A complete and detailed lesson including annotations of the poem and stretch and challenge activities. Free to a good home … if you find this resource helpful please leave a review and check out my other GCSE Language and Literature resources :)

The Completely Christmassy Quiz 2018 is the ULTIMATE end of term quiz! With ten fun yet core subject-inspired rounds and answer slides for peer marking, this will easily fill two lessons and is accessible for all secondary school year groups. Rounds are: Happy NEWS Year 2018, Celebrity Stockings, Festive Fiction, The Questions of Christmas Past, 2018 Masked Movies, Christmas Carol Consonant Conundrum, Cities in the Snow, Seasonal Sums, Global Greetings, Seasonal Sing-along. Creative graphics throughout will keep students engaged. Zip file includes music files, timer and double-sided answer sheet which I’d recommend enlarging onto A3 for each team. Prizes not included I’m afraid! Enjoy!

Are your students finding the 16 mark Question 4 daunting? This is a gentle introductory lesson, using two much shorter, yet relevant and engaging extracts. The first 2 slides introduce students to what the examiner is looking for in Question 4. The final 2 slides can be printed back to back as a worksheet that helps students to plan the key points and quotations they would need to include in a Question 4 answer. The planning sheet is carefully based on the three guiding bullet points provided by AQA for the Question 4s on their specimen papers.

A complete lesson with engaging emoji starter activity looking at the first half of Act 3 sc. iv (Banquet scene). Accompanying resources include an extract-based exam question in the style of the AQA Literature Paper 1: Shakespeare and the C19th novel. There is also a worksheet helping students to plan a model answer for responding to this question, specifically broken down to focus students' attention on the three AOs this section of the exam assesses. The question itself can then be set as homework or can be completed in timed conditions in class during the following lesson.

Just a simple and fun final lesson before Christmas that helps students recap the four Keats AQA tragedy poems in a 24 question quiz (enabled me to use an advent calendar as prizes for the first student to buzz in with the correct answer for each question). The final slides provide resources for the slightly silly 'Pin the Beard on the Beardsman' as a possible game to finish off the lesson (I enlarged the Beardsman onto A3).

Complete lesson powerpoint on Before You Were Mine. Includes some contextual/structural notes but also designed to encourage independent thinking and for students to make their own annotations/colour codings onto their copy of the poem. Resource includes an additional worksheet (preferably to be enlarged to A3) comparing with Heaney's Follower which could then be used to plan a practice essay using the MITSL structure; this could be set as a homework or used for a follow up lesson.

Lesson focuses on Act 3 sc. v and Act 4 sc. i introducing the characters of Hecate and the Apparitions and their link to the key theme of Equivocation in the play. This was an observation lesson and resources were praised as Outstanding, so there is differentiation throughout to challenge the more able in my mixed ability group. There is quite a lot of content so I have included my lesson plan but there is scope to adapt it to your own teaching style; more time could be spent looking at Act 3 sc. v and expanding on AO2 ideas in the Hecate’s soliloquy activity so some teachers may choose to spread this over two lessons if you have the time. Some teachers may also choose to revisit the A3 sheet after reading Act 5 depending on how much of an overview your students already have of the play’s ending.

Learning Objective: To understand how Shakespeare creates tension in the build-up towards the final battle. A lesson with 2 accompanying worksheets, guiding students through Act 5 sc. ii to Act 5 sc. v and helping them begin to evaluate the ending of the play. Resource focused on developing AO2 for the AQA GCSE Literature Paper 1.

This interactive activity encourages students to place themselves in the footsteps of young soldiers during WW1, guiding them through the choices and key events that faced young men: from signing up right through to the war’s end in 1918. It deals with key topics including conscription, conscientious objectors , trench foot and the Battle of the Somme. The powerpoint basically works like an educational version of the ‘choose your own adventure’ books! Students are given three ‘choices,’ each of which are hyperlinked to allow them to choose their own individual experience of WW1. Depending on time, you can let several different students play or play as a class by voting and going with the majority. I’ve used it many times throughout my career, as a contextual activity alongside teaching war poetry or Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful, as well as when teaching both Year 6 and Year 7 History.

Learning Objective: Use quotations from the play to justify whether Macbeth is presented to the audience as a hero or a villain. Extension Objective for More Able: Identify and analyse where Shakespeare uses figurative language techniques in Act 1 sc. ii A complete full lesson; a differentiated resource for engaging students in the second scene of Macbeth, ready for studying the play at GCSE. This lesson powerpoint is colourful with a helpfully annotated script to ease students into Shakespearean language. There is also a fun 'Would I lie to you' starter to introduce students to contextual information about the play. Plenary with sentence starter scaffolds to help students write in an evaluative tone about the play for the first time.

- Differentiated worksheet guiding students to make meaningful annotations on Lady Macbeth's dialogue in Act 5 scene 1. - Includes two annotation/colour coding tasks and an extension task. Will fill a whole lesson alongside the reading of the scene. - Analyses Shakespeare's language and structural choices (AO2 - 12 marks on the exam). - Could easily be used as a springboard/planning sheet for writing up an extract-based exam question in the style of AQA Literature Paper 1 as a follow up lesson or homework task.

An engaging and interactive introduction lesson for the AQA Aspects of Tragedy paper! Begins by comparing features of Comedy and Tragedy before focusing in on exploring the features of both Greek and Shakespearean Tragedy. Includes worksheets to familiarise Year 12 students to Tragedy terminology and a homework task applying Aristotle’s Poetics of Tragedy to modern celebrities. I would recommend also showing students either last year’s paper or the AQA specimen paper alongside this lesson.

A differentiated planning sheet based around the extract question for Jekyll and Hyde. This whole-lesson worksheet involves preparing an answer for the extract used on the AQA specimen paper, where Utterson first comes across Hyde. The planning sheet is carefully divided into the three assessed AOs to help students to understand how they must meet all three objectives within their answer. Available with more/less scaffolding within this one resource.

Lesson Objective: To use supporting quotations to evaluate Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship in Act 3 sc.ii The resource is a complete Powerpoint lesson with an accompanying script for colour-coding that enables students to evaluate the power dynamic between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in this scene. This resource includes: - a starter focused on imagery - a main task that encourages students to actively read and analyse key language choices - a transition card sort to generate discussion - a plenary paragraph that encourages students to use supporting quotations - an extension challenge for the more able which links to AO3 (context on the new AQA spec) A thorough, ready-to-use complete lesson.

Difficult but essential vocabulary selected from all 10 chapters of the novel. Organised into 6 weekly homework sheets, that can be embedded easily into a scheme of work and set alongside the reading and teaching of the novel. Students need to research definitions and revise the words for a weekly spelling test.

Three detailed lessons (or two and a homework!) exploring Keats’ ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’. First 1-2 lessons explore: structure and meter key symbols, themes and motifs allegorical and feminist interpretations The final lesson links the poem closely back to the Aspects of Tragedy exam, with a Band 4 example paragraphs for students to discuss and improve.

A complete lesson Powerpoint to accompany the reading of Act 1 scene 3. Considers what we expect from witches, Shakespeare's dramatic choices for developing their characters, as well as summarising what exactly it is that they predict for Macbeth and Banquo. Includes starter, reflective plenary, PEE paragraph practice, helpful vocabulary matching exercise and a homework task preparing for the next scene.

Complete lesson including: - close annotation of the poem - vocabulary matching exercise - use of the MITSL framework to offer step-by-step analysis of the poem - key contextual information, including a 4 minute video clip - 'Poet's Profile' to help inform context - three levels of differentiation for main writing task - Peer Assessment plenary - Homework research task linking to the French Revolution

Whole lesson powerpoint includes: - starter activities looking at use of archaic language/plot of the poem - contextual information on Charlotte Mew - double-sided worksheet encouraging students to retrieve key quotations/begin to analyse - extension activities for more able students investigating narrative voice/ use of analogy within the poem - stanza-by-stanza annotations to consolidate understanding of the poem - hand out for students exploring Mew's use of the ballad structure

A document I designed to guide my students through Section A of AQA's Literature Paper 1. Would work well if printed as a stapled booklet or pages could be printed individually to complement a number of revision lessons/homeworks. Includes: - an overview of this section of the exam - an annotated example answer - the step-by-step approach to this question I have used to scaffold for my mixed ability group - a mock exam question - a step-by-step planning sheet, ideal for less able students (or could be planned in class then written up for homework) - a scene-by-scene summary of the play that I wrote to help my group revise the overall structure of Macbeth