This is a whole set of lessons for Curious Incident. It includes worksheets for different parts of the sessions. Slide 41 includes a link to a documentary about autism. Spaced learning is a fantastic way to teach an entire novel or play in one lesson. The process is simple: The students take a multiple choice quiz at the start of the lesson. They do not mark it until the end. You then go through the summary as you take the students through the presentation. Make sure you familiarise yourself with the summary and the ppt. The students just listen. They do not take notes. Then you do an unrelated activity I like to give the students a piece of paper, ask them to write 3 goals for their year on (these can literally be any goals like: complete a computer game or say hello to a new friend) then create a paper aeroplane and throw them at the target on the board. The point of the unrelated task is it allows the brain to start processing the information they have just absorbed. You then take them through the presentation again This time the presentation has pictures too . Again the students just listen. After this, the students complete the multiple choice quiz again. Then the students mark both the quizzes. This is where the impact is really seen. They can see their progress of knowledge from the start of the lesson to the end. I have never seen a student not improve considerably. They are then equipped for the rest of the term with the main themes, context and story outline all clear.

A lesson for practicing for the unseen poetry section of the exam. You will need a copy of I am Very Bothered by Simon Armitage. The ppt is very self-explanatory.

Spaced learning is a fantastic way to teach an entire novel or play in one lesson. The process is simple: The students take a multiple choice quiz at the start of the lesson. They do not mark it until the end. You then go through the script as you take the students through the presentation. Each new paragraph in the script you move onto the next slide. The students just listen. They do not take notes. Then you do an unrelated activity I like to give the students a piece of paper, ask them to write 3 goals for their year on (these can literally be any goals like: complete a computer game or say hello to a new friend) then create a paper aeroplane and throw them at the target on the board. The point of the unrelated task is it allows the brain to start processing the information they have just absorbed. You then take them through the presentation again. Again the students just listen. After this, the students complete the multiple choice quiz again. Then the students mark both the quizzes. This is where the impact is really seen. They can see their progress of knowledge from the start of the lesson to the end. I have never seen a student not improve considerably. They are then equipped for the rest of the term with the main themes, context and story outline all clear.

A whole lesson for the poem Piano. You will need two copies of the poem. One for each student and a copy on A3 for the annotation challenge. In the section where students close their eyes and put their heads on the desks describe a generic scene in a primary school play ground. Get students to think about their own child hood. The annotation challenge is a great way to get students to compete in teams against each other resulting in the poem being well annotated on the A3 sheet. Make sure you move around the room and be vocal about how each team is doing during this task. Put running scores on the board to encourage students and give extra points to teams using teamwork.

After the Paris attacks, I created a lesson about how we treat others in society. I used examples from Of Mice and Men and The Iliad. Obviously, the lesson can be adapted to suit any situation. It is a good lesson to show the relevance of all literature to the lives of students. It is also a good lesson to help compare different types of literature. It works as a one-off lesson or you can use it to introduce some new concepts.

Sometimes it is difficult to find examples of writing that have lots of literary techniques. This is an example of writing that has examples of a whole range of techniques. It is a great way to get the students to identify techniques so that they can use them in their own writing.

A great lesson to help students think about homelessness and the way Armitage presents this in Give. I have also included some sentence starters to help with differentiation.

A great little starter activity doing exactly as titled! A worksheet to give out at the start of a lesson

7 weeks worth of homework focussing on creative writing. A great booklet to give to students at the start of a term.

These lessons (all in one ppt). The lesson teaches how to use similes, metaphors, dynamic verbs, characterisation etc... It also contains examples of writing for the students. Every time I have taught these lessons the students always enjoy the work and produce excellent work. Depending on the lesson length at your school depends on how many lessons this will work across.

Preparing cover can be a real pain. Here are 6 activities that could be used for homework or cover. Obviously they will need slight modification for your needs but, basically they are ready to go.

Two lessons and a pack of literary technique starters. A cover activity (just in case!), a guidance sheet to help students, 5 examples of writing packed full of techniques that can be used for a range of tasks, a literary definitions sheet with ten examples of use. A great set of resources to make your planning easier and quicker. Get in touch if there are more things you’d like to see.

A short lesson on apostrophes with a link to a video I created and a worksheet to check understanding

A fun and simple activity. The user prints out the fish sheets and cuts them along the dotted line. All this fish pieces are then mixed up to be matched. Includes three colouring sheets to design their own fish.

Some MND lessons with an introduction to context with a market place activity included