Now with PDF version included! 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 5 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 are also generic enough to ensure that they are appropriate for use with all texts. Activities and games within the booklet include: - Word Tennis - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Discuss their understanding of new words, and explore the meaning of words in context' - Understanding Literary Heritage Fiction - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Read myths, legends, traditional stories, modern fiction, fiction from our literary heritage, and books from other cultures and traditions." - Conventions Bingo - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Identify and discuss themes and conventions in writing.' - Figurative Language - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Discuss and evaluate how authors use language, including figurative language, to create an impact on the reader.' Plus 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.)

This engaging and detailed resource pack has been designed to make the understanding and use of apostrophes and inverted commas (heaviy emphasised in the new curriculum) easily accessible, engaging and interesting for all children. These resources enable students to develop their skill in using two of the more difficult to master punctuation marks: apostrophes and inverted commas. Students learn through clarifying what the punctuation marks represent, understanding how they add meaning to sentences, and evaluating their use in the writing of others. 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 what apostrophes and inverted commas are; - Learn rules for when they should be used, and how to use them in more complex grammatical situations; - Identify apostrophes and inverted commas being used correctly and incorrectly in writing; - Analyse and evaluate what it is that makes the use of apostrophes and inverted commas more logical and effective in some situations than others; - Write an advice leaflet for other students about how to use these punctuation forms, modelling correct use themselves; -Peer/self-assess learning attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - One clear and interesting worksheet about apostrophes, with answer-sheet; - One clear and interesting worksheet about inverted commas, with answer-sheet; - A template for students to use for the main leaflet 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.

This engaging and stimulating lesson enables students to create travel writing texts containing appropriate and imaginative language choices, utilising a range of different language techniques with subtlety in order to craft vivid and thought-provoking writing. In particular, students learn how the subtle use of varied verbs, adverbs, and adjectives, in addition to descriptive devices such as similes, metaphors, and personification, can help to create truly authentic and descriptive travel writing pieces. 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 verbs, adverbs, and adjectives, and understand the effects of varying these basic sentence building blocks; - Employ appropriate and imaginative verbs, adverbs, and adjectives to describe a range of travel images; - Understand and analyse how more advanced descriptive devices (similes, metaphors, personification, alliteration, and assonance) influence the effect of writing; - Analyse a model travel writing attempt in relation to language features, before creating their own; - Self/Peer assess travel writing attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - An interesting and ambitious travel writing extract (with a highlighted version for teachers): -A logical and challenging worksheet, encouraging students to identify and analyse; - 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 stimulating and varied resources, strategies, and ideas have been designed to aid educators in equipping young people with vital critical thinking skills through the learning of English. In a rapidly changing and ever-more competitive world, it is of the utmost importance that children leave school with the learning skills and mindsets needed to take on wide-ranging challenges and obstacles. Learning to think critically can enable them to become rational, reflective, and resourceful learners, who are able to comprehend information beyond the 'surface' or 'initial' level. These skills of tackling misconceptions and given truths, and critically analysing and evaluating what they are presented with, can also be of vital importance in developing a deep understanding of English concepts. Grounded in education research, the initial section of this pack contains a number of resources that will be of use to CPD leaders, including links to clear explanatory videos and theory. The second section of the resource pack contains strategies, ideas, and resources for teachers looking to build English skills in critical thinking through the key areas of comprehension, SPAG, and vocabulary. All images and videos are licensed for commercial use, and where necessary are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint presentation.

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.

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 engaging, comprehensive lesson provides an interesting and highly-informative study of Percy Bysshe Shelley's power and conflict poem: 'Ozymandias.' Throughout the lesson, students gain a detailed understanding of the poem, with a particular focus upon the content, language, and structural features employed by Shelley. 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 key concept of power, and considering its role and implications in man's actions; - Securing contextual understanding of both Ozymandias the ruler, and Percy Bysshe Shelley 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; - Analysing how the theme of power is explored through Shelley's content, language, and structure; - 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; - Content, language and structure mind map; - Deeper thinking 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 interesting and engaging double lesson enables students to define what homophones are, use a range of homophones correctly, and to be able to explain why homophones have been used correctly or incorrectly. This knowledge is of particular importance when working through the new National Curriculum. Throughout this lesson, students learn through a range of stimulating and interactive challenges and games, which logically guide them towards the learning objectives. Examples of these are homophones pictionary, crosswords, and the creation of homophones advice posters. Over the course of this lesson, they learn by: - Defining and identifying homophones; - Finding spelling patterns in a variety of homophones; - Advising others on how to remember to spell tricky homophones correctly; - Collaborating on a range of group activities; - Self-evaluating through frequent AfL tasks, in order to observe their progress through the lesson. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - Word cards for the Pictionary game; - Worksheet with homophones questions; - Challenging homophones crossword; - Two varied AfL question sheets, for gauging progress through the lesson; - 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 stimulating and thought-provoking lesson enables students to create travel writing texts containing varied and imaginative structures, utilising strategies at both sentence level and whole-text level in order to add creativity and depth to their extended travel writing attempts. In particular, students learn how the subtle variation of sentence and paragraph order, in addition to a range of appropriate connectives, can help to create truly authentic and descriptive travel writing pieces. 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 the words that make up sentences; - Knowingly alter the structure and order of sentences, for effect; - Apply this knowledge to travel writing contexts; - Analyse model examples of travel paragraph/ whole text structures in travel writing; - Write their own travel writing pieces, with varied and imaginative structures; - Self/Peer assess travel writing attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - An logical, piece-by-piece writing plan, that enables students to build interesting whole-text and sentence level structures; - 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 detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising knowledge of The Hundred Years’ War. It contains comprehensive sections on: -Overview and Maps; -Key People: Edward III, Henry V, Henry VI, Philip VI, Charles V, Joan of Arc; -Major Events: The Edwardian War; -Major Events: The Caroline War; -Major Events: The Lancastrian War; -The Hundred Years’ War Timeline. 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). It can be used by students of all ages, but is best suited for those in KS3.

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 interesting and highly-stimulating lesson students to demonstrate a developed, sustained understanding of the structural features of the Greek Tragedy which are utilised in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge. In particular, students engage analytically with Eddie’s ‘hamartia’ and catastrophic downfall at the end of Act II. Students examine how Eddie’s role as a tragic hero, his fatal flaw, and the sense of fate which runs throughout, mirrors the features of Greek Tragedies. 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 the features of Greek Tragedies; - Understand Miller's views towards Greek Tragedies, and his intentions for writing the play in this form; - Identify the features of Greek Tragedy in A View from the Bridge; - Critically engage with text as a Greek Tragedy, considering how Eddie's downfall is constructed by his fatal flaws, hamartia, and catastrophe; -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 extract needed for the lesson (end section of Act Two); - Greek Myths Definitions Cards; - Greek Myths worksheet (including answer sheet for teachers); - 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, 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.

This interesting and highly-stimulating enables students to make clear and sustained inferences regarding the main characters and their relationships in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge. In particular, students read between the lines in decoding the subtle cues suggestive of Eddie’s feelings towards Catherine in the opening stages of Act I. 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: - Understand the key learning skill of inference; -Infer key meanings from short extracts of texts; - Read and understand the opening section of Act I, in which we are introduced to the Carbone family, and infer and interpret the key information provided regarding their relationships; - Demonstrate an understanding of Eddie's hidden feelings for Catherine, and Beatrice's knowledge of this; - Write an emotive diary entry from Beatrice's viewpoint, using evidence from the text to demonstrate an understanding the key meanings from the act; -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 extract needed for the lesson (Beginning of Act I); - Inferences worksheet (including 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.

This interesting and highly-stimulating lesson enables students to demonstrate a developed, sustained understanding of the dramatic devices utilised in the ‘lifting of the chair’ scene in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge. In particular, students engage analytically with Miller’s use of atmosphere, dramatic tension, dramatic irony, and stage directions throughout the scene. 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: - Understand the key term 'masculinity' and how it affects the behaviour of different characters; - Read and understand the chair-lifting scene at the end of Act One, making key interpretations and inferences; - Define and understand the dramatic devices: dramatic devices, dramatic irony, atmosphere, and stage directions. - Critically engage with Miller's use of dramatic devices at the end of the Act One, including the events leading up to the chair lifting section. -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 extract needed for the lesson (end section of Act One); - Dramatic Devices Cards; - Dramatic Devices worksheet (including answer sheet for teachers); - 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 lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of Ted Hughes’s message and imagery in the war poem ‘Bayonet Charge.’ By the end of the lesson, students demonstrate their knowledge of the text analytically, through assured, appropriate, and sustained interpretations of content, language, and structure. Students learn through a logical and step-by-step learning journey, including: -Understanding the context of the poem and defining the key terminology 'bayonet', 'over the top', 'trenches', and 'no-man's land'; -Understanding key information about the poet Ted Hughes; -Reading and interpreting the poem; -Interpreting the poem, with a particular emphasis upon how Hughes creates visual and auditory imagery; -Finding and analysing the language features used throughout the poem, and considering how these link to the poet's message; -Writing an extended analysis piece based upon how Hughes creates imagery in order to capture the soldier's horrifying final moments; -Peer assessing each other's learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and substantial; - Copy of poem; - Interpretation worksheet (plus an answer sheet for teachers/CAs); - Analysis task template and 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 fun and original assembly aims to assist children in celebrating the differences between themselves and others, through: -Understanding how diversity is needed in the world; -Recognising and valuing the differences in their own school; -Considering how kind words can help us to unite together. I love leading this assembly, because I feel that the key message within it is so vital, especially in the present climate. More importantly, wherever I have presented this (to a wide-range of students from a wide-range of contexts) it has always gone down extremely well, with students being extremely engaged and informing me of the different ways in which they have celebrated differences in the months that follow! The slides are visually engaging and well-presented, and the subject matter is tailored to the interests and needs of young people. For example, there are references to Prince Harry, Emma Watson, and others in popular culture, to help engage the children in the idea that each individual has their own strengths, weaknesses, like and dislikes, no matter who they are or how successful they appear. There is also an exciting ‘toothpaste challenge’ included, which demonstrates the importance of ensuring that our words to others are kind and respectful. The challenge includes a hyperlink to a countdown clock. In addition to this, all other resources that you will need are provided in the pack. The slides are fairly self-explanatory, but I’ve included guidance notes to assist the speaker. Hope that you find this useful!

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of J.B. Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls.' 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: Pre-War Britain' - 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;' - 'Priestley's Description' - to aid students with 'Analysing a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features, and evaluating their effectiveness and impact;' - 'The Inspector' - 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 resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.' 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: 19th Century England' - 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;' - 'Stevenson's Description' - to aid students with 'Analysing a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features, and evaluating their effectiveness and impact;' - 'Mr Hyde' - to aid students with 'Seeking evidence in the text to support a point of view, including justifying inferences with evidence;' - 'Editing the Novel' - 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).

These informative and engaging resources enable students to build the skills needed to interpret and analyse the langauge used in poems. These resources also give students a strong foundation knowledge, including the SMSC implications, of the events of 9/11 - an important historical day that should never be forgotten. Students learn through the following tasks: - Collecting and discussing knowledge of the events of the day through an interactive starter task; - Reading the poem 'Out of the Blue' and identifying the descriptive devices throughout the poem; - Discussing a model analytical paragraph about the language used in the poem, in order to form their own success criteria; - Using a template to form their own analytical paragraphs about the language used in the poem; - Using peer or self-assessment in order to establish their success at analysing language. The following resources are provided: - Engaging and colourful step-by-step PowerPoint - Poem - Teacher lesson guidance; - Identifying worksheet; - Analysis template; - Writing to analyse help-sheet - Analysis model All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint.