This IGCSE resource explores the complexities of this poem through engaging and fun activities that are fully differentiated through relevant activities using emojiis, images, discussion, SMSC strategies and a set of differentiated worksheets, for which answers are included, to challenge students to fully understand the nuts and bolts of this poem. Once knowledge has been gained, this lesson culminates in a fun, yet supported Marketplace activity whereby all studies will be expected to demonstrate understanding and have the opportunity to fill any gaps before being asked to respond to an exam style written activity. This lesson is as useful for the IGCSE as it is for anyone teaching Unseen Poetry as the activities are translateable to any poem. If you like this resource please don’t forget to follow me: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/The_English_Tutor

This lesson includes a number of engaging activities to draw students into this subtly complex poem. I have designed this lesson primarily for use when teaching the Cambridge IGCSE specifications (0475 and (0992) (2020-2021 syllabuses) although this would equally make an excellent study of an Unseen Poem at GCSE or the study of Other Cultures Poetry for a KS3 curriculum. One of the activities in this resource requires ‘sweets’: some sweet and some sour…these are not included in this resource, but make for an exciting and memorable lesson that helps students see the ‘effect’ of the poets methods in a highly kinaesthetic way. If you like this, do check out my shop at https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/joannammarsh where you will find other Poetry resources that range across a number of exam boards. Do let me know what you think of this resource through the feedback system!

This resource covers all of the poems and includes a wide range of questions to help refresh and round off learning, it has been designed to increase engagement with language, structure, form and the context of these poems. My own groups have found this resource immensely helpful in the final preparations for the exam this week. This is a perfect resource for very last minute revision, that odd lesson in which you’re not sure where the gaps might be, lunchtime catch ups, after school support, tutors, teachers, supply or parents wanting to help their students/children respectively.

Teaching students through creative and engaging methods is at the forefront of my teaching approach. As a GCSE text this secondary teaching resource is a fun way of refreshing knowledge and revising quotations whilst promoting longer term recall. In keeping with the popular Escape Room format, this resource tests and revises student’s knowledge and incorporates use of basic maths and linguistic methods. This GCSE resource asks questions based on the first two chapters of this text and primarily focuses on knowledge of Silas himself before considering themes and contextual issues. This would work really well as both a mid course revision task or a ‘return to school’ hook to tempt any reluctant returners to refocus and engage. This is a wholly inclusive activity that encourages team work and celebrates successes The resources provided include the link to the Escape Room, a powerpoint version of the quiz and an answer guide for the teacher, this combination means that this would work with students who have individual/team laptops and those that rely on the teacher’s laptop for input of answers. This is a sure winner in the classroom. If you like this resource and would like further resouces like this on other texts I also take commissions for bespoke topics (contact details are outlined in the resource).

This resource draws on a range of teaching methods to nurture a love of literature in your students. This resource is all you need to teach Chapter 1 of this GCSE literature text. This resource covers a study of the characters and themes, through creative writing, non fiction reading, discussion, homework tasks, and a quiz and utilises discretely differentiated outcomes and targets that are in turn used to assess your students’ knowledge. As a teacher, I wholly believe in learning by ‘doing’ and this lesson promotes that style of teaching, it is perfect for newly qualified teachers (who need a guide into teaching a novel) and for experienced teachers looking to save a little time on planning for that new text that’s now on your timetable. This resource is equally useful for students wanting to learn at home, with parents who are not so familiar with the text, activities easily translate to home study tasks or intervention activities. If you like this please do follow me so that you can keep up to date with more new resources that are currently being created.

This resource introduces students to a range of language and structural devices required in their Edexcel IGCSE examination, however, this resource is also suited for any teachers looking for an extract on which to practise these skills. Learning is scaffolded through analysis of short phrases and sections from the whole extract to enable students to feel secure in their GCSE level analysis. This resource includes a powerpoint and a homework task so that learning can go beyond the classroom. The tasks are designed so that students gain confidence before attempting individual tasks and the lesson includes talk time and time when students can annotate the text on the whiteboard if you have this facility. My students find these resources hugely helpful in accessing higher grades and have historically done very well in their final exams, approaching them with confidence and a wide range of understanding in regard to methods used. Students are continually prompted to update their records and recall methods to help embed this information in their long term memory. The full extract is not included, however, if you should need this please do ask and I can email the full anthology to you, it is also available on the Edexcel website. I hope you enjoy this as much as my students have and do.

These resources are fully differntiated depending on the GCSE group you are teaching, it includes separate powerpoints and supporting resources for each and a lesson plan, should you use this for an observation. These lessons teach students how to access the GCSE anthology poems in a slightly different way and use an acronmyn to support Unseen Poetry analysis too. Across the resources there are two GCSE questions in line with the curriculum. This could be used for any specification for Unseen Poetry analysis, use of visual images and a quiz, group work and alphabetised poetry is used to engage students.

This bespoke resource on Blake’s The Tyger is designed for use with the Edexcel IGCSE curriculum but is equally useful in teaching Unseen Poetry skills required across all of the IGCSE and GCSE English specifications. These resources are designed for a low/middle ability group and as such are highly supported and differentiated. Challenge/extension tasks are included here and every step of the process is checked for understanding, reinforced and modelled to ensure all students make maximum progress. Tasks include individual work, paired work, whole group work and peer ‘teaching’ (at a low level, but is designed to encourage students to become independent learners). My students enjoyed the variety of tasks included here and I could really see progress in terms of being prepared to ‘try’ out plausible answers based on this poem. I hope your students take as much from this resource as mine did! If you like this resource then you might also like these: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/igcse-poetry-not-waving-but-drowning-by-stevie-smith-cie-syllabus-0475-or-unseen-poetry-12168763 https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/la-belle-dame-sans-merci-by-john-keats-11546112 Do check out my shop to see the full range of resources on all things English! https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/The_English_Tutor

This lesson builds on the first resource in this series (on H is for Hawk) and challenges students to work a little more independently in identifying methods used by the author in the text through a worksheet activity. This would make an ideal resource for homework or for a flipped learning activity. Students have the opportunity to engage with the demands of this IGCSE curriculum individually or in pairs whilst completing this task before then moving on to a powerpoint presentation that methodically takes students through the Ideas and Perspectives question. The lesson concludes with another independent task whereby students apply their learning on an unseen text, replicating the IGCSE exam structure. My students progressed rapidly as a result of this step by step approach and were more secure on the later extracts we studied. I hope your students enjoy these activities as much as mine did. This resource includes a past paper and the mark scheme for ease of use.