This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Arthur Miller’s ‘A View from the Bridge.’ 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 new 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 story, ensuring that students gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: - ‘Context: 1950s America’ - 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;’ - ‘Miller’s Description’ - to aid students with ‘Analysing a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features, and evaluating their effectiveness and impact;’ - ‘Eddie’ - 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 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 interesting and engaging lesson enables students to build their understanding of Inspector Goole, one of the chief protagonists in ‘An Inspector Calls.’ In particular, students understand the Inspector’s main characteristics and quotations. They also contemplate whether they feel the Inspector presents the voice and key messages of Priestley himself. 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: - Recall and understand the key features of The Inspector's character profile; - Link The Inspector to Priestley's key messages and the context of the play; - Piece together the Eva Smith case from the viewpoint of The Inspector; - Read and understand the final section of the play; - Analyse the character further in response to key quotations; - Argue the extent to which the Inspector presents the views of Priestley himself; - Peer/self-assess learning attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - A clear and interesting worksheet on interpreting The Inspector's character; - Extract from Act 3 of the play for students to read and interpret; - Inspector's notepad to piece together the Eva Smith case; - A scaffolded template for students to complete the main analysis task; - 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.

The year is 2086, and the students are needed for a special mission! This space mission has been designed to provide students with a fun and interesting group challenge, whilst also building key skills in critical thinking and collaboration, and essential knowledge for Science, English, and Mathematics. Students are placed in a scenario in which Earth is no longer habitable, and humans must seek to move to another planet in the Universe. Compiled for them is information on each of the potentially most habitable planets that are known to man (these are the real planets that have been confirmed by NASA and other agencies as having the most potential for life). In reading the key information, students will be drawing upon their knowledge of Science terminology, and will need to make some Maths calculations to work out implications of living on different planets. What will become clear fairly quickly is that none of the potential planets are perfect, and they must use reasoned judgements to determine which of them have cons that could perhaps be overcome. They then present their ideas, using clear and articulate speaking and listening skills, and write up their report, using appropriate written communication (a scaffold is provided to frame this). Everything is provided for you to download, print, and teach: - A comprehensive, whole-activity PowerPoint that guides the students through the mission; - Detailed and colourful information sheets on each of the contender planets for being the next Earth (these include links to amazing websites that can provide the children with more information); - A ‘Pros and Cons’ scaffold, to help students record their findings; - An information sheet on the ‘habitable zone’ around stars; - A scaffold for writing up findings; - Sorting cards for help with determining the key features of habitable planets; - Full teacher guidance. 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 2-3 lessons, including the introduction, starter challenge, main mission, presentations, and write-up. I originally have used this with mid-ability Year 6,7, and 8 groups, but colleagues have easily adapted it for students across key stages 2-4. All images have been cited at the end of the PowerPoint presentation and are licensed for commercial use.

These comprehensive checklists have been created to aid school leaders when performing learning walks with a particular focus e.g. questioning, differentiation, etc. Clearly structured and organised, they present a central idea surrounded by a breakdown of a number of its key components. For the user, this layout provides a simple reference list of each of the desirable skills, categorised appropriately. The checklists also provide an alternative to regular feedback methods, which often focus too heavily on the standard or ‘judgement’, as opposed to being a developmental tool. Alternatively, these are really handy for teachers looking to develop their practice in the key teaching areas listed below. Included in the pack are checklists for: -Questioning -Differentiation -Utilising Resources (including support staff) -Engagement -Building Literacy Skills -Planning and Expectations -Building Learning Power -A blank template for you to design your own based upon your own focus Note: The checklists are provided as both PDFs (for formatting stability) and Word (so that you can edit them easily) - the Word versions are in the zipfile. Many Thanks

This engaging, comprehensive lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of Carol Ann Duffy’s contemporary war poem ‘War Photographer’ with particular focus upon the language and structure used within the poem to depict the photographer’s experiences. By the end of the lesson, students demonstrate their knowledge of the text analytically, through assured, appropriate, and sustained interpretations. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: - Defining the role of the war photographer, and understanding difficulties in their job; - Securing contextual understanding of Carol Ann Duffy - the poet; - Reading and interpreting the poem, using a provided line-by-line analysis, and interactive group activities; - Developing their understanding through inferring and analysing key language and structural choices; - Understanding how the war photographer's life varies between war-torn locations and 'Rural England;' - Analysing how language and structure are used to portray the photographer' experiences; - Peer assessing each other's learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and substantial; (including hyperlinks to informative and engaging videos) - Copy of poem; - Deeper thinking worksheet (including a scaffolded version, 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.

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 questions. 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 learning of Writing to Argue: 1. Identifying Arguing/ Persuasive Devices 2. Defining Arguing Devices 3. Identifying and Unscrambling Text Types and Jobs that use Structured Arguments 4. Naming Opposing Connectives (to help structure arguments.) The nature of the game ensures that this resource can challenge students of all levels.

This interesting and engaging double lesson enables students to build their understanding of Sybil and Eric Birling, two of the main characters in ‘An Inspector Calls.’ In particular, students learn about how both characters contribute to the downfall of Eva Smith, and note the variation in their sense of responsibility. This is linked to Priestley’s overall message regarding community and responsibility in Edwardian Britain. 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: - Recall and understand the key features of Sybil and Eric's character profiles; - Link Sybil and Eric to the historical context of the play; - Read and understand the sections of the play in which Sybil and Eric are interviewed by the inspector; - Analyse each of the characters in response to key questions; - Compare the two characters, in terms of: their attitudes to the working classes; their attitudes towards the inspector, and their sense of responsibility for Eva Smith's death; -Peer/self-assess learning attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - A clear and interesting worksheet on interpreting Mrs. Birling's character (with answer sheet); - Extracts from Act 2 and Act 3 of the play for students to read and interpret; - A scaffolded template for students to complete the comparison task; - 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.

These comprehensive checklists have been created to aid school leaders when performing learning walks with a particular focus e.g. questioning, differentiation, etc. Clearly structured and organised, they present a central idea surrounded by a breakdown of a number of its key components. For the user, this layout provides a simple reference list of each of the desirable skills, categorised appropriately. The checklists also provide an alternative to regular feedback methods, which often focus too heavily on the standard or ‘judgement’, as opposed to being a developmental tool. Alternatively, these are really handy for teachers looking to develop their practice in the key teaching areas listed below. Included in the pack are checklists for: -Questioning -Differentiation -Utilising Resources (including support staff) -Engagement -Building Literacy Skills -Planning and Expectations -Building Learning Power -A blank template for you to design your own based upon your own focus Note: The checklists offer a range of desirable strategies that teachers should look to implement over time - it would be damaging to expect teachers to utilise each of these strategies in every lesson! Many Thanks

This lesson enables students to build their knowledge of the content, language, and structure of William Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 116.’ In particular, students learn how metaphor, the sonnet structure, rhyme, and iambic pentameter help the poet to get across his message about love. Students learn through a logical and step-by-step learning journey, including: -Exploring the key concept of 'love' and its many meanings; -Understanding key information about William Shakespeare and his sonnets; -Reading and interpreting the poem; -Understanding the poem, with a particular emphasis upon the content, language, and structural features; -Writing an extended analysis piece based upon how Shakespeare gets across his messages about love in the poem, through the use of language and structure; -Peer assessing each other's learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and substantial; (including hyperlink to a reading of the poem) - Copy of poem; - Structural devices worksheet - Analysis template with in-built 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.

These well-designed, easy to use teacher quality trackers allow teaching and learning leaders to monitor the quality of teaching across their departments/ schools over time, focusing on the triangulated performance indicators of: Lesson Observations/Learning Walks, Book/Folder Monitoring, and Pupil Progress. Users can easily view changes in individual, department, key stage, and whole school teaching and learning quality over time. The tool is automatically formatted to colour code entries from the codes 1 (Outstanding = Green) to 4 (Inadequate = Red) Each entry also updates the ‘average school performance’ table, which in turn alters the line graph showing quality over time. This enables leaders to easily identify trends in performance data. Furthermore, there is also space in which users can give details of CPD sessions and interventions, in order to a provide a foundation to evaluate their impact. Individual pages are provided for observations, book monitoring, and pupil progress. ‘3 captures per year’ and ‘6 captures per year’ versions are provided, to allow for schools that measure quality at variable intervals.

This informative and engaging lesson aims to improve students’ knowledge and understanding of the character of Lennie in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. It also aims to improve their analytical skills, so that they can demonstrate sustained and sophisticated interpretations of the character. This pack includes the full lesson presentation, with animations and key information, a worksheet with clear and concise instructions, an example analysis extract, and full teacher guidance. The learning journey is clear and progressive, following a pathway of progressively more difficult tasks, including: - An engaging memory game task to recognise and remember items and ideas that are related to the character of Lennie; - A worksheet that enables students to demonstrate understanding of key quotations about Lennie, and to link Lennie to key themes and ideas. - Close reading of a modelled example analysis paragraph; - Joint creation of an analysis success criteria; - An opportunity to answer an exam style question based upon the character of Lennie; - A chance to peer assess against the success criteria. Students should have read, (or during this lesson read) up to the section in which George and Lennie meet their new boss, in order to fully access the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the 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 engaging and informative lesson students to make sustained and developed links between Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and its social and historical context. In particular, students learn about the harsh treatment of the poor in Victorian society, the selfishness and cruelty of those in power, and attitudes towards sin, religion, and the supernatural. The lesson explores how Dickens explores these ideas through the allegorical nature of the text. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: - Understanding key information about Charles Dickens, his life, and influences; - Researching and sharing key contextual understanding about the rich, poor, healthcare, and religion in the 19th Century; - Reading Stave 1 of ‘A Christmas Carol’ and identifying evidence of contextual influences; - Analysing how Dickens presents his views about the cruelty of 19th Century life through the opening of the text; - Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; - Extract - Chapter 1 of A Christmas Carol; - Template for researching 19th Century life (and completed answer sheet for teachers); - 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 mixed 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.

These informative and engaging resources enable students to build the skills needed to interpret and analyse 19th Century non-fiction texts. This will aid students through the new Paper 2 Section A of GCSE English Language - for which they need to become confident readers of 19th, 20th, and 21st Century non-fiction texts. These resources give students a strong foundation of knowledge of features of non-fiction texts in the 19th Century, using newspaper stories from the time based on 'Jack the Ripper' as the predominant examples. There are easily enough resources for at least two lessons within this resource pack. Students learn through the following tasks: - Inferring and deducing contextual knowledge through an interactive starter task; - Understanding the features of London in 1888 through a video introduction; - Building close reading skills through a study of a non-fiction extract about Jack the Ripper; - Answering exam-style questions interpreting and inferring the key meanings in the text; - Using models and templates to write extended analysis responses about the language used in the non-fiction extract; - Peer assessing their partners' learning attempts. The following resources are provided: - Engaging and colourful step-by-step PowerPoint; - Jack the Ripper newspaper extract; - Teacher lesson guidance; - Interpretation worksheet; - Analysis worksheet; - Writing to analyse. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint.

This interesting and highly stimulating lesson enables students to demonstrate a developed and sustained understanding of the effect of figurative language in popular music texts. In particular, students learn to explore the meanings behind similes and metaphors across songs from a range of genres, considering the effect upon the whole text and the intended audience. As one would expect, Students love learning about similes and metaphors through popular music, and this lesson can really help to open students’ eyes to how language can be crafted for effect. This has numerous benefits in later poetry and descriptive writing lessons. 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 and identify similes and metaphors; - Explain the similarities and differences between songs and poetry; - Observe and listen to several examples of similes and metaphors in popular music examples; - Understand and analyse the effect of similes and metaphors upon meanings and the reader; - Apply their knowledge of why similes and metaphors are used to a range of contexts and musical genres; - Collaborate and present their key findings about similes and metaphors in songs to their classmates; - Self-assess their learning attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - Link to an online compilation video of similes and metaphors in popular music; - 3 x lyrics analysis worksheets of varying difficulties (Katy Perry, Train, and Florence and the Machine - all clean) - 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 lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of the descriptive language used to depict the monster in Chapter 5 of Mary Shelley’s horror novel ‘Frankenstein.’ The lesson places a particular focus upon the descriptive language devices employed by Shelley, in order to create a clear image of the monster’s appearance in the reader’s mind, and also to describe Victor’s strong reaction to his creation. By the end of the lesson, students demonstrate an ability to make sustained and original interpretations of the language used by the author. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: - Considering how their preconceptions about the monster have been influenced by modern media and representations; - Read and understand a key extract from the beginning of chapter 5 - the point at which the monster comes to life; - Infer and interpret the key developments of the extract, including Frankenstein’s changing feelings and the monster’s ambiguous actions; - Identifying and analysing some of the key descriptive devices used by Shelley to create an image of the monster; - Analysing the effect of the descriptive devices upon the reader; - 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); - Descriptive devices worksheet (and a teacher answer sheet); - Extract from the beginning of Chapter 5; - Inferring and Interpreting 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 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 interesting lesson aims to improve students’ knowledge of the final events of the novel (the killing of Lennie by his best friend, George) 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 interpersonal skills. It follows this learning journey: - Reading, and interpreting the ending of the text; - Inferring the hidden meanings in the final section of the text; - Identifying the options available to George, and evaluating the pros and cons for each of them; - Arguing a viewpoint either justifying or condemning George’s actions; - Evaluating each others’ argumentative attempts. The resource includes a comprehensive and visually engaging PowerPoint presentation, a worksheet to evaluate George’s reasoning, an abstract from the text, a help-sheet for writing to analyse, 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 engaging, in-depth lesson enables students to understand how plot and language are utilised to develop the characters of Beatrice and Benedick in William Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado about Nothing.’ The lesson places a particular focus upon how language is used between the two characters to present the audience with ideas about their intelligence, attitudes, and emotions. Students also analyse how their behaviour develops over the course of the text. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which students learn through: - Taking part in a fun team quiz to secure understanding of the two characters; - Completing a 'love graph' (backed up with textual evidence) to show how the prevailing attitudes and emotions of the two characters develops through the text; - Analysing quotations in which Shakespeare used advanced language techniques to portray both of the characters in a particular light; - Completing an essay style response in which they consider how Shakespeare's use of language helps to develop the two characters; - Peer assessing each other's learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and detailed - just download and teach from it! - Love Graph - to track the two characters' feelings towards one another; - 'Beatrice and Benedick Quotations' 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 higher-ability year 9 and 10 groups, but can easily be differentiated for groups of different ages and abilities.