I provide high quality, tried and tested materials, developed over 17 years of teaching KS3-5. There is material to support G3/4 students as well as material to push for G8 and G9s.
I provide high quality, tried and tested materials, developed over 17 years of teaching KS3-5. There is material to support G3/4 students as well as material to push for G8 and G9s.
Are you looking for an original way to hook visual learners into creative writing?
This unit of work contains everything you need to teach Descriptive Writing at KS3 and is fantastic early preparation for English language descriptive writing. It includes 13 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, exemplar answers, IWB interactive resources, intriguing pictures, activities to exploit drama and poems. It uses classic art as inspiration, such as Bird in an Air Pump, Thomas Chatterton and The Lady of Shalott.
Lesson 1: Bird in an Air Pump by Joseph Wright
Lesson 2: Chatterton by Henry Wallis
Lesson 3-4: The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse
Lesson 5: Voice in Not My Best Side by UA Fanthorpe
Lesson 6: Original Writing
Lesson 7: How to create original characters
Lesson 8: Describing alien planets in Star Wars
Lesson 9: Describing The Iron Islands in Game of Thrones
Lesson 10: Narrative Viewpoint in Assassin’s Creed
Lesson 11: Planning your assessment on ‘The Scream’
Lesson 12: Writing your assessment
Lesson 13: Assessment feedback
Everything you need to teach Unseen Poetry at KS4. This unit of work is focused on AQA Paper 2 for English Literature. It includes 19 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson powerpoints, contextual information, exemplar material, IWB interactive resources, quizzes, activities to exploit drama and performing poems.
Lesson 1: An introduction to unseen poetry
Lesson 2: Poetic techniques
Lesson 3: Rhyme, rhythm and meter
Lesson 4: Reviewing poetic techniques
Lesson 5: Mother any distance by Simon Armitage
Lesson 6: Before You Were Mine by Carol Ann Duffy
Lesson 7: Comparing family relationships
Lesson 8: Anne Hathaway
Lesson 9: Miss Havisham
Lesson 10: Comparing marriage
Lesson 11: Mid point assessment
Lesson 12: On My First Sonne by Ben Jonson
Lesson 13: Mid Term Break by Seamus Heaney
Lesson 14: Autumn by Alan Bold
Lesson 15: Comparing Autumn and Today
Lesson 16: Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker
Lesson 17: Island Man by Grace Nichols
Lesson 18: Comparing Blessing and Island Man
Lesson 19: What is Pink? by Christina Rossetti
This unit contains everything you need to teach speech writing at KS3. It is solid foundation for AQA Paper 2 for English language and the Spoken Language module at GCSE. The students analyse speeches by Emma Watson, Muhammad Ali, Leonardo DiCaprio, John F Kennedy and more. It includes 14 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, exemplar speeches, IWB interactive resources, quizzes, activities to exploit drama and opportunities to exploit online research.
Lesson 1: Sentence structure in JFK’s speeches
Lesson 2: How to talk formally
Lesson 3: Writing a protest speech
Lesson 4: Body language with Malala Jusef
Lesson 5: Feminism with Emma Watson
Lesson 6: Equality in education
Lesson 7: Arguing for or against capital punishment
Lesson 8: Defending Derek Bentley
Lesson 9: Let him Have It!
Lesson 10: Analysing a court case speech
Lesson 11: Formal writing
Lesson 12: Planning your speech
Lesson 13:Writing your speech
Lesson 14: Presenting your speech to the class
Everything you need to revise Unseen Poetry at KS4. This unit of work is focused on AQA Paper 2 for English Literature. It includes 12 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, exemplar answers, IWB interactive resources using SMART Notebook, quizzes, activities to exploit drama and examiner advice. This unit is best if you have already taught the skills for Unseen Poetry and are revising just before the exam.
Lesson 1: Analysing a Child’s Sleep by Carol Ann Duffy
Lesson 2: Comparing A Child’s Sleep with The Night Feed by Evan Bolan
Lesson 3: Analysing Rejection by Jenny Sullivan
Lesson 4: Comparing Rejection with Years Ago by Elizabeth Jennings
Lesson 5: Analysing Tramp by Rupert Loydell
Lesson 6: Comparing Tramp with Decomposition by Zulfikar Ghose
Lesson 7: Analysing I See You Dancing, Father
Lesson 8: Comparing I See You Dancing with Coat
Lesson 9: Analysing Woman Work by Maya Angelou
Lesson 10: Comparing Woman Work with County Sligo by Gillian Clarke
Lesson 11: Analysing Yew Tree Guest House by Phoebe Hesketh
Lesson 12: Comparing Yew Tree with Goodwill Store by Ted Kooser
Ideally for KS3 students, this unit of work has been designed to teach students the skills to analyse a variety of texts, and form an opinion on different topics that affect teenagers. There are 16 lessons which allow students to explore topics such as: perceptions of teenagers, graffiti, school shootings, anti social behaviour orders, gang violence, computer games and negative press coverage. It is fully resourced with ppts, articles, podcasts, storyboards and assessment opportunities.
Lesson 1: Perceptions of youth culture
Lesson 2: Is graffiti a form of art?
Lesson 3: School shootings
Lesson 4: anti social behaviour orders - do they work?
Lesson 5: gang violence
Lesson 6: the influence of computer games
Lesson 7: fighting back through charity work
Lesson 8: negative stereotypes in the press
Lesson 9: YouTube challenge
Lesson 10: writing a speech on knife or gun crime
Lesson 11: Fallout
Lesson 12: an open letter by Lennie James to stop the violence
Lesson 13: Gang violence in The Outsiders
Lesson 14: Designing an anti violence poster
Lesson 15: Writing your commentary
Lesson 16: Panorama video reward
This unit of work is fantastic for stretching high ability students, by encouraging them to amalgamate context into their consideration of the fable. The unit contains 17 lessons covering the whole of the novel, focusing on writer’s use of language, how the writer uses structure, creative writing and the effect of rhetorical devices. It is fully resourced with PowerPoints, contextual information to illuminate understanding of the text, chapter extracts, speech writing and dramatic activities. Page numbers refer to the Penguin Modern Classics Edition.
The lessons include:
Lesson 1: Lenin, Trotsky, Marx and Stalin
Lesson 2: context games
Lesson 3: the characters and their historical equivalents
Lesson 4: analysis of Old Major’s speech
Lesson 5: the animals
Lesson 6: Napoleon vs Snowball vote
Lesson 7: the revolution
Lesson 8: flags as symbols
Lesson 9: formulating a battle plan
Lesson 10: political spin
Lesson 11: propaganda and posters
Lesson 12: leadership styles
Lesson 13: review chapters 1-5
Lesson 14: Napoleon as a dictator
Lesson 15: Scapegoats
Lesson 16: the battle of the windmill
Lesson 17: power and corruption
Lesson 18: assessment preparation
Lesson 19: assessment feedback
There is an opportunity at the end of the unit to plan and write an assessment on Napoleon.
This unit contains everything you need to teach Rime of the Ancient Mariner at IB Standard or Higher level, but it could easily be adapted for GCSE and A-level. It includes 16 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, contextual research, poetic devices revision, gothic extracts, Romantic research and vocabulary support.
Lesson 1: Gothic and Romantic
Lesson 2: Poetic rhyme, rhythm and meter
Lesson 3: Poetic devices research
Lesson 4: The Plot
Lesson 5: Part 1
Lesson 6: Part 1 Revision
Lesson 7: Part 2
Lesson 8: Part 3
Lesson 9: Part 4
Lesson 10: Part 5
Lesson 11: Part 6
Lesson 12: Part 7
Lesson 13: Parallel Research
Lesson 14: Themes and Symbols
Lesson 15: Links to crime genre
Lesson 16: Exam questions to plan
Everything you need to teach the Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Anthology. This unit of work is focused on Paper 1 non-fiction texts . It includes 12 lessons, but the amount of material could easily cover 22 lessons with 2 lessons per extract. It is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, contextual information, exemplar answers, quizzes, activities to exploit drama, extracts and opportunities for online research.
Lesson 1: An introduction to non-fiction reading
Lesson 2: The Danger of a Single Story
Lesson 3: Passage to Africa
Lesson 4: The Explorer’s Daughter
Lesson 5: Explorers or boys messing about?
Lesson 6: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Lesson 7: Young and Dyslexic?
Lesson 8: A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat
Lesson 9: Beyond the Sky and Earth
Lesson 10: H is for Hawk
Lesson 11: Chinese Cinderella
Lesson 12: Revision activities
This unit contains everything you need to teach Jane Eyre at KS5 and will save you hours of preparation! It includes 32 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, contextual information, exemplar material, IWB interactive resources, quizzes, extracts and critical articles. Each lesson is designed to look at a different chapter and aspect of Jane Eyre. The page numbers refer to the World’s Classics edition with an introduction by Margaret Smith.
Lesson 1: Applying context
Lesson 2: Jane Eyre’s childhood
Lesson 3: The significance of the red room
Lesson 4: Chapter summaries
Lesson 5: Jane’s education
Lesson 6: Freedom Past Paper
Lesson 7: Coming of Age
Lesson 8: Helen Burns
Lesson 9: Thornfield
Lesson 10: Male and Female
Lesson 11: Victorian Women
Lesson 12: The significance of the paintings
Lesson 13: Rochester and Jane
Lesson 14: Gothic Romance
Lesson 15: Ice and Fire
Lesson 16: Mystery in Chapter 17
Lesson 17: Blanche Ingram
Lesson 18: The Fortune Teller
Lesson 19: Gateshead
Lesson 20: The paintings
Lesson 21: Pathetic fallacy
Lesson 22: The Jane Eyre debate
Lesson 23: Dreams and reality
Lesson 24: Thornfield
Lesson 25: Bertha Mason
Lesson 26: Bertha Past Paper
Lesson 27: The struggle for the self
Lesson 28: The role of religion
Lesson 29: The Rivers
Lesson 30: Critical Readings
Lesson 31: Return to Thornfield
Lesson 32: The Ending
If you are teaching Frankenstein, this unit contains everything you need to allow students to connect a 19th century Romantic novel with the great issues of today, such as the environment, artificial intelligence and what makes us human.
This unit has everything you need to teach Frankenstein at KS3. It contains 25 lessons that take you through the text using differentiated extracts. It is fully resourced with context readings, theme discussions, extract analysis, persuasive writing opportunities, online research on The Romantics, critical articles and opportunities to practice extract into essay writing. Please note this unit does not look at the whole text, it analyses key extracts from the novel.
Lesson 1: an introduction to plot and context
Lesson 2: Walton’s letters
Lesson 3: C1 Victor and Elizabeth
Lesson 4: C4 University Life
Lesson 5: C5 The Creature
Lesson 6: C6 Elizabeth’s letter
Lesson 7: C7 Child killers
Lesson 8: The Trial of Justine
Lesson 9: C8 The Gothic and The Romantic
Lesson 10: Romantic Research
Lesson 11: C10 The Ice Field
Lesson 12: C11 The Creature’s Tale
Lesson 13: C15 The Importance of Appearances
Lesson 14: C16 Revenge
Lesson 15: C17 The Bride of Frankenstein
Lesson 16: C19 The Orkney Islands
Lesson 17: C20 The Dangers of Science
Lesson 18: Who is the real monster?
Lesson 19: C23 Elizabeth
Lesson 20: C24 The End
Lesson 21: Extract analysis on ‘Regret’
Lesson 22: Walton’s Letters
Lesson 23: The Trial of Victor Frankenstein
Lesson 24: End of unit quiz
Ideally for Year 8 or low ability Year 9, this unit of work contains 25 lessons covering the whole of the text. It focuses on writer’s use of language, how the writer uses structure, evaluating a statement and creative writing. It comes fully resourced with contextual information, Auschwitz survivor stories, chapter extracts, freeze frame cards and IWB activities. This is perfect to embed the skills needed for GCSE Literature Paper 1 preparation at KS3.
Lesson 1: Context
Lesson 2: Boyne’s narrative style
Lesson 3: Exploring sibling relationships
Lesson 4: Descriptive writing
Lesson 5: The importance of Bruno’s father
Lesson 6: Good and evil
Lesson 7: Pavel as a symbol of Jewish struggles
Lesson 8: Uniforms
Lesson 9: Exploring
Lesson 10: Friendships
Lesson 11: Bruno and Shmuel
Lesson 12: Shmuel’s background
Lesson 13: Using inference
Lesson 14: Writing a TV script
Lesson 15: Lieutenant Kotler
Lesson 16: Radicalization and the Hitler Youth
Lesson 17: Bruno’s mother
Lesson 18: Bruno’s world
Lesson 19: Writing the ending
Lesson 20: Poetic justice
Lesson 21: The end
Lesson 22: Interview with John Boyne
Lesson 23: Planning your assessment
Lesson 24: Writing your assessment
Lesson 25: Feedback and improve
Featherboy is a fantastic text to teach KS3 students about bullying, and the unseen struggles others may be going through.
This unit is ideally for Year 7 or a lower ability Year 8, and will save you hours of preparation time! It contains 20 lessons covering the whole of the text, focusing on Robert’s journey from zero to hero. It is fully resourced with PowerPoints, bullying articles, newspaper templates and opportunities for drama role play. It also has an assessment essay on Robert’s changes with essay frames and quote quests. This is perfect for early English Literature preparation as well as building English writing skills. Each lesson focuses on a different aspect and chapter of the text.
Lesson 1: Use of the fairy tale genre in Featherboy
Lesson 2: Characterisation
Lesson 3: Finding your own narrative voice
Lesson 4: Singer’s use of Robert’s imagination
Lesson 5: Use of sound
Lesson 6: How to build tension
Lesson 7: Drama and the hot seat challenge
Lesson 8: Community debates
Lesson 9: Precepts and life wisdoms
Lesson 10: Writing a dramatic monologue
Lesson 11: Bullying
Lesson 12: Symbolism of The Firebird
Lesson 13: Writing a film script
Lesson 14: Using the passive voice in reports
Lesson 15: Writing a letter
Lesson 16: Writing a newspaper article
Lesson 17: Analysing Robert
Lesson 18: Singer’s narrative style and voice
Lesson 19: The Trial of Jonathan Niker
Lesson 20: Assessment
This Midsummer Night’s Dream unit is lots of fun and fantastic for stretching high ability KS3 students. It contains 18 lessons, focusing on the playwright’s use of language, how the playwright uses dramatic devices, creative writing and the effect of staging. It comes fully resourced with PowerPoints, contextual information to illuminate understanding of the text, extracts and IWB activities. The page numbers refer to the Cambridge School Shakespeare edition. The unit includes:
Lesson 1: Elizabethan context
Lesson 2: Online research
Lesson 3: The Globe
Lesson 4: The Characters
Lesson 5: The language
Lesson 6: Plot and Characters
Lesson 7: Act out the play
Lesson 8: Set design in A1S1
Lesson 9: Creating characters in A1S2
Lesson 10: Exploring fairies in A2S1
Lesson 11: Oberon and Titania in A2S1
Lesson 12: Persuasive language in A2S1
Lesson 13: Shakespeare’s language
Lesson 14: Writing spells in A2S2
Lesson 15: Insults in A3S2
Lesson 16: Analysing character in A4S1
Lesson 17: Themes review at the end
Lesson 18: Blockbuster revision
This unit contains everything you need to teach Othello at KS5, and will save you hours of preparation time! It includes 26 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, contextual information, exemplar material, IWB interactive resources, quizzes and opportunities for extract analysis. The page numbers refer to the Cambridge School Shakespeare edition. This unit of work has been designed for the AQA A-level course but is adaptable to fit other exam board specifications.
Lesson 1: Plot overview and key lines
Lesson 2: Shakespearean language and use of sounds
Lesson 3: Context reading and application
Lesson 4: Iago, Roderigo and Brabantio in A1S1
Lesson 5: Impressions of Othello in A1S1
Lesson 6: Challenging stereotypes in A1S2
Lesson 7: Othello’s use of verse and prose in A1S3
Lesson 8: Focus on Iago in A1S3
Lesson 9: The importance of Cyprus as a setting
Lesson 10: Iago in A2S1
Lesson 11: Cassio in A2S3
Lesson 12: Shakespeare’s use of body language in A2S3
Lesson 13: Analysing Cassio’s actions in A3S1
Lesson 14: Iago’s tactics in A3S3
Lesson 15: Focus on essay writing
Lesson 16: Analyse how and why Othello has changed
Lesson 17: Comparing Bianca, Desdemona and Emilia
Lesson 18: Iago’s use of manipulation in A4S1
Lesson 19: Othello and colour prejudice - GK Hunter
Lesson 20: Desdemona’s plea in A4S2
Lesson 21: Extract to essay in A4S2
Lesson 22: The willow scene in A4S3
Lesson 23: Street fight in A5S1
Lesson 24:Desdemona’s death in A5S2
Lesson 25: Essay marking
Lesson 26: Poetic justice in A5S2
This unit is ideal as an introduction to how the writer creates setting at KS3 and will save you hours of preparation time! It has 13 lessons focusing on how a writer creates a setting, characters, mood and atmosphere. This unit extends into creative writing so the students can create their own settings and characters. It is fully resourced with PowerPoints, dramatic activities and quizzes. This is perfect for early GCSE preparation on writing to describe.
Lesson 1: describing workhouse in Oliver Twist
Lesson 2: analysing the workhouse
Lesson 3-5: Monkey’s Paw by WW Jacobs
Lesson 6: act out Monkey’s Paw and write your own story
Lesson 7: describing Dracula’s castle
Lesson 8: describing Frankenstein’s laboratory
Lesson 9: writing a London ghost tour
Lesson 10: the legend of Jack the Ripper
Lesson 11: analysing and evaluating the suspects
Lesson 12: Dracula assessment
Lesson 13: assessment feedback
Do you find it difficult to engage teenagers, especially boys, with creative writing and story telling?
This unit includes everything you need to teach Fantasy Writing at KS3 . It includes 10 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson powerpoints, exemplar paragraphs, IWB resources and extracts. This unit works well with boy heavy groups who are interested in fantasy worlds and science fiction such as Lord of the Rings and A Game of Thrones.
Lesson 1: Verb-Noun collocations in Lord of the Rings
Lesson 2: How fantasy writers create characters
Lesson 3: Describing a market in Game of Thrones
Lesson 4: Structuring a story in an enchanted forest
Lesson 5: How George RR Martin uses language
Lesson 6: How George RR Martin uses structure
Lesson 7: Designing a presentation
Lesson 8: Describing an alien planet in Star Wars
Lesson 9: How to describe a castle
Lesson 10: The Weird Sisters in Macbeth
This unit contains everything you need to teach myths and legends at KS3, and it will save you hours of preparation! This unit of work includes 10 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, contextual information, exemplar answers, quizzes and the classical stories. The unit includes:
Lesson 1: Online research of classic fables
Lesson 2: Echo and Narcissus
Lesson 3: The Illiad
Lesson 4: The Odyssey
Lesson 5: Theseus and The Minotaur
Lesson 6: King Midas
Lesson 7: Arachne
and much more…
This unit of work is focused on short stories with original endings. The students analyze these stories, then have an opportunity to analyse an original ending in their final assessment. The unit of work contains 14 lessons and is mainly focused on how a story is structured and uses foreshadowing to lead the reader towards the ending.
Lesson 1-3: The Landlady by Roald Dahl
Lesson 4: The Raven by Edgar Alan Poe
Lesson 5: Analysing structure in The Raven
Lesson 6: An introduction to Sherlock Holmes
Lesson 7-9: The Case of the Engineer’s Thumb by Arthur Conan Doyle
Lesson 10: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Lesson 11-13: The Cone by HG Wells
Lesson 14: Structure in The Cone
There is also an opportunity for a KS3 SATS style exam to analyse structure in
‘Pick Your Poison’.
This unit contains everything you need to teach Lady Windermere’s Fan at KS5. It includes 22 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson PowerPoints, contextual information, exemplar material, IWB interactive resources, quizzes, extracts and critical articles. The page numbers refer to the New Mermaid’s edition. Each lesson focuses chronologically on a different scene and analyses a different aspect of the play.
Lesson 1: Plot and characters quiz
Lesson 2: Context research
Lesson 3: Context presentations
Lesson 4: The aesthetic movement
Lesson 5: Expectations of Victorian women
Lesson 6: Socialism
Lesson 7: Marriage
Lesson 8: Society and morality
Lesson 9: Fin de siecle
Lesson 10: Comparing the female roles
Lesson 11: The importance of marriage
Lesson 12: The “new” woman
Lesson 13: DVD and plot lesson
Lesson 14: Mrs Erlynne
Lesson 15: The Dandy
Lesson 16: Comparing the male characters
Lesson 17: the moral messages of the play
Lesson 18: A “good” woman
Lesson 19: Secrets and lies
Lesson 20:Reputations
Lesson 21: Character reviews
Lesson 22: Extract practice
This unit contains everything you need to teach Lord of the Flies at KS4 and will save you hours of preparation time. It includes 24 lessons and is fully resourced with lesson powerpoints, contextual information, exemplar essays, IWB interactive resources, quizzes, activities to exploit drama, extracts and opportunities for online research. Page numbers refer to the Orange Faber and Faber edition with an introduction by Ian Gregor.
Lesson 1: An introduction to Lord of the Flies
Lesson 2: William Golding’s message
Lesson 3: Leadership
Lesson 4: The island as a symbol
Lesson 5: Jack as a dictator
Lesson 6: The frailty of society
Lesson 7: Civilization and the mask
Lesson 8: Roger as an enforcer
Lesson 9: Order and Chaos
Lesson 10: The significance of the beast
Lesson 11: Chapters review quiz
Lesson 12: Group behaviour
Lesson 13: Creative Writing
Lesson 14: Marking and improving your writing
Lesson 15: How and why Ralph changes
Lesson 16: The power struggle
Lesson 17: The beast and human nature
Lesson 18: The fall of society
Lesson 19: Symbolism
Lesson 20: The British Empire
Lesson 21: Savagery
Lesson 22: The importance of hunting
Lesson 23: The message of the novel
Lesson 24: How Golding builds tension