Lesson on Medusa by Carol Ann Duffy. Includes set of questions and discussion points. Copy of poem provided.

This complete lesson takes students step by step through a range of descriptive writing techniques, such as alliteration, simile and adverbs. Images of Worzel Gummidge (human scarecrow) are used to enable students to identify and then use descriptive writing techniques. The final task is to describe the White Witch of Narnia, using a range of images and including a set of given success criteria. Useful for KS3 or 4 for descriptive writing skills.

Aimed at low to mid ability KS4, this extract to whole question about poverty, takes students through an exam question. First, students will look at the extract part of the question. Secondly, the whole novel will be covered. Includes a brief example response and an annotated copy of the extract.

Aimed at middle to low ability KS3, this lesson looks at the context of Victorian England, giving a range of information about life in the workhouse and looking at the difference between the lives of the rich and poor. There is also an extract from Berlie Doherty’s ‘The Street Child’ to analyse. Perfect for introducing any Victorian novel, but with A Christmas Carol in mind. Could be useful as re-capping context prior to exam.

Three resources here - a list of 8 possible View from the Bridge questions and two sample, colour coded responses.

This begins with a drawing activity, to emphasise the importance of conveying detail. Students are given two different versions of the same description to decide which is best, followed by a number of statements to improve upon themselves. IAMSOAP is introduced, as a method for remembering the techniques of descriptive writing. Finally, students are asked to describe three images to create atmosphere, using the techniques from IASOAP. Peer Assessment to finish.

Please note: this resource assumes you have a copy of the Anthony Horowitz retelling of this story. This is a fun and engaging couple of lessons on the story of Glaucus and Scylla (the one where gets Circe to change Scylla so that she loves him but actually changes her into a monster). Starter activities include a Greek Goddess memory game and a look at the symbols of some of the goddesses. Students then imagine what they would like to control, if they were a Greek god or goddess and design a symbol to represent their power. Following this, there are language activities looking at the writer’s use of words and phrases and sentence forms (as in Language Paper 1) when introducing the character of Circe. Then an examination of the language techniques used to describe Scylla’s transformation.

This lesson works through Q1 and Q3 of one of AQA's KS3 practice papers for GCSE English Language. Answers are provided for Q1 to enable self assessment. Pupils are then asked to identify a set of given structural features before considering 4 different levels of example responses and deciding which is the 'best' one. Cloze exercise as a creative writing extension task.

This resource comprises of an introductory personification task, followed by analysis of Daphne du Maurier's use of personification and pathetic fallacy in her novel Rebecca. Concludes with a creative task to continue the author's description using the same techniques.

Three articles, article-based questions and tasks on the topic of gun crime. Suitable for KS3 or 4. Might engage boys.

This is intended for KS3 English lessons looking at Victorian context in preparation for English Literature at GCSE. This resource is a minimum of 2 lessons. Includes extracts from Lowood school (Jane Eyre) followed by a kahoot quiz, an extract from Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby with a cloze exercise to describe the dilapidated school room, followed by an inference exercise on the boys of Dotheboys Hall. Drama task to finish capturing Mr Brocklehurts’s reaction to a curly haired, red-headed pupil at his school.

This resource contains lessons on The Storm, Piroska, Pitch, The Boy in the Boat, Nature, Mud and Monkey from Chris Priestley’s Tales of Terror from the Black Ship. Some focus on identifying and writing skills such as simile, onomatopoeia, alliteration, metaphor and inference. Aimed at Y7 & 8.

A short unit covering Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening. Could be used as a whole class unit of work, or small literacy group. Mixed ability but could be differentiated up or down. Extracts (all provided) from Robinson Crusoe, Life of Pi, Lord of the Flies. Real life survivor account analysed for descriptive writing techniques. Students invent their own survivor scenario and write diary entries and descriptions based on the example extracts and trailers shown in lessons. Opportunity to create class island map and use as stimulus for writing. Some lessons may take slightly longer than an hour so I estimate this unit is between 4 and 6 hours of lessons, depending on the pace.

Two female poems looking at the use of Nature in poetry of WW1 to contrast perspective. Falling Leaves looks at the futility of war and A Girl’s Song looks at how difficult it can be to accept a loved one has died. Both poets deliver these ideas by personifying nature. Starter is a fill in the blanks activity then looking at Cole’s actual language choices. Then, look at A Girl’s Song using a table to infer how natural imagery shows the poets ideas. Plenary is a paragraph comparing their use of nature to show attitudes towards death in war.

This is a mini unit on Gothic conventions, based on extracts from Frankenstein, Dracula and Jane Eyre. Overall, there are between 6 and 7 hours worth of tasks to introduce students to the concept of Gothic Literature and the conventions within it. Includes Gothic bingo, introduction to conventions (including setting), short extracts for identifying conventions and later symbolism, independent tasks such as planning a Gothic description and identifying author’s word choices. Some creative tasks include drawing their own Gothic castle and their version of the Red Room in Jane Eyre. Link to vampire video with match-up activities and comprehension questions included too. This unit has been resourced from a combination of my Introduction to Literature Through the Ages scheme of work (also available) and additional tasks created separately. Fully resourced - slides at the end conveniently together for ease of printing.

Part Two of the introductory unit: Literature Through the Ages A further 8 lessons with pupil anthology (two separate ones for just core texts and then all texts), CPD booklet and knowledge organiser. Pupils will build on their knowledge from Part One of the unit to cover the following extracts: Daphne & Phoebus - Hesiod The Seven Pomegranate Seeds - Horowitz The Ramayana - retold by Donald A Mackenzie The Odyssey - translated from Homer Adventures of Sir Lancelet - Malory The intention of this unit is to provide students with some knowledge of how stories originated, came to be written down and how some of those same stories have been retold and developed over time, such as Horowitz’s re-telling of a popular Greek myth, in our unit. Students should understand that there does not have to be one single version of a ‘story.’ Some may have originally been made up to explain mysteries about the world and to enable humans to understand their place within it. Stories are constantly evolving and shaped by their social and historical influences. We can see, for example, that the concept of the Underworld has been around for centuries. Students will study the Underworld described in the Renaissance period by Dante, as a way of teaching his readers to live purer lives on Earth, but we can also enjoy its imaginative appearance in Rick Riordan’s modern ‘Percy Jackson’ tales. We can introduce the concept that, historically, the female figure has been presented as temptress and the cause of human suffering, an idea developed in ‘the Serpent’s Deception’ and Homer’s ‘Odyssey’, or later subverted in Le Morte d’Arthur, where the female is weak and in need of a chivalrous male to save her. We can see stories as a reaction to the beliefs and fears of society at the time. Shelley’s Frankenstein can be interpreted as a reaction to society’s distrust of the advancement of scientific experimentation. Running through all these stories is a series of symbols that capture a society’s values, beliefs and fears. Through the identification of symbolism in these stories, such as the snake in Serpent’s Deception, Daphne & Phoebus and Le Morte d’Arthur, it is hoped that our Y7s can learn to become confident in spotting symbols in future stories they read and have the confidence to critically evaluate the significance of them, in relation to their own contextual experience and a knowledge of literature throughout the ages.

Step by step approach to this past question on the supernatural. Students can work through the extract, finding relevant evidence and matching up suggested annotations to gain understanding of the key themes and ideas. Example paragraph response using extract evidence provided so that students can produce their own based on what they have uncovered. To address the second part of the question, students are given an example quotation from the wider play and an example paragraph which uses the reference to respond. Four further key quotations on the supernatural are provided so that students can use them to create their own paragraphs. The quotations can be printed off and used for revision purposes.

AIMED AT KS3, THIS LESSON USES CHOCOLATES TO HELP INSPIRE PUPILS TO CREATE MOUTHWATERING ADJECTIVES AND VERBS. FOCUS IS IMPROVING LANGUAGE CHOICE IN DESCRIPTIVE WRITING. STUDENTS WORK THROUGH ACTIVITIES TO CREATE THEIR OWN BESPOKE BOX OF CHOCOLATES AND THEN DESCRIBE TO ADVERTISE!

THIS RESOURCE AIMS TO BROADEN PUPILS' KNOWLEDGE ABOUT BELIEFS AND TREATMENT OF WITCHES BY FOCUSING ON THE STORY OF THE PENDLE WITCHES. USEFUL INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY FOR STUDYING MACBETH.

This lesson introduces the big Las Vegas hotels and the themes they are based around. After looking at some example, and watching some clips, students are tasked with creating their own and presenting their ideas to persuade the audience that their hotel should be the next one to be built on the strip.