This is designed for Year 7 students reading ‘When Secrets Set Sail’ by Sita Brahmachari. There are comprehension questions, homework research tasks, and an extended reading response task looking at the relationship between Usha and Imtiaz. There is also a class discussion on the idea of reparations. This was written for Black History Month and can be used to help improve diversity in the curriculum.

This PPT gives information on Ballantyne’s novel ‘The Coral Island’ which ‘Lord of the Flies’ was based on. The PPT also uses information from Wikipedia on ‘social Darwinism’ to explore the historical context and influences of Darwin’s ideology and imperialism on both texts, and how both texts respond to these ideas, particularly in Golding’s context post WWII with Nazi eugenics.

This is a bundle of resources created for a GCSE English Language class. The topic is sport and has a particular focus on women in sport. There are two articles to use for synthesis practice (Jasmin Paris and the Montane spine race and Female sports stars should earn the same) with an accompanying PPT. There is a writing stimulus with an article about JD sports sexism row, with a writing task of a ‘lively article’. There are GCSE style questions and two contrasting texts which discuss the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo 2020, for comparison work. And there is a mock-style paper about women in sport with two texts, some practise questions, and an accompanying mark scheme.

This was created by students as a class revision guide, with slides on characters from the novel, some key themes and contextual information. The slides are colourful and could also be printed for display.

Year 9 inference square activity using an extract from Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong. War thematic unit.

This is a set of resources for teaching Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ for English Literature GCSE. I teach WJEC specification. The students are preparing for an exam with an extract task and an essay which has to refer to context. This bundle includes a starter PPT for introducing the novel and basic context (What’s a girl to do?), looking at what life was like for girls in Austen’s day, and outlining the main characters and starting Chapter 1. See https://sophietoovey.podbean.com/e/what-was-life-like-for-girls-in-jane-austen-s-time/ for an accompanying podcast. There is a PPT for introducing Collins and Wickham in Chapter 15, and then another PPT to introduce essay writing, with a model essay on the theme of marriage and an essay plan for a question about how the novel shows ‘the plight of women’. See https://sophietoovey.podbean.com/e/the-plight-of-women-in-austens-pride-prejudice/ for an accompanying podcast. There are PPTs for looking at Elizabeth’s visit to Hunsford, including an extract task on Darcy’s proposal in Chapter 34, and her visit to Pemberley. There is a PPT about Lydia’s elopement to help students understand what Lydia has done wrong. See https://sophietoovey.podbean.com/e/what-s-wrong-with-lydia-and-wickham-in-pride-and-prejudice/ for an accompanying podcast. Finally, I’ve also included a PPT with DIRT tasks for after a mock exam, although you could use them in any context eg. turning an A grade paragraph into an A*.

This lesson asks students to use verbal reasoning to clarify unknown vocabulary, then gives three ‘explain’ GCSE reading style questions. There is also an accompanying writing task ‘is Britain a class-divided society?’.

This was written as a model essay for WJEC ‘Lord of the Flies’ paper, where context is heavily weighted as 67% Ao4. I wanted to show the pupils how to look at historical and social context but in a way that is specific and relevant to the question.

I created this mock examination based on WJEC GCSE Literature syllabus for a MAT Year 10 group. The unit includes the mock, and then two PPTs which give an ideal template for giving whole class feedback afterwards, and two student sample paragraphs to ‘close the gap’ on their use of AO2. I have also included an annotated version of the extract for going through with the class after the mock, and a student’s 10/10 extract response.

These are resources I created for my Year7 class to teach them how to summarise and then give them a scaffolded persuasive ‘real life’ writing task of writing a letter to a soft drink company to persuade them to support the Deposit Return Scheme of plastic bottles. There is an article about companies lobbying the Government to delay the DRS which students summarise in sections.

A revision guide focusing on social and historical context, key quotes, and critics.

This bundle contains a Powerpoint with key terminology, a Powerpoint with slides on chapters 1-8 with focus on identifying character flaws, a notes handout to help students prepare to write an essay on Austen’s social values in Chapters 1-8, and a handout with some critical extracts from Helena Kelly’s very accessible ‘Jane Austen the Secret Radical’.

This is a simple idea for a classroom/corridor display to inspire secondary school reading. I’ve collected images of book covers onto a Word document to be printed in colour then cut down to size, mounted and laminated for display, in a layered effect. I’ve included children’s classics, adult classics, YA fiction, Middle-grade fiction, and tried to reflect a wide range of genres.

This resource is a ‘how’ question for GCSE students and I actually used it with a class who were only sitting Language, but reading one of the Literature texts alongside the course. The Powerpoint breaks down how to annotate and then use P.E.E to build an answer, and includes self assessment.

This is a short unit of work aimed at Year 7 (Level 4-5). There is a bank of proofreading tasks which work as starters, and a Powerpoint which goes through reading and annotating the article before students write about how the text makes cadets attractive to young people using a P.E.E. grid, paragraph scaffold and then independently. There is also a short version of the article for those working at Level 3. I have also included in the Powerpoint some DIRT work, a differentiated spelling list, and a vocabulary extension task.

Two articles, one about getting people interested in National Parks, the other a teacher’s blog post about an outdoor pursuits school trip. There are a range of GCSE style questions, including find and locate information, verbal reasoning, explain, how and comparison. Accompanying Powerpoint with one model answer ‘explain’ and a table to help students prepare for the comparison. Peer/self assessment with GCSE style marking criteria.

The Powerpoint identifies six key features of Austen’s style for pupils to look for in an extract question. The whole of Chapter 1 is included on a handout. Then there is an extract booklet which can be used in class or set as homework with extracts from the first eight chapters of the novel, with practice extract questions.

Based on WJEC style questions, this mock Language paper uses four texts on the theme of Child Soldiers and gives low-tariff and high-tariff questions such as text purpose, summary and synthesis.

When I was teaching the WJEC Larkin/Duffy AS poetry unit, I bought a number of critical texts on Larkin and these are my typed up notes with extracts from a range of critics. Ideal if you don’t want to purchase critical books which can be expensive and time consuming to work through.

I created practice GCSE reading and writing tasks using two contrasting articles: the Coddling of the American Dog and a web page from Dogs Trust. The article is funny and looks at how much money is in the pet industry in America today, and there are retrieval questions, vocabulary development, explain questions and a ‘how’ question. Includes mark scheme with specific answers from the text, but also marking bands from WJEC. There is a compare question and also a writing task to advise a friend who is considering buying a dog.