Film is an essential part of literature teaching in the 21st C and while there are lots of similarities in regards to teaching a text, there are very distinct aspects of film that our students need to understand. This ebook will provide the essential understandings that an English teacher needs to introduce film in their classroom. As always our material is deliberately curriculum agnostic, providing subject knowledge and skills which can be incorporated into any system.

Teaching visual literacy and film requires a whole new vocabulary. Often this is refered to as a meta-language. Whatever we call it, our students need to know it in order to speak and write analytically about film as text. This A4 poster covers the basic essentials.

Encouraging students to plan their writing is a challenge sometimes. It is important they understand that the plan can help them. This diagram works with the simple 3 paragraph essay but can be adapted fro essays of any length.

When our students need to talk about literature in a sophisticated way they need to employ the meta-language. Meta language is not jargon ( Well, not always.) It is language that lets us discuss language and literature objectively. This handout provides a selection of the most common terms needed to talk about literature.

Nothing perfects speaking skills faster than practice. Short spontaneous speaking tasks build student confidence. This selection of topics is designed to give them opportunities to succeed by focussing on topics they are familiar with.

Speaking clearly and concisely is an important skill which can be learnt and perfected. This handout can help students, teachers or anyone who needs to speak in public - ever. A selection of tongue twisters which deal with the most common problem areas in diction. They are selected to address a number of diphthongs and tricky letter combinations.

This is for every teacher of every subject who speaks or conducts conversations in English. There is a bonus presentation which addresses email etiquette for business. Important for our students to understand as they head into the workplace. Grammar and all its parts is important. Mistakes in grammar undermine credibility and can make you look less smart. It is hard to get students to be excited by this though and hopefully this 28 min video will help. The video is accompanied by a slide presentation if teachers want to go through it with students. It will easily fill a lesson. The video is ideal for substitute teachers or as a recap at any year level.

Package includes a presentation which looks at a couple of different angles on audience, timing and delivery in persuasive speeches. A handout for students with information about persuasive speeches. A video version of the presentation. It runs for 8 minutes and can be useful for relief teachers, revision or to show at the end of unit as a refresher. The Vimeo password is on the penultimate slide of the presentation. This package is also part of a larger body of work on Speaking skills and oracy.

Teaching speaking skills (oracy) has never been more important for our students. No matter how much we would like them to be writing everything, their digital world demands a different skill set. They are always going to have to speak and teaching oracy with the same attention to detail that we apply to teaching literacy is crucial. This package contains everything a teacher will need to build a unit of work around oracy and speaking. The package contains: A short overview of oracy and why we need to teach it. 4 presentations on various aspects of speaking. 5 student handouts. - pdf 3 activity pdfs.

Every English teacher has taught persuasive techniques more than once. This presentation looks at the issues of timing, audience, tone and handling the opposition in persuasive speeches from a slightly different angle and with an eye on changing social perceptions. It is a short presentation ( 45 slides ) and would be best used with a class that was already familiar with the genre of persuasive speeches. I have included a 2 page handout in pdf format that covers more general aspect of persuasive speeches.

Interesting content, confident delivery and appropriate language are the three essential elements of any effective speech. This short (46 slides) presentation explains each and outlines the ideas students need to consider when making their choices. A useful resource for introducing concepts of spoken English to secondary students. Examples are kept to a minimum so that teachers can use ones that are appropriate to their year level. This is part of a larger body of material on spoken English but is perfectly able to be used as a stand alone.

We spend a lot of time preparing students for speaking tasks but we don't always teach the vocal elements in detail. This presentation (101 slides) discusses the following: Volume Pace Pitch Pause Modulation Pronunciation Tone Diction Also included is a Tongue Twister handout that can be used to practice diction.

The three most common types of speeches that students have to deliver are impromptu, persuasive and dramatic monologue. This presentation takes them through what can be specific to each type as well as speaking skills that are common to all three. There are 84 Slides. The presentation is accompanied by student handouts in pdf format for each of the types. Also included are some suggestions for impromptu speaking activities and a copiable sheet of mini marking rubrics. I have found that 3-4 of the students marking each of the speeches is optimum as if you do too many it takes too much time to go through them in sufficient detail for solid learning to occur. As students compare their marks to those awarded by the teacher and their peers they grasp the elements more quickly. A single slide of the mini mark sheet is included for teachers to talk through with the whole class in preparation for the activity. Like all our material, the presentation is curriculum agnostic and can be adapted for any region.

Learning to manage speaking on a topic without much warning is a valuable skill that can only be achieved with practice. The suggestions for 1 minute orals come with accompanying mini mark sheets. These can be copied and cut up and I have always chosen 2 or 3 students in the class to mark each oral. The students learn a great deal when they compare the marks they awarded to the ones the teacher awarded. There is a slide of the mark sheet which can be used to talk the process through with the students. Even if they don't write much and they spend most of their time in a digital world, they are still going to need to speak and communicate and constant practice, without the pressure of summative assessment, is the best way to prepare them.

A selection of student ready handouts and activities to accompany lessons on oracy. They cover non-verbal aspects, the elements of voice as they relate to performance, persuasive speech techniques and planning, dramatic monologues and impromptu/spontaneous speaking. These can be used as they are but they can also accompany the presentations which are listed separately. The handouts would suit secondary school students in most disciplines.

The ability to write analytically is critical for our students. It is an integral part of all English curricula. This package includes a slide presentation that explains what the purpose of the analytical essay is, how it is structured and how students can best master it. The presentation is also included in a 10 min. video format that can be useful for relief teachers. There is also a handy visual planning template for those of us who learn better that way.

Give students the confidence they need to talk about literature by arming them with the right terms and language. There are so many factors that go into making meaning in texts and these 3 handy resources are just the beginning.

2 simple quizz activities and a vocab list that compliment the study of Katherine Paterson’s popular novel Bridge to Terabithia. These could be used in any class and offer the benefit of being useful in mixed ability classes.

Keep your planning simple and up to date with these 2 colourful templates. The lesson planning template has sections for the information that teachers really need. DIW - Did it work? What interruptions occurred to the lesson and what did you not get to? Most important, did they learn what you needed them to? The to-do list gives you a page for the week that lets you see at a glance what is coming up. It is not helpful to add more items n a to-do list than it is possible to complete so we have deliberately limited the number of spaces. And made room for some fun things.