Visual Literacy - analysing graphs - bellringer activities Note: created for South African students in the IEB curriculum. A number of colleagues have requested exercises, tips for teaching vis. lit. My students are not great at analysing graphs / interpreting statistics. I have created the attached 12 ‘bellringer activities - graph of the week’, for use at the beginning / end of a lesson for the coming term. You can project the image on your screen, and discuss answers with your classes. Or, you can print in colour on an A3 page, giving one page to each group in the class.

A selection of 30 cartoons / memes for analysis. This can be used as a bellringer activity, at the beginning (or end) of a lesson. Students are required to peruse the image (on the screen) and then to analyse it in as much detail as possible. Each slide is accompanied by detailed model answers. Recommended usage: one slide (ie cartoon / meme) per week, as part of a programme of daily bellringer activities.

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 revision guide for students reading the novel ‘Zoo City’ by Lauren Beukes. 48 slides that simplify the content. Useful when preparing for assessments.

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.

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 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.

An extended writing task for Grade 12 English Home language students in the South African IEB curriculum. They are instructed to write a fantasy fiction narrative essay, using the prescribed guidelines in the task sheet. The task sheet can be printed as is by teachers, and handed to students. The assessment complies with the learner portfolio requirements, as laid out in the SAGs document.

This worksheet gives students an opportunity to examine graphs and reflect on the information contained in the visuals. It was created for South African senior students within the IEB English Home Language curriculum, but could be used as an exercise by anyone interested in the interpretation of data. The graphs show the official voter registration figures for the 2021 local government elections in South Africa. It can be used as a revision lesson, a sub lesson or as part of an introduction to the analysis of graphs.

Lists of high frequency words for senior high school students to study for a quiz every few weeks.

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

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 pdf document with links to video lessons for the entire novel. This was created for South African students in Grade 12 in the IEB curriculum.

A pdf document with links to video lessons for the entire novel. This was created for South African students in Grade 10 in the IEB curriculum.

This is a virtual library, where pupils can look through book titles and watch video recommendations by clicking on the covers. This was made for my students in the South African IEB curriculum, who have to read an additional seven novels for the independent reading requirements.

This detailed pack is a complete unit on how to write humorously. It is suitable as a portfolio piece for the South African IEB Grade 12 English HL curriculum.

Students select one novel (the choices are ‘Internment’, ‘The Hate U Give’ and ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’) and complete various assignments as they work through the materials - on their own. The assignments are generic. This is a suitable task for the South African IEB English HL requirement, that student must have read 7 novels of their own choice by the middle of their Grade 12 year.

An internally set English HL Paper 1, for Grade 10 (IEB). Written in June 2019 This IEB formatted, English HL Grade 11 exam paper is intended to be used with the the video lesson, available on the ‘Mrs M teaches English’ YouTube channel. Link to the video lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm5eaADASso A word of caution: this paper is freely available and your students will have access to it. It should be used for revision purposes only, NOT for formal mark collection and NOT as an SBA portfolio piece.

An internally set English HL Paper 1, for Grade 11 (IEB). Written in June 2019 This IEB formatted, English HL Grade 11 exam paper is intended to be used with the the video lesson, available on the ‘Mrs M teaches English’ YouTube channel. Link to the video lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDH50WwUq3U A word of caution: this paper is freely available and your students will have access to it. It should be used for revision purposes only, NOT for formal mark collection and NOT as an SBA portfolio piece.

An internally set English HL Paper 1, for Grade 12 (IEB). Written in June 2019 This IEB formatted, English HL Grade 12 exam paper is intended to be used with the the video lesson, available on the ‘Mrs M teaches English’ YouTube channel. Link to the video lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=She6_exm4iM A word of caution: this paper is freely available and your students will have access to it. It should be used for revision purposes only, NOT for formal mark collection and NOT as an SBA portfolio piece.