This is a simple and straightforward powerpoint, created for lower ability students but easily editable for the specific needs of your class. There are 3 pre-1914 excerpts, one about the Regent’s Park skating disaster and two about Prince Albert falling through ice while skating. The tasks provided focus on basic reading skills: inference and information retrieval. These can be used as a diagnostic tool before students embark on analysis and evaluation. Alternatively, the tasks could be tweaked to make them more analytical if your students’ reading skills are securely embedded. The powerpoint ends with a letter-writing task linked to the idea of ice skating and more dangerous sports generally.

This powerpoint uses 7 poems, all in the public domain. The intention is that students can work independently to develop the habit of becoming questioning readers, interrogating the text to deepen their understanding. Questions are provided to encourage this. Alternatively, the powerpoint could be used to structure a guided reading session on unseen poetry. It could also be used in class to support the teaching of analysis of unseen poetry. The questions will help to identify gaps in students’ understanding so that subsequent discussion can be more sharply focused.

This is a straightforward multiple-choice quiz (answers provided) focusing on the description of Fred from Stave 1 and how his characterisation contrasts that of Scrooge. Useful for homework or could be used as a starter to identify gaps in pupils’ knowledge so that subsequent teaching can be more sharply focused.

This is a multiple-choice quiz with 26 questions on “The Farmer’s Bride” by Charlotte Mew. Could be used for homework or revision. Alternatively, this could be used to check students’ understanding of the poem prior to teaching so that the subsequent lesson can be more precisely focused on gaps. Answers are provided.

This is a comprehension (close reading and response) activity using an extract from “Old Tales Told Again” by Walter de la Mare. The text is in the public domain and is a re-telling of the story of Snow White. There are ten questions. The questions focus mainly on the reading skill of inference. This could be used as a cover activity or for homework. Alternatively, the questions could be used to structure a guided reading session. This would sit well in a unit on fairy tales.

This is a multiple choice quiz (answers provided) on “Mother Any Distance” from the Love and Relationships cluster of the GCSE anthology. There are 21 questions. This could be used for revision and homework. Alternatively, it could be used prior to teaching to identify gaps in students’ knowledge so that subsequent teaching can be more precisely focused.

This is a grid of activities for students who are studying Shelagh Delaney’s “A Taste of Honey”. Originally planned as a cover activity, it could also be used as half a term’s homework or for revision if the students are studying the play for GCSE.

This lesson is part of a unit on fractured fairy tales. It uses part of the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. The focus of the lesson is on selecting verbs that allow the reader to draw inferences about characters.

This is a language-rich excerpt from “All Quiet on the Western Front” with a model paragraph using a quotation from the text. Useful for revision or for homework. Students use the model as the basis for their own paragraph of analysis.

I made this grid when cover was needed for a year 7 class who were working on a unit on Fairy Tales. The task is adaptive so children could choose their own activity. However, this grid could also be used over a half term, providing homework activities.

This is a short excerpt from Elbert Hubbard’s recount of the sinking of Titanic with 12 multiple choice questions (answers provided). This could be used as a starter activity or for homework. It could be used to structure a guided reading activity with the questions providing a starting point for a more in-depth discussion of the writer’s use of language. Alternatively, it could be used prior to teaching to identify gaps in knowledge so that the subsequent lesson can be more precisely focused.

This is a simple and straightforward multiple-choice quiz using a charming poem (public domain) with a focus on onomatopoeia as well as some questions to test inference, comprehension and recognition of personification. Answers are provided. Useful as a homework or as a starter.

This lesson uses questioning to elicit students’ knowledge of methods used by the writers and understanding of some of their effects. Students are asked to annotate their copies of the poems in the questioning phase of the lesson so that they can then use their notes to spend 40 minutes working independently on both sections of an exam-style question. The two poems used are by John Clare and Walter de la Mare, both called “Winter” (and both in the public domain so no issues with copyright).

This is a lesson focusing on the skills needed to tackle the unseen poetry question in paper 2 of the English Literature exam. The two poems used are “The Thunderstorm” by Emily Dickinson and “The Thunder Mutters” by John Clare (both public domain). Printable copies of the poems, for annotation, and the exam-style questions are on the final slide.

This is a revision (practice) powerpoint covering many of the skills required for English Language Paper 2. There is also an unseen poem which links thematically, so there’s a bit of Paper 2 Lit interleaved. There are three non-fiction texts, rather than two, so that there’s a greater breadth of reading during the revision period. The powerpoint ends with an exam-style paper 2 writing task.

14 tasks here that could be used for pick and mix homework or alternatively set for cover so that pupils can select their own task.

This 9-slide powerpoint has the aim: link ideas about the moon to characters in the play. Pupils are invited to think about how the moon is used to deepen the characters of the fairies. The lesson invites discussion and the sharing of ideas, to be recorded in a Venn diagram which is then used as the basis of a more formal written response.

This powerpoint guides students through the AQA GCSE English Language paper question by question (in that there are example questions and some guidance). There’s too much here for an hour’s lesson - could be extended over two or even three lessons. The text is a heavily abridged segment from “Casino Royale” by Ian Fleming in which Bond faces his enemy, Le Chiffre at the casino.

This is a straightforward worksheet, suitable for cover, revision or homework, asking students to identify some of Sherriff’s motifs in “Journey’s End”, to find evidence of where they’re used in the text and to comment on their effect.

This uses John Clare’s “First Love”. There are 7 comprehension questions, the ideas from which can be used to annotate the poem in preparation for tackling the exam-style question at the bottom of the page. The questions could structure a class/small group discussion before the students work independently on the exam-style question. Useful for cover, for homework or for revision.