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.
This Midsummer Night’s Dream unit is lots of fun and fantastic for stretching high ability KS3 students. It contains 18 lessons, focusing on the playwright’s use of language, how the playwright uses dramatic devices, creative writing and the effect of staging. It comes fully resourced with PowerPoints, contextual information to illuminate understanding of the text, extracts and IWB activities. The page numbers refer to the Cambridge School Shakespeare edition. The unit includes:
Lesson 1: Elizabethan context
Lesson 2: Online research
Lesson 3: The Globe
Lesson 4: The Characters
Lesson 5: The language
Lesson 6: Plot and Characters
Lesson 7: Act out the play
Lesson 8: Set design in A1S1
Lesson 9: Creating characters in A1S2
Lesson 10: Exploring fairies in A2S1
Lesson 11: Oberon and Titania in A2S1
Lesson 12: Persuasive language in A2S1
Lesson 13: Shakespeare’s language
Lesson 14: Writing spells in A2S2
Lesson 15: Insults in A3S2
Lesson 16: Analysing character in A4S1
Lesson 17: Themes review at the end
Lesson 18: Blockbuster revision
This unit contains everything you need to teach Othello at KS5, and will save you hours of preparation time! It includes 26 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, contextual information, exemplar material, IWB interactive resources, quizzes and opportunities for extract analysis. The page numbers refer to the Cambridge School Shakespeare edition. This unit of work has been designed for the AQA A-level course but is adaptable to fit other exam board specifications.
Lesson 1: Plot overview and key lines
Lesson 2: Shakespearean language and use of sounds
Lesson 3: Context reading and application
Lesson 4: Iago, Roderigo and Brabantio in A1S1
Lesson 5: Impressions of Othello in A1S1
Lesson 6: Challenging stereotypes in A1S2
Lesson 7: Othello’s use of verse and prose in A1S3
Lesson 8: Focus on Iago in A1S3
Lesson 9: The importance of Cyprus as a setting
Lesson 10: Iago in A2S1
Lesson 11: Cassio in A2S3
Lesson 12: Shakespeare’s use of body language in A2S3
Lesson 13: Analysing Cassio’s actions in A3S1
Lesson 14: Iago’s tactics in A3S3
Lesson 15: Focus on essay writing
Lesson 16: Analyse how and why Othello has changed
Lesson 17: Comparing Bianca, Desdemona and Emilia
Lesson 18: Iago’s use of manipulation in A4S1
Lesson 19: Othello and colour prejudice - GK Hunter
Lesson 20: Desdemona’s plea in A4S2
Lesson 21: Extract to essay in A4S2
Lesson 22: The willow scene in A4S3
Lesson 23: Street fight in A5S1
Lesson 24:Desdemona’s death in A5S2
Lesson 25: Essay marking
Lesson 26: Poetic justice in A5S2
This unit has everything you need to teach ‘The Woman in Black’ at KS3. It is a fantastic gothic horror novel, and the children are genuinely enthralled by this novel as the secrets are revealed, complimented by the movie with Daniel Radcliffe as an end of unit treat!
This unit of work includes 18 lessons and comes with lesson powerpoints, contextual information, exemplar paragraphs, activities to exploit drama, extracts from the text and opportunities for creative writing. Page numbers refer to the 1998 Vintage edition.
Lesson 1: The gothic genre
Lesson 2: Creating a gothic atmosphere
Lesson 3: How Susan Hill uses pathetic fallacy
Lesson 4: Tracking Arthur’s progress north
Lesson 5: Creating mystery and expectation
Lesson 6: Character reactions
Lesson 7: Leaving clues
Lesson 8: Creative Writing
Lesson 9: Writing a formal letter
Lesson 10: Hiding secrets
Lesson 11: How Susan Hill creates tension
Lesson 12: Using rhetorical devices
Lesson 13: Using clues to form predictions
Lesson 14: The letters
Lesson 15: The Ending
Lesson 16: Prepare your assessment
Lesson 17: Write your assessment
Lesson 18: Feedback and improvement
There is an opportunity to assess the students’ progress at the end of the novel in an essay on how Susan Hill creates a sense of mystery.
This 21 lesson unit of work for Wonder, by R.J. Palacio, contains comprehension by chapter, vocabulary challenges, creative writing opportunities, the trial of Jack Will, camp planning, friend dilemmas and much more!
This literature unit is teacher and student friendly. It contains a wide variety of activities, along with open-ended questions and role plays that will enthrall your students, especially those who have just started at a new school, as Auggie overcomes the challenges students face on a daily basis.
The unit ends with an assessment evaluating Jack Will’s role as a friend and his relationship with Auggie. It is supported by extracts and important pages in the novel, so the students don’t have to trawl through 400 pages looking for a quote!
Lesson 1: First day at middle school
Lesson 2: Treacher-Collins syndrome
Lesson 3: Jack, Julian and Charlotte
Lesson 4: bullying
Lesson 5: write your own precept
Lesson 6: Halloween
Lesson 7: Via’s perspective
Lesson 8: the trial of Jack Will
Lesson 9: Summer
Lesson 10: Jack Will
Lesson 11: the parents
Lesson 12: Justin
Lesson 13: dealing with bereavement
Lesson 14: losing friendships
Lesson 15: the camping trip
Lesson 16: the fight and social acceptance
Lesson 17: the aftermath
Lesson 18: graduation
Lesson 19: prepare your assessment
Lesson 20: write your assessment
Lesson 21: assessment feedback
This unit is ideal as an introduction to non-fiction texts at KS3. It has 18 lessons focusing on evaluating non-fiction texts, opinion writing, describing travel destinations, writing a letter of complaint and more. It comes fully resourced with PowerPoints, travel guide extracts, example answers and newspaper articles.
Lesson 1: Introduction to travel writing
Lesson 2: The Road to Manali by Melissa Bell
Lesson 3: The Red Dust
Lesson 4: Describing Antarctica
Lesson 5: Writing a speech to reduce tourism
Lesson 6: Pole to Pole by Michael Palin
Lesson 7: Narrative tenses in The Beach
Lesson 8-9: Designing a travel advert
Lesson 10: Designing the ultimate trip
Lesson 11: Describing holidays
Lesson 12: Holiday web quest
Lesson 13: Holiday narrative writing
Lesson 14-15: Holidays from hell
Lesson 16: Designing a promotional video
Lesson 17: Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks
Lesson 18: Travel TV Shows
This unit contains everything you need to teach Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan at KS3. This is a sequence of 21 Cirque du Freak lessons that aid KS3 students in developing their understanding of plot, character, language and structure through studying Darren Shan’s text. The unit of work includes:
Lesson 1: Narrative Hooks
Lesson 2: Initial impressions of Darren
Lesson 3: Analysing characters
Lesson 4: Comparing the boys
Lesson 5: Describing setting
Lesson 6: The Freakshow
Lesson 7: Language to describe the snake
Lesson 8: Vampire webquest
Lesson 9: Steve and friendship
Lesson 10: Forming a plan
Lesson 11: The relationship between Steve and Darren
Lesson 12: Building tension
Lesson 13: Analysing Mr Crepsley
Lesson 14: Writing a letter of application
Lesson 15: Designing a vampire
Lesson 16: Writing effective endings
Lesson 17: Assessment Planning on Steve
Lesson 18: Writing your assessment
Lesson 19: Assessment feedback
Lesson 20: Designing a front cover
Lesson 21: The film
The unit ends with an assessment that evaluates the character of Steve Leonard. It is supported with a feedback sheet, writing frames and exemplar answers to mark afterwards.
This unit of work has been designed to prepare A-level students for their AQA Paper 2 Unseen Prose exam. The students have to incorporate context into their answers, so the unit contains 13 lessons ranging from Victorian Literature to more modern, multi-cultural texts like White Teeth. Each lesson will take you about an hour to prepare their answer and a further hour to write an essay if you wish to do so. It comes fully resourced with PowerPoint lessons, exemplar essays, guidance on how to write introductions and conclusions, extracts, and examiner advice. The lessons include extracts from:
The Heart of Darkness
I am Charlotte Simmonds
Brick Lane
Digging to America
White Teeth
Gone with the Wind
Catcher in the Rye
Revolutionary Road
Everything I Never Told You
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
I have used this unit with very high achieving A-level students who have gone on to study English Literature at Oxford and Cambridge, so it is definitely targeted towards the top end.
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 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
This unit contains everything you need to teach Rime of the Ancient Mariner at IB Standard or Higher level, but it could easily be adapted for GCSE and A-level. It includes 16 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, contextual research, poetic devices revision, gothic extracts, Romantic research and vocabulary support.
Lesson 1: Gothic and Romantic
Lesson 2: Poetic rhyme, rhythm and meter
Lesson 3: Poetic devices research
Lesson 4: The Plot
Lesson 5: Part 1
Lesson 6: Part 1 Revision
Lesson 7: Part 2
Lesson 8: Part 3
Lesson 9: Part 4
Lesson 10: Part 5
Lesson 11: Part 6
Lesson 12: Part 7
Lesson 13: Parallel Research
Lesson 14: Themes and Symbols
Lesson 15: Links to crime genre
Lesson 16: Exam questions to plan
This Literacy Support scheme of work has been created to support students who need extra support at KS3. It gives an overview of the skills and themes often taught at KS3. Each unit of work is specialised to target a specific area of the KS3 curriculum such as writing to persuade, advise and argue. Each unit of work comes with 6 lessons and an easy to follow workbook. This unit works well with small support groups.
Lesson 1: Creating characters with depth
Lesson 2: Writing to argue
Lesson 3: Writing a film review
Lesson 4: Writing a letter of complaint
Lesson 5: How to structure a story
Lesson 6: Writing to advise
This Literacy Support unit has been created to support students’ spelling and grammar at KS3. It gives an overview of the skills needed to be successful at KS3. Each unit of work comes with 6 lessons and an easy to follow workbook. This unit works well with small support groups.
Lesson 1: Using capital letters
Lesson 2: Writing a summary
Lesson 3: Improving your vocabulary
Lesson 4: Similes and metaphors
Lesson 5: Using persuasive devices
Lesson 6: Writing to argue
A whole scheme of work dedicated to Elizabethan and Jacobean England. Excellent context work for supporting appreciation of Shakespeare using context. It includes an introduction to the Globe, life for men and women, Shakespeare’s family life, Machiavelli and a Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England. Fully resourced with fun facts, quizzes and creative writing opportunities.
Lesson 1: Context
Lesson 2: Library and online research
Lesson 3:The Globe
Lesson 4: The Plays
Lesson 5: Shakespearean language
Lesson 6: Mid term assessment
Lesson 7: Designing a movie trailer
Lesson 8: Tudor women
Lesson 9: John Shakespeare
Lesson 10: Designing a theatre
Lesson 11: Staging A1S5 of Romeo and Juliet
Lesson 12: Machiavelli
Lesson 13: The Taming of the Shrew
Lesson 14: The Witches in Macbeth
Lesson 15: The Tempest
Lesson 16: Love poems and sonnets
Lesson 17: Origins of English
Lesson 18: Elizabethan beliefs
Lesson 19: Planning your assessment
Lesson 20: Writing your assessment
This unit contains everything you need to teach non-fiction writing (letters, speeches, articles, essays, reviews and leaflets) at KS4. This unit of work is focused on AQA Paper 1 for English language and teaches the students how to argue, advise and persuade. It includes 23 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson Powerpoints, exemplar answers, newspaper articles, leaflets, essays and speeches.
Lesson 1: Introduction to transactional writing
Lesson 2: Coronavirus response
Lesson 3: How to counter-argue
Lesson 4: Tough love
Lesson 5: Raising children
Lesson 6: Travel Writing
Lesson 7: Charity speech
Lesson 8: Letter of application
Lesson 9: Write your letter of application
Lesson 10: Technology
Lesson 11: Fame
Lesson 12: English teacher application
Lesson 13: Health leaflet
Lesson 14: Mobile phones
Lesson 15: Parents are over-protective
Lesson 16: Who would you vote for?
Lesson 17: Film censorship essay
Lesson 18: Writing your essay
Lesson 19: Protecting the countryside
Lesson 20: Virgin Atlantic complaint letter
Lesson 21: Meghan and Harry
Lesson 22: Writing your opinion
Lesson 23: Foreign holidays
This unit is ideal as an introduction to non-fiction texts and multi-media at middle school. It contains 17 lessons focusing on newspaper bias, presenting a radio report, website design, opinion pieces, film reviews and the register of broadsheets and tabloids. It is fully resourced with PowerPoints, newspaper articles, reviews and exemplar answers to stretch the top end. The unit includes:
Lesson 1: News values
Lesson 2: The structure of a newspaper
Lesson 3: Analysing website design
Lesson 4: Online website analysis
Lesson 5: Radio broadcasts
Lesson 6: Snack Attack perspective
Lesson 7: Writing a formal report
Lesson 8: Writing a film review
Lesson 9: Travel writing
Lesson 10: Writing a job application letter
Lesson 11: Writing Horoscopes
Lesson 12: Identifying bias
Lesson 13: Tabloid vs Broadsheet
Lesson 14: Headlines
Lesson 15: Jamie’s Dream School
Lesson 16: Writing a music review
Lesson 17: Writing a speech on technology
If your students find Shakespeare dull and inaccessible, this is the unit for you. The lessons are focused on staging a shipwreck, costume, props, bringing the play to life and contextually understanding Elizabethan views of slavery, love, revenge and violence.
This scheme of work designed as a way into Shakespeare at KS3. It includes opportunities for online research and extract analysis from the most popular plays. It is fully resourced with fun facts, quizzes and creative writing lessons. It also works well with Roland Emmerich’s 2012 ‘Anonymous’ , as the plays studied match the plays performed in the film, allowing the students to see the words come to life on the stage.
Lesson 1: Othello
Lesson 2: Othello feedback
Lesson 3: Romeo and Juliet
Lesson 4: Agony Aunt writing for Juliet
Lesson 5: Romeo and Juliet movie analysis
Lesson 6: Anthony and Cleopatra
Lesson 7: Sonnet 130
Lesson 8: Macbeth witches
Lesson 9: Iago
Lesson 10: Midsummer Night’s Dream
Lesson 11: Midsummer Night’s Dream
Lesson 12: Hamlet
Lesson 13: Richard III
Lesson 14: The Tempest
Lesson 15: Caliban
Lesson 16: Staging
Lesson 17: Henry V
Lesson 18: King Lear plot
Lesson 19: King Lear A1S1
Lesson 20: Midsummer Night’s Epilogue
This unit contains everything you need to teach myths and legends at KS3, and it will save you hours of preparation! This unit of work includes 10 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, contextual information, exemplar answers, quizzes and the classical stories. The unit includes:
Lesson 1: Online research of classic fables
Lesson 2: Echo and Narcissus
Lesson 3: The Illiad
Lesson 4: The Odyssey
Lesson 5: Theseus and The Minotaur
Lesson 6: King Midas
Lesson 7: Arachne
and much more…
Are you looking for an original way to hook visual learners into creative writing?
This unit of work contains everything you need to teach Descriptive Writing at KS3 and is fantastic early preparation for English language descriptive writing. It includes 13 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, exemplar answers, IWB interactive resources, intriguing pictures, activities to exploit drama and poems. It uses classic art as inspiration, such as Bird in an Air Pump, Thomas Chatterton and The Lady of Shalott.
Lesson 1: Bird in an Air Pump by Joseph Wright
Lesson 2: Chatterton by Henry Wallis
Lesson 3-4: The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse
Lesson 5: Voice in Not My Best Side by UA Fanthorpe
Lesson 6: Original Writing
Lesson 7: How to create original characters
Lesson 8: Describing alien planets in Star Wars
Lesson 9: Describing The Iron Islands in Game of Thrones
Lesson 10: Narrative Viewpoint in Assassin’s Creed
Lesson 11: Planning your assessment on ‘The Scream’
Lesson 12: Writing your assessment
Lesson 13: Assessment feedback
This scheme of work contains everything you need to teach Narrative Writing at KS3. This unit of work is great preparation for AQA Paper 1 for English language. It includes 13 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson ppts, exemplar paragraphs, IWB interactive resources, activities to exploit drama, media activities and fun ways to engage the students using horror writing.
Lesson 1: How to create tension in your writing
Lesson 2: Using camera angles
Lesson 3: Filming your Sandman
Lesson 4: Designing a storyboard
Lesson 5: Narrating over the Sandman
Lesson 6: Planning and structure
Lesson 7: Editing, extending and improving
Lesson 8: Focus on grammar
Lesson 9: Focus on sentence structure
Lesson 10: Planning your story
Lesson 11: Writing your story
Lesson 12: Less is more - being concise
Lesson 13: Designing a Sandman poster
Are you looking for a fresh and creative way to teach Romeo and Juliet? I recently studied for my Certificate for Teaching Shakespeare at the RSC in Stratford and it has revolutionized the way I teach the bard.
This unit contains everything you need to teach Romeo and Juliet at KS4. It is focused on essay writing skills, analyzing extracts for English Literature and bringing the play to life. It includes 31 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson powerpoints, contextual information, exemplar essays, IWB 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. I have designed this unit to make it relevant to teenage audiences, so we look at themes like:
the role of women, both then and now
expectations of masculinity in men
the role of the theatre
why set it in Verona?
toxic masculinity in Act 1 Scene 1
the role of a father
suppression and rebellion
violence
role models
and much more…