For Edexcel IGCSE Literature, pupils need to include lots of relevant context in their exam essays on the novel. I have designed this booklet as a handy way for students to collect lots of context stuff in a way that makes it easy to refer to and revise from. There’s a page for exploring how the title, taken from Burns’ To a Mouse links to each chapter in the novel. Next, there are pages dedicated to each chapter, with plenty of room for recording textual examples and quotations as well as context. The final pages are organised by character, so the students can quickly revise the relevant context connected to each of them. Please note: I haven’t included the contextual information in the booklet. This is merely a handy way of organising what they find out.

In my school, lower ability students only do Language at GCSE which leaves a little free time which we are starting to use to increase their media literacy, with the aim of increasing numbers for A Level Film Studies. This brief unit (which should only take a couple of weeks) builds on their existing knowledg of literary techniques, and uses extracts from ‘Kes’ to improve both their understanding of film and their creative writing. It involves: revising and using common literary devices; exploring the 5 elements of film form (as contained in the Eduqas spec); an analysis of how character and setting are established in the opening scene; narrative writing based on the scenes where Billy trains Kes; descriptive writing about an animal of their choice. It is written with Edexcel IGCSE Language students in mind, and is a great lead-in to the H is for Hawk Anthology extract. However, it could easily be adapted to suit any spec. It would also work well with bright Year 9s.

This is the full extract for the Edexcel IGCSE Language specification with boxes at various points for the students to write in. The boxes contain questions, prompts and ideas to help focus their notes on language and structure. I find them very useful in the classromm, espcially with lower ability pupils. They would also work really well for pupils forced to learn at home because of Covid outbreaks, for example.

This is the full extract for the Edexcel IGCSE Language specification with boxes at various points for the students to write in. The boxes contain questions, prompts and ideas to help focus their notes on language and structure. I find them very useful in the classromm, espcially with lower ability pupils. They would also work really well for pupils forced to learn at home because of Covid outbreaks, for example.

This is the full extract for the Edexcel IGCSE Language specification with boxes at various points for the students to write in. The boxes contain questions, prompts and ideas to help focus their notes on language and structure. I find them very useful in the classromm, espcially with lower ability pupils. They would also work really well for pupils forced to learn at home because of Covid outbreaks, for example.

This resource was designed for use with Year 8s, but it could work at GCSE or even A Level. Students: Read the opening of 1,2 (up until Claudius’ exit) Highlight his speech according to the various themes within it Explore the speech, finding key quotations The final page is to prepare for a hot-seating task where students get to think up questions for Claudius, Hamlet and Shakespeare, based on the opening of the scene. With weaker groups, I adopt the roles and they ask me questions, but with brighter students, they play the roles, too.

Edexcel have not done a great job of providing SAMs for the new IGCSE, and there are few past papers yet. I have created lots of them. They closely follow the format of the SAMs and past papers. Many of the unseen resources are from old spec IGCSE lang papers. This one uses Danger of a Single Story from the Anthology. It also has a full marks scheme.

Because Edexcel have not been too great about creating SAMs for the new IGCSE Language spec I decided to have a go myself. This one is a Paper 1 which closely follows the foramt of the SAMs. The unseen text is one from the old spec, and the Anthology Text is Danger of a Single Story There are two writing questions, too, and the whole thing looks just like a real paper. There is also a full mark scheme.

Because Edexcel have not been too great about creating SAMs for the new IGCSE Language spec I decided to have a go myself. This one is a Paper 1 which closely follows the foramt of the SAMs. The unseen text is one from the old spec, and the Anthology Text is Young and Dyslexic? There are two writing questions, too, and the whole thing looks just like a real paper. There is also a full mark scheme.

Each of these 5 sheets deals with one or two main characters in Much Ado About Nothing. They cover Beatrice, Benedick, Hero, Claudio and the Dons. The table form makes them easy to revise from. Each sheet lists the key characteristics plus a little explanation and then brief, important quotations. There are also boxes containing information about context, language and stagecraft. They work well as essay plans for character questions. They can be laminated and used as placemats on pupils’ desks, or put on walls as a display.

This novel by Attica Locke is new on the Edexcel A Level Lit course in the Prose Unit. There’s very little out there yet to support students’ learning as they read, so I have developed an analysis sheet to accompany each chapter. These sheets are for the third part of the novel. Depending on the importance of each chapter, each sheet has all or some of the following: A space for the students to write a brief synopsis of the events of the chapter; 1 - 8 short answer questions to develop their understanding of the plot and characters; A space to record anything interesting or important they found about the language, form and structure; A space to record any relevant contextual information which aids understanding of the chapter. Some of the sheets also contain a Deep Dive question, which requires them to write a 500 word response to a character or theme based question. Each sheet has fields for the students can type directly into.

This novel by Attica Locke is new on the Edexcel A Level Lit course in the Prose Unit. There’s very little out there yet to support students’ learning as they read, so I have developed an analysis sheet to accompany each chapter. Depending on the importance of each chapter, each sheet has all or some of the following: A space for the students to write a brief synopsis of the events of the chapter; 1 - 8 short answer questions to develop their understanding of the plot and characters; A space to record anything interesting or important they found about the language, form and structure; A space to record any relevant contextual information which aids understanding of the chapter. Some of the sheets also contain a Deep Dive question, which requires them to write a 500 word response to a character or theme based question. Each sheet has fields for the students can type directly into.

This booklet takes a deep dive into the text. I created it for middle-ability GCSE students, but it would work well with sparky Year 9s, too. It’s organised by chapter (with an extension unit on Chapter 3) and looks closely at language and structure as well as plot and characterisation. Each chapter has a range of guided activities, plus plenty of room for students to make notes. As it’s a word doc, students could access it electronically, and fill in the boxes using a computer if they like. At 40 pages long, it’s ideal for someone preparing to write about it in an exam (such as Edexcel IGCSE Lit), or as a classroom resource for students reading it at KS3. All the page numbers in the booklet refer to the hardback Longman edition, but you could easily change these if you’re using a different one.

This novel by Attica Locke is new on the Edexcel A Level Lit course in the Prose Unit. There’s very little out there yet to support students’ learning as they read, so I have developed an analysis sheet to accompany each chapter. These sheets are for the second part of the novel. Depending on the importance of each chapter, each sheet has all or some of the following: A space for the students to write a brief synopsis of the events of the chapter; 1 - 8 short answer questions to develop their understanding of the plot and characters; A space to record anything interesting or important they found about the language, form and structure; A space to record any relevant contextual information which aids understanding of the chapter. Some of the sheets also contain a Deep Dive question, which requires them to write a 500 word response to a character or theme based question. Each sheet has fields for the students can type directly into.