A simple lesson focusing on the use of rhyme in Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. I would recommend it being taught to younger students getting to grips with how we annotate rhyme schemes and compose rhymed poems; I taught this lesson to a mixed ability year 7 class. The presentation includes a starter asking students to use metaphors. Then, there is a slide exemplifying the difference between true and near rhyme. I’ve included an embedded video of a good reading of the poem. Following this is an annotation exercise and, finally, students are asked to write their own rubai using the same rhyme scheme as Frost.

Intended as the fifth in a creative writing scheme of work on dystopian writing. However, this lesson will work independently. The resource is centred around an extract from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick as an example of how students could write a persuasive advert for their own automaton - either humanoid or animal. I have included an additional starter activity as the material may take more than one lesson to cover. The resource was designed for high ability year 7 students, but could work for students in years 5, 6 or 8, dependent upon ability.

This is a 35-slide series of lessons for the Edexcel English Literature A level course on the poetry anthology ‘The Great Modern Poets’. The resource introduces modernism briefly and then contains individual lessons for the six poems of Robert Frost’s in the anthology: The Runaway Mending Wall Stopping by woods Mowing The Road Not Taken Out, out- Engaging YouTube videos are linked, there are a variety of discussion questions about language, form and structure and key context is provided. I have also drawn on online web articles (contained within) as a stepping-off point for discussion - mainly from the Poetry Foundation website, which I found very useful in teaching this scheme. Links to the original articles are included. Note that for ‘Out, out -’, there is only a one-slide brief for a student presentation, rather than the more in-depth, discussion-based material provided for other poems.

A full lesson centred around an extract from Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games with activities designed to get students to analyse how the author creates a sense of setting using a backstory and proper nouns. Students then have the opportunity to create their own backstory for a dystopia they have imagined. The resource was created as the fourth installment in a scheme of work, but could be used for a one-off lesson too. It is aimed at high-ability students in Year 7 but would work well for students in years 5, 6 or 8 dependent upon ability.

Lesson 3 in the scheme of work on writing in the dystopian genre. The lesson could be used as a one-off resource but is designed to build on students’ prior knowledge of noun phrases, non-finite clauses and adverbials. The resource asks students to think about the conventions of the genre and then asks them to write their own story openings. An original exemplar story opening is included to discuss / annotate with the class, which showcases the techniques practised in the previous two lessons. The lesson has been designed for use with high-ability year 7s, but would equally be suitable for students in years 5, 6 or 8, dependent upon ability.

The second in a sequence of lessons on dystopian fiction which builds upon grammatical skills for writing. The resource works as a stand-alone lesson too. The lesson introduces students to adverbs and adverbial phrases through the blurb of Gone by Michael Grant, getting them to identify the different types of adverbial in the text before asking them to write their own blurb or story opening in the dystopian genre. This lesson was designed for Year 7 but could work for students in years 5, 6 or 8 dependent upon ability.

An introductory lesson aimed at Year 7 students on dystopian writing. The resource could be used with students in 5, 6 or 8 too, dependent upon ability. The lesson begins by deconstructing the etymology of the words ‘utopia’ and ‘dystopia’ and is then made up of a series of tasks on identifying, analysing and using nouns and noun phrases in relation to an extract from The Beach by Alex Garland. At the end of the scheme, students will use their learning to write a part of a dystopian story. Two separate starter activities are included in case you would like to spread the material across two lessons. There should be enough material to do so. Other lessons in the sequence will follow as they are completed.

A simple, highly-visual introduction to adjectives with a range of explanations and tasks for students to complete. There is also information and tasks on adjectival phrases and postmodification. The resource would make a good introductory lesson to this word class for primary age students (perhaps years 4, 5, 6) or early secondary age students who need a reminder (year 7).

A simple introduction to verb and adverb word classes including straightfoward definitions, colourful and animated examples, and a range of tasks designed to get students not only to recognise these word classes but to use them successfully in their own writing. The lesson would be suitable for students of late primary age (perhaps years 4, 5, 6) or early secondary (year 7), depending upon their needs and abilities.

A word document booklet, which can be printed or sent to students, containing extracts from six different texts, followed by 8-10 comprehension questions. Each set of questions is followed by a creative writing extension task themed around the extracts. The extracts have been sourced from the following texts: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee ‘Supersports High’ - an article from The Times (12.8.2012) Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier The resource may be suitable for students in years 6-8 depending upon their reading ability.

A wide-ranging lesson which introduces the sonnet form through creative writing and comprehension questions about Barrett Browning’s use of it. I really liked the well-known resource ‘What’s a sonnet miss?’ (a poem about how sonnets are written), but found it too inaccurate. So, I have written and included my own sonnet about sonnets called ‘What’s a sonnet sir?’. Also included are comprehension questions which focus students on language and context, as well as a simple outline for an essay on the topic of the poet’s presentation of love. I found this an engaging and accessible way to introduce the Eduqas GCSE poetry anthology to my year 9 students. However, the lesson would work for any syllabus with Sonnet 43 on it.

An updated version of this lesson, now with more activities and greater aesthetic appeal. The presentation contains key context, activities on form and structure, language analysis, and comprehension questions. The final part of the lesson provides questions to prompt comparisons with other poems by Keats, so that students begin to forge connections and understand Keats’s prevailing themes and motifs.

A lesson which focuses on the language Keats uses to present the three figures (Love, Ambition and Poesy), as well as drawing connections and distinctions between this poem and the other great odes. There is little discussion of context here, save for the initial clarification of the epigraph as my students’ knowledge of Keats’s life is already strong.

A lesson which focuses mainly on building students discussion of AO2 (language analysis) through group work. Therefore, I have included no context and only a little reference to structure. My students seemed to really enjoy the lesson. The cover image and another image in the resource were created using AI.

An upgraded version of this lesson. A full lesson on Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale, covering context, form and structure, themes and language. The resource now contains a three-round quiz testing students knowledge of content and context.

A full lesson covering (lots of) context, form and structure, tone and pace, language and interpretations of the poem.

A full lesson on Keats’s To Sleep, covering context in detail, form and structure, tone, imagery, themes and interpretations.

A full lesson on Keats’s La Belle Dame covering context, form and structure, interpretations and the central theme of the poem. The resource should enable the poem to be taught effectively in a single lesson.

A full lesson on The Eve of St Agnes by John Keats, taking students through key points of plot, context, form and structure, language features and themes. I used this over a two-lesson teaching sequence.

This resource can be used across 2-3 lessons and leads students through the plot, context, settings, characters and key themes of the poem. I have tried to throw in a few strategies to make the lesson more student-led and less discussion or teacher focused, such as asking students to come up with their own questions about a section of text. The slides also contain my thoughts and ideas where they may be helpful.