A basic scheme of work aimed at weaker students that you can build on and develop for students of higher ability. Eleven powerpoints guide you through the text with ideas for development. Many storyboards of the action are included to reinforce understanding of the plot. Background work includes a powerpoint on Mary Shelley and the history of the discovery of electricity.

In this poem Julie Ann, the farmer’s wife, is a ferocious were-wolf, but we only really find out at the end. Teach your students to look for the clues that are sprinkled throughout this anonymous poem that Julie Ann is not quite what she seems. A thirty-slide Powerpoint guides students through the text after they have had chance to look for the clues in a Word copy of the poem. Three choices of follow-up writing activity are included. By the end of the lesson, students will learn how writers often prefer to drop hints and suggestions, rather than use explicit information.

This folder contains everything that you need to understand Maya Angelou’s brilliantly uplifting poem. A 48 slide Powerpoint introduces the poem and then goes through the significant features verse by verse. A separate Word timeline of facts from the advent of slavery in America to the Civil Rights Movement contextualises the poem. Follow-up activities include visualising the positive images used in the poem. A copy of the poem is also included.

This twenty-slide Powerpoint guides you through the poem beginning with historical context and then annotated notes on each of the verses. Follow-up activities concentrate on Owen’s use of contrast and narrative writing from the point of view of the disabled man. A timeline of information about Owen is included in the folder also.

This sixty-slide Powerpoint tells the tale of the amazing life of Frederick Douglass who was born into slavery in the USA in 1818. After escaping to the free state of New York, Douglass worked on various newspapers and travelled Europe campaigning for abolition. After learning about the life of this remarkable man with interesting photographs and graphics, students are invited to write the text for a web page to promote his former home, Cedar Hill, as a site of national, historic importance. The house can actually be visited today.

Harriet Tubman not only liberated herself from slavery, but helped at least a further seventy people to escape from enslavement in nineteenth century Maryland, using the Underground Railroad. Later she worked as a nurse, spy and scout for the Union during the Civil War. All this despite suffering from debilitating injuries suffered from her brutal childhood in slavery. Find out more about the life of this truly remarkable woman with this sixty-slide Powerpoint full of interesting information and images. Activities include writing a ballad to celebrate her life with an example of a four verse ballad included as Word document; writing a promotional webpage for the museum dedicated to her life and ideas for further investigation.

In May 2021 the Minderoo Foundation published a ground-breaking report into the problem of single-use plastics. They discovered that a mere twenty global companies were responsible for over fifty percent of the non-recyclable plastic in our world. The report created the first ‘Plastic Waste Makers Index’. This lesson is based on this report, simplifying complex terminology so that students can understand the shocking detail and the contribution of single-use plastic to the climate crisis, which is predicted to grow even further in the coming years. Activities to engage students are interspersed throughout the 39 slide Powerpoint and the final activity is a letter to government to persuade policy-makers to legislate to curb the prolific production of this noxious product. There is a suggested letter structure and a reminder about persuasive language techniques.

In May 2021 an investigation found that two out of three sea bass from fish farms in the Atlantic ocean contained micro plastics. In the first part of this lesson, students answer four questions on a newspaper article explaining the investigation. They then have a choice of exam-style writing tasks - letter, article or speech. A Word copy of the article is included and a twenty-slide Powerpoint introduces the subject and walks the students through the tasks with opportunities for discussion of the key ideas.

Volunteers all over the world are collecting tonnes of litter that have been left in beauty spots and beaches. This twenty-two slide Powerpoint introduces the problem with reference to Royal Parks, London which in the month of June 2020 collected rubbish that weighed as much as 15 double decker buses. The folder includes an article on the Royal Parks which explains the problem and students analyse the language techniques used. (Answer sheet included). Ideas and prompts are given for creating a fresh campaign to raise awareness of the problem and to persuade people to change their behaviour. Students can work in groups in apprentice-style teams, or the lesson can be adapted for students to work as individuals.

In February 2021 the government announced that it was going to open a coal mine in Cumbria. This horrified the climate expert Professor James E Hansen who wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to persuade him not to go ahead with the policy and to reconsider his climate policies. This letter uses a simplified extract of this letter to introduce the fossil fuel climate crisis that is currently emerging and focuses on the persuasive language techniques that the writer uses to persuade the Prime Minister to his point of view. A clean copy and an annotated copy of the abridged letter are included. A twenty-slide Powerpoint accompanies the lesson with introductory activities, context and a choice of post-analysis activities: exam-style question on writing to persuade article for school magazine leaflet for younger students further research on the ‘fee and dividend’ economy described in the letter.

Everybody loves an exciting water park and now is your chance to design your very own ground-breaking new aqua park. This eight-page Word booklet takes you through the steps to create a name and logo for your park. You will then analyse the language techniques to describe real rides. Next you will create five rides of your own and describe them. You will need relaxation areas for your guests and you will be given help to create three areas. Finally, you can decide whether to create a leaflet or a website or both to promote your water park. Let your imagination race down the rapids of creativity with this fun project.

Have oodles of fun designing your own theme park. This step-by-step Word guide explains how to create a marketing campaign for your very own theme park. The steps include: Create a name and a logo for your theme park. Design four new rides for your park and write a sentence to sell each of them. Create two areas to appeal small children. Create a new on-site hotel with themed rooms. Put it all together in a leaflet to publicise the theme park. This sixteen-page booklet contains example texts which have been marked-up to highlight key features.

Diglington is a fictional seaside resort on the east coast of England, which is jam-packed with fun activities for the family. After studying the eleven page brochure with seven different sections full of language techniques and inspiration, students follow the eleven slide powerpoint to create a holiday brochure for a holiday destination of their choice. This is an ideal opportunity to research a real destination, or simply turn your home town into a holiday destination, using the language techniques that you have learnt. The folder contains two brochure, both word documents, one of which is marked up with comments. This activity will provide hours of fun as students become absorbed in their destination.

This fourteen-page Word document contains all you need to design your own box of chocolates containing eight unique chocolates that have come from your imagination. The booklet begins with information on the history of chocolate with a timeline to fill in. Then there are opportunities to analyse the language features of real chocolate box advertising campaigns. Your brief is to rescue the floundering Thornbury Chocolate Group with your new box of chocolates and marketing campaign. Can you rise to the challlenge? The booklet includes hours of fully-guided fun.

Ever struggled to explain the twisting and turning plot of Shakespeare’s classic play to younger students? If so then this resources can help you. Terry Deary has condensed the plot into a twenty-five verse poem called “The Ballad of Big Mac”. Students study the poem over two lessons, analysing the plot and language techniques in the poem. Having identified Deary’s use of pathetic fallacy, students are guided and supported to create their own witch and introduce him or her using pathetic fallacy. After peer-assessing each other’s work, students study an extract from “Doomspell” by Cliff McNish in which he introduces his witch, Dragwena. Students are then encouraged to re-draft and improve their descriptions using all the techniques which they have been taught in the two texts. Designed with less able students in mind, this folder of work would also suit primary school children. The folder includes. Copy of poem with numbered verses so students can be allocated a verse to practice reading/performing to class. A seven-page student workbook with a two comprehension cloze exercises on the poem and guided activities. Teacher answers to cloze exercises. Copy of extract from “Doomspell”. This resource could also be used as an introduction to my other lesson available on this website called “The Witches Spell”.

Taking three poems which personify the wind as examples, students will be inspired to write their own personification poem on one of the three remaining elements - fire, water or the Earth. The thirty-five slide powerpoint explains how the Ancient Greeks used to personify the four winds. An accompanying worksheet includes a fill-in-the-blank exercise on the key poem and asks students to consider the effect of the personification. Step by step on how to create your own poem to lead to understanding of how and why writers use personification.

Spanish is spoken widely around the world and many words have passed into English from this language. Have fun with your class guessing the forty words that have enriched English. The powerpoint first gives a clue and then the first letter of the word is given if needed. All answers are provided on the slides. A back-up worksheet is included to consolidate the learning.

Approximately 7,000 words have come into English from French and there are several ‘true friends’, words that are the same in both languages. Surprise your students with how much French they know already with these forty clues to French words. If the clue is too difficult, the first letter of the word is also included on the slide. All answers provided. Students can work independently or in groups and mark their own work.

230 slide Powerpoint accompanied by 15 worksheets on Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Covers historical background with lots of opportunities for character analysis. Two separate folders with support to write two essays - one on animal imagery and the other on imagery of light and dark.

Ten lessons on poetry based on the theme of superheroes aimed a weak Key Stage 3 students or Key Stage 2 students. Folder includes nine lessons with powerpoints and a twenty-five page student activity book. The scheme culminates in students creating their own superhero and then writing a story about a typical day in the life of their superhero. The poems are hilarious. Have great fun with this scheme of work. All fully adaptable in Word and Powerpoint format.