These are quick and easy activities designed to engage your students at the start of the year. The first is a classmate scavenger hunt, which is a fun way to provoke class discussion. The second is an individual and small group task designed around who they would let in to a bomb shelter after an apocalyptic disaster.
Teaching prepositions through a fun pair based activity and by exploring Dystopian Fiction. A quick and easy to follow presentation and accompanying worksheet that aims to demonstrate quick progress. The lesson teaches prepositions and asks students to include them in a small section of writing. There is also an active pair based activity and opportunity for peer assessment. Challenge tasks also included. At least one hour of work provided, with the option of extending the writing task into a longer homework assignment.
This is a jigsaw styled lesson based on the Jane Weir poem Poppies from the conflict anthology. I have found that my students responded really well to this task and worked through quite a lot of notes very efficiently. There are questions in the resources that test the students comprehension of some of the very complex ideas from the poem. Activity itself is rather straight forward. Teacher prints and posts notes sheets around the room. Students are divided into groups of 3-4. They are each allocated a page or 2 of points to summarise. They share their answers so each has a full page of notes for the activity. Then they complete the anaylsis questions on the back. Powerpoint slide has more info if needed. The resources work better if printed on A3. Very effective revision resource if done properly.
This is an introductory lesson the the Jane Weir poem ‘Poppies’ from the Conflict anthology. This contains an annotation worksheet and tasks centred around identifying symbolism in the poem and making inferences. Challenge tasks included along with an extended writing piece for a HW task - sentence starters included. At least 120 mins worth of content for a junior KS4 class. Read the Powerpoint for how the lesson should be structured.
With the A Level Media Eduqas specification (WJEC), students have a choice of 4 options with their coursework (non-exam assessment). This coursework lesson gives students some planning and design resources that require minimal instruction so that students can work simultaneously to produce meaningful planning documents. With the print design tasks I would finish the lesson by getting students to use found images to work on a mock up of their Magazine covers or Film Posters. I have found students have enjoyed the independence that these resources have offered.
The spidergram is something I would display at the start of the lesson so that all students know exactly what they have to work on during the lesson without getting distracted by some of the other coursework components.
For A Level Media, Eduqas Specification - Life On Mars Set text. This is an annotation resource that helps students make notes while viewing the set text episode. This resource pack includes the answers (in brief), to allow teachers to guide students towards accurate ideas. The activity also breaks down the programme into key concepts and theorists’ work.
This is a video game pitch assignment for a junior Media studies or English Class. The task is for students to produce and present their very own pitch for a brand new video game. I also have an exemplar with a space for students to make annotations. This resource is a major task and with research, investigation and planning could be implemented over a number of lessons.
This is a planning task that gives students a guideline about how to produce a pitch for their very own soap opera. This is a useful planning document for a Media Studies group and can be adapted to suit older and younger cohorts.
A quick and easy research quiz - geared around the WJEC/Eduqas A Level Media Studies Course. Questions and answer sheet provided. Key texts are Life on Mars and The Bridge
To be used with any senior Media Studies class. This is a thorough presentation that explores everything you wanted to know about Auteur Theory and more. It provides examples of auteurs and the defining characteristics that made them auteurs and includes questions for students to consider throughout. I have found that this presentation really helps students to start to think more about the process of directing films, and gets them to make connections between recurring features in a director's body of work.
Please note - some images and clips have been removed for copyright purposes - but resource can be easily edited.
This is a resource that enables effective and efficient annotations of the Magazine analysis (Component 2 of the AS/A2 Media Studies Eduqas syllabus - from 2017). I wish I had made this earlier, it makes students notes so much more organised and easy to follow. This is designed based on the 'Woman's Realm' mag analysis, but can be easily modified if selecting a different set text - just copy and paste different mag pages. This worksheet is enough work for 3-4 hours of work and has stretch/challenge work included.
I have not found a huge amount of resources for tasks like that, so hopefully this helps those of you in a similar position. (Note - this is only the first 3/4s of the mag analysis, last 1/4 will be posted shortly.
This is a 4 page resource that explains the 3 major sentence types to younger readers. It also explains and provides examples of possible effects created by the use of different sentence types. The worksheet is based on the young adult novel Skellig, but is adaptable to add in extracts to any text. A number of tasks included requiring students to apply their knowledge of sentence types and make inferences about their effects.
GCSE Literature Paper Preparation
This pack contains a practice question from part A of the Romeo and Juliet Literature exam. The text is taken from Act 5 - Scene 3 - Romeo Approaches the Tomb. The pack includes a Master Powerpoint to prepare students for the core ideas of the scene, a student version, with activities to complete along the way and a practice question, complete with mark scheme. This entire resource provides enough work for 2-3 1 hour long lessons (including 35 mins to complete the exam question).
A thorough look at figurative language. What it is? Why its used? And what effects it can create. An interactive lesson where students identify, analyse and then create their own language features. Also contains a differentiated version. A straight forward 1 hour lesson, with extra homework task included.
Ever wondered why a film script is written in Courier New font? Or how writing helped Tarantino make his first feature film? This resource provides a comprehensive introduction to the basic rules of script writing in a light-hearted way. The resource is print ready and provides enough content and integrated activities for at least a one hour lesson.
This resource explains how to produce an essay response to a Romeo and Juliet analysis question. The resource is tailored to the Edexcel Literature Paper 1, but it can be easily adapted. A complete paragraph is included, broken down into stages to help students understand the formula. Based on Act 3 Scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet.
A ready to go lesson that teaches students the purpose of paragraphs and topic sentences in a concise 1 hour lesson. Students learn about paragraphing and topic sentences. They then apply their understanding to produce their own letter based on a fictional character (though the activity is adaptable). Resource provided for students to edit and use to identify the topic sentences. Opportunities for peer assessment also included as well as plenaries and clear measurable lesson objectives.
A straight forward worksheet that describes how to use colons and semi colons effectively. Also a bonus conjunction worksheet. This is a helpful, print ready worksheet that aims to improve students writing through understanding some more challenging concepts.
This resource is an A3 designed compartmentalised worksheet to help students analyse and revise the Conflict anthology Poem - A Poison Tree. This resource includes a detailed answer sheet. All adaptable so you can extend answers as you see fit. Useful for visual learners and already differentiated by nature. All easy printable.