Full lesson with PPT allowing middle to high ability pupils to closely analyse the poem in all its fantastic depth. I used this lesson to get myself a job in a prestigious school; the class were very able and super responsive. It’s not didactic, that’s not how I teach, so expect the pupils to get stuck in and give you plenty of feedback. It’s what they think that matters.

A fun intro to being playful and experimental with poetry.

A lesson introducing structure in Dystopian Fiction focusing on ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy. Suitable for an able GCSE class or as an introduction to Dystopian Fiction for a top set Y9. Worksheet and Powerpoint.

For each lesson there is a Powerpoint presentation and a differentiated close-reading Microsoft Word worksheet, plus a range of non-fiction activities designed to address the book’s historical context. This unit allows the teacher to study the book closely in parallel with class reading; it introduces the sensitive and complex subject matter incrementally, allowing Y7s or Y8s enough time and opportunity to best appreciate the shock of the book’s final event .

About 5 weeks’ work for KS3. Extracts, ppts and activities based on Great Expectations, Bleak House and Oliver Twist, for an able Y7 class, a good mixed ability Y8 class, or a struggling Y9 class to prepare them for the language and themes in A Christmas Carol

This is pretty much my most popular resource; I use it with all abilities, there’s loads to do and some of it admittedly is in my style, but you can do what you like with it - you’re buying it:-)

An excellent pre-GCSE introduction to Dickens for Y9 - several powerpoints and comprehensions - to support a comprehensive introduction to how Dickens wrote about the less savoury aspects of English life in the 19th Century.

Complete unit of work beginning with KS3 work on ‘A Modest Proposal’, using ‘Viz’ comic and articles by Jeremy Clarkson to develop understanding of rhetorical devices, parody, satire and irony - then introducing KS4 work on Spoken Language presentations with examples and non-fiction based activities that in turn link to writing for a purpose for Paper 2 Q5. 4 long PPTs to support 12 activities and display work should yield 20 or more lessons depending on the ability of your group. Text based work is suitable for cover work as well, including comprehensions and exam practice based on examples easily accessible to a non-specialist.

Mostly suitable for Y9 but would challenge an able Y8 class. It could be taught as part of your regular schemes of work, put together as a self-contained study booklet or used to support absent colleagues with its ‘copy and teach’ format. Each text has a PPT version of the poem to support class reading. Included: Introductory and all supporting Powerpoints Worksheets on all the following: (Including all source material) Extract from ‘The Iliad’ by Homer Extract from ‘The Knight’s Tale’ by Geoffrey Chaucer (2 lessons) ‘Before Agincourt’ – from ‘Henry V by William Shakespeare ‘Fears in Solitude’ – Samuel Taylor Coleridge ‘Napoleon’ – William Thackeray ‘Come up from the fields Father’ – Walt Whitman ‘The War Prayer’ – by Mark Twain ‘What the Bullet Sang’ – Brett Harte ‘In Snow’ – William Allingham ‘A soldier’s battle’ by Arthur Conan Doyle ‘Dirge of the Dead Sisters’ - Anon ‘Vitae Lampada – Sir Henry Newbolt ‘The City Clerk’ – J.A Nicklin ‘Who’s for the Game?’ – Jessie Pope ‘Fall In’ – Harold Begbie ‘I shouted for blood’ – Janet Begbie ‘The Hyaenas’ – Rudyard Kipling ‘The World in Armour’ – William Watson ‘Counter Attack’ – Siegfried Sassoon Extract from ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ by Erich Maria Remarque ‘Statement against the continuation of the War’ – Siegfried Sassoon

Tackles the use of Shakespeare’s Method - the serious flaw in pupils’ responses. Can be delivered to a whole year group or class by class, to make sure that this key factor in teaching is sorted.

It says fairy tales but it’s quite scary - so beware your more tender hearted souls. The usual worksheets, resources and powerpoints for a jolly good teach-out. If you’re really wanting to spread the culture, check out Paula Rego - the Portuguese artist who illustrated some fairly heavy tales.

Philip Larkin, Maya Angelou, Simon Armitage, Gillian Clarke, Sylvia Plath, Tony Harrison RS Thomas, Linda Pastan, Theodore Roethke, Vicki Feaver, Seamus Heaney, Carol Anne Duffy, Wislawa Syzymborska, WH Auden, Ekaterina Serbrovskaya, Anna Akhmatova, John Agard.

This scheme took me about two months solid to write and it’s brilliant. Really.

PPTs and Worksheets to link Logos, to slogans, to adverts to persuasive writing of the highest calibre.

Helps Y9 produce a piece of creative writing based on the opening 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan (an old coursework / controlled writing task). You can also use the resource to help prepare Y9 pupils for Q5 paper 1, looking at details on images and helping them to write creatively in response.

A complete unit of work giving pupils practical experience of the knowledge and skills necessary for the new spec AQA English Language Paper 1.

This is a well-crafted, highly visual, lecture for middle to upper ability kids who need to move from band 2 to band 3 - focusing explicitly on Priestley’s dramatic methods and effects on an audience.

Based on Seamus Heaney’s ‘Follower’, the lecture tackles the key methods pupils need to identify and comment on in Literature Paper 2

This is really useful for a disengaged GCSE class, using banned music videos as a starting point for spoken language or a piece of transactional writing. I’ve suggested some really interesting videos (all on Youtube) but I’m 50 now, and not as down with the kids as I used to be, so you’d probably want to augment the unit with some gangsters shooting each other or scantily clad dancers with gold teeth smoking decidedly dodgy looking Vape machines. Or something.

This is a right laugh to do with Y9 kids, to stimulate creative writing, writing for a purpose or as an introdution to GCSE Media / Film studies.