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.
Resource to support the exploration of August 6 1945.
Differentiation:
purple = lower
blue = middle
yellow = higher
Exploration of context, language, meaning and structure
Resources to support the exploration of 'The tell tale heart' by Edgar Allan Poe
Resources provide opportunities for:
- exploration of context of writer
- analysis of the creation of tension
- quotation analysis
- exploration of narrative structure
4 exam questions:
4 for poetry - power and conflict collection.
Named poems on the papers:
- No problem
- Extract from the prelude
- Cousin Kate
- War photographer
1 example exam question for unseen poetry Papers are presented in the same way as the real papers will be.
Resource to support the revision of A Christmas Carol and how to form exam responses to an extract from the novel and make links to the novel as a whole.
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.
4 extracts included
With very few sample assessment materials provided by the exam boards I have created my own.
They have been made to look exactly like the assessments that students will sit in the real 9-1 examinations and are phrased in the same ways too.
The student responses can then be marked using the relevant mark scheme for literature.
The extract in this assessment is taken from stave 3.
4 differentiated lessons that cover chapter 3 of Animal Farm and aims to build skills required to access the GCSE language and literature papers.
Structure strips included to help students to write better responses
Exam links
- Paper 2 question 4 comparison practice - compare the perspectives of Boxer and Benjamin about life on the farm
- Paper 1 and 2 language practice - analysing Orwell's use of language to present Squealer as an effective propagandist
Resources also provide opportunity to:
- explore propaganda
- analyse language
- compare perspectives
- compare life on the farm under human and pig rule
- write persuasively
- use structure strips to structure effective responses
- use the what how why method for analysis as PEE is too restrictive
- use the acronym PEDAL (for lower ability) to help structure responses
- select judicious quotations
- analyse writer's methods (techniques and word classes)
Differentiation:
purple = lower
blue = middle
yellow = higher
9 activities that that can be used to help interleave with other texts studied for GCSE English literature.
Each activity takes a particular theme that arises in the novella and encourages students to make connections to the same theme within other texts. This helps students to revise previous texts while studying a different component.
The other texts that connections are made with are:
Romeo and Juliet
An Inspector Calls
Power and conflict poetry
With very few sample assessment materials provided by the exam boards I have created my own.
They have been made to look exactly like the assessments that students will sit in the real 9-1 examinations and are phrased in the same ways too.
The student responses can then be marked using the relevant mark scheme for literature.
The extract in this assessment is taken from chapter 3.
2 lessons to support the teaching of the context of Macbeth before reading the play
Includes:
- Shakespeare facts activity
- imaginative writing
- group work carousel opportunity
A scheme of work for the AQA power and conflict poetry unit.
The MTP signposts opportunities to make links to the other literature texts. The texts that are linked to are:
Romeo and Juliet
An Inspector Calls
Opportunities to develop language paper skills are also signposted.
With very few sample assessment materials provided by the exam boards I have created my own.
They have been made to look exactly like the assessments that students will sit in the real 9-1 examinations and are phrased in the same ways too.
The student responses can then be marked using the relevant mark scheme for literature.
The extract in this assessment is taken from chapter 9.
A set of 24 quick questions to test students on their knowledge of Jekyll and Hyde.
Ask students approx 5 questions per day and increase over time.
There is a mixture of context based questions, chapter questions and quotation fill questions.
A series of lessons attached that explore ‘Simon Lee: The Old Hunstman.’
Lessons include:
inference skills
comparing perspectives with model answers
do now activities
exploration of moral and links to the corona virus pandemic and random acts of kindness
article writing
This is a complete 6 week unit on Non Fiction Writing using topical issues.
Students work through a booklet which contains all extracts and activities. There is also an accompanying power point presentation.
Students will explore the following speeches, letters and articles:
Boris Johnson - Lockdown
Marcus Rashford - free school meals
Greta Thunberg - climate change
David Attenborough - climate change
Lilly Allen - Refugee crisis
Bukayo Saka - Racism in football
Martin Luther King - Racism
Emma Watson - gender equality
Malala - 16th birthday speech
Hands not hate article in response to homophobic attacks
As students progress through the unit they will explore rhetoric and how effective non fiction writing is structured and work on building their own piece of writing.
The unit culminates with speaking and listening.
The booklet also contains scaffolds for students who may need support in accessing the unit.
Resources to support the teaching of poetry analysis and exploration. These lessons were taught to year 8 but are suitable for any KS3 group as well as KS2.
Poems/poets explored include:
- Carol Ann Duffy - Valentine
- Sophie Hannah - Symptoms
- Deserted house
- Sonnet 18
- A Married state
- Declaration of need
- Lady of Shalott
- Roger McGough
Opportunities provided for students to:
- develop speaking and listening skills
- explore the idea of marriage
- analyse language, structure and form
- explore pathetic fallacy
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
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.
This bundle of resources provides opportunities for students to tackle unseen poetry for GCSE. Poems covered include Catrin, Cousin Kate, The Motorway.
Differentiation is by colour where yellow is higher, blue is middle and purple is lower ability.