A valuable resource to help meet the context Assessment Objective for 'The Bloody Chamber'. This is a summary of key extracts from Edmund Gordon's recent biography of Carter, 'The Invention of Angela Carter'. Includes fascinating and revealing comments from Carter's personal writings which can be directly connected to The Bloody Chamber tales. My students found this very interesting and useful.

A descriptive writing lesson drawing on the opening scene in Macbeth, the meeting of the witches on the heath. The lesson focuses on on sensory description and using a range of writing techniques including descriptive words, similes, metaphors, alliteration and personification. The activities check and reinforce understanding of these techniques before they put them into practice. The resources are fully differentiated with modelling and scaffolding included. Students identify one or more target skills to focus on and there is a further challenge activity for those who complete the main writing task. The progress slide allows you to demonstrate progress within the lesson easily and students enjoy working through the levels. Engaging full colour resources are provided. This could be used with a KS3 or lower set KS4 group and is great for using alongside the study of Macbeth to develop essential writing skills and create interleaved English studies.

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.

Explores the artistic influences and references in 'The Bloody Chamber' (the title story of the collection) and how Carter challenges a patriarchal artistic tradition in which women are 'killed into art' (Gilbert & Gubar). Lesson slides break down key information and references to artistic movements and artists. Most slides provide a question for students to consider individually, in pairs or as a group, allowing them to build knowledge and understanding. A detailed booklet is provided as reading material for homework.

Set 'Bluebeard' as homework reading then do this lesson, which tests student's knowledge of the text and asks them to rewrite it in the style of Angela Carter. Post-modernism is then introduced (clear explanation provided) and students read and assess each others' rewritten stories for post-modernist traits. Finally, students consider quotations from critics and Carter herself examining the nature of revisionist fairy tales. There is a homework question on how far Carter is postmodern writer in the tales studied so far. *Note - This lesson presupposes that students have read 'Bluebeard' but have not yet read 'The Bloody Chamber'. They should be familiar with Carter's style and should have read at least one of her other stories (I always start with 'The Werewolf').

Thirteen challenging questions for A Level students on 'The Bloody Chamber', the title story of Carter's collection by the same name. Designed to be answered after reading and discussing the story. Students are asked to consider perspective, source, mythology, links to Carter's 'The Sadeian Woman' and the musical references in the tale. Links are included to Bach, Debussy, Wagner and Verdi YouTube videos as students are asked to consider their different musical styles and how these relate to the tale.

A carousel lesson on Angela Carter's 'The Lady of the House of Love' for A Level Literature. Gets students focused on close analysis of language and symbolism and encourages them to make links to themes and context. Resources included are: Instruction slides; twelve A3 sheets containing key quotations from the story, with space for students to write their ideas in response to these quotations; a completed version of these sheets containing many points which are useful for understanding and revising the tale. The completed version is very useful for students to compare with their own version and is particularly helpful for revision.

Thirteen questions on Angela Carter's 'Puss-in-Boots' tale from The Bloody Chamber collection. The questions are designed to be completed after reading the story and encourage further research and critical thinking. Created for the OCR A Level Literature comparative textual study which heavily weights context and requires knowledge of critics, so these questions test and develop both of these skills.

A research-based lesson to introduce the Commedia Dell'Arte stock characters which Carter draws on in 'Puss-in-Boots'. This could be completed before or after reading the story (although bear in mind that one of the questions asks students to make links with the story). Students will need access to the internet (this can be done on phones if necessary). The resources included are - slides with instructions, a research pack with questions on each stock character for students to complete, and a poster of each stock character for your classroom walls.

Twelve challenging questions on 'The Erl-King' by Angela Carter (part of The Bloody Chamber collection) designed to be completed after reading the story. Created for the OCR A Level spec which heavily weights context and requires knowledge of critics, so these questions develop both of those skills.

Two English Language exams suitable for Year 7 and Year 8/9 respectively. Each exam has a reading section (Section A) and a writing section (Section B). There are two versions of the Year 8/9 exam, one of which has extra scaffolding to help students structure their essay response. The reading sections are both based on responding to the articles named below, which I cannot include here due to copyright issues but can easily be found on Google. Year 7 exam: Section A Reading - 8 comprehension and analysis questions based on the article ‘Remember When: Memories of Childhood Holidays in Mombasa’ by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. There is a glossary of challenging vocabulary in the article. The first four questions are based on comprehension and information retrieval and the last four focus on language analysis. Questions 6, 7 and 8 require longer responses and offer students the opportunity to demonstrate extended analytical responses without requiring a full essay response which students at this stage might not yet be ready for. (Google the title of the article to find it on The Independent website). Section B Writing - Students have a choice of three writing questions. They should respond to one of these. The options are a descriptive piece based on a choice of two images, a creative piece and writing to inform the reader about a personal experience. Year 8/9 exam: Section A Reading - An extended essay question based on the extract from ‘Taking on the World’ by Ellen MacArthur. (Google the title of the extract to find it in the Edexcel IGCSE 2012 Anthology). There are two versions of this question, one of which has extra scaffolding to help students to structure their essay response. This is useful for students who are not yet confident in formulating independent essays. Section B Writing - Students have a choice of three personal reflective writing questions. They should respond to one of these. The options are a descriptive piece based on a choice of two images, a creative piece and writing to inform or explain. Any questions, please ask!

An A4 cloze exercise on Aristotle's Concepts of Tragedy which could be used with Shakespearean or modern tragedies. I designed it for use with A View from the Bridge and used it as a revision exercise, but it would also be a useful in-class test of students' understanding after you've introduced the concepts. Differentiation = the missing words are on the back for students who need support but they can attempt to complete as many gaps as possible before referring to this.

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.

My version of the 'Secret Spy Card' idea (*not* my idea but I thought I would share the resource I've made!). How it works: 1. Tell students that they will be 'spying' on another student that lesson in order to assess their behaviour for learning. 2. Give them a Secret Spy Card with another student's name on at the start of the lesson. (Students can write their own names on the cards at an earlier time and you can collect them in and redistribute them appropriately). 3. The students should know who they are 'spying' on but should not know who is' spying' on them. 4. They observe the behaviour of this student throughout the lesson and write them feedback at the end. 5. Each student can then give their card directly back to their 'target' or you can collect them in and redistribute them if you want the secret to remain secret! I have found this particularly useful with students who may struggle with behaviour for learning, as they enjoy the opportunity to observe another student and give them feedback. It also encourages them to behave well themselves as they know they're being observed. You can choose how to distribute the cards strategically, giving students the opportunity to observe a student whose behaviour they would benefit from replicating. Enjoy!

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.