A Christmas Carol Visual: plot and Scrooge’s character development. A power point and worksheet with images in chronological order to discuss as a whole class and for pupils to make notes on plot, Scrooge’s character, themes and the author’s message. Highly visual so ideal for low ability and visual learners. Scaffolded questions at the end of the worksheet as a plenary to explain how Scrooge’s character changes.

Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches diary enty. Image, instructions and key words to enable pupils to imagine that they are either Macbeth, Banquo or one of the witches. They write a descriptive diary entry of the meeting upon the heath. Good for low ability as the worksheet is visual with key words for guidance.

An Inspector Calls starter activities. A range of visual, creative and practical activities to engage lower ability pupils. Includes a quiz, discussion around images, key words, acrostic poems. Varied, visual and effective.

Macbeth anagram starter activity: power point and worksheet. A starter activity designed to revise character names and key themes. With answers for self assessment.

An Inspector Calls SQUID sort activity. Explores guilt and culpability for the death of Eva Smith. Worksheet with 3 SQUID (statement, quotation, unpick, infer, develop) paragraphs jumbled up. Photocopy on to card, cut up and get pupils to rearrange. Ideal as a starter or a penary for modelling effective textual analysis.

A detailed analysis of parent/child relationships in Romeo and Juliet, Caitrin by Gillian Clarke and What has happened to Lulu? by Charles Causley. Originally made for WJEC English Literature Unit 3 (poetry and drama literary heritage) but could be used to analyse these texts individually.

A Christmas Carol: Marley's Ghost and The Ghost of Christmas Past. Quotation comparison chart with space for pupils to make a comparison and then write an explanation.

Poetry extract from The Witches by Roald Dahl (analysis and writing tasks) The Grand High Witch reveals her plan to turn all children into mice. Acrostic poem starter, watch film trailer, detailed analysis of text with self assessment, choice of writing tasks and peer assessment and review. Copy of the poem for the pupils to highlight and annotate. Also phoneme word families sort activity and a spelling sort with words taken from the extract. KS2 and 3. Ideal for Halloween or general poetry topic.

Narrative writing carousel with 8 worksheets. For use with KS3 or 4. Worksheets are more effective if copied to A3 size. Pupils work in pairs to construct a section of a story, the worksheet is passed on for the next pair to complete a section and so on until the finished worksheet is returned. This is then checked and improved and can be written up or typed up to provide the finished narrative. Each worksheet has a different section already started; one worksheet is blank for higher achievers. Follows the ODCCR narrative writing framework. The pupils enjoyed reading out the stories once completed.

A fun poetry analysis and writing activity lesson (or two lessons) based on Rabbit by Ann Hoberman. Illustrated copy of the poem attached. The presentation analyses repetition, rhyme and onomatopoeia, there is word level dictionary and thesaurus work and a range of poetry or creative writing tasks linked to the poem for the pupils to choose from. There is a peer/self assessment and target setting slide. Ideal for primary Y5 and 6 or KS3. Did I mention the cute bunnies?...

Pupils interrogate a painting as a whole class, using questions to infer and deduce a narrative. They zoom in on details of the image in order to create descriptive detail. They then create the "story" behind the painting. The pupils could write a paragraph of the story initially without any teacher led interrogation, then once the image is thoroughly analysed they could produce an improved version to show progression. This could be self/peer assessed at each stage. The plenary creates a chance to consider the skills involved and how they link to descriptive and narrative writing. Worksheet which includes the image for pupils to make notes on also attached.

Poetry analysis: ‘Text’ and ‘Quickdraw’ by Carol Ann Duffy. Detailed powerpoint with leading questions and colour coded for pupils to effectively interrogate and compare both poems.

A fun poetry analysis and writing activity lesson (or two lessons) based on The Dentist and the Crocodile by Roald Dahl. This detailed presentation analyses language and puctuation features at word level, there is dictionary work and a range of poetry or creative writing tasks linked to the poem for the pupils to choose from. Includes opportunities for self and peer assessment with target setting and review slide. Ideal for primary Y5 and 6 or KS3.

Descriptive writing: Summer (The Beach) The power point includes: a starter, an extract from ‘Holiday Memories’ by Dylan Thomas which is analysed at word level, an opportunity for pupils to improve their work to show progression, a skills slide, a planning slide and a checklist for peer assessment. Also included, a pupil exemplar and examiner’s comments. Highly visual and engaging.

Different perspectives optical illusions presentation: ideal for tutor time. Encourages pupils to consider other people's different interpretations. Uses images of optical illusions to engage and provoke discussion.

This is a GCSE resource on The Manhunt by Simon Armitage for use after reading the poem (poem attached) These resources (5 in total) explore PEE formulas, the poet's perspective, semantic fields and themes, leading up to an essay which is then self assessed using grade criteria sheets. The sequence of tasks is clearly organised. Pupils will need copies of the poem, the PEE formula worksheet and the Task 4 slide which has a word cloud of the poem on it. They are tasked to organise the words into groups. This is best done visually via colour coding. The lesson, or lessons as it can definitely stretch to more than one, is engaging and will appeal to a variety of learners to enable them to more easily interrogate the poem. New GCSE grades 1-9 on powerpoint. Assessment/target setting sheets have previous A-G grades. As they are still in flux, I thought I would leave them to suit individual and school preferences; they can be easily changed.