - Understand and analyse how different types of sentences can be used for clarity and effect; - Create a written piece using a variety of sentence structures for clarity and effect; - Evaluate their use of different sentence structures. The resources include: -Visually engaging and comprehensive whole-lesson presentation; -Resources for the card-sorting activity; -A model example and analysis worksheet; -A success criteria; -Step-by-step lesson plan. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final page of the slide.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Mark Haddon’s ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.’ 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: Asperger’s Syndrome’ - 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.’ - ‘Haddon’s Description - The Police Station’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Know how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, present meaning.’ - ‘Ed Boone’ - 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 21 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 informative, engaging CPD session is intended to offer a valuable introduction to phonics for teachers and support staff. It aims to enable participants to: -To understand what phonics are and understand why they are widely used; -To grasp key phonics terminology and apply it in different contexts; -To break down the key phonics stages, comprehending how skills develop. The session is aimed at those who are new to phonics. I myself moved from secondary to primary, and can understand how daunting phonics schemes can appear! These resources, whilst detailed, present ideas in a simple way, helping to make key ideas understandable. Included is: A 27-slide colourful, clear PowerPoint presentation, including post-CPD quiz; Resources for an optional card-sorting activity, to learn appropriate phonics terminology; A comprehensive phonics helpsheet, detailing most of the main points from the session. I hope that you find these resources helpful. Many thanks!

These resources offer an original and efficient way to approaching the spelling expectations of the 2014 National Curriculum. They contain over 30 slides of spelling rules, 5-minute stand-alone activities, and application tasks to apply spelling patterns to more extended writing opportunities. This year 2 pack provides comprehensive and varied tasks for approaching spelling rules, such as: - The /s/ sound spelt with a c before e, i ,and y; - The /dʒ/ sound at the end of words; - The /n/ sound at the beginning of words, sometimes spelt kn and gn; - The /r/ sound at the beginning of words, sometimes spelt wr; - The /l/ or /əl/ sound at the end of words, spelt le, el, or al; - The plural of nouns ending /y/, replaced with ies; - Common homophones; - Suffixes; - Apostrophes for possession and omission; - The year 2 common exception words. All images used are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the presentation.

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.

This engaging and interesting lesson aims to improve students’ knowledge of the main themes (Dreams and Loneliness) in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. It also aims to build their skills in retrieving information from texts, understanding the writer’s ideas and opinions, and making precise and confident interpretations about texts. The lesson uses a range of tasks, that require students to use their visual and interactive skills. It follows this learning journey: - Understanding what dreams and loneliness are, and how we each experience them; - Defining themes and understanding how writers use them; - Understanding how and why themes are used in other famous texts; - Retrieving evidence from the text to demonstrate where the characters experience dreams and loneliness; - Analysing how the themes are used to help get across John Steinbeck’s ideas about 1930s America; - Evaluating each others’ analytical attempts. The resource includes a comprehensive and visually engaging PowerPoint presentation, a worksheet for recording the retrieved quotations, a helpful template for the main task, and a lesson plan/ teacher guidance sheet. All images in this resource are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the lesson presentation. You can choose to buy this resource alone, or as part of the ‘Of Mice and Men - All Lessons and Scheme’ bundle, which contains seven full lessons, resources, teachers notes, and PowerPoint presentations, plus a Pointless Of Mice and Men game, for just £5!

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Robert Swindells' 'Stone Cold.' 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 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: Homelessness in London' - 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.' - 'Swindell'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.' - 'Ginger' - 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 21 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 detailed and engaging lesson enables students to define and exemplify parenthesis, to understand how parenthesis is used grammatically correctly, and to use parenthesis for clarity and effect in their own writing. Students learn through a number of fun and interactive tasks, which enable them to: - Define and exemplify parenthesis; - Understand which punctuation marks are used to signal parenthesis; - Identify the parenthesis in a range of different sentences; - Understand and analyse how parenthesis can be used accurately, and for clarity and effect; - Create a written piece using parenthesis to add detail and clarity to their own writing. The resources include: -Visually engaging and comprehensive whole-lesson presentation; -A model example and analysis worksheet; -A challenging worksheet (and answer sheet) -Step-by-step lesson plan. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final page of the slide.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Roald Dahl's 'The Twits.' 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 Mr. Twit' - 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;' - 'The Mugglewumps' - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Say what might happen next in a story based on what has happened so far;' - 'Mr. and Mrs. Twit' - 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 engaging and informative lesson helps students to understand the key events of the sub-plot in Louis Sachar’s ‘Holes’ - the story of Kissin’ Kate Barlow and Sam. Students demonstrate their comprehension of the key events in Kate and Sam’s life, before forming their own opinion on Kissin’ Kate’s justification for becoming an outlaw. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: - Reading and understanding the selected extracts to comprehend the key events of the sub-plot; - Storyboarding the key events (using the template provided) to demonstrate their understanding of key quotes and ideas; - Using textual evidence to show a deeper understanding of the sub-plot, considering the writer’s ideas and the historical context; - Forming their own viewpoint about Kissin’ Kate’s actions through a writing to argue piece; - Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts; Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; - Storyboard Template; - Selected extracts - Chapters 23, 25, and 26; - Analysis of the Sub-Plot worksheet (and student answer sheet); - 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 year 7 and 8 classes, however colleagues have used them for between years 4 and 9 with minimal adaptations. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This engaging and informative lesson enables students to show a detailed and sustained understanding of the conventions of effective ghost stories, through analysis of extracts from Susan Hill’s ‘The Woman in Black.’ They study how individual features of subject matter (such as the setting and the hero) and language (e.g descriptive features) are used to create suspense and tension in the mind of the reader. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: - Defining the key elements of ghost stories; - Planning a ghost story using the key features; - Identifying the elements of ghost stories within key extracts of The Woman in Black; - Analysing the effectiveness of Hill’s features of ghost stories in The Woman in Black; - Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; - Extracts from the blurb and Chapter 1 of The Woman in Black; - Template for creating their own ghost stories; - 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. 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 Roald Dahl’s ‘Fantastic Mr Fox.’ (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 the Foxes’ - 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;’ - ‘Bean’s Plan’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Say what might happen next in a story based on what has happened so far;’ - ‘Mr Fox’ - 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).