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Tess of the d'Urban Quills

Average Rating3.73
(based on 61 reviews)

I'm a passionate secondary English and History teacher and am the main planner of resources for my department; as such, I thought I would start sharing them here with the wider community of teachers and professionals. I am Australian trained, but currently teaching GCSE and A- Level (AQA specifications). All lessons are very visually engaging, with images, clips and a variety of activities. You won't find any boring/blank resources here!

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I'm a passionate secondary English and History teacher and am the main planner of resources for my department; as such, I thought I would start sharing them here with the wider community of teachers and professionals. I am Australian trained, but currently teaching GCSE and A- Level (AQA specifications). All lessons are very visually engaging, with images, clips and a variety of activities. You won't find any boring/blank resources here!
GCSE: Tearable Essay Questions
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GCSE: Tearable Essay Questions

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10 essay questions for EACH of the English Literature topics: Power & Conflict, Jekyll & Hyde, An Inspector Calls and Macbeth. Presented in a flier format for students to tear off a question. Great resource for classroom displays, extension tasks, or students’ private study.
Year 10/11: Language Paper 2 (Perspectives & Viewpoints) Q4
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Year 10/11: Language Paper 2 (Perspectives & Viewpoints) Q4

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For GCSE Language Paper 2 (non-fiction), this lesson facilitates students’ development of comparison and critical writing skills, for question 4 of the exam. Clips introduce comparison skills, which are consolidated in examining non-fiction extracts surrounding the Titanic (original news report and survivor’s journal).
The Tyger- William Blake
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The Tyger- William Blake

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An in depth series of lessons (2-4 depending on ability) for KS3 looking at William Blake’s “The Tyger”. In-depth, structured activities focusing on themes, language, form and structure. Am quite proud of this lesson! Enjoy
Year 7: Reading and writing feature articles
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Year 7: Reading and writing feature articles

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A fun 2-3 lessons that introduce students to the structure and form of feature articles. Builds to a task where they write their own feature article as Lois Lane, on the topic of Does the world really need superman? Included in this pack is an original model text of a feature article, written by yours truly :) My class had a lot of fun with this. Enjoy!
Writing Historical Fiction
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Writing Historical Fiction

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**Pitched at: **Lower-set year 10 **Context: **Students writing narrative fiction Lesson content: Tips and tricks for writing in the historical fiction genre How to write setting How to write plot How to write characters and build a character arc. Included: Powerpoint Examples of historical fiction Planning sheets
Year 10/11: Language Paper 1 Revision Booklet
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Year 10/11: Language Paper 1 Revision Booklet

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Using an extract from “The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy, this booklet allows students to work in pairs or individually to complete a mini-project that covers all the skills for the Language Paper 1, AQA GSCE specimen. This took my class about 2-3 lessons to complete. Self-directed learning is great for this time of year!
Year 11: Unseen Poetry Projects
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Year 11: Unseen Poetry Projects

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Using two unseen poems (one by Louise Gluck) this booklet allows students to work in pairs or individually to complete a mini-project that covers all the skills for the unseen poetry section of Language Paper 1, AQA GSCE specimen. This took my class about 2-3 lessons to complete. Self-directed learning is great for this time of year!
Conflict & Power= comparison revision
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Conflict & Power= comparison revision

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A useful lesson for revising how to compare poems in the Power & Conflict poetry cluster, for AQA’s GCSE. I recommend this resource if you have already taught the entire unit. A few skills that the lesson covers are: Detailed revision and analysis of poetic form Revision of contextual influences and the importance of these How to structure a comparison paragraph Activity sheets for printing are included in the PP.
Year 10 PBL- How do literature and social change connect?
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Year 10 PBL- How do literature and social change connect?

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As the main homework task for the past unit (‘Jekyll and Hyde’ and ‘An Inspector Calls’), my students worked on producing a project that answers the inquiry question: How does literature and social change connect? Included are the project overview, the planning proforma sheet, and the final assessment rubric. A few useful tools for anyone experimenting with PBL for the first time.
Year 7/8: Romeo & Juliet
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Year 7/8: Romeo & Juliet

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A one off lesson, as part of an "Introduction to Shakespeare" unit for KS3. A focus on language, plot and some characterisation.
Year 7/8: Taming of the Shrew
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Year 7/8: Taming of the Shrew

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A one off lesson, as part of an "Introduction to Shakespeare" unit for KS3. A focus on language, plot and some characterisation.
Year 7: Villain's Speeches
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Year 7: Villain's Speeches

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My year 7s are studying non-fiction at the moment, which I personally find very boring! To spice things up, we’ve been looking at non-fiction textual forms through the theme of comic books (see my other lessons for examples). This lesson/2 lessons examines the features of speeches, with examples being the grand speeches comic villains perform. Included: Two clips of Ego and Bane- why are their speeches convincing? Analysis activities for the Joker’s speech from The Dark Knight Model critical paragraph Creative: students write their own villain speech Extension: Students create a comic page featuring their villain and given speech. My class loved it. Enjoy!