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!
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!
A single lesson introducing students to the structure of the GCSE Language papers, and then genre based activities that familiarise them with conventions.
A helpful revision tool for GCSE Language Paper 1. Looking at an extract from "The Secret Garden", students analyse language devices, respond to a 20 mark style question, and then attempt a creative writing activity.
Higher ability lesson that can be used as a one off, or as part of teaching the GCSE Language Paper 1. Skills: language analysis, applying context, genre and creative writing.
Text: Ready Player One
Skills: Extended critical writing, language analysis, self-marking
Designed for GSCE Language Q4, but can be taught as it is for any Dystopian unit.
Great for a high ability class, these 4-5 lessons look at an extract from Treasure Island and build skills in:
- Language analysis
- Identifying language techniques
- Creative writing
- Peer and self marking.
A good introduction if you're starting to look at 19th century texts with younger groups. Enjoy!
These 11 power-points and resources cover an entire term of lessons. Find included lessons, activities, worksheets etc covering the skills required for success with answering questions 1-5 for the AQA GCSE Language Paper 1, unseen fiction texts.
Texts included for study in this unit are:
- The Bloody Chamber
- Dracula
- Frankenstein
- Stardust
- Ready Player One
- The Secret Garden
- Heart of Darkness
Enjoy :)
Two to three lessons on the poem "London" by William Blake. Carries on from the "Ozymandias" lesson, but can be taught as it is. Context, high level language and structure analysis, critical writing, writing frames and model answers make for engaging, jammed-packed lessons.
Two to three lessons that carry on from 'Ozymandias' or 'London' but can be taught as it is. High level language and structural analysis, teacher-led annotations and other engaging activities.
2/3 lesson bundle that builds student understanding of how authorial tone works in texts, and how colour and senses can be devised as a narrative tool for generating different tones.
Several creative writing activities get the ball rolling, with analytical writing for the 2nd/3rd lesson. An extract from "The Great Gatsby" (Scott Fitzgerald) is the example extract here: how does the author play with colour and senses to suggest the beautiful but tragic and empty love of Gatsby and Daisy? A clip from the film accompanies this (right click the picture to open hyperlink).
Enjoy :)
Suitable for teaching as a one off, or as part of the GCSE "Power and Conflict" poetry cluster.
Skills covered: themes and ideas (with a look at literary criticism examining tribal conflict and the psychological landscape in Heaney's poetry); language forms, structure and features; and context.
For the GCSE paper Language Paper 2 (Non-fiction), this lesson facilitates students' development of summary writing skills (Q2 of the exam).
Ideal for a weaker class- visual clips of Wonderwoman and Guardians of the Galaxy make the material more accessible, with other written non-fiction texts the focus for the latter part of the lesson.
1-2 lessons for the "Conflict and Power" poetry cluster for the GCSE. These lessons focus on comparison skills for the two above poems, with a focus on revising A01-A03 in London.
For the GCSE Language Paper 2 (non-fiction), this lesson facilitates students' development of critical writing for non-fiction texts. Tailored for question 3 of the exam.
In this lesson, students revise persuasive language devices and analyse "Hiroshima" by John Hersey.
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).
Regardless of how many times I’ve taught Macbeth at GCSE, students still seem to struggle to make meaningful connections between text and context, and thus hit their A03 target.
Here are four lessons I designed to tackle this problem, going in depth to explore:
Lesson 1: Who was King James? How did his paranoia, marriage to Anne of Denmark, taking of the English throne, and self-appointment as witch-hunter influence the shaping of Macbeth?
Lesson 2: Protestantism & Catholicism. What are the key differences between the two? How did Luther’s teachings divert from Catholic tradition and lay the groundwork for Henry VIII?
Lesson 3: The Chain of Being. How did this reinforce the feudal system?
Lesson 4: The Supernatural. How does the setting of Scotland lend itself to supernatural elements? How does the supernatural in Macbeth reinforce the colonial narrative?
My set 1 year 10s really engaged with these four lessons. Have also included “required readings” with key terms and questions for discussion that you might choose to set as homework before the lessons (flipped-model style).
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.
When students submit essays, it can become a laborious task to write extensive annotations on their responses.
I developed this annotations key for my year 9 and 10 classes, based on common errors that I’ve identified in their writing. Rather than writing full comments on their essays, I’ll instead place a number. When the students receive their work back, simply print a copy of the annotations sheet and have them read through their responses and the key to understand what skills they need to improve.
This is a great tool for maximising teachers’ marking time (work smarter, not harder!) and also encouraging students to really engage with their feedback, rather than just looking for their grade!
Adapt the key as needed :)
As part of Reconciliation Week here in Australia, I designed these short workshops to complete with my roll call class. I highly encourage you to download this resource and share it with your colleagues. You might like to tweak it to better suit the demographic of your school. My school has a cohort of predominantly white students, so it was important to really unpack the concepts of white privilege with them.
They really engaged with this.
Sharing for free because this is important and should be an integrated part of education.