A 7-page, in-depth guide to writing essays suitable for A Level and GCSE students. The resource includes a combination of advice and practice activities and covers the following: 1. How to re-draft essays, with strategies to make them clearer and more sophisticated. 2. Writing a hypothesis to start your essay effectively. 3. Using the passive voice. 4. A long list of sentence stems that are suitable for use across the board in literature and language essays. I originally designed this booklet for A Level writing workshops but now use it with GCSE classes as well. I find it particularly useful at the start of the A Level course, but also at any other point when you want to improve students' essay writing skills. Some of the examples used are taken from a range of essay-writing subjects, not just English, to demonstrate the fundamental principles of good essays which are applicable to a range of subjects. The guide would therefore be useful for other essay-writing subjects with the exception that most of the Sentence Stems section is most suitable for English.

Nine comprehension and analysis questions on the short story 'The Nightingale and the Rose' by Oscar Wilde requiring in-depth, critical responses. The questions are designed to be done after a first reading of the story to check and develop students' understanding of the plot, characters and themes. This is a useful classwork or homework resource. Designed for teaching of the New Windmill 19th Century Short Stories on the Edexcel IGCSE.

A character analysis lesson on Macbeth & Lady Macbeth. It is designed to help students build towards writing extended analytical responses. The resources are fully differentiated with modelling & scaffolding included. The different steps can be used as differentiated starting points, or all students can start at the beginning. The progress slide allows you to demonstrate progress within the lesson easily and students enjoy working through the levels. The full colour resources are very engaging. This could be used with a KS3 or lower set KS4 group.

A 2-page quotation revision resource on key motifs and symbolism in Romeo & Juliet. The quotations are grouped as follows: - Fire & Heat Imagery - Light & Dark Imagery - Stars Motif - Infection & Disease Motif - Religion & Pilgrimage Imagery - Graves, Death & Corruption Imagery Includes 27 quotations in total so is useful for focused revision; each quotation is briefly contextualised within the play. It is designed to engage students and make them feel that quotation-learning is achievable. This could be used as a homework or in-class resource as part of exam preparation or as an essay-writing prompt. It provides a realistic number of quotations for middle and lower ability students to focus on for these key motifs. For higher ability students, it can form part of a wider quotation revision programme. Revision can also be differentiated by the number of sections that students are given to learn.

14 questions on the short story 'Country Living' by Guy De Maupassant based on SOLO Taxonomy principles. The questions are designed to be done after a first reading of the story to check and develop students' understanding of the plot, context and characters in a phased way. They are divided into sections of 'Unistructural', 'Multistructural', 'Relational' and 'Extended Abstract' going from basic, building-block knowledge of the story to abstract connections to contemporary ideas and writing. Students choose a starting point appropriate to their current skill and knowledge level; equally, they could work in differentiated groups, with each group taking a set of questions to answer. Students might need to conduct some research in order to answer some of the questions. Designed for teaching of the New Windmill 19th Century Short Stories on the Edexcel IGCSE.

Detailed 2-page resource of analytical notes on 'Your Guide to Beach Safety' plus past questions on the extract - for use with Section B of the Edexcel IGCSE in English Language. I prepared these notes for first-teaching of the extract but also ultimately gave them to students who found them very useful for revision purposes. The notes begin by focusing on purpose, audience and tone and then focus in close detail on key linguistic and structural choices made by the writer. This helped my students to gain the in-depth and high level knowledge and skills required to score well on this section of the IGCSE exam.

Detailed 3-page resource of analytical notes on 'Touching the Void' plus a list of past questions on the extract - for use with Section B of the Edexcel IGCSE in English Language. I prepared these notes for first-teaching of the extract but also ultimately gave them to students who found them very useful for revision purposes. The notes begin by focusing on purpose, audience and tone and then focus in close detail on key linguistic and structural choices made by the writer. This helped my students to gain the in-depth and high level knowledge and skills required to score well on this section.

14 questions on the short story 'Napoleon and the Spectre' by Charlotte Bronte based on SOLO Taxonomy principles. The questions are designed to be done after a first reading of the story to check and develop students' understanding of the plot, context and characters in a phased way. They are divided into sections of 'Unistructural', 'Multistructural', 'Relational' and 'Extended Abstract' going from basic, building-block knowledge of the story to abstract connections to contemporary ideas and writing. Students choose a starting point appropriate to their current skill and knowledge level; equally, they could work in differentiated groups, with each group taking a set of questions to answer. Students might need to conduct some research in order to answer some of the questions. Designed for teaching of the New Windmill 19th Century Short Stories on the Edexcel IGCSE.

An A3 double-sided revision resource for Chaucer and The Merchant's Tale context. Includes information on Chaucer's life, The Canterbury Tales, the marriage tales, use of irony, conventions of medieval poetry, the medieval Church, contemporary beliefs about poverty and death, Chaucer's earlier great poem Troilus & Criseyde and specific symbolism, imagery and references in The Merchant's Tale. My students found this a really useful go-to for context revision as the information can seem overwhelming, but here it's brought together in one place.

An 8-page workbook on the treatment of women in Romeo and Juliet. The first page contains a summary of key points about the role of women in the play, contextual information and societal expectations of noblewomen. The booklet then focuses on Juliet, Lady Capulet, The Nurse, Romeo, Friar Laurence and Lord Capulet. For each character, students are asked to find and analyse evidence for relevant events and relationships. For example, the Lady Capulet section asks students to look at: Her relationship with Juliet, including her limited involvement in her day-to-day upbringing; her relationship with the Nurse and her relationship with Lord Capulet. This could be used as a first-teaching resource or as a revision resource. It can be differentiated through different roles in group work - asking less-skilled students to find evidence and more-skilled students to analyse it.

A double-sided A3 quotations revision resource for Romeo and Juliet, organising key quotations by theme and character. Characters run down the side of the table and themes run across the top. Where a quotation is relevant to both a theme and a character, it is included in the relevant square. 44 of the 88 squares are filled with one or often numerous quotations. The other squares are blank for students to fill in their own additional quotations as part of the revision process. The characters covered are: Romeo, Juliet, Lady Capulet, Lord Capulet, The Nurse, Friar Lawrence, The Montagues, Mercutio, Benvolio, Tybalt and some quotations from minor characters and the Chorus. Themes covered are: Love & Sex, Fate, Death, Conflict & Reconciliation, Parent/Child Relationships, Friendship, Youth & Age, Marriage (linked to women's roles). My students said that they found this a useful and detailed overview of key quotations which helped them to make connections between themes and characters in their revision.

A selection of resources for teaching the novel Dark Matter to Key Stage Three. The resources included are: 1. A one-page set of analysis questions for Chapters 3 & 4, with a point, evidence explain model to show students how to write analytical paragraphs. 2. A creative writing lesson focused on using pathetic fallacy inspired by Dark Matter, including a group carousel activity. There are three resources for this: Lesson Slides, A3 carousel resources for printing and a 3-page handout for students including two extracts from Dark Matter in which Michelle Paver uses pathetic fallacy and a guidance page to help students start writing. 3. A sentences lesson which uses Dark Matter to teach students how to identify and use simple, compound and complex sentences - includes lesson slides and a 3-page worksheet of sentences exercises for students to practise. 4. A whole-text analytical essay writing activity to be completed once you have finished reading the novel. This one-page handout introduces the essay to students, gives them question options to choose from and models how to plan the essay. If you have any questions, please ask!

A handout which examines A Doll's House as a problem play, and looks at the evidence for it as a feminist play and a tragedy. Includes quotations from Ibsen himself and the critic Tornqvist. A useful resource for understanding genre and meeting the context assessment objective on the OCR A Level spec.

A thorough introduction to Angela Carter designed for A Level students beginning study of The Bloody Chamber. The booklet covers key biographical information on Carter, including the experiences in Japan which shaped her as a writer. There are accessible introductions to essentialism, feminism, including the virgin-whore dichotomy, and post-modernism. Charles Perrault's version of 'Bluebeard' is also included to kick off study of the title story of the collection, as well as an exploration of artistic influences on Carter's version of this tale, including Impressionism and Symbolism. There is an analysis of each of the Marquis' wives and a collaborative research task. The booklet includes a number of questions and wider reading tasks. Designed for the OCR spec as part of the 'Gothic' module which heavily weights context and requires knowledge of the author's biography and wider works as well as critical traditions and alternative readings. Includes occasional reference to Dracula, as this was the partner text, however could be used with any other Gothic partner text or on its own. I studied Carter for my undergraduate dissertation and Master's degree and draw on that knowledge here, in a format that aims to be compact and accessible for students.

A full Paper 1 Non-Fiction Texts and Transactional Writing mock exam for the new Edexcel IGCSE English Language A 2016 specification, to be first examined in Summer 2018. I designed this to mimic the sample material provided by Edexcel so it includes all the question types you would expect to find in Sections A and B of the exam. The booklet is 19 pages in total, providing space for students to write their answers. The two extracts that Section A is based on are from the 2012 specification - ‘Taking on the World’ (Ellen MacArthur) and ‘Explorers, or Boys Messing Around?’ (Stephen Morris - also in the updated 2016 anthology). For copyright reasons, I can’t include these extracts, however they are easily found on the Edexcel IGCSE website in the 2012 anthology (green cover). Any questions, please ask!

A 3-page guide to writing a comparative thesis paragraph for the A Level Gothic Literature unit. The resource includes: 1. An explanation of what a thesis is. 2. The golden rules of thesis-writing. 3. A model thesis paragraph comparing The Tell-Tale Heart with The Fall of the House of Usher, focusing on the extent to which they are Gothic texts. 4. Two pages of sentence stems for essay-writing - these are useful for all Literature essays, not just Gothic. I used this resource as the basis for a lesson in which students worked in pairs to write their own comparative thesis on a different pair of Gothic texts, using the model and rules for guidance, first getting them to read the model and articulate what made it an effective opening paragraph. Alternatively, if your students have studied these texts, they could write the rest of the essay, using the thesis paragraph as a road map. *Please note, if you have purchased my 'Essay Writing Guide for A Level and GCSE', the sentence stems in this resource are the same as in that.

Four non-fiction model writing responses that I created to help students prepare for the non-fiction writing section of GCSE English Language. The models are as follows: A persusasive letter from a teacher to the school Principal about changes to the school canteen (398 words - suitable for middle or lower ability groups). A letter to a friend who is coming to stay describing the things they can see and do in the area. This is a hybrid of letter writing and travel writing, combining the skills of writing to describe, explain and inform (945 words - this is a lengthy, high level response suitable for middle or higher ability groups). A travel-writing article about Isafjordur in Iceland (452 words - suitable for a range of groups). A stop-smoking leaflet, aimed at persuading teenagers to quit smoking (381 words - suitable for a range of groups). Any questions, just ask!

Three sets of questions on the short stories 'News of the Engagement', 'The Unexpected' and 'Hop Frog' from the New Windmill collection. The questions are designed to be done after a first reading of the story to check and develop students' understanding of the plot, context and characters. There is a combination of comprehension and analysis questions. This would make an effective classwork, homework or flipped learning task if you asked students to read the story independently before completing the questions. Designed for teaching of the New Windmill 19th Century Short Stories on the Edexcel IGCSE.

A 74-question test on the plot of Othello, designed to help A Level students to secure the knowledge required as a foundation for good performance in the exam. The answers are provided separately so that students can check their own responses and repeat the test at home as many times as needed.

A display of sentence stems to help students verbalise their ideas using academic language. 65 slides in total - two 'title' slides which works well at the centre of the display and 63 different sentence stems. The sentence stems range from straightforward (e.g. 'This quotation suggests...') to complex (e.g. 'The dichotomy between [civilisation and savagery] underpins the novel'.) Lots of examples from a range of literary texts including Lord of the Flies, Macbeth, Of Mice and Men, Romeo and Juliet. Ellipses and square brackets show students where they can insert their own relevant text/character/theme. There are also definitions of key words on many of the slides, e.g. 'quotation', 'inference', implies' etc. I have had this display in every classroom I've taught in and use it every day in discussions and writing with students, to help them verbalise complex ideas and use more formal language. This translates really well into essay writing and my students also use the display as a reference point when writing. *The preview doesn't display properly - the slides are formatted properly but for some reason this isn't showing in the preview.*