A lesson sequence on the excerpt ‘Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan’ from the Edexcel IGCSE anthology. There may be two lessons worth of material here, focused on having students identify and annotate the key features of language and structure. Then, then class are divided in two and provided with tables to complete, which focus them on analysing either the presentation of the people or the place, for question 4 of Paper 1. The resource may be better used with higher ability students, as the majority of the work is student focused, relying on their thoughts and analyses and those of their partner/group. Two AI-generated images have been used for decoration.

A lesson on Kipling’s ‘If-’, which engages students with the poem’s main themes and ideas, and features of language and structure. It contains some background on the poem, information on stoicism (which seems to underpin many of the poem’s ideals), guided annotation, information on form and structure, and an exam-style question with writing frame. The lesson was designed for use with high ability students, studying the Edexcel IGCSE in Literature. The cover image was created using AI and does not reflect the appearance of the the slides in the resource. The image has been uploaded in case you would like to use it.

Up to two lessons’ worth of content on Wilfred Owen’s poem Exposure. This was created and delivered to a middle-ability Year 8 class and provides a number of engaging activities including: Storyboarding Descriptive writing Language analysis (focusing on the presentation of nature, not war) Diary entry imaginative writing AI generated imagery has been used in this lesson, making it very visually pleasing.

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.

A lesson filled with contextual information on Keats’s On The Sea. Discussion points are also provided for Keats’s use of the sonnet form as well as his philosophy of negative capability and the role of the poet. Some images have been created using AI.

A full lesson designed to lead students through the extract from Adichie’s TED talk ‘The Danger of a Single Story’ found in the Edexcel IGCSE Literature and Language anthology. The lesson is recommended for students in years 10 and 11. The resource includes a choice of two starter activities, a linked video of the original TED talk (check the notes section for recommended times to watch with your class), a group discussion activity with prompt cards, a table with key quotations and devices for students to complete with analysis, and a PETAL writing frame to support students in writing an exam-style response.

A full lesson designed to lead students through the poem Half-Past Two by U. A. Fanthorpe which appears on the Edexcel IGCSE Literature specification. The visually-pleasing resource includes: a choice of starter activity; an ‘exploding’ quotations activity with detailed exemplar; guided language analysis with questions on key lines; a PETAL paragraph writing frame to support students in writing a response to an exam-style question. The cover image was created by AI and is included in the resource.

A full lesson designed to guide students through the poem ‘Prayer Before Birth’ by Louis MacNeice, which is found in the Edexcel IGCSE Literature specification. The lesson is aimed at students in years 10 and 11. The resource is visually attractive and includes: a choice of starter activity; summary and background on the poem; an embedded YouTube video of a reading of the poem; 7 slides with key lines from the poem and guided questions to help students analyse the poem (these could be used for group work or guided analysis); a short summary of the features of form and structure; an additional task directing students to examine the theme of nature vs industrialisation.

A full lesson on the poem Remember by Christina Rossetti, which appears on the Edexcel IGCSE Literature specification. However, the content of the resource is applicable to any course of study at GCSE level which includes this poem. The resource includes: a starter activity where key techniques in the poem are matched to definitions; an embedded YouTube video of a reading of the poem; a short summary of the poem; guided, step-by-step language analysis through key questions; summary of the main features of form and structure; an exemplar response to an exam-style question (students can then have a go at writing a response themselves).

This lesson teaches students how to analyse the language of a poem through a range of activities relating to Counting Tigers by Gillian Clarke. It includes a choice of starter activity, a quotation ‘exploding’ activity, two exemplar responses to an exam-style question on the poem and a writing frame utilising the PETAL acronym to help students write their own response. The lesson is highly visual and there may be enough content to cover more than just one one-hour lesson. I taught this lesson to a low-ability year 9 class, but it could easily be pitched to GCSE students as an unseen poem.

The lesson takes students through some key aspects of context, including some of the language of the letter Keats wrote to Fanny Brawne which sheds light on the themes of this sonnet. There are slides containing comprehension questions designed to get students talking about Keats’s use of the sonnet form and comprehension questions which engage with the main imagery of the poem. The final part of the lesson provides questions to prompt comparisons with other poems by Keats.

A presentation which considers some advanced aspects of the context, form and structure of John Keats’s To Autumn. It then provides discussion / comprehension questions for the language in each stanza. The resource is suited for more able GCSE learners (i.e. those following the Eduqas specification) and A level Literature students who have selected Keats as their pre-1900s poet.

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

A mini bundle with activities for comparing the following poems from the new Eduqas GCSE specification: Mametz Wood, Dulce et decorum est, Afternoons, Too Autumn and Ozymandias.

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 Ode to a Nightingale, covering context, form and structure, themes and language.

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.

A three-lesson scheme of work on John Keats, designed to teach students about the sonnet and ode forms, context and Romantic ideals including the Sublime. The poems covered are: On The Sea, To Autumn and Bright Star.

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.

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.