This is a choice novel to study to begin to introduce the demands of the GCSE (9-1) curriculum. The narrative is highly relevant to teenagers and wider societal issues and throws up a huge range of opportunities for close analysis. In this resource activiities are courted in games/activities that are fun, supported and differentiated. There are close studies of characters, themes and links between earlier sections of the novel and this one. Consideration of language and structure is fundamental to all lines of enquiry. This resource is available individually, as part of a bundle (the latter three chapters) and as part of a whole text bundle, so do follow me and check out my shop to see these resources as they are released.

This resource covers ALL of the question types presented across ALL of the exam boards. It includes guidance on HOW to answer questions for best effect, examiner’s tips, exemplar responses and tasks. This is perfect for boosting grades in the final preparation weeks, filling gaps when other students have exams and for supply teachers, to feel that they really can make a difference in the run up to exams. This resource is thorough, detailed and engagingly presented. I would highly recommend buying the ‘school licence’ on this resource, even if you never have before, as I am confident everyone will want to use this with their groups. This resource is a real game changer for outcome grades and has been weeks in the making. If you would like to combine this with any other of the pick n mix resources in my shop please do contact me on my Twitter account @jomarsh1 and request a bespoke package. Any bundles will attract a 50% discount. Note uploaded as a word document AND a PDF as preview on the word document looks terrible…the PDF version is how it ACTUALLY looks…technology (raising eyes emoji!)

This resource takes students through a step by step study of this fascinating novel. Activities are differentiated, essay are guided with supportive notes and preparatory activities, close reading is modeled and exemplars offered to ensure that students are inspired by a high standard of work. This resource covers Part 5 of the novel and includes character studies, close reading, thematic and structural studies, hot seating, creative writing, group work, peer assessment and DIRT activities, all with a nod to SMSC. This can be purchased individually or as part of a bundle from my shop. The mark scheme used in this resource is the New Zealand one, as this was originally devised as part of a commission for a New Zealand school, although these slides could easily be edited to reflect your own mark scheme/specification.

These resources offer a complete study of the poem through encouraging both student engagement and independence in different measures. This lesson, uses Jigsaw Activities and a highly effective Challenge Task, peer assessment, discussion points and sharing learning strategies. This lesson would work well if you are teaching both the Cambridge IGCSE specification or as an Unseen Poem from KS3 on. This collection of resources includes a thorough assessment and evidence of progression proforma, as such this would make an excellent observation lesson on poetry. This lesson closes with recommendations for a homework task and a further poem for study as an Unseen Poem. As one of my most viewed resources I have decided to offer a FREE resource up to the same value with** every** purchase of this item, details of how to claim your FREE resource is included at the end of the powerpoint.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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 assembly considers 21st century problems in a humorous way before considering what Children in Need does, who it helps and challenges students to ‘Do their thing’. 50% of the proceeds from this sale will be donated to the Children in Need Charity, so please ‘Do your thing’.

This resource is designed to support pinpointed revision. When students struggle to answer one type of question, the best way to improve grades is to offer them multiple questions of the same type to aid progression. This resource offers exactly that: the first four questions are differentiated in numerous different ways, exemplar responses, clozed activities, top tips to guide responses without giving it all to the student and open questioning, whilst the remaining six questions are straightforward tasks. This resource works as well for homework tasks, as it does for starter activities or those times when some are absent (in exams) and others need some consolidation of skills. This resource works hand in hand with the resource for Question 1 too (link below), the remaining question types will be posted up soon. Happy revision! https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/gcse-9-1-english-language-revision-find-questions-12046526

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 offers a thorough exploration of this IGCSE poem by Peter Reading. The activities are highly varied and inclusive, whilst also offering plenty of challenge for the more able students. This lesson includes literacy tasks, arty tasks, independent and group tasks plus a clear guide as to how to achieve the range of grades prior to closing with an exemplar assessment task. This lesson, whilst prepared with the Cambridge International specifications (English Literature and World Literature 2022 onwards) in mind, would make a perfectly engaging lesson for KS3 students just setting out on their GCSE style poetry as it includes clear terminology, explained and applied and exemplar sentence starters as a guide as to how to ‘start an analytical response’. Please do visit my shop for more IGCSE resources on this and a range of other specifications, if you are looking for something specific message me on Twitter @jomarsh1 and I will get back to you within 24 hours.

This resource offers a creative lesson for students studying English Language on papers that require students to ‘find’ information. This lesson is centred around earning Exit Passes (lolly sticks) and a Blind Style learning Activity to ensure that the most able are able to construct mark schemes and all students work in a supported environment. This lesson offers an imaginative route into a question that can otherwise be a little dry: it also works towards ALL students achieving full marks on this question and offers a range of 10 texts on which to practise this skill, including answers to all questions.

This complete lesson is aimed at IGCSE students, but is equally suitable for use as an Unseen Poem, and encourages students to become increasingly independent in their learning. Small group tasks are set to encourage all abilities to be able to access this poem and the requirement to present their findings and set a fun task for their peers ensures that the focus is on enjoyment and ‘game play’ as much as learning. For less able groups questions are proffered to open discussion and then annotated stanzas are included either for use at face value or to top up the presentations. This lesson closes with some thought provoking questions that only make sense once the text has been studied. This is an engaging and active learning lesson that my students have always enjoyed for both its sense of freedom to find answers and support in finding out if they were in the right ball park.

This KS3 Literacy Programme is 1 of 3 for use with year 7s across an entire term and forms part of a newly written programme that builds on the current demands of the KS2 literacy skills and makes them relevant for students as they head towards GCSE studies. The Study Guide is aptly designed to appeal to year 7 students and has one task per week focusing on a range of literacy skills: Spelling, Grammar and Reading. Each week the student is given a task assuming ‘no knowledge’, so is excellent for all abilities of students, a powerpoint takes students through the correct answers and offers scope for peer assessment and then a further ‘testing’ task is completed to check how securely the students have grasped that aspect of literacy. This cyclical learning style ensures that all students make progress and it encourages students to be accountable in part for their learning, and from the teacher’s perspective they can provide evidence of systematic address of literacy that builds on prior learning supported by comparable data on all students. Answers are included in this resource, so it works seamlessly from purchase to classroom with no additional work except for printing pages for the students. This resource is the first of 3 airmed at year 7 students and forms part of an entire KS3 resource comprising 9 units in total. The subsequent two year 7 booklets for use in this Programme can be found on the links below: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/year-7-12-literacy-programme-2-11477993 https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/year-7-12-week-literacy-programme-3-11480580 If you would like to see a sample of how this programme works prior to purchase see my free resource here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/literacy-regular-and-irregular-verbs-ks2-3-11713633