A worksheet designed to accompany the stunning episode of ‘Tales by Light’ about child labour. Children in need, episode 1. I created it for use in our English dept as part of a thematic project on ‘Our Planet’

A very helpful resource for pupils studying textual analysis. Key features of prose fiction to consider.

A unit of work - designed to be used with any level of secondary school class - that lasts for 3 weeks. Our pupils enjoyed doing this online over lockdown, but also suitable for a homework booklet or classroom work. Choices of tasks for each week : one writing task and one design task from lists of options. Thoughtful instructions to aid reflection.

I get pupils to complete the template while watching the scene, then later I provide them with a collated version of the class responses. This is a copy of a completed class response - but you may wish to create your own.

A single A3 sheet to support pupil revision of key quotations in each of the set text poems

A short project based on the film ‘Philomena’ starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan. I’m using it in a Scottish secondary school with S3/4 pupils - age 14-16 - as part of a project on protagonists and antagonists. Tasks include group discussion of a key scene, analysis of screenplay excerpt, studying two film reviews and writing a review.

A passage and question based on a newspaper article about the dark side of Roald dahl’s stories. We use it with S1 - 3 (age 11 - 14) high school pupils.

After studying a play with first year high school pupils, we get them to do this group discussion and poster task which they all enjoy.

A short reading assessment. The topic is about what happens when you lose your mobile phones. Pupils find it interesting and we use it as a high school test with lower ability sets in S1-3

Differentiated listening assessments we use with S1-3 high school pupils. Based on the first episode of Tales by Light on Netflix which focuses on the amazing photographyby Simon Lister of children across the globe in challenging circumstances.

A unit of work for S1 pupils (age 11-13) based on the play by Anne Fine. Questions on each act and discussion activities.

A unit of work to support a workshop-style approach to teaching creative writing. I’ve been working on this for a couple of years and pupils really enjoy it. We look at excerpts from a range of inspiring texts (e.g. ‘Sophie’s Choice’ by William Styron, The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini, ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue, ‘The Snapper’ by Roddy Doyle, ‘About Grace’ by Anthony Doerr and ‘Talking Heads’ by Alan Bennett) and go on to consider how these authors have utilised key techniques such as creating tension, narrator’s voice, vivid setting description, engaging openings etc… Pupils then attempt a short writing task based on each text. Texts not reproduced for copyright reasons, but page numbers and publishers listed. I have found that many pupils go on to purchase and read these texts after looking at them here.