The mnemonic Restate / Relate Answer Cite Explain React Signify Rationale Racers represents an acronym designed to assist students in analysing texts with depth. I have tried PEE, PEEA, PEEL, and most recently AIDRWL, but found either a perpetual lack of insight or utter confusion. I have therefore continued to look for a suitable mnemonic that might be memorable and assist students in the delivery of their responses. I believe I have found that in Tantillo’s Racer (adapted here for my purposes). Adapted from Tantillo, S. (2014), Literacy and the Common Core. San Fransciso, Jossey-Bass (p.154)

Get your students thinking more critically as they decode the background behind a text with this display / prompt sheet. Print and laminate.

AQA's 2016 English Language exam requires a deep understanding of structure, You might wish to use this template with any text, either fiction or not. As a point of reference, a great way to introduce students to notions of structure is to use the template on the opening to the James Bond film Spectre (Day of the Dead).

Wanting to stretch your students through creative tasks? Impose restrictions on the approach they take. Use a single die to determine perspective, tense, genre and the narrator's tone.

English teachers are the worst for mnemonics and acronyms. Particularly, since the likes of AFOREST PIE and MOPSA never actually cater for the needs of the students. Is that P for Personification or Pathetic Fallacy? That S, is it for Similes or Senses? Do you even know if they can remember both? Try SOAPMAPS instead. It's a far simpler approach to understanding what techniques make work more creative: Similes Onomatopoeia Adjectives Personification Metaphors Adverbs Pathetic Fallacy Senses Now the students can use the language devices to "clean-up their narrative direction".

DfES (2013) states “... absence ha[s] a statistically significant negative link to attainment.” (p.4). Anecdotally, Ofsted inspectors report they assess exercise books to uncover how schools ensure progress for students missing school. Here's my offering, a template (and 12 examples from the year)... an absence intervention sheet that doubles up as a concise way to plan a lesson. The idea is that you provide all the main lesson details and content, from objectives to a model, keywords, textual content and questions - you can even double-side print to ensure more info is available. It's essentially a Knowledge Organiser for one lesson. When your absent student returns, rather than have them do the starter, give them the printout, ask them to stick it in their books and read through. Expect them to have completed the tasks by next lesson or along with the next homework hand-in.

A straight forward compilation of punctuation use for new teachers and students alike. Use as an in-lesson activity, or as a print out for student focus.

Linking identification of word classes to language techniques, this simple worksheet helps build confidence in spotting what job each word or phrase is doing

I have been achieving great results with syllabified spelling tasks. My low literacy students are making greater strides in their confidence and are better able to retain the information. These worksheets introduce students to base words, suffixes and prefixes and then syllabifies them for ease of breaking spellings down. Also included are the KS2 National Curriculum word lists for 3-4 and 5-6 all syllabified.

Print and handout so that every student has a handy reminder of Drop Swap and Double spellings

Build up student confidence in understanding grammatical word classes with these handy worksheets.

Help your students get to grips with their English subject terminology with this SOLO taxonomy inspired booklet. In order to achieve higher grades, students must demonstrate their clear understanding of word classes, rhetorical devices and figurative language. By printing a copy of this booklet off for each student, you can help them take ownership for what they have and have not yet mastered the use of. Make use of it for revision, part of your assessment process or simply as a check to find out or verify what knowledge your students currently have, or where their weaknesses lie.

These quick and easy ideas are a great and simple way of getting your students onto the task and off of their chatter. Included in several activities are extension and differentiation activities and alternatives, to best support the way you wish to use them: Includes: Crosswords Definitions Explorations Interpretation Pronunciation Register Response Syllabify Taboo Unscramble Wordsearch

Chart the progression and development of plot, theme, or character thoughts, feelings and motivations with these handy templates. 2 blank templates provide freedom for plotting story structure (rising and falling action), or creating your own chart to follow a particular theme or characters. There are 3 examples, using the dramatic structure of Conan Doyle's short story "A Scandal in Bohemia", A love, attraction and regrets chart for Dickens's "Great Expectations" and a moral integrity and principles chart for Payne's "No Man's Land". Useful for all text types, from short story, novels, plays or even epic poetry.