Keep students mindful of the need to proof-read with regular starters and short SPaG exercises. These self-mark starters consist of an instructions slide and an answer slide PP and the text to be corrected on a handout, either for the whole class to aid speed or as differentiation to aid weaker/slower students.

PP with note to teacher and 'brain gym' slide; starter looks at how the word Biography is built up; main section is defining the word and writing a brief biography and plenary is reporting back - a very simple introduction to the topic

Designed as a way of preparing y9s for the new GCSE, these resources may also suit some exam GCSE boards. Here 'The Diamond Necklace' by Guy de Maupassant introduces students to the concepts they will be studying at GCSE: context & structure. The 'Recipe for success' gives links to the text as well as a reading of the story and has various teaching suggestions. The Power Points outline whole lessons with handouts that allow for differentiation. The 'extend' PP introduces more able students to the idea of a 'context of production' and a 'context of reception' in a simple way.

Rather than a series of lessons, this is a 'drop-feed' of tasks to improve older students' writing. The first step is to make them aware of how important accurate expression is. Great ideas are corroded by error-filled writing. The proof reading Power Point looks at two samples of students' writing that need to be improved - on the Word document these are written out to facilitate this process. In each case the next slide presents the corrected sample,so that students can peer mark or check their own. Each sample could be done in a different lesson: I'd recommend that for classes that are easily board by focused work. Likewise the two starters can be spread out. They focus on spelling, particularly the difference between sound and spelling, helping students notice pitfalls like ite/ight/ee/ea as well as the 'c' that sounds like 's'. Awareness leads to focus and on to improvement. That's the aim!

Here the focus is on crafting paragraphs for effect, as part of improving the quality of creative writing at both KS3- particularly in preparation for the new spec. English exam - and KS4, enabling students ‘to demonstrate their narrative and descriptive skills in response to a written prompt, scenario or visual image’... For more able students the lesson ends with a challenge to change the mood between the opening paragraphs and the one students go on to write.

Whether revising unseen poetry or honing reading skills, focusing on a few lines of poetry as a starter enables students to practise picking out key words and commenting on them, as well as noting structural and literary devices. You could also use these as prompts for descriptive writing with a brigh KS3 group, or the new creative writing A-Level.

Prepare your A-level students for AQA’s Section B unseen poetry question with this trial assessment, including an instruction PP with a link to an outstanding reading of the Keats; student friendly band descriptors; possible content with AOs and, of course, the question, based on both the 2017 and 2018 formulations. Ideal for use in a mock exam or test along with the feedback discussion of how to improve afterwards.

It is best to print this on A3. The point is for students to be able to choose which stories to write about quickly as soon as they see the question, so they map out which stories cover which aspects of gothic writing and list a key quote from each story that supports several points. The PP begins by explaining how the grid works. Then students fill in the grid - set the time in the space provided. The next two activities are covered over - the text is revealed on the click- if you want to edit this, just pull the blackened text box to one side and replace after. Using the grid as a help, students then decide which texts would be suitable for each past/ possible question. This should lead to discussion of several possibilities and reasons given...revision by stealth!

Help more able students develop their powers of description with this exercise; although it uses colour to create mood and atmosphere, the technique can be transferred to sustaining metaphors or similes, skills top marks are made of. The PP begins with a hyperlink[click on ‘colours’] to a song, Donovan’s ‘Colours’ [you may want to move to slide 2 on the musical interlude, as by then the link between colours and mood has been made] and takes students through the steps of choosing a colour while also making useful notes on the technique by looking at quotes and extracts. In the end, their task is to describe something, weaving colour imagery and mood words through the description. This could be set as a homework – or a next lesson. Linking this task to the opening lines descriptive writing task as a follow up lesson works well.

Using short extracts from both modern and classic texts, as well as visual stimulus material, this lesson focuses on how implied meaning in the description of a setting helps to create an atmosphere. Thus it both helps improve writing generally, but also prepares students for the demands of the new AQA spec English Paper1, fiction reading and writing. Section A is about reading fiction and in section B students have ‘to demonstrate their narrative and descriptive skills in response to a written prompt, scenario or visual image’,

These quick starters are all self-mark and focus on vocabulary and spelling.

Typical AQA questions begin with a critical stance to be applied to an extract and then the play as a whole. The starter PP gives the critical stance and asks students to formulate the question [a paper version is available to cut time wastage ] and chose - in groups with discussion- a suitable extract for the question. The homework is a log to fill in for each Act, providing a key focus and some key quotes. A note on essay writing outlines a strategy to follow as well as giving feedback from AQA on the way they prefer essays written.

• You will need the specimen paper for Unseen Poetry – p10 & 11, AQA/AQA-77121-SQP.PDF- for each student. • The Power Point will give students a strategy to follow for this paper – annotating the specimen paper, then writing the key ‘steps’ of the strategy is a good way of ensuring students engage with the strategy, but a handout has been made for revision. Some suggested questions can be used by you as a guide for setting essays or given to students for their own revision.

Something for older students: the lesson begins with a halloween word builder, with answers to self-mark; then there is a reading phase, where students are told about three different divination rites associated with traditional Halloween games. Students will choose one of these as a vehicle for their horror story. Next, they read 4 extracts describing horrific moments, to glean words and phrases they can use, as well as to see there is no need to be gratuitously graphic to create horror. Able and eager students can get straight on with writing, while a work sheet puts the lesson into perspective with 5 clear steps to follow as a planning stage for the story. For those who don't know how to begin, a line from either reading extract [divinations or extracts] will set them on course.

This short novel is riveting, so ideal for a boy-heavy class or those not too keep on reading. The lesson begins with a true or false starter dressed up as 'Would I Lie to You': depending on the group you could invite students to come up with their own facts, perhaps researched for homework and present them with more spin, or divide the group into two opposing teams. These facts are chosen for their general relevance to the story. The next phase is looking at the opening of the novel to notice how succinctly so much is said - a good exercise in inference. The PP takes students through the thinking process and the handout sheet enables them to annotate the text without re-writing the sentences. The lesson ends with a writing exercise in which they try to emulate Sedgwick's concentrated writing in 75 words. These extracts could also be used to supplement a unit on 'survival', or a focus on reading: 'how does the writer use language to...'

This 'recreative' lesson prepares students in KS3 and KS4 for writing based on another creative text. Particularly useful for section B of the new [2015 for 2017]AQA English paper 1, where students have to write 'their own creative text, inspired by the topic that they have responded to in section A to demonstrate their narrative and descriptive skills in response to a written prompt, scenario or visual image'. In this case it is a poem, 'Down the Laundrette' , and they are given a range of writing options, culminating in peer assessment. 'Down at the Launderette' is from Hiding Out by Irene Rawnsley (Smith|Doorstop Books, 1996) and is used with the publisher's permission. Top Tip: when checking peer assessed work, give rewards not only for good work, but perceptive peer comments; that way you keep students taking peer assessment seriously and raise the standard of response- the last slide suggests the type of comment looked for.

Here's a little something to challenge your top students: persuasion the classical way. The Ancient Greeks worked out how a persuasive speech should be structured to make it effective, Shakespeare played around with the form in many of his most famous speeches and even Barack Obama's speech writers follow the formula. Along with their connectives and persuasive devices, give your most able a tried and tested structure to lift their persuasive writing above the ordinary. There's a handout explaining the structure, a PP to test it's been understood and a worksheet to guide preparation for students to write their own speeches.

Using AQA's 'Love through the Ages' poetry anthology, these resources aim to distinguish as far as one can, between Metaphysical poetry and Cavalier poetry, but also to show how blurred the line between them sometimes is: this is the focus of the first Power Point . The quiz quotes lines of poetry and asks students to decide whether the extract represents Cavalier or Metaphysical poetry to enable them to discuss how to recognise each school. Focus turns to 'The Scrutiny' in the work sheet and then there's a revision sheet that focuses on the AOs to ensure that they are met.

‘Practise makes perfect’ is the idea behind this resource: I believe in the ‘drip-feed’ approach because it is important to keep doing something until it becomes second nature. These starters cover all types of reading: poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction, modern and 19th century. Essentially students should pick out what they see as key features to write about - you can decide whether their annotations should be formulated into paragraphs as a plenary or homework. The two opening slides on the PP bear repeating a few times to remind students what to do and get a strategy to become second nature. Each quote slide is followed by a ‘possible ideas’ answer slide and supported by a handout of the quote which can be annotated, either as differentiation for slow writers, or generally to speed the process. If speed and cost is an issue, the task can be done as a ‘whole class’ exercise, especially if you have an IWB or a way of annotating the projected text.

This fill in sheet structures how corrections are done and helps students monitor and record where they’re going wrong.