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Here to provide some handy resources to help with the huge amount of time that planning takes up. A variety of resources for literacy, library, English and Classics teaching. Teacher of English and Classics for 17 years with plenty of experience in secondary schools. Whole school Literacy co-ordination in 5 schools. If you are looking for something particular, please let me know and I will see if I can help you out.

Here to provide some handy resources to help with the huge amount of time that planning takes up. A variety of resources for literacy, library, English and Classics teaching. Teacher of English and Classics for 17 years with plenty of experience in secondary schools. Whole school Literacy co-ordination in 5 schools. If you are looking for something particular, please let me know and I will see if I can help you out.
Myth and Religion Classics GCSE Unit 1.3 religion and the city introduction to Temples
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Myth and Religion Classics GCSE Unit 1.3 religion and the city introduction to Temples

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This is the first lesson for the OCR Myth and Religion Classics GCSE 1:3- Religion and the city unit. It covers the unit outline and expectations, as well as information about both Greek and Roman temples. There is some discussion based around modern day churches and comparison with ancient structural choices, diagrams for your pupils to label and a fun task for them to complete to help them remember the structure of a temple of their choice (Greek or Roman.) There is also a prep which will lead into the starter activity for the next lesson. I am teaching this unit at this moment and currently using the half-term to work on creating my lessons- I will be uploading a full unit bundle (for a small price) when I have completed it. This lesson should give you a free sample of the lessons you can expect should you wish to purchase and download the bundle when I have uploaded it.
Literacy lesson on sentence structure/ construction/ composition
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Literacy lesson on sentence structure/ construction/ composition

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A lesson on sentence structure and composition, looking at simple, complex and compund with tasks for writing, indentifying and consideration of impact in extended pieces of writing. This is a free lesson but is part of the 12 lesson bundle that you can purchase which focuses on a variety of literacy topics.
AQA Mercutio essay preparation and practise
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AQA Mercutio essay preparation and practise

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A lesson on the AQA GCSE mark scheme, criteria and expectations in relation to the AOs. Analysis prompts and essay prompts allow students to create a fully developed essay in another lesson or for homework.
Library books exploration lesson/s
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Library books exploration lesson/s

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A useful resource to use to get pupils exploring books from different genres and develop an idea of their own preferences. Lasts 2/3 lessons. (this can be used not for genres, just for books you have chosen for them to explore) Set up 5/6 books on each table (can be more or less depending on your time) from different genres as a carousel and get the pupils to look at the title, read the first page and the blurb of all on the table. Pupils choose the best one from each table and rate it. Activity leads on where they can consider their own crafting and what genre they would lean towards writing themselves. Writing frame applied for this.
Literacy marking matrix QWC and English
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Literacy marking matrix QWC and English

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An essay or creative writing marking matrix that is developed to mark for Literacy. It focuses on 5 areas giving a total mark out of 20. Created using GCSE Language marking criteria in English and combining with the QWC across 15 academic subjects. Can be used to mark pupils literacy and provide next steps to get to the next level. Room for actions and targets.
Literacy key word prep booklet/  cross curricula Subject specific spelling booklet
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Literacy key word prep booklet/ cross curricula Subject specific spelling booklet

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A booklet created for prep/ homework to improve cross curricula Literacy. One year worth of prep. Key words provided by Head of Departments across subjects. Meant to be used weekly throughout the year. Pupils to find definitions and write them down with tests the next week and area to record their scores. Extra vocabulary lists at back for stretch and challenge. We have been using this successful for three years.
Half Caste independent exploration sheet
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Half Caste independent exploration sheet

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A copy of the poem with question prompts around it to allow for independent or group exploration prior to teaching. Excellent for teaching unseen poetry exploration or to set as a prep for teaching of poem next lesson. Whole task will fill a 40 minute lesson with feedback.
Key stage 3 core spellings booklet/ prep
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Key stage 3 core spellings booklet/ prep

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KS3 core spelling booklet for prep for the year/ to use in class. The booklet goes through tricky spelling rule plus a number of other core spellings from across the curriculum: Part 1 List 1: ie/ei 3 List 2: s/c/sc/cc/xc 4 List 3: g/ge/dge 6 List 4 and 5: Double letters 7 List 6: Suffix -ing/-ed 9 List 7: Suffix -ous/-eous/-ious 10 List 8: Suffix -ence/-ance 11 List 9: Suffix -ent/-ant 12 List 9 (cont): Suffix -tion/-cion/-sion 12 List 10: Suffix -ly/-ally 13 List 10: Suffix -ful/-fil 14 Lists 11 and 12: Words that look or sound similar 15 List 13: Other common misspellings 16 Example sentences 18 About this booklet Part 1 lists all the words you are required to know, organised by spelling rule. Begin by rating your confidence on each spelling by ticking the appropriate box. This will help you identify the spelling rules you most need to focus on. You will see on your prep timetable that there is a fortnightly slot for literacy. Your teacher will tell you which lists to learn ahead of a ten-question quiz the following literacy lesson. You may also like to refer to Part 2 of this booklet to see each word used in a sentence. E.G. page 1 without practise grid List 1: ie/ei Rule: ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ Not confident Moderately confident Very confident achieve believe chief friend hierarchy hygiene medieval mischievous perceive piece receipt receive siege Rule breakers: Not confident Moderately confident Very confident foreign height leisure neighbour seize weird
Literacy lessons and worksheets bundle
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Literacy lessons and worksheets bundle

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A series of Literacy lessons aimed at KS3 pupils to reaffirm their KS2 Literacy teaching. 12 lessons with relevant worksheets. The first two of these lessons can be viewed/ downloaded on my shop for free to give you a taste of how they work for you in the classroom- if they work then save yourself some time and purchase the bundle… Topics covered: Sentence types and composition Clauses and phrases Tenses fullstops, capital, questions and exclamations ellipsis commas and inverted commas apostrophes colons and semi-colons hyphens and dashes parenthsis nouns and pronouns verbs and modal verbs
Christmas quiz 2022
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Christmas quiz 2022

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50 questions/ slides that make up a jolly chirstmas quiz. Four rounds: Film, trivia, music and secret celebrity santa. The preview page has a few snippets of the questions but they are a true mix with something for everyone one- historical facts, recall of information and sing along embedded christmas tunes that link to questions. Edit to make shorter, longer or turn it into a kahoot or blooket. This took a long time to put together, so save yourself some time and purchase a ready to go Christmas quiz lesson in full! Answers also supplied. Enjoy!
Poetry quiz/ poetry day
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Poetry quiz/ poetry day

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A quiz on many things poetry to be used for tutor groups or classes. Over twenty questions with rounds on: Nursery rhymes Poetic techniques General knowledge riddles
A Christmas Carol historical context- intro to novella
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A Christmas Carol historical context- intro to novella

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This is lesson 1 from my ‘A Christmas Carol teaching unit’ which covers the whole text for GCSE teaching purposes. It is based on GCSE AQA specifications, but can be adapted for any year group or exam board- oage numbers will need to be edited to your copy. This lesson is a taster of what you can expect from my set of 24 lessons which can be purchased as a bundle- though I am offering a few lessons for free and a few for £1 purchase. There is also a revision/ task booklet avaliable and a revision bundle. There is a video attached to the description/ oreview page so you can see the whole unit of work with the many resources avaliable should you wish to have more information. This particular lesson asks pupils to recap their prior knowledge about Charles Dickens, links to a short video about Dickens’ childhood and early life and gets pupils to explore different pictures from the Victorian era to see the problems with Victorian society that led to Dickens’ pesual of social reform. Top tip: Click on the Christmas tree on the starter activity of each lesson and it will link you to a chrictmas carol/ song that can play as your pupils enter the room- a great, fun start that has a clear time limit for the starter activity to be completed- or for the class to settle down ready to learn :)
A Christmas Carol- Stave two character discussion, hot seating, persuasive speech and debate.
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A Christmas Carol- Stave two character discussion, hot seating, persuasive speech and debate.

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This is lesson 13 from my ‘A Christmas Carol teaching unit’ which covers the whole text for GCSE teaching purposes. It is based on GCSE AQA specifications, but can be adapted for any year group or exam board- page numbers will need to be edited to your copy. This lesson is a taster of what you can expect from my set of 24 lessons which can be purchased as a bundle- though I am offering a few lessons for free and a few for £1 purchase. There is also a revision/ task booklet avaliable and a revision bundle. There is a video attached to the description/ preview page so you can see the whole unit of work with the many resources avaliable should you wish to have more information. This lesson specifically focuses on the characters presented in Stave 2 (Fezziwig, Little Fan and Belle) and asks pupils to discuss which is the most influential to Scrooge’s development at this stage in the text. There are a mixture of activities with hot-seating, persuasive speech writing, debates and discussion.
A Christmas Carol- The Ghost of Christmas Present  and Dickens'  need for social reform
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A Christmas Carol- The Ghost of Christmas Present and Dickens' need for social reform

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This is lesson 15 from my ‘A Christmas Carol teaching unit’ which covers the whole text for GCSE teaching purposes. It is based on GCSE AQA specifications, but can be adapted for any year group or exam board- page numbers will need to be edited to your copy. This lesson is a taster of what you can expect from my set of 24 lessons which can be purchased as a bundle- though I am offering a few lessons for free and a few for £1 purchase. There is also a revision/ task booklet avaliable and a revision bundle. There is a video attached to the description/ preview page so you can see the whole unit of work with the many resources avaliable should you wish to have more information. This lesson specifically focuses on The Ghost of Christmas present and the presentation of the Cratchitts. It tackles the Poor Laws, Scrooge’s comments on the poor, Maltheus and the need for social reform/ what message Dickens’ is trying to convey through his novella- leading pupils to write a paragraph which considers authorial intention and context (A03)
A Christmas Carol- The Spirits
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A Christmas Carol- The Spirits

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This is lesson 21 from my ‘A Christmas Carol teaching unit’ which covers the whole text for GCSE teaching purposes. It is based on GCSE AQA specifications, but can be adapted for any year group or exam board- page numbers will need to be edited to your copy. This lesson is a taster of what you can expect from my set of 24 lessons which can be purchased as a bundle- though I am offering a few lessons for free and a few for £1 purchase. There is also a revision/ task booklet avaliable and a revision bundle. There is a video attached to the description/ preview page so you can see the whole unit of work with the many resources avaliable should you wish to have more information. This lesson specifically focuses on The Spirits in the text; looking at how they are presented, what their purpose is and which is the most influential. There is also a complementary worksheet which allows pupils to analyse quotations about the presentation of the spirits -great to keep hold of for revision notes. N.B. The page you see in the preview for the worksheet is the first page which is a modelled response, the pupils have to complete the work for the three other spirits.)
A Christmas Carol -Characterisation of Scrooge
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A Christmas Carol -Characterisation of Scrooge

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This is lesson 2B from my ‘A Christmas Carol teaching unit’ which covers the whole text for GCSE teaching purposes. It is based on GCSE AQA specifications, but can be adapted for any year group or exam board- page numbers will need to be edited to your copy. This lesson is a taster of what you can expect from my set of 24 lessons which can be purchased as a bundle- though I am offering a few lessons for free and a few for £1 purchase. There is also a revision/ task booklet avaliable and a revision bundle. There is a video attached to the description/ preview page so you can see the whole unit of work with the many resources avaliable should you wish to have more information. This particular lesson focuses on the intial depcition of Scrooge, analysing the language used by Dickens, modelling a paragraph of writing in response to a question and then leading pupils to write their own response.
Literacy parts of speech/ word classifications
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Literacy parts of speech/ word classifications

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A fun resources with activities such as word classification matching and bingo. Used as a revision for KS3 or KS2 pupils. There is also a focus on the impact of word choices at the end where the pupils look at verbs in an extract This is one example of a number of lessons that I have which are called ‘Literacy Focus’ I have this on for free, please do purchase the others in this series for £1 if they work for your class.
A Christmas Carol revision/workbook tasks
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A Christmas Carol revision/workbook tasks

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This ‘A Christmas Carol’ revision workbook is a 28 page booklet that uses small extracts from the text and questions to allow pupils to develop their understanding of the text and begin to form analytical responses. There are 5/6 pages of work for each stave. The first page of the booklet is a modelled response to develop high expectations for the work and the rest of the booklet has questions… please see preview for the first few pages of work from the booklet- a clear example of what to expect. Instructions for pupils: work through this booklet for the first 15 minutes of every English lesson (could also be used for homework or revision lessons). The booklet is designed to help you: Remember the events and key quotes of A Christmas Carol Develop your analysis of and response to the novel-meaning your ability to explain what quotes suggest about characters, why a character/place/event is important in the story etc. Consider context-Victorian life in 1843, and Dickens’ inspirations and intentions in writing the novel.
KS3 Library lessons booklet
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KS3 Library lessons booklet

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This booklet takes KS3 pupils through a year’s worth of lessons in the library- enough for a lesson once a fortnight. The booklet I have created has been trialled for two years in school and works well. I have had some excellent feedback from both students and teachers who have enjoyed the variety of work within it. It begins with some work on the student’s reading history and then continues with group reading (we have 5 copies of each of the texts mentioned- you would need to edit to add your own book choices.) In my school I asked both teachers and parents to read the same book and this resulted in a book club discussion focused on key questions as generic prompts. If you download the resource and want the questions then please just email me for them. To develop this section even further I have asked my students to create ppt teasers for the books they have read to present ot the new yr7s. After this section students delve further in to the library and explore different genre sections, picking out a few books that interest them and discussing the genre. These notes are collated in the booklet. There is also a feedback section at the end. This resource is a little more expensive as it is a year’s worth of work.
Library booklet creative work
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Library booklet creative work

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A library booklet which covers 20 lessons plus(a year worth) using library books/ information and resources in a way that allows pupils to respond creatively. Areas of library covered: Poetry, novels in verse, Harvard referecing system for academic texts, serialisation of novels/ dickens, graphic novels, autobiographies and biographies, crime fiction. Group reading of three books: novel in verse, Dickens of choice (Christmas Carol in this booklet but can be adapted), Crime fiction. Topics: **Poetry ** Lesson 1- Looking at poetry in the library - copying a poem of their choice and mimicking the creative style of imagery in the style of William Blake. Lesson 2+3 Blackout poetry using pupil’s favourite books. Lesson 4,5,6- Reading of a novel in verse with a book review. This can be a class reader if you want to buy one in or the pupils can explore their own in the library. For class reader I would recommend ‘The Weight of Water’ or ‘Booked.’ **Dickens/ Christmas **- this is skills based section and can be adapted using the templates in the booklet for any text being studied Lesson 7- Harvard refercing system using texts on Victorian life in the library Lesson 8- Short story carousels based Dicken’s serialisation of novels in papers. Lesson 9+10- Explore library graphic novel collection and create your own mini graphic novel of a story using templates. Advertising and biography Lesson 11- Library logo hunt. Lessons 12+13+14+15- autobiography project looking at autobiographies and biographies in the library then creating own Book cover, blurb etc for themselves. Lessons 16-20- Reading of crime/ mystery fiction: Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and Miss. Marple. For more modern crime/mystery fiction you could use ‘A murder most unladlike’ novels which are very popular amongst pupils at the moment.