Get your students ready for Halloween with this article packed full of interesting facts about the origin and history of Halloween. Eight comprehension questions follow, mainly based on select and retrieve questions, with mark scheme included. Finally there is a task to design a leaflet for younger students promoting Halloween. Created to engage students with British history and culture, this resource would also be ideal for EAL learners also.

There are eighteen lessons covering the twelve chapters of Neil Gaiman’s horror story for children, “Coraline”. Lessons explore Gaiman’s original use of language as you progress through the book, in particular his description of colours, smell and his use of similes. The scheme of work culminates in students writing their own horror story about “The Other School” that they attend and the “other teachers” who they have to battle to defend their school from. Some lesson folders contain more than one choice of activity. The key theme of bravery is also explored also.

Three lessons and two worksheets on John Agard’s brilliant poem “Checking Out Me History”. The first lesson uses a worksheet to enable students to discover the eight historical figures referred to in the poem and to discuss their own experience of history education. The second lesson covers the theme of the poem, focusing on how Agard presents identity. Using a worksheet and activity, students then explore their own identity. Finally, the third lesson looks at how Agard uses imagery of seeing in his work and students are then supported to create original and interesting imagery of their own.

This folder contains a twenty-slide powerpoint and a worksheets to introduce the key themes of the play as introduced in the prologue. There is a cloze exercise on a modern verision of the poem and a more difficult translation exercise, which could be completed for homework. After getting to grips with the language and themes of the Prologue, students then investigate Shakespeare’s use of compound adjectives inspired by “death-marked love” and “star-crossed lovers” and are encouraged to create their own brand-new compound adjectives, like Shakespeare.

Thirty multiple choice question with answers to revise the play.

In Act One Scene One of “Romeo and Juliet”, we meet Romeo for the first time and realise that he is in love with the idea of being in love with Rosaline due to his use of elaborate oxymorons to describe his feelings. This powerpoint explains the context of the play, the definition of oxymorons. The accompanying worksheet guides students to identify Romeo’s oxymorons and then gives them the beginning of oxymorons for them to create themselves. Could be used with the play or as a stand alone lesson on oxymorons.

This twenty slide Powerpoint guides students through how to have fun creating a 50 word mini-story with lots of examples, tips and golden rules. Students are given help to polish and re-draft their stories, culminating in them reading them out. It will take two to three lessons. It is good for getting them to think about beginnings, middles and ends, which they need for the creative writing element of the GCSE.

Support your students to write a formal letter with this powerpoint which contains a very letter from a grumpy member of the older generation complaining about teenagers today. Students have to identify the writer’s arguments and then plan how to write a successful letter in response. Perfect for preparing students for GCSE transactional writing.

Support your students to write a formal letter of objection to the council regarding the building of three new houses on a residential road. Using the thirty-two slide powerpoint, students compare two letters of objection looking for similarities and differences, as well as evaluating which is the best. Then they write their letter to their council objecting to the proposal to build an office block in the middle of the local park. The powerpoint creates interest in the subject by giving information about the importance and history of parks. Students then generate ideas together for the content and the structure of the task. The folder contains Word copies of the example letters and a powerpoint. Perfect for preparing students for GCSE transactional writing.

Teach your students how to write a ballad poem using the life of ex-slave and slave rescuer, Harriet Tubman. Celebrating the heroic life of Harriet Tubman, this twenty slide powerpoint shows how her life story was made into a ballad by Eloise Crosby Culver. Students then study the key features of ballads and are invited to add an extra verse of their own to the ballad, with historical information about the great lady. Students are then tasked with writing their own ballads about either a fictional or real person. Links in well with writing a ballad about Kissin' Kate Barlow from "Holes".

Did you know that sixty percent of English words are derived from Latin and Greek? This Powerpoint contains a range of clues to words in English which are derived from Latin and Greek quantities. Designed so that students can have fun working in groups, all answers are provided. There are twelve roots in total with between two to five clues to words per root, so it will definitely keep your students engaged. Beginning with a short explanation of how Latin and Greek came to be such an influence on English, this activity went down a storm when trialled with year 7 students. Cross-curricular links to both maths and science.

After a re-cap of the rules of the apostrophe of possession with an exercise with answers, students become language detectives to decide whether given examples, some from real life use, are right or wrong. A fun revision activity for students.

Introductory lesson on “Remains” with worksheet to storyboard the incident so that students can visualise what happened, followed by exercise to explode the key quotations about how the soldier feels. Accompanied by a powerpoint, extra comprehension questions and further exploration ideas.

This forty-four slide powerpoint on “The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson contains four lessons covering the four sections of the poem and a final writing assessment task. The folder includes: Powerpoint with four lessons, using paintings by Sir John Waterhouse and others to inspire and engage students. A storyboard of the setting in Part 1. Comprehension questions on Part 2. Image of Sir Lancelot to analyse his presentation in Part 3. Opportunities to explore the themes and symbolic meaning of the poem. Two worksheets to support the task of writing about the lady and the events in the poem from the point of view of Sir Lancelot. These resources will help your students to fully engage with Lord Tennyson’s beautiful, magical and mysterious poem.

Using Wes Magee’s simple, yet effective poem “What is the Sun”, students learn how what metaphors are and why writers use them. They are then given a choice of elements from the natural world, such as the Moon, the starts, a waterfall and have to emulate Magee’s poem, using five separate and original metaphors to describe their subject. Students love this lesson and it is very effective in getting them to use metaphors, which are much more difficult than similes. Creates lovely display material also.

This twenty-six slide powerpoint contains two lessons on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18. In the first lesson, students get to grips with the archaic vocabulary by translating the sonnet into modern English. They can then focus on the meaning and the extended metaphor of the weather. In the second lesson, students are taught the key structural elements of the Shakespearian sonnet form. They then have a go at writing their own love sonnet. For inspiration, Benjamin Zephaniah’s poem “I Love Me Mudder” is included, which they could turn into sonnet form. They are given three-step guidance to writing a sonnet and then time to reflect on the process and Shakespeare’s achievement of writing 154 sonnets in total. Included in folder are: Copy of sonnet with glossary of archaic vocabulary. Copy of Benjamin Zephaniah’s “I Love Me Mudder” 26 slide powerpoint with starters.

Starter activity on the homophones allowed and aloud. Afer the explanation, students fill in the correct word in ten sentences, followed by answers, so students mark their own work.

Three lessons using an extract from Bill Bryson’s “Notes from a Big Country” on the theme of junk food. The lesson sequence is as follows: With a worksheet of devices, students learn the techniques that writers can use to create humour. They then identify these devices in the extract. The second lesson is transactional writing where students write an article to persuade their class mates to eat healthily in timed GCSE exam practice conditions. The third lesson is a feedback lesson after the articles have been marked. The folder includes a WAGOLL from a real GCSE student and exercises to help students make their conclusions more powerful.

Full scheme of work on the graphic novel by Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy. Eight lessons in total aimed at lower ability students with accompanying worksheets. Worksheets focus predominantly on cloze exercise summaries of the chapters, so that students remember the plot. Each lesson contains a powerpoint also.

In order to successfully achieve the style of a newspaper report, students need to understand how to construct an news report intro. This 24 slide Powerpoint breaks down the structure, then gives five examples of intros for students to analyse, followed by three exercises to write their own intros. A good exercise in getting students to use complex sentences also. The lesson starts by reading a real newspaper report so students are presented with a WAGOLL. Turn your class into budding reporters with this fun lesson.