Teach from part of a sample answer. Go through the 9 skills that students need for a grade 5. Then teach the same skills to grade 6 using the same essay, with an extra one - skill 10 which tips the balance between grades 5 and 6. Finally, exemplify a crucial tactic to approaching the question which makes grades 5 and 6 so much easier to get. Should students start with the extract or the whole text? There really is a right answer!

Dickens is a master of his craft, but by God, you can tell he was paid by the word, can’t you? Never was a man so in love with a sentence, loaded with clauses, garnished with phrases and then, to add to the confusion, the main clause tagged on at the end. What 16 year old wouldn’t struggle? I’ve abridged this great novel down to 20,000 words, from 27,000. That’s a quarter less time to read it, and a quarter more time to teach the content. Better than that, it actually makes for a more entertaining read. The conversation feels much more natural, and has some real pace. You can easily have your students taking parts. And of course, none of the essential quotations are left out! Here is a sample:

This presentation will help you teach the poet’s tone and point of view. It outlines the historical context and the political nature of the poem. It helps you teach the allusions to Macbeth, Ozymandias, Hamlet, and Dulce et Decorum Est, as well as looking at the imagery. Finally, it helps you analyse the poem’s structure and link this to Armitage’s purpose. The accompanying video gives you an indepth instruction on how to link your teaching to the slides.

Teach your students how to use the indicative content to write their revision essay. Then show them how to refine this to a grade 9 essay which can be done under exam conditions. Next teach them from the model. Show exactly how it meets all the exam criteria for AQA and Edexcel. Here is an extract:

“Desire to kill”. This is part of a series of 5 short extracts on Hyde. They will enable your students to answer any essay on Hyde. Each extract is explicitly linked to the following 5 themes. Understanding any two of these fully ought to be enough to gain a grade 7. Referencing more than 2 is likely to propel students into grade 8. Key words and phrases are analysed in each slide and linked to each of the 5 themes. I’m pricing this as cheaply as TES will allow! If you really want a bargain, buy all 5 extracts in the bundle! If you want any help on how to teach them, follow the links to thee videos. Christian Morality Tale Fear of Scientific Progress Repressed Homosexuality Love of the Gothic and Detective Genres Hypocrisy of Middle Class Men

What does the examiner’s report have to tell us about teaching Romeo and Juliet? Learn how to write about more than one interpretation for the top grades. Take opposing views about the role of the Friar in bringing peace to Verona, but upsetting the social order. About Romeo and Juliet’s love representing the passion of the individual, or the error of challenging social conventions. Relate their marriage to the potential tragedy of Shakespeare’s marriage to Ann Hathaway. Or alternatively, understand the play as a celebration of his own marriage in contrast to social conventions of Verona and Shakespeare’s audience. Find alternative perspectives on the Nurse, so that she is both hero and villain. See how a contemporary audience might well have seen Capulet as a model father. Follow the link to my video to see how to use the presentation to teach your students.

Dickens is a master of his craft, but by God, you can tell he was paid by the word, can’t you? Never was a man so in love with a sentence, loaded with clauses, garnished with phrases and then, to add to the confusion, the main clause tagged on at the end. What 16 year old wouldn’t struggle? I’ve abridged this great novel down to 90,000 words, from 163,000! So each chapter can be read in 20 minutes or less. That’s a 45% reduction in reading time, which buys you an 45% more time to teach your analysis! Better than that, it actually makes for a more entertaining read. The conversation feels much more natural, and has some real pace. You can easily have your students taking parts. As a bonus, I’ve placed in bold the most important quotation in each chapter. This means your students should find it much easier to make notes, and you can find it easier to decide on key passages to approach in your teaching.

Use 8 short paragraphs describing Scrooge and the weather to explore how the weather mirrors the changes in Scrooge’s morality and personality. Teach how Dickens also uses contrast, repetition, personification, sibilance, alliteration to signpost the changes in Scrooge’s character. Show how the descriptions of weather in the countryside and the weather reveal Dickens’ attack on the problems of urbanisation and his campaign to persuade contemporary readers to change their attitude to the deserving poor. Teach students how Tiny Tim is a metaphor for Scrooge himself, and how his weak morality is rescued by Christmas and the child within.

“An Unknown But Innocent Freedom of the Soul”. This is part of a series of 5 short extracts on Hyde. They will enable your students to answer any essay on Hyde. Each extract is explicitly linked to the following 5 themes. Understanding any two of these fully ought to be enough to gain a grade 7. Referencing more than 2 is likely to propel students into grade 8. Key words and phrases are analysed in each slide and linked to each of the 5 themes. I’m pricing this as cheaply as TES will allow! If you really want a bargain, buy all 5 extracts in the bundle! If you want any help on how to teach them, follow the links to thee videos. Christian Morality Tale Fear of Scientific Progress Repressed Homosexuality Love of the Gothic and Detective Genres Hypocrisy of Middle Class Men

This resource takes you through 6 ways to link details of Shakespeare’s marriage to Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. Here’s one of them: Now, let’s consider the subservient role of women in the patriarchal society of the day. Yes, women were considered the property of their husbands by law, but what did that mean in everyday life? Is it likely that the 17 or 18 year old Shakespeare seduced Anne, or is it more likely that she took the initiative? When we think this way, we can clearly see why he would write parts for clever, passionate, powerful women, like Lady Macbeth. We might infer that he did not see women as weaker or inferior beings, but men’s equal in many respects. It also links to two videos, one for each play.

Propel students to top grades in their full understanding of the context of this poem. It is propaganda, we know. But teaching the rhyme scheme and dactyl metre reveals a surprising alternative, that Tennyson is horrified at the senseless slaughter of the soldiers. Students who understand ‘form and structure’ achieve at least grade 7. A video also explains everything, so your students can follow up the lesson with homework, or can use it as flipped learning before you teach the poem.

All the themes of Jekyll and Hyde, with precise quotations to teach them. A 42 minute video showing you what to teach if you want it. Great to set for homework. A beautifully presented PowerPoint which you can teach from or print off as revision cards for your class. As always, the presentation links to my videos on Mr Salles Teaches English, so you can get even more tips on how to teach from it. Includes themes of women and femininity, duality, hypocrisy, repression, violence, duality, friendship, appearances, the house as a metaphor, science and evolution, and Christianity, curiosity, drug taking…

This comprehensive and beautiful resource teaches all the themes of An Inspector Calls. It is filled with detail which will help most students access grade 7, and the more able to get grades 8 and 9. It summarises most of The Mr Salles Guide to An Inspector Calls, which you can see on Amazon https://amzn.to/2DDPl91 Each PPT slide can be printed as a revision card there are 32 in total. A video showing you how to teach from it is also included. You can play this to your class, or pick out the salient points you want to cover yourself.

Grades 7, 8 and 9 depend on students exploring different interpretations. Focus on why Stevenson, the atheist, writes the novella with Christian themes. Then see how his description of Jekyll undermines these themes, promoting a freer society. Watch the video to see how to get the most out of this PPT, or print it off for your students to take notes on while they watch the video. You’ll also see how Hyde acts as Jekyll’s bravo, and why only Jekyll has a motive to kill Sir Danvers Carew and cause the death of Lanyon. This is also explained by the historical context and the 1885 Act of Parliament outlawing homosexuality. Finally, explore why Stevenson might prefer Hyde to Jekyll and how he chooses to reject England and it’s Christian society to live the rest of his life in Samoa.

Students can achieve grade 7 and above just from reading this - they wouldn’t even have to read the novel! When they do, it will make so much more sense to them. They get a very clear summary, linked to lots of top grade interpretations, ready to simply fit into their essay writing.

Every to grade idea you’ll ever need. Boost students’ grades, because top level analysis is just knowing stuff. Understand interpretations you’ve not met before and help your students stand out from the crowd.