I absolutely love teaching English to teenagers! My resources will always be free as I feel a responsibility to give back to the profession which has been the source of so much joy in my life. Too many teachers operate on shoestring budgets and have to pay for resources themselves. I hope that in some small way I can make lesson preparation easier for you!
I absolutely love teaching English to teenagers! My resources will always be free as I feel a responsibility to give back to the profession which has been the source of so much joy in my life. Too many teachers operate on shoestring budgets and have to pay for resources themselves. I hope that in some small way I can make lesson preparation easier for you!
A slide presentation of numerous words to be used in a Middle School Spelling Bee. Each slide gives the word, its etymology, its meaning and a sentence in which it is used. Also included are fun slides for 'spot&' questions for the audience. The words should be screened behind the participants - to allow for audience insight & enjoyment.
A literature assignment, in which each student selects one contemporary novel for individual study. Assessments provided for reading aloud, book review, character analysis etc.
A list of 30 novels is provided, along with brief summaries of their content.
Suitable for Middle School.
A fun task in which Middle School students are guided to create their own 'blackout poems' - by deleting words on a page of a discarded novel. Two links to videos are given: one for creating a paper poem; the other for creating one on a tablet / iPad.
A pack of notes and guidelines for students to write a Dystopian narrative essay. It is particularly suited for South African students in the F.E.T. phase, who study the IEB curriculum. It was designed for use during the national Coronavirus lockdown, but will work as a ‘normal’ class assignment.
Recommendation: Stacey Lloyd, a TPT seller, has a superb pack on various writing tasks. This essay topic was inspired by her amazing work.
A collection of QR codes, linking students and teachers to videos and online lessons on all the poems in the South African IEB (Independent Examination Board) English Home Language poetry curriculum for 2021 and 2022.
The poems (as titled in the anthology ‘Clusters’) are:
Love’s Farewell (Sonnet 61) - Michael Drayton
To Althea, from Prison - Richard Lovelace
To the Night - Percy Bysshe Shelley
Ulysses - Alfred, Lord Tennyson
My Last Duchess - Robert Browning
Refugee Blues - WH Auden
The Cry of South Africa - Olive Schreiner
Penguin on the Beach - Ruth Miller
Touch - Hugh Lewin
Portrait of a Loaf of Bread - Mbuyiseni Oswald Mtshali
Lost or Found World - Mongane Wally Serote
I Have My Father’s Voice - Chris van Wyk
The Tenant - Na Ngulube
Nightsong City - Dennis Brutus
Assassination - Don L. Lee
Dulce et Decorum Est - Wilfred Owen
No longer mourn for me when I am dead - William Shakespeare
The wind begun to rock the grass - Emily Dickinson
nobody loses all the time - ee cummings
A list of 30 contentious topics - suitable for Middle School students. Students select a number and are given one minute to prepare their speech in which they have to persuade the class that their point of view is the correct one. This could lead to other activities: debating, persuasive writing etc.
Students select a film to study and analyse. They are required to write guided notes on the chosen film, analyse a key scene, design a ‘one pager’ that illustrates their understanding of the film and write a formal movie review.
An essay task for Grade 12 students in the South African English Home Language IEB curriculum.
Students work through a number of talking points / starter activities and then write their own ‘Hero’s Journey’ story.
This is suitable for the ‘Extended Writing’ section of the SBA (school-based assessment) portfolio.
A different method for novel study.
Each student (or pair of students) receives an A5 envelope with instructions pasted on the outside. Inside the envelope are 4 x A5 index cards, on which the students record all information, according to the instructions. At the end of the novel study, the students share their knowledge. This can be done in groups or as a presentation. This approach allows the students to focus on specific themes / characters etc as they work through the novel. There are instructions for 26 envelopes.
I have included the A4 pages on which the procedure / explanation is typed for each student. This will lead to a summative assessment - a literary essay on the topic given on the envelope.
Credit: the idea for this task came from Letitia Hughes of Kentucky, USA.
A guided essay task, in which students select an event that happened on the day and month of their birth. They research the event and then turn an aspect of it into historical fiction.
A revision guide for students reading the novel ‘Zoo City’ by Lauren Beukes. 48 slides that simplify the content. Useful when preparing for assessments.
A fun way to introduce themes / topics from Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest” by means of a “cross-the-floor” debate. Students decide whether they are ‘for’ or ‘against’ each statement. They then have to convince their peers on the other side of the room to “cross the floor” and agree with their argument.
[Many thanks to colleague, Ruth Stewart, for developing this idea.]
A structured approach to writing a persuasive essay - on any topic that the student holds dear. The task is set for the South African IEB curriculum, but is suited to anyone teaching writing at a Grade 10, 11 or 12 level.
A revision task, in which groups / pairs of students link poems / poets by means of pre-printed hexagons. The students have to explain the links and connections that they have made.
An oral activity in which pupils discuss the relevance of Holocaust literature and film study. Although the topics are for South African teens, they can be easily adapted. 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' and 'Schindler's List' are referenced.
