I teach English Lit and Lang at IGCSE and IB Level. Resources here are mainly for these courses but I often upload KS3 resources too. Currently I am working on the new Songs of Ourselves for 2026. Drop me a line on: underthevolcanoagain@gmail.com for one-to-one tuition.
I teach English Lit and Lang at IGCSE and IB Level. Resources here are mainly for these courses but I often upload KS3 resources too. Currently I am working on the new Songs of Ourselves for 2026. Drop me a line on: underthevolcanoagain@gmail.com for one-to-one tuition.
In this 19-slide PowerPoint, you will find: objective and starter, creative writing task to stimulate ideas connected to the poem, reorganise the poem activity, drama task to facilitate first reading, first impression comprehension questions with an extension, form and structure analysis, multiple interpretation ideas (romantic love vs personal tribute to Hamnet), poetic technique analysis, line-by-line analysis, line-by-line homework questions, essay ideas with four PEE model paragraphs, essay plan. Works best as a PP but you can convert to PDF or Google Slides. Hope it’s useful for your students.
In this 20-slide PowerPoint, you will find: intriguing starter for students to share opinions on the theme of marriage, a biography of the author with a quiz at the end (with answers), first impressions task, vocabulary challenge, homework task, line-by-line questions, line-by-line analysis, essay question, essay plan, model introduction, model analytical paragraph (colour-coded for clarity, prompts for further analysis paragraphs with quotes identified for each one. This resource will take about 2 hours to complete plus homework and students will gain confidence in understanding and unpacking the poem.
In this 23-slide PowerPoint, you will find: starter, thought-provoking h/w questions (with answers as annotations), research the author task, vocabulary challenges (with answers), line-by-line analysis, structural questions (with answers), drama task, essay question and essay plan. A thoroughly detailed series of lessons that will most likely take 2 to 3 hours if you complete all activities. This PowerPoint can be used in class, for homework, or for revision.
In this simple 9 slide PowerPoint, you will find: thematic questions about heroes and feminist struggles, line by line questions, detailed summary of the poem with a gap-fill task, a drama activity where students act the event in the poem out, and a writing activity where students write a letter from the great-great-grandmother in the poem to the author. Finally, students peer assess their writing based on spelling, punctuation, grammar, paragraphing, and tone. It is a fairly easy-to-understand poem that students will benefit from exploring using these different pedagogical platforms.
In this PowerPoint you will find: thematic discussion questions, a quiz about Percy Shelley, the ‘story’ of the poem explained, a mindmapping task on Ramesses II, the author’s message, line by line questions, a gap fill about extended metaphor, a brief overview of the framed narrative form, and an annotated model response with essay writing prompts and instructions. All in all, students should have a good grasp of the poem after studying this, and teachers will not have any planning apart from possibly printing any slides they might want students to stick into their books. Any feedback is always much appreciated.
In this PowerPoint you will find a detailed summary of the poem, some pre-reading activities, a breakdown of structure, style and rhyme, teacher annotations, and a model analysis and interpretation, which I have colour-coded to highlight embedded quotes, techniques and personal interpretation. Overall, this poem resource is quite a teacher-led presentation as this is one of the trickier poems in the anthology to break down from first glance. By using this resource, the poet’s central message and some of his techniques should be understood by your students. I hope it is useful for your iGCSE class. I have also added a supplementary YouTube video to help with introducing the poem to students - it could be a homework task to watch the video before the lesson.
A detailed PowerPoint that provides: prereading activities, about the author, annotations, comprehension questions, line by line technical/language analysis, and three essay questions to challenge students. I have also written an example essay, which is also included. Students like the fun activity which involves them comparing the poem to the opening scene of David Lynch’s movie, Blue Velvet. I hope you like it. Here is a link to my supplementary YouTube video too: https://youtu.be/vTm92Pokmc0
In this 13-slide PowerPoint, you will find: starter, video task, first impressions questions, homework questions for flipped learning, line by line analysis, drama activity, and an in-depth essay investigating the ambiguity in the poem. It is a poem that can easily be interpreted in two fairly distinct ways, and so this essay should provide students with a clear model that shows them that poetry is genuinely open to interpretation. It works best as a PP, and not Google Slides.
This is a 20 slide PowerPoint including: about the author, context, line by line comprehension and thought-provoking questions, a quiz pairwork activity, an A grade analytical model paragraph, analysis activity, and a plenary.
In this 20-slide PowerPoint presentation you will find: about the author, breaking down the title, a dramatic reading activity, 5 thought-provoking/annotation questions on each stanza, tasks on theme, tone, structure and the author’s message; and finally a short creative-writing activity. It will require at least one full hour of teaching but could easily be amended. If you take the writing activity further, it might be better spread over two lessons. Hopefully this PP will be of use in preparing your students for their iGCSE exams, or beneficial to anyone studying this poem. Any feedback is always appreciated.
The PowerPoint includes: mindmapping the title, comprehension questions for every line, a variety of activities, line by line analysis, contextual information, rhyme scheme, essay questions, criteria, and an example colour-coded paragraph. Also, I have included a link to my YouTube analysis and a 1000 word essay. It is very thorough and detailed, easy to follow, and with logical animations. It will take between two and three hours to cover fully.
In this PowerPoint you will find: three readings of the poem, the poem’s backstory, questions on form/technique/ambiguity, a technique/quote matching activity, a line by line commentary, a final fun task where students perform the poem dramatically in small groups as others rate them on a simple performance rubric. It is informative but also quite fun and you can skip activities as you wish. I hope it is useful and any feedback would be much appreciated.
In this PowerPoint presentation, you will find: line by line questions, analysis of rhyme scheme and tense shifts, a comparison task where students interpret the opening page of The Stranger by Albert Camus to discuss the poem’s theme of “the irrationality of grief”, and a media based activity where students have to create a YouTube video of the poem using still images. It should be quite an interesting and fun series of tasks for students to develop a good understanding of the poem.
In this 18-slide PowerPoint, you will find an initial vocabulary activity based on some of the tricky words in Book 2, Chapter 1, then some straightforward discussion questions to facilitate active reading, followed by a fun activity where students design their own technological alien and write a 200-word profile for it. Included is a gap fill activity to check understanding of Book 2, Chapter 2, followed by a “discussion” with HG Wells regarding the themes of reason/belief. This final activity should really get to the heart of the book and with the right teacher guidance there will hopefully be a rich discussion. All three chapters are also concisely summarised.
12-slide PP covering three chapters. A range of activities for these chapters and some model responses analysing the language and themes. Matching tasks and summaries galore. Please see shop for full bundle.
This is for anyone teaching the new IB course (2020-2026). It offers students some questions to ask themselves when revising for their Paper 1 Lang/Lit exam. It could be used as a classroom activity when examining a text, or as revision.
This is an analysis of an extract of the Kamala Harris VP Nomination Speech (follow the link to the full video below). It provides students with an annotated copy of the original text transcript, and an intro and thesis, something they often have trouble formulating. Also included are some past papers, model paragraphing, and essay plans. I hope these resources are useful in preparing for this year’s IB Paper 1 - they could be used either in class, online, or for revision.
This resource has students at IB level for the English A: Lang and Lit course, analyse a series of print adverts and film. The campaign is a recent British Army Recruitment campaign. The main task students should complete after analysing the sources is to create a 5 minute spoken presentation about the purpose, audience and techniques used. There is a glossary of vocabulary which should come in useful. It is not meant as a mock for the IO, but a similar task that will let students have a go at preparing a short 5 minute speech , analysing the campaign. It should last about 2 weeks.
In this 10-slide PowerPoint, you will find a summary of chapters 1 and 2, a matching task related to the themes of Science, Political Change, Industrial Revolution, and Imperialism. Included next are 10 questions about an extract from Chapter 1, focused on vocabulary. There is also a ‘descriptive writing checklist’ and 2 descriptive writing activities. Finally, there are another 10 questions about an extract from Chapter 2, encouraging students to comment on language. This PowerPoint can be used generically, or for the IGCSE course, first exams in 2024.
