6 aspects of Golding’s style to look for in an extract question: dialogue, characters, mood, relationships, actions, symbols.

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 handout gives three extracts from Gothic fiction: ‘Frankenstein’, ‘Dracula’ and ‘Great Expectations’. I used this with a Year 9 group who did a mini-essay on how Dickens creates mood in the final extract, and I am also planning to ask them to use two of the extracts, alongside a non-fiction extract, to synthesise ‘What is Gothic fiction’?

Using extracts from Robinson Crusoe and Treasure Island, students created these proof reading tasks which I've compiled into one booklet with an answer booklet as well. Each task includes a range of SPAG errors and could be used for Key Stage 3 or 4. You could use the tasks singly as starters, or set the booklet as a homework challenge, or complete in class with a competitive element.

I used this with a Year 7 MAT group. They read the blog post ‘10 reasons to take a survival course’ then answered the reading questions. They then planned and wrote an essay on ‘Should schools teach survival skills’.

Using 4 images to represent 4 key aspects of context for Lord of the Flies, this PPT helps students to understand what historical or social contextual details can help them with the essay question on the text. I asked the students to draw a simplified version of the icons into their books to remind them to include each aspect in their essays on ‘Lord of the Flies’. The images help them to remember these key points.

There are GCSE style questions to answer on the ‘voluntourism’ article and then a comparison grid to fill in to compare that article with the other one on volunteering abroad. Students can then write a 10-mark style answer : ‘Compare the attitudes of the writers to volunteering abroad.’

These proof-reading starters were created by a MAT Year 7 group. They were each given a section of ‘Treasure Island’ chapter 3 and asked to create 10 errors, then list at the bottom a key for what to look for eg. 3x spelling errors, 1x full stop. I have used these as starters for Key Stage 3 classes.

Created by students, each slide gives key points and quotes exploring a theme in Doctor Faustus. Themes include magic and the supernatural, blood, salvation, good vs evil, social status.

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.

Key characters in Pride & Prejudice, with points for wealth, wit, influence and attraction so that students can see how characters compare to one another in their social status. These make for a nice classroom display too.

One side of the postcard has an image of the ‘learning pit’ and the other has questions for students to answer about their own learning.

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 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?’.

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.

This was designed for Y7-8 for Black History Month. The PPT contains several lessons of work, introducing Windrush with poetry and an inference square, and a homework research project, and then using sources on the Mangrove 9 to answer comprehension questions then complete a synthesis extended reading response. These resources were compiled from online sources.

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.

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.

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.