I'm currently the head of English and raising standards leader at a secondary school in Birmingham. I'm passionate about my subject and passionate about ensuring that the young people we serve leave education with a high competency in English.
Prior to teaching I worked in the radio industry as a presenter for 7 years and so when I became a teacher I enjoyed the opportunity to teach Media studies.
You'll find hundreds of English and Media studies resources.
I'm currently the head of English and raising standards leader at a secondary school in Birmingham. I'm passionate about my subject and passionate about ensuring that the young people we serve leave education with a high competency in English.
Prior to teaching I worked in the radio industry as a presenter for 7 years and so when I became a teacher I enjoyed the opportunity to teach Media studies.
You'll find hundreds of English and Media studies resources.
Resources to support the understanding of the context of being homeless.
Ideal for supporting students with their exploration of texts such as 'Stone Cold' and 'The Outsiders.'
Resources included:
- Homelessness case studies
- missing person posters/adverts
- extract from Stone Cold - homelessness and the law
- true or false activities
- what is a home?
- 'The Streets of London' Ralph McTell exploration
- 'London' by William Blake poem exploration
- consideration of bullying
- leaflet examples
- investigation into homeless charities
Resources provide opportunities to:
- explore homelessness through case studies and exploring the law
- write persuasively
- structure formal letters
- explore and create missing person posters
- explore poetry
- analyse texts
- investigate and create leaflets#
- debate whether more housing is needed
Resource to support the revision of context of Jekyll and Hyde and how to form exam responses to an extract from the novel and make links to the novel as a whole.
Meticulously planned and differentiated.
purple = lower ability
blue = middle ability
yellow = higher ability
These resources provide opportunities for carousel activities whereby students read 4 extracts from the novel and make notes to form an exam response. Students will consider other parts of the text as part of their answer.
Extracts taken from:
-chapter 3 - 'Dre Jekyll was quite at ease'
-chapter 4 - 'Carew murder case'
-chapter 9 - 'Dr Lanyon's narrative'
-chapter 10 -'Henry Jekyll's full statement'
A booklet is also included to support higher ability exploration of context.
Over 31 fully differentiated (by colour) and meticulously planned lessons to support the teaching of The Edge by Allan Gibbons. Lessons are numbered for ease of use.
Differentiation:
purple = lower ability
blue = middle ability
yellow = higher ability
Resources provide opportunities to:
- explore an analyse characters and themes
-explore racism and make links to other literature including John Agard poetry
- explore bullying and create anti bug texts
- explore perspectives
- write agony aunt letters
- explore and analyse the creation of tension
- study news reports and create reports
- study and create police reports
- develop narrative writing
- develop persuasive writing
- explore dramatic irony
A wide variety of starter activities and warms to get students engaged and awake.
Included in this wide variety of starters and warm ups are:
- optical illusions
- ice breakers
- Taboo games
- Brain gyms
- homophones
- metaphors and similes
- double negatives
- imperatives
- punctuation practice
- spellings
- inference
- describing games
and many, many more!
Over 14 lessons to support the teaching of Skellig.
Opportunities for students to:
- analysis writer's methods
- analyse the creation of tension
- develop speaking and listening skills
- explore symbolism
- create diary entries
- make links to other literature including the schoolboy by William Blake
- explore the effect on the reader
- explore characters and themes
Revision guide to support student revision and understanding of the novel.
This resource could be ideal as an ongoing homework project as students read the novel in class.
A higher and lower ability revision guide to allow students to revise Romeo and Juliet.
These would be ideal as ongoing homework projects as students read the play.
Revision guide to support student revision of 'Of Mice and Men'
This resource could be useful as an ongoing homework project as students read the novella in class.
8 fully differentiated lesson (by colour) that support the teaching of writing speeches. (Spoken language) Lessons are meticulously planned and culminate with students writing a speech on a topic that interests them.
Differentiation:
purple = lower ability
blue = middle ability
yellow = higher ability
Speeches that are used as a stimulus:
- Emma Watson
- Winston Churchill
- Queen Elizabeth I
- George W Bush
- Napoleon (Animal Farm)
Students will practice writing speeches using the following topics:
- increase in legal driving age
- importance of mobile phones
- social media
Students will develop the following skills:
- speech writing using the 6 part structure
- persuasive writing
- speaking and listening
- developing effective openings
Over 10 lessons worth of resources to support the teaching of spoken language. All lessons are meticulously planned and fully differentiated by colour. These lessons are ready to go and are numbered for ease of use.
Ideal for use in KS3 given the removal of this component as part of GCSE.
Differentiation:
purple - lower ability
blue = middle ability
yellow = higher ability
These resources allow students to identify and analyse the following spoken language techniques:
- face threatening acts
- jargon
- accent and dialect
- formal and informal talk
- Adjacency pairs
- back channel features
- Fillers and hedges
- Holding the floor
- turn taking
- overlapping speech
- standard English
- spontaneous speech
Students will explore spoken language taken from the following sources:
- Catharine Tate as Lauren in the UK sitcom
- Jeremy Paxman interview with Russell Brand
- Ali G interview with Tony Benn
- Jonathan Ross interview with Lady Gaga
- Board room conversations taken from the Junior apprentice
- Classroom talk taken from Highgate Wood school
- Transcripts of students talking with teachers
Links provided for YouTube video clips to allow students to observe the spoken language before analysing
Planning sheets, card sort of techniques, homework tasks and analysis writing frames are also included.
A wide range of ideas and resources for speaking and listening assessments at KS2/KS3.
Speaking and listening lessons included based around:
- Man V food
- Arguing that cats are better than dogs
- Deserted house - selling houses
- Murder mystery
- Banning Christmas
- 50 things to do before you die
- persuasive speeches
Teacher and peer/self assessment proformas also included
Fully differentiated resources to teach Act 4 scene 1 of A Midsummer Night's dream. Focus on the creation of imagery within the scene.
Differentiation:
purple = lower ability
Blue - middle ability
yellow = higher ability
A speaking and listening (role play and drama) resource is also included.
Resources to support the teaching of Edgar Allan Poe short stories. (Gothic literature) Lessons are numbered for ease of use.
Short stories resourced:
- Masque of the red death
- The pit and the pendulum
- The tell tale heart
Resources provide opportunities for students to:
- write imaginatively
- analyse language
- develop speaking and listening skills
- explore context - black death
- explore structure
20 full differentiated (by colour) and meticulously planned lessons to support the teaching of reading and writing skills. These lessons are ready to go.
Ideal for transition from KS2 to KS3, for year 6, year 7 or year 8 classes.
Within these lessons students are exposed to a wide range of fiction, non fiction and literary non fiction texts and will use these as a stimulus for creating their own texts.
These lessons allow students to develop skills for accessing the new English language and English literature 9-1 specifications.
Students will explore the following texts/extracts:
- Article on bats
- Extract from the Twits & BFG - Roald Dahl
- Extract from Frankenstein
- Extract from A Christmas Carol
- Extracts from autobiographies
- Extract from Bill Bryson - travel writing (non-fiction literary)
- Extract from Bleak house
- The Lion the witch and the wardrobe
- blogs
- poetry - Sister Maude, Mother any distance
- articles about Friendship
Students will develop the following skills in preparation for accessing new 9-1 GCSE
- Synthesis
- Comparison
- Language. structure, form analysis
- Theme exploration
- Analytical writing
- Imaginative writing - narrative and descriptive
- Transactional writing
Assessment opportunities and homework tasks also included
Carousel activities which allow students to revise the context of Elizabethan England and practice analysing extracts from the play as well as referring to the play as a whole.
Differentiated to allow students to structure an exam response which culminates in an exam practice question.
Two exam questions also included in the structure of the 9-1 literature examination.
Extracts taken from:
Act 1 scene 5
Act 2 scene 2
Act 2 scene 3
Act 4 scene 3
Differentiation:
purple = lower ability
blue - middle ability
yellow = higher ability
Over 13 fully differentiated and meticulously planned lessons to support the teaching of Beowulf as part of the study of the history of the English language. Lessons are numbered for ease of use.
These lessons re ready to go. Download and teach. The lessons help students to make progress against the skills needed for the new 9-1 English specifications.
Assessments included and homework tasks.
Differentiation:
purple = lower ability
blue - middle ability
yellow = higher ability
Resources provide opportunities to:
- analyse language
- explore context
- write creatively
- explore myths and legends
- create villainous characters
- explore heroic characteristics
- compare characters
- work on extract to whole exam skills
Resources to support the teaching of gothic horror short story with focus on the work of Edgar Allan Poe
Short stories and extracts covered:
- Masque of the red death
- The tell tale heart
- Frankenstein
- Dracula
Opportunities provided to:
- explore symbolism
- explore context of gothic and black death
- compare short stories
-analyse language and structure
- identify use of the senses and use the senses to create own gothic writing
- explore genre
Resources to support the teaching of reading skills. Useful resources for KS2/3 transition.
Lessons are numbered for ease of use.
Students develop the following skills:
- skimming and scanning
- reading for meaning
- note making
- summarising
-making sense of difficult texts
- understanding character, mood and setting
Students explore a range of texts on varying topics including:
- hurricanes
- Christianity
- Harry Potter
- Shakespeare
- Hunger Games
- Animals
A booklet of the texts (and many more) is included which was taken from the national literacy strategy
