This lesson is focused around one of the, arguably, harder questions from paper 1 of the AQA exam - question 4. This lesson is quick paced, supportive and full of student focused activities. This lesson focuses around students formulating their own opinions and thoughts on the characters, Robbie and Cecilia from the book Atonement. Many tasks are designed to provoke deeper, independent thought from students with plenty of group and paired activities so students can discuss and share ideas, promoting critical thinking and independent learning skills. Tasks come with word banks and starter sentences for those who struggle to get started yet they can also be used to push the more able in your class to formulate deeper and more insightful answers and ideas . This lesson come with a full lesson powerpoint with enough material to fill a 3 hour lesson, extract and trailer for the movie, 3 worksheets and a support scaffold which can be distributed in class to support students. The session ends with a quick peers assessment task. Hope it helps.

This is a L2 activity based around the idea of a bucket list. This activity has 3 parts to it which include creating a list, researching activity and a writing activity. This activity has been created in order to be flexible with your teaching style and can be used as an extension, homework or form the main part of your session. It can also be amended underpin a specific topic. Please keep in mind that TES previews can distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps

I have always used cheat sheets as a form of revision for my students sitting GCSE. It is essentially an extended version of an exam plan but not quite a mock exam, it’s some where in the middle. I love to use these because it promotes a sense of confidence for the students and it it a condensed version of EVERYTHING they need to know about each question of the exam. I explain it to them as an “exam blueprint”. This session is what I call a “meat and potato” type of lesson. No frills just does what it says on the tin and gives the students what they need. The session puts students into teams and takes them through a breakdown of each exam question and they copy these “cheats” onto a past exam paper. Along the way they try their hand at some of the questions, get examples of what makes a good answer and they have some independent study questions in their cheat sheet to try at home. They get to keep their “cheat sheet” for revision purposes. This has always worked and I have found that students have always got on board with this idea because they instantly see the benefit of it and it helps them feel more secure about sitting their exam. This session comes with a full powerpoint for paper 1 and student handouts with source material. Please keep in mind that TES preview can distort the look of resources but this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps

This quick paced and engaging lesson is designed to get students ready for question 4, paper 1 from the AQA GCSE English Language 8700 spec. In this question students are to critically analyse a text. This lesson breaks down the question and best ways in to which to answer this tricky question by looking at Bram Stokers 'Dracula'. Dracula is a character who has been written about for decades in various ways. For this reason students can relate easily to this story and text and is the reason I have used it as the source in the lesson. This is a full 3 hour lesson filled a wide range of engaging and challenging tasks from small group discussions, story-boarding/drawing tasks to short, timed paired activities, peer marking and a self assessment plenary. This lesson comes with both support scaffolds and stretch and challenge opportunities. Hope it helps.

I used this session recently in a ungraded observation and was praised for my use of modern material in order engage students and embed English language skills but also with my collaboration with youth workers on this session. Many students don’t realise that much of what they watch on TV or in the cinema has it’s roots in a book or written form (such as a comic) . I find that by using materials the students are familiar with catches their attention and helps to quickly engage students in the session, it allows me to teach them the necessary skills they will need for the live exam. The main aim of this session is to explores structural features for paper 1 , question 4 of the AQA GCSE English exam by looking at an extract of Margret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale. We use the acronym ROW of CLONES to help students work through a piece of text and identify key structural features. Students work in groups and pairs to break down and examine the extract, they explore ideas of culture and individuality whilst also looking at the ways the Margret Atwood uses structural features to communicate atmosphere and repression to her audience. The lesson ends with a practice question, peer marking and a small self assessment plenary. This lesson is quick paced, engaging, exciting and underpins deeper issues such as human rights and human rights violations. This lesson helps to expose students to events that have and are taking place around the globe, encouraging awareness and tolerance - a key part of British Values. I collaborated with youth workers on this sessions and invited them to attend and help support group / paired activities and group discussions as they can bring another dimension to this topic, therefore encouraging cross school or college participation in English and encouraging a holistic approach to education. The lesson comes with the full extract, powerpoint of the entire lesson, worksheets and two videos, one exploring human rights and the other is the trailer for The Handmaids Tale. I teach in a 16-19 college where lessons came in 3 hour blocks therefore there is enough material for 3 hours in this resource, but it can be altered into smaller sessions depending on your timetable. Please note that TES previews an at times distort the look of the resource but this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.

This is a short and sweet resource which can be used as a recap/workshop session or as a introduction session to implicit and explicit meaning. This session is fast paced, team based and leads into a creative writing final main task, although it is easy to adapt for your own needs. This session is based around a short video where the viewer must piece together the overall story from the imagery depicted. Students look for implicit and explicit meaning from this video and then create a piece of descriptive writing based from what they have concluded. This session comes with a quick starter from the outset, quick group activities, team and class discussions and a final individual task with a support starter structure to support the lower ability students. Please keep in mind that TES previews can distort the look of the preview and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps.

I have created a series of writing prompts for learners of L2 functional English in response to limited past papers / mocks. I teach in an areas where learners are offered multiple resits and so need a wide range of practice materials. Tasks range from full 35 min writing tasks to starters where the learner is asked to write only the opening paragraphs. Types of question covers persuasive letter writing, formal and informal writing, report writing, online forums, letters of complaint and articles. Please keep in mind that the TES preview often distorts the look of the materials and is not always a true reflection. I hope it helps.

This is a team / group based session designed to not only help students prepare for their L2 FS English writing exam but to also underpin some valuable life skills. There are 7 pages of activities which focus on tone and language when writing to complain, and underpins self awareness and self control. The resources are differentiated so both lower levels and higher achieving students can work together to achieve in this session. The session slowly builds to a final individual task which is to write a formal and tone appropriate letter of complaint, a task similar to one they may find in the exam and can be used as exam preparation or as an introduction to the topic. There are planning scaffolds and word banks to support students in their final writing task. This pack can be edited, broken up into sections and altered to suit you and your student needs. Please keep in mind that the TES preview does at times distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps

Great support/guidance booklet for those students who struggle with the PEE / PEA /PQI and structure. Many students particularly struggle with the explain / inference section of this structure. This fun booklet comes with word banks and starter sentences for those who find this structure a challenge. It also comes with examples of high level answers and developed PEE /PEA/PQI answers to stretch and challenge more able students. Great handout to give to students or have casually on their desks to allow them to freely access whenever they need to, promoting independence in their own learning. Feel free to use in which ever works best for you and your learners.

This resource is designed for L2 Functional Skills English classes and covers inference and comparison on a introduction level. The lesson is fast paced and is designed so tasks can be delivered as team activities or individually. The lesson is scaffolded from L1, with inference via images to L2 with compare two different view points via styles of writing. I teach apprentices within a short space of time, so please alter the session to suit your own classes. The test preview at times distorts the look of the resource, so please keep in mind this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps

There is a lot of focus on assessing our students, and initial assessments at the start of the year are seen as crucial to setting the student on their journey for the academic year. In my teaching career, many institutions I have worked for have relied heavily on electronic assessments, which is fine. However myself, as a teacher, can assess so much more into a students needs, strengths and weaknesses from a sample of their own writing. This is something I have found useful and successful time and time again for a wide range of reasons, so I decided to share some of my most successful free writing initial assessment tasks with you. This pack comes with 5 different free writing tasks, writing prompts, videos for each task and a feedback sheet which can be placed inside a students file or book and used as an individual tracking sheet through out the year. Some of my most successful assessments have been the ones where students get to express their opinions, which gives them a good first impression of your course as being one where they can express themselves. I also try to underpin deeper themes into light hearted topics to help stretch and challenge those students who enjoy thinking more deeply. For example, the Flat Earth free writing task has prompts which asks the student about the dangers of fake news on social media. One of the many uses free writing has is that I can identify those who may have a dyslexia need and alert the necessary people from the first week and get them assessed and / or supported. I can find out more about the students in my class on a more personal level and connect with them more quickly, I can also quickly find out any areas of personal need and highlight these students to youth workers for example. I can also use these quick writing tasks in other sessions and develop them into underpinning British Values, equality and diversity or to underpin speaking and listening tasks for example. The topics of the free writing are: Beauty industry - used mainly with female classes equality flat earth - underpins fake news / social media big giant swords - underpins ambition and following your dreams. being brave I have attached a short guideline of what to look for when assessing, however most teachers do assess in their own way so feel free to use in a way which suits you and your students. I hope it helps

This collection of resources was put together to encourage art students, who also had to sit Functional English, to engage and participate with English, something they are very reluctant to do. I soon recognized that due to Banksy’s fame, his themes of power, corruption, environmentalism and animal rights etc, this session worked with a wide range of students from all curriculum areas and quickly developed into a popular lesson which could be altered to suit a variety of levels. The session looks at Banksy’s work, promotes discussion, opinions and team work. The session uses videos, word banks and looks closer at an article written about him with the final task being for the students to plan and write their own piece about him. The larger aim of the session is to broaden vocabulary and to plan writing but is open for you to develop and arrange in whichever suits you and your students best, as one size does not fit all. Please keep in mind that the TES preview sometimes distorts the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.

Many students often struggle with the freedom to use their imagination, particularly under exam conditions. This resource was created for the AQA specification, Paper 1 Question 5 - create a short story based from an image. However this resource is diverse enough to be adapted to a wide range of exam boards and creative writing skills, from encouraging writing in low level Functional skills English students to developing language features in GCSE students. It uses paintings by Picasso and Frieda Kahlo. It is a team activity which allows for differentiation among levels and abilities by using a scaffold questions system. The activity is developed to allow the teacher freedom to build in specifically tailored skills they wish their students to learn. Encouraging students to use their imagination allows English to be fun and engaging whilst also developing their confidence in the subject, as with this activity there is no wrong answer.

As controlled assessments are a thing of the past now on the GCSE English Language course, I have a selection of bite sized assessments to be used through out the year as a means to track students progress on individual question from the exam. This is extremely useful for both student and teacher as it allows for continuous yearly exam practice and progress tracking on each exam question without the burden of marking full mock exams for large classes at a singular time. This assessment focus on a section of text from Warm Bodies for paper 1 question 4 (critical thinking). The lesson includes group tasks and a video to help warm your students up. It also comes with a helpful scaffold to allow students to form ideas to use as their assessment answers, this can be edited to suit the level of your class. Hope it helps.

A full lesson to introduce the concept of comparison of writers opinion for paper 2 question 4. This lesson uses modern celebrities and scandals, such as Marilyn Monroe and Johnny Depp and Amber Heards divorce to help students identify bias language with the larger aim of being able to compare two piece of writing based on the same topic. The lesson PowerPoint comes with guidance notes rather than a lesson plan and slides which can be used to either stretch and challenge strong students or support weaker ones. Resources include 2 videos and various worksheets to be used in group or paired work. The lesson is designed to be fun and engaging but also challenging as this question is often the one most students struggle or worry over the most. Hope you find it helpful.

A great lesson to help students get ready for Paper 1 Question 4 (critical thinking) from the AQA GCSE English Language exam, spec 8700. This lesson focuses on fast paced group activities and discussions based on an extract from 1984 where students actively investigate the use of the familiar and unfamiliar to create a unsettling atmosphere in the book. The session starts with a critical thinking question as a starter task and builds up to the main task through quick fire questions and a video to help students visualise and understand this world created by Orwell. The session builds towards a final written task which doubles as exam practice, allowing you to track how each individual handles this tricky question. This session allows for the opportunity to stretch and challenge your students but also comes with support structures and starter sentences to help those who need it and a peer marking plenary which allows the students to self assess and learn from each other. Hope it helps

This is a well paced, exciting lesson filled with fun and team games. Paper 1 Question 5 is worth a lot of marks and today the examiners expect students to use a wide range of sentence forms and language features to obtain those marks. Many students jump into this question as it looks deceptively easy and they will forget to PLAN for what the examiner wants to see. This lesson is a fun well paced lesson to help students to remember what to plan for in this question and therefore is great as an introduction to the question / topic. Using games and short activities, students will build up a bank of language features and sentences on the topic of Donald Trump over the course of the lesson to use in their final task. Feel free to amend to your students needs and levels. Please be advised that the preview sometimes distorts the look of the resource. Hope it helps

A handy bite sized assessment to help support and track students towards their paper 2 of the AQA GCSE English Language exam (spec 8700). This assessment tests students on paper 2 questions 3 and 4 by using comparable sources on festivals (Greenwich and Glastonbury). Rather than throw the students in cold to an assessment, this assessment is broken down and uses reinforcement of prior learning and paired work to help students prepare, discuss and scaffold (2 scaffold templates, one populated with examples, one not as to stretch and challenge your students) their answers before the final timed assessment.I find that by having these bite sized assessments at the end of each term helps to build up confidence and allows for tracking progress through out the year. It also helps to reduce your marking. Please note that these resources are designed to be modified by yourselves to support your students needs in whatever way you see fit. Also, the TES preview does at times distort the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps

This is an entire lesson for AQA English Language (spec 8700) for Paper 2 Question 4 where the students must compare two sources. For this lesson I have used two modern sources as opposed to one modern, one older as it would be in the exam. The reason for this is highlighted in the lesson and is clear to the students what they will expect, however I have found that by using this method helps the students build confidence in tackling this overwhelming question and is a good way to build them towards comparing older sources. This lesson looks at the award speeches made by Leo DiCaprio and Kanye West, the lesson starts with a personal values starter and this idea of personal values continues throughout the rest of the lesson by looking into the values these two celebrities display in their speeches. There is room to develop the personal / British values concept if desired. The lesson has 2 videos, links to the you tube site is on both the worksheet and the power point. The activities are timed, short and allow for group discussion and discovery learning. The lesson ends with the students writing their findings in a structure which will suit the examiners needs and a short, self assessment plenary. The power point provides slides which can be printed and distributed as support / scaffolding materials for the weaker students if needed. Hope it helps