I provide high quality, tried and tested materials, developed over 17 years of teaching KS3-5. There is material to support G3/4 students as well as material to push for G8 and G9s.
I provide high quality, tried and tested materials, developed over 17 years of teaching KS3-5. There is material to support G3/4 students as well as material to push for G8 and G9s.
If you are teaching Frankenstein, this unit contains everything you need to allow students to connect an 19th century Romantic novel with the great issues of today, such as the environment, artificial intelligence and what makes us human.
This unit has everything you need to teach Frankenstein at KS4. It contains over 25 lessons that take you through the text chapter by chapter. It is fully resourced with context readings, theme discussions, chapter analysis, persuasive writing opportunities, online research on The Romantics, example essays, critical articles and opportunities to practice extract into essay writing. The page numbers refer to the Penguin Classics edition.
Lesson 1: an introduction to the themes of Frankenstein
Lesson 2: context: grave robbers, Gothic horror and Mary Shelley
Lesson 3: the Epistolary opening
Lesson 4: Victor and Elizabeth as character foils
Lesson 5: good and evil in Frankenstein
Lesson 6: foreshadowing
Lesson 7: the importance of setting
Lesson 8: the creature comes to life!
Lesson 9: extract analysis
Lesson 10: the role of women in Frankenstein
Lesson 11: the psychology of child killers
Lesson 12: acting out Justine’s trial
Lesson 13: the Gothic and the Romantic
Lesson 14: Romantic poet research
Lesson 15: Romanticism on the ice field
Lesson 16: the importance of parenting
Lesson 17: education and influences
Lesson 18: serial killers
Lesson 19: appearance vs reality
Lesson 20: revenge
Lesson 21: revolting monsters
Lesson 22: comparing Victor and his creature
Lesson 23: the dangers of science
Lesson 24: who is the real monster?
Lesson 25: the trial of Victor Frankenstein
This scheme of work is ideal as an introduction to classic poetry at KS3. It gives the students an insight into classic poets like Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost and WH Auden. There are 11 lessons focusing on analysing poems, giving students the skills to annotate poems and comment on the effect of poetic devices. It is fully resourced with PowerPoints, quizzes, match ups, terminology definitions and activities that act as a gateway to the poems. This is perfect for early AQA Unseen Poetry preparation.
Lesson 1: Revising poetic techniques
Lesson 2: You Being Born by Brian Jones
Lesson 3: Mirror by Sylvia Plath
Lesson 4: Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Lesson 5: Adolescence by Rita Dove
Lesson 6: The Loner by Julie Holder
Lesson 7: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Lesson 8: Stop All the Clocks by W. H. Auden
Lesson 9: Stop All the Clocks assessment
Lesson 10: Assessment feedback
Lesson 11: How to compare poems
This unit of work is designed as a pathway through the text Wild Boy at KS3. The unit contains 21 lessons and looks at areas such as plot structure, character relationships, aspects of a detective novel, the author’s use of pathetic fallacy and more. It is fully resourced with an extract assessment, descriptive language worksheets, plot quizzes, contextual information and assessment writing frames. Page numbers refer to the Walker Books edition.
Lesson 1: The Prologue
Lesson 2: The Circus: setting the scene
Lesson 3: Fairground characters
Lesson 4: Clarissa Everett
Lesson 5: The author’s use of animal imagery
Lesson 6: Creating mystery
Lesson 7: Character foils: Clarissa and Wild Boy
Lesson 8: Escape through the sewers
Lesson 9: Designing a WANTED poster
Lesson 10: Use of pathetic fallacy
Lesson 11: Analysing the murder scene
Lesson 12: Discovering the hidden room
Lesson 13: A Victorian Workhouse
Lesson 14: The Church
Lesson 15: How the writer builds tension
Lesson 16: The Machine
Lesson 17: Circular Structure
Lesson 18: The Suspects
Lesson 19: The Finale
Lesson 20: Planning your assessment
Lesson 21: Writing your assessment
This Unit of Work has been designed as a way through the novel ‘Holes’ by Louis Sachar. It contains 19 lessons and is designed to exploit areas like descriptive writing, writing a summary, analyzing characters, constructing the plot, the format of a letter, how writers build tension and designing a film storyboard. It also contains two assessment opportunities on Stanley Yelnats and the significance of the title. The page numbers refer to the Bloomsbury edition.
Lesson 1: An introduction to Holes
Lesson 2: Chapters 1-3: Camp Green Lake
Lesson 3: Chapters 4-6: Impressions of Stanley Yelnats
Lesson 4: Chapters 7-9: Use of flashback in literature
Lesson 5: Creating a factfile
Lesson 6: Survival guide poster and plot quiz
Lesson 7: Chapters 10-12: Writing a letter home
Lesson 8: Chapters 13-15: The Warden
Lesson 9: Chapters 16-18: Kate Barlow’s lipstick
Lesson 10: Chapters 19-21: Building tension
Lesson 11: Chapters 22-24: Using flashbacks
Lesson 12: Chapters 25-28: Kissin’ Kate Barlow
Lesson 13: Chapters 29-30: Using pathetic fallacy
Lesson 14: Chapters 31-33: Zero’s escape
Lesson 15: Chapters 34-36: Comparing Stanley and Zero
Lesson 16: Chapters 37-39: Climbing Big Thumb
Lesson 17: Chapters 40-43: Formulating an escape plan
Lesson 18: Chapters 44- 47: Buried treasure
Lesson 19: Chapters 48-50: The End
Everything you need to revise Unseen Poetry at KS4. This unit of work is focused on AQA Paper 2 for English Literature. It includes 12 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, exemplar answers, IWB interactive resources using SMART Notebook, quizzes, activities to exploit drama and examiner advice. This unit is best if you have already taught the skills for Unseen Poetry and are revising just before the exam.
Lesson 1: Analysing a Child’s Sleep by Carol Ann Duffy
Lesson 2: Comparing A Child’s Sleep with The Night Feed by Evan Bolan
Lesson 3: Analysing Rejection by Jenny Sullivan
Lesson 4: Comparing Rejection with Years Ago by Elizabeth Jennings
Lesson 5: Analysing Tramp by Rupert Loydell
Lesson 6: Comparing Tramp with Decomposition by Zulfikar Ghose
Lesson 7: Analysing I See You Dancing, Father
Lesson 8: Comparing I See You Dancing with Coat
Lesson 9: Analysing Woman Work by Maya Angelou
Lesson 10: Comparing Woman Work with County Sligo by Gillian Clarke
Lesson 11: Analysing Yew Tree Guest House by Phoebe Hesketh
Lesson 12: Comparing Yew Tree with Goodwill Store by Ted Kooser
Do you need your students to have an overview of English Literature canon? From Beowulf to The Bard?
This unit of work is dedicated to the progress of language from Beowulf, Chaucer, Shakespeare and The Romantics to modern day speakers like Muhammad Ali and Malala Jusef . This unit works well with mid to high ability KS3 students, and could serve as a basic introduction to language change. It is fully resourced with extracts, gap fills, cartoon strips, timeline sorts, games and drag and drop activities.
Lesson 1: Timeline of English Literature
Lesson 2: The origins of English
Lesson 3: English pronunciation
Lesson 4: The Romantics
Lesson 5-7: Beowulf
Lesson 8: The Magna Carta
Lesson 9: The Wife of Bath by Chaucer
Lesson 10: Write your own Canterbury Tale
Lesson 11: Shakespearean Language
Lesson 12: The Witches in Macbeth
Lesson 13: The Great Fire of London
Lesson 14: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Lesson 15: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Lesson 16: JFK speeches
Lesson 17: Muhammad Ali speeches
Lesson 18: I am Malala
Lesson 19: Emma Watson’s speech on feminism
This unit contains everything you need to teach War Poetry at KS3. It gives a balanced view of patriotic poems that glorify war (Brooke and Pope) with more realistic poems from the front line (Sassoon and Owen). This unit of work is focused on preparing students for a final poetry assessment, whilst fostering a love of poetry. It includes 17 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, contextual information, exemplar material, IWB interactive resources, quizzes, activities to exploit drama, original redrafts and opportunities for online research.
Lesson 1: Context reading
Lesson 2: Poet online research
Lesson 3: Rhythm and rhyme in poetry
Lesson 4: Poetic techniques
Lesson 5: Techniques review
Lesson 6: Write your own war poem
Lesson 7: Anthem for Doomed Youth
Lesson 8: The Charge of the Light Brigade
Lesson 9: Base Details
Lesson 10: A Remembrance Tale
Lesson 11: Dulce et Decorum Est
Lesson 12: The Hero
Lesson 13: Who’s for the game?
Lesson 14: The Soldier
Lesson 15: Explosure
Lesson 16: Assessment Preparation
Lesson 17: Write your assessment
Ideally for KS3 students, this unit of work has been designed to teach students the skills to analyse a variety of texts, and form an opinion on different topics that affect teenagers. There are 16 lessons which allow students to explore topics such as: perceptions of teenagers, graffiti, school shootings, anti social behaviour orders, gang violence, computer games and negative press coverage. It is fully resourced with ppts, articles, podcasts, storyboards and assessment opportunities.
Lesson 1: Perceptions of youth culture
Lesson 2: Is graffiti a form of art?
Lesson 3: School shootings
Lesson 4: anti social behaviour orders - do they work?
Lesson 5: gang violence
Lesson 6: the influence of computer games
Lesson 7: fighting back through charity work
Lesson 8: negative stereotypes in the press
Lesson 9: YouTube challenge
Lesson 10: writing a speech on knife or gun crime
Lesson 11: Fallout
Lesson 12: an open letter by Lennie James to stop the violence
Lesson 13: Gang violence in The Outsiders
Lesson 14: Designing an anti violence poster
Lesson 15: Writing your commentary
Lesson 16: Panorama video reward
Encourage students to stand up for their rights, using their language skills to influence the world.
This unit is ideally for KS3 students. It has been designed to teach the skills to write a formal letter of complaint by opposing the development of a theme park in the local area. There are 17 lessons which examine the layout of a letter as well as formal phrases to use. It is fully resourced with PowerPoints, brochures, theme park maps, persuasive adverts and debate cards.
Lesson 1: Language to advertise
Lesson 2: Holiday brochures
Lesson 3: Advertising theme parks
Lesson 4: Descriptive Writing
Lesson 5: Online holiday webquest
Lesson 6: Holidays gone wrong!
Lesson 7: Writing a letter of complaint
Lesson 8: Writing an application letter
Lesson 9: Evaluating a theme park leaflet
Lesson 10: Evaluating a website
Lesson 11: Designing a theme park
Lesson 12: Theme park debate
Lesson 13: Theme park poetry
Lesson 14: Theme park letter of complaint
Lesson 15: Theme park TV advert
Lesson 16: Plan your assessment
Lesson 17: Write your assessment
This unit is designed to give Year 9 students an introduction to Charles Dickens and other Victorian Writers at KS3. It includes extracts from Dombey and Son, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and more. This is perfect for introducing KS3 students to the skills they will need for their GCSE course and the context for Victorian Literature. The 14 lessons are fully resourced with extracts, contextual information, quizzes, gap fills and exemplar answers.
Lesson 1: The plot of Dombey and Son
Lesson 2: Analysing an extract
Lesson 3: Formative assessment
Lesson 4: Language to describe Victorian London
Lesson 5: The Dining Hall in Oliver Twist
Lesson 6: Victorian Women
Lesson 7: Lowood in Jane Eyre
Lesson 8: Miss Temple from Jane Eyre
Lesson 9: Mr Creakle from David Copperfield
Lesson 10: Describing characters
Lesson 11: Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights
Lesson 12: Comparing childhoods in Wuthering Heights and David Copperfield
Lesson 13: Comparing teachers in Jane Eyre and David Copperfield
Lesson 14: Assessment
This scheme of work uses the superhero genre to engage lower achieving students, culminating in writing a formal film review. It works well with low to mid ability KS3 students and could appeal to boy heavy groups. The 14 lesson unit looks at the content and structure of a film review and supports their writing in the final assessment. It is fully resourced with superhero review exemplars, jigsaw readings, quizzes, crosswords and essay frames.
Lesson 1: Designing your own superhero
Lesson 2: Turning this into a comic strip
Lesson 3: Making a superhero movie using online software
Lesson 4: Superhero Origins
Lesson 5: Designing a poster for your film
Lesson 6: Film pitch planning
Lesson 7: Pitching your film to the critics
Lesson 8: Fantastic 4 Review
Lesson 9: X-men review
Lesson 10: Pirates of the Caribbean review
Lesson 11-12: Watching and evaluating a superhero film
Lesson 13: Writing your film review
Lesson 14: Top Trumps
This unit contains everything you need to teach Midsummer Night’s Dream at KS4. It is focused on essay writing skills, analyzing extracts for English Literature and bringing the play to life. It includes over 25 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson powerpoints, contextual information, exemplar essays, interactive resources, quizzes, activities to exploit drama, extract analysis and opportunities for online research. Page numbers refer to the Cambridge Shakespeare edition.
Each lesson is focused on a scene from the play, so you can easily cut this unit down to focus specifically on a key scene and a theme from the play.
Lesson 1: Context
Lesson 2: Online research
Lesson 3: The Globe
Lesson 4: Character research
Lesson 5: Language
Lesson 6: Plot and characters
Lesson 7: Act out the play
Lesson 8: A1S1 Theseus and Hippolyta
Lesson 9: A1S2 The Mechanicals
Lesson 10: A2S1 Puck
Lesson 11: A2S1 Oberon and Titania
Lesson 12: A2S1 Demetrius and Hermia
Lesson 13: Language
Lesson 14: A2S2 The love potion
Lesson 15: A3S1 The rehearsal
Lesson 16: A3S1 Bottom and Titania
Lesson 17: A3S2 Oberon and Puck
Lesson 18: A3S2 The lovers
Lesson 19: A3S2 Young love
Lesson 20: A4S1 Bottom
Lesson 21: A4S1 Explanations
Lesson 22: A5S1 The play
Lesson 23 A5S1 The end
Lesson 24: Blockbusters review game
Lesson 25: Revision cards
Everything you need to teach Science Fiction at KS3. This unit of work includes 14 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson powerpoints, quizzes, stories and a descriptive assessment . It is geared towards boys, with extracts from Ray Bradbury, Mars missions and The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. This is useful as an early introduction to the skills needed for English Language GCSE Paper 1.
Lesson 1: Introduction to Science Fiction
Lesson 2: The rise of Artificial Intelligence
Lesson 3-4: A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury
Lesson 5: Colonising Mars
Lesson 6: Write a Mars Speech
Lesson 7: All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury
Lesson 8: Designing a Science Fiction Trailer
Lesson 9: The Time Machine by HG Wells
Lesson 10: Virus and future pandemics
Lesson 11: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Lesson 12: The Veldt by Ray Bradbury
Lesson 13: Writing a Doctor Who script for TV
Lesson 14: Describing an alien planet from Star Wars
This unit contains everything you need to teach dystopian Fiction at KS3 in an engaging and dynamic way. It includes 9 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, extracts, short stories, quizzes and assessment opportunities. This unit works well with a boy heavy group interested in texts like Brave New World, Hunger Games and War of the Worlds. There is an assessment opportunity at the end of the unit for the students to analyse an extract from Children of Men. This is supported with essay frames and exemplar answers.
Lesson 1: Dystopias in Literature
Lesson 2: Comparing dystopian worlds
Lesson 3: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Lesson 4: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Colins
Lesson 5: The Red Weed from War of the Worlds
Lesson 6: 1984 by George Orwell
Lesson 7: Assessment: Children of Men by PD James
Lesson 8:Writing your assessment
Lesson 9: Assessment feedback
Lesson 10: Dystopia quiz
Everything you need to revise Streetcar at KS5. This unit includes 12 revision lessons and is fully resourced with lesson powerpoints, contextual information, exemplar essays, extracts and critical articles. The lessons cover character and theme questions. Page numbers refer to the Penguin Modern Classics edition. This unit of work has been designed for the AQA A-level, but is adaptable to fit other exam board specifications.
Lesson 1: The American South
Lesson 2: Tragedy as a genre
Lesson 3: Structure of the scenes
Lesson 4: Style and idiolect
Lesson 5: betrayal and desire
Lesson 6: social class
Lesson 7: Stella
Lesson 8: men and women
Lesson 9: Stella and Stan
Lesson 10: Steve and Eunice
Lesson 11: Belle Reve
Lesson 12: Gone With The Wind
Everything you need to teach this fantastic novel! Ideally for Years 7-9, this unit has 20 lessons covering the whole of the text, focusing on writer’s use of language, evaluating a character statement and creative writing. It comes fully resourced with PowerPoints, contextual information on Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome, chapter extracts and IWB activities. This is perfect for developing early English Literature essay skills. Page numbers are based on the 2004 Vintage edition. The lesson themes focus on:
Lesson 1: Autism research
Lesson 2: How to produce Chris’s style
Lesson 3: Understanding emotions
Lesson 4: Character profiles
Lesson 5: Habits and rituals
Lesson 6: The Monty Hall Problem
Lesson 7: Splitting up
Lesson 8: Chris’ mother
Lesson 9: The letters
Lesson 10: Running away research
Lesson 11: Chris runs away
Lesson 12: Eidetic memories
Lesson 13: Interpreting dreams
Lesson 14: Analysing Chris’ mother
Lesson 15: Designing a front cover
Lesson 16: Writing an extra chapter
Lesson 17: Character profiles
Lesson 18: Book reviews
Lesson 19: Describing a train journey
Lesson 20: Questions to the author
There is also an opportunity for assessment on Chris’s dad with feedback and a marking sheet.
This unit of work is fantastic for stretching high ability students, by encouraging them to amalgamate context into their consideration of the fable. The unit contains 17 lessons covering the whole of the novel, focusing on writer’s use of language, how the writer uses structure, creative writing and the effect of rhetorical devices. It is fully resourced with PowerPoints, contextual information to illuminate understanding of the text, chapter extracts, speech writing and dramatic activities. Page numbers refer to the Penguin Modern Classics Edition.
The lessons include:
Lesson 1: Lenin, Trotsky, Marx and Stalin
Lesson 2: context games
Lesson 3: the characters and their historical equivalents
Lesson 4: analysis of Old Major’s speech
Lesson 5: the animals
Lesson 6: Napoleon vs Snowball vote
Lesson 7: the revolution
Lesson 8: flags as symbols
Lesson 9: formulating a battle plan
Lesson 10: political spin
Lesson 11: propaganda and posters
Lesson 12: leadership styles
Lesson 13: review chapters 1-5
Lesson 14: Napoleon as a dictator
Lesson 15: Scapegoats
Lesson 16: the battle of the windmill
Lesson 17: power and corruption
Lesson 18: assessment preparation
Lesson 19: assessment feedback
There is an opportunity at the end of the unit to plan and write an assessment on Napoleon.
A unit of work dedicated to poetry that explores the natural world. It includes 19 lessons with activities to help students comment on the effect of language techniques, comparison and contextual research opportunities on the British poets. It is fully resourced with fun facts, quizzes, support notes, essay frames and creative writing opportunities. The lessons cover a range of subjects such as poetic techniques, rhythm and rhyme in conjunction with with poems by: Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Lord Tennyson, William Blake and many more.
Lesson 1: Poetic techniques
Lesson 2: Poetic techniques review
Lesson 3: How poets use rhythm
Lesson 4: The Eagle by Tennyson
Lesson 5: The Jaguar by Ted Hughes
Lesson 6: The Tyger by William Blake
Lesson 7: The Hyena by Edwin Morgan
Lesson 8: View of a Pig by Ted Hughes
Lesson 9: Sonnet by John Clare
Lesson 10: Spring by Hopkins
Lesson 11: Daffodils by William Wordsworth
Lesson 12: Inversnaid by Hopkins
Lesson 13: Little Trotty Wagtail by John Clare
Lesson 14: Seamus Heaney research
Lesson 15: Death of a Naturalist by Heaney
Lesson 16: Blackberry Picking by Heaney
Lesson 17: Planning your assessment
Lesson 18: Writing your assessment
Lesson 19: Assessment feedback
This unit of work is fantastic for introducing the crime genre and detective stories to KS3 students. It includes 18 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, exemplar answers, activities to exploit drama, debates, creative writing opportunities and short stories. This works well with a boy heavy group, who get very excited when they use the clues to solve the crimes before the ending is given away!
Lesson 1: An introduction to crime
Lesson 2: How writers use narrative hooks
Lesson 3: Crime Scene Investigation
Lesson 4: Captain Murderer by Charles Dickens
Lesson 5: Using Voice in Captain Murderer
Lesson 6: Writing feedback
Lesson 7: About His Person by Simon Armitage
Lesson 8: Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl
Lesson 9-11: The Darkness Out There by Penelope Lively
Lesson 12: The Trial of Mrs Rutter
Lesson 13: Perform and peer assess
Lesson 14: The Red Room by HG Wells
Lesson 15: Planning your own detective story
Lesson 16: Writing your own detective story
Lesson 17: Writing feedback and improvement
Lesson 18: Who killed Vic Timberlake?
Everything you need to revise Romeo and Juliet at KS4. This unit includes 13 revision lessons and is fully resourced with lesson powerpoints, contextual information, exemplar essays, extracts and critical articles. The lessons cover character and theme questions. Page numbers refer to the Cambridge Shakespeare edition. This unit of work has been designed for the AQA GCSE, but is adaptable to fit other exam board specifications.
Lesson 1: Atmosphere in A3S1
Lesson 2: Juliet in A4S3
Lesson 3: Juliet’s changes
Lesson 4: The trial of Friar Lawrence
Lesson 5:Top Trumps
Lesson 6: Juliet’s strong emotions
Lesson 7: Juliet and Romeo’s relationship
Lesson 8: Computer research
Lesson 9: Is Romeo to blame?
Lesson 10: Lord Capulet
Lesson 11: Tybalt
Lesson 12: Context
Lesson 13: Relationships between adults and children