Secondary English Specialist (from KS3 to Oxbridge)
Producing high quality resources unavailable elsewhere
Please comment on my resources; let me know what works and I'll tailor the next ones for you.
Secondary English Specialist (from KS3 to Oxbridge)
Producing high quality resources unavailable elsewhere
Please comment on my resources; let me know what works and I'll tailor the next ones for you.
To Kill a Mockingbird (GCSE - Higher Paper)
A sequence of lessons focused on group work exploration of the characters of Maycomb.
Tasks include:
- revision of characters
- evaluation of their narrative functions
- exploring the contexts of TKAM
- developing alternative readings of characters
- evaluating interpretations
- group work / presentation skills
GCSE AQA Poetry MoonTides Relationships Comparison Skills support
Support to write comparatively with examples
Questions to extend and develop thinking about literature
Essay structure for responding to poetry in the AQA English Literature exam
ENGLISH LITERATURE / ENGLISH LANGUAGE
- useful for KS3-KS5; best at KS4
- guides higher ability expression of ideas and language analysis
- provides exemplar language for use in analytical essay writing
- offers alternative phrases for the common expressions students use and thus restrict their capacity to express.
Multi-use resource - reading and writing tasks using stimulus material
Activities based on close reading and analysis
Sequence of lessons which may culminate in writing own effective descriptive writing
Challenging and high expectations for learners - tried and tested with NC level 5 and above successfully
Encourages students to explore Dickens further by offering a range of taster extracts
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
- useful for 6th to 10th grade; best at 6-8th grade
- guides crafting of writing to improve expression
- fully adaptable power point to individual purposes
- used successfully in writing character monologues, sell or slate reviews, rhetoric, and all forms of descriptive writing.
ENGLISH LITERATURE / ENGLISH LANGUAGE
- useful for 6th to 10th grade; best at 6-8th grade
- guides higher ability expression of ideas and language analysis
- provides exemplar language for use in analytical essay writing
- offers alternative phrases for the common expressions students use and thus restrict their capacity to express.
GCSE English writing feedback sheet - useful in preparing for all writing tasks in GCSE examinations
brings together the best features of assessment practice:
WWW/EBI
explicit criteria for students to check their work
easy tick/circle feedback process for teachers to identify targets
room for student self-reflection and target setting
opportunity for “purple pen”/redrafting of a specific paragraph to show immediate progress
students could pre-complete the sheet before handing in work to improve progress.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
- useful for KS3-KS5; best at KS3/4
- guides crafting of writing to improve expression
- fully adaptable power point to individual purposes
- used successfully in writing character monologues, sell or slate reviews, rhetoric, and all forms of descriptive writing
KS4/ KS5 Unseen Poetry analysis guides
Guides students through a sequence of questions that helps them to analyse a poem successfully.
Additional challenge questions introduce students to critical perspectives that may be applied to poetry from gender representation to aesthetic concerns.
Two different approaches included.
Generic advice for writing an essay effectively under time pressure and to a high quality.
Especially useful for students preparing for TSA / LNAT essays for Oxbridge.
Also useful for those preparing debating speeches.
To Kill a Mockingbird - Literature
- useful for 8th to 10th grade; best at 8-10th grade
A sequence of lessons focused on group work exploration of the characters of Maycomb.
Tasks include:
- revision of characters
- evaluation of their narrative functions
- exploring the contexts of To Kill a Mockingbird
- developing alternative readings of characters
- evaluating interpretations
- group work / presentation skills
Using a copy of The Machine Stops (E M Forster) which may be found here: http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html
NB: students should have read story before lesson.
Challenge Question (on board at the start of lesson): what would your most frightening dystopian future be? (connect it to the world as it is now...) - share best on paper pinned to the board for later inspiration for others.
Discuss rules for effective group work - one speaker at a time / listen actively / build on ideas...
1. 3 or 6 groups (equal size) each discuss and make notes on one of the three discussion tasks (tasks are increasingly complex: character, genre, concept)
2. form new triads made up of one student from each of the three tasks - share ideas with a new central Q: What might readers find difficult to understand in the story? how would you explain it to them?
3. Students work independently on the personal response section - pause after twenty minutes to peer review progress and give feedback before editing and finishing.
Additional idea: use http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heAVOA8iyCw
(top ten dystopian film ideas - some moderate violence included)
students should draw, describe or act out a trailer for a new dystopian book idea.
Could be followed up with some study of other dystopian fiction:
V for Vendetta - Alan Moore
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
The Maze Runner - James Dashner
1984 - George Orwell
GCSE AQA English Literature Poetry Moon on the Tides Anthology - Relationships - top grade ideas
Notes written using academic vocabulary that focuses on A/A* grade thinking.
Includes a sequence of challenge questions and a focus on the comparative element of assessment
useful as revision and to extend most able.
May be used as part of group work, individual revision, or in deepening student responses.
MACBETH - drama / writing lesson for KS3 or KS4
1. Rank order crimes based on how evil they are. Discuss:
how you can judge how evil a crime is - eg. act vs outcome, intention, circumstance
how they should be punished (if death penalty were not available).
2. Students choose a specific crime to write about / perform as a monologue. Spend time planning / drafting writing before completing final piece. Focus on using quotation for the play (selected to match crime).
3. Use quotations as foundation of an essay piece exploring evil in the play.
4. Plenary - establish which of the crimes Macbeth committed - ask: is "dead butcher" a fitting epitaph?
Drama - Macbeth - KS3 / KS4 - imagery - plot - tension - themes
TIME: 1 hour (may be extended to 1.5 hours)
Students learn about conflict as the central theme of drama and then learn the plot of Macbeth by performing key scenes focused on illuminating significant imagery in the play and its dramatic tension.
Opportunity is given to investigate the psychological aspects of character in each scene and in the plenary.
Sophisticated drama lesson resource with clear guidance and variations to take into account group size - resource has been extensively trialled and developed, proving to be successful, accessible, and enjoyable.
Questions for each scene may be used in classroom writing time later, as may the plenary be used an extended writing task.
Macbeth extracts have been edited to focus on key quotations and imagery.
Some spelling and insignificant words have been regularised/edited to ensure clarity of meaning for students.
KS4 - GCSE - EDUQAS - English Literature: Poetry Anthology
Specific, researched contextual information that relates directly to each poem in the anthology.
Includes specific quotations by the poets referring to meanings in the poems.
Activity invites students to find a quotation connected to each context which may then be analysed.
Word document.
Macbeth GCSE resource - best scenes, quotes, and themes
Useful as a revision tool and to guide learning from day one of study.
Summarises key scenes; identifies imagery; connects scenes with other relevant points across the play
Provide a list of key quotations with images identified for analysis and connection to themes
defines tragedy with a task prompting students to explore how the definitions might apply to Macbeth
lists key themes with a task to connect them to the key quotations
this word document may be modified to be adapted for specific school circumstances.
A-Level English Literature - KS5
- extracts from texts spanning a thousand years.
- activities outlined with focus on semantic analysis, contextual research, and critical approaches
- ideal introduction to prose writing styles for synoptic units at A-Level
- challenge for more able - differentiated tasks included
- preparation for Oxbridge candidates looking to cover a broad sweep of literary heritage