Unique resources created by an experienced Secondary English and History teacher. These are academically rigorous resources that target children between 13 and 18 years of age.
Unique resources created by an experienced Secondary English and History teacher. These are academically rigorous resources that target children between 13 and 18 years of age.
The first two lessons in a year 9 English unit. Within this unit, students engage with a range of Australian literary texts including short stories, films and poetry, and literature for stereotypes including bogans, Indigenous Australians and bushmen etc. We also explore concepts like multiculturalism, fair go and mateship. Students explore how events, situations and people can be represented from different perspectives and draw conclusions about characters, key ideas and Australia’s identity, justifying these with selective use of textual evidence.
PowerPoint 1: Unit introduction
Classroom expectations, Homework expectations, Expectations around use of laptops in the classroom and an introduction to the unit. It includes questions to prompt students to brainstorm their prior knowledge. It also includes clips from advertisements including the Australia Day Lamb Ads for fun brainstorming activities.
PowerPoint 2:
Introduction to key terms: multicultural, patriot, assimilate, nationalism and juxtapositon.
Identifying Australian stereotypes within a music video parody
Defining the term Identity and teaching students how to answer quesitons using the RAF method. It includes example responses and then questions for the students to respod to.
A ppt which explores how the literary devices are used in texts that represent teenagers. Teen specific examples of parody including clips from 'Not Another Teen Movie.' Examples of sarcasm with clips from 'The Inbetweeners' tv show (no swearing). The impact of tone of voice. Introducing other techniques: exaggeration, burlesque, irony (with a clip from the Little Rascals and Shrek). Then it looks at clips of J'amie from Summer Heights High and an example monologue about this scene written by a past student.
A PowerPoint for use in a 70 minute lesson. It begins with a look at Vietnam’s geographic location and the countries which border it. This information is used to explain which countries have tried to invade Vietnam in the past. This lesson explores questions including: What was Vietnam like under French rule? & Why was communism so attractive to Vietnamese Nationalists? A key historical figure (Ho Chi Minh) is introduced to students and his ideological influences are explained. Afterwards a series of sources about Ho Chi Minh are included along with questions which students can either answer in their books or discuss as a class (teacher discretion). There is information about key events before and during WW2. Students are asked to consider why communism may have been appealing to Vietnamese Nationalists. Some key dates from the Timeline in Hoepper et al’s 1996 textbook ‘Inquiry 2’ are displayed and a range of sources are used to elaborate on these talking points. The term Viet Minh is introduced to students. Information about how this group formed, their attire and who they fought against is outlined. Another figure – Emperor Bao Dai is introduced as he is someone who is likely to come up in student research. A key source – Ho Chi Minh’s speech proclaiming independence on September 2nd, 1945 – is provided for students to read along with a series of short response questions. This is followed by a paragraph writing activity which can be done as a ‘we do’ or a ‘you do’ depending on the ability level of the class. The lesson concludes with some information about the aid the USA provided to French to try to help them regain control of Vietnam after the Second World War. The Battle of Dien is briefly touched upon as well as the Geneva Settlement and the subsequent partitioning of Vietnam into two states. At the conclusion of the lesson, successful students will be able to explain the historical concept of anti-colonialism, key individuals and groups involved in the quest for Vietnam’s independence and the factors and events that influenced them.
A handout designed to go with this lesson. It includes some information about Ho Chi Minh and a range of sources about him. For instance, The path which led me to Leninism by Ho Chi Minh – a primary source which outlines his reasons for joining the French Communist Party & his speech proclaiming independence on September 2nd, 1945. The handout includes questions but does not provide space for the answers (to save on printing).
**NB: Resources designed for the new senior Modern History syllabus (implemented in QLD in 2019). The content would also be useful more broadly for students in other states and countries with an interest in the Vietnamese Independence Movement (1945-1975). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. The end of term assessment for this unit was an essay.
**
Resources designed for the new senior Modern History syllabus (implemented in QLD in 2019). The syllabus objectives would also be useful more broadly for English students in other states and countries with an interest in colonialism and Australia’s Frontier Wars (1788-1930s).
PowerPointand lesson plan. Settling activity - copy the definition of bias. Explain the cognitive verb ‘evaluate’ and review concept of modality. Look at some conjunctions (linking words) which can be used in evaluating paragraphs. Subsequently, the lesson explores how to know if the source is useful before introducing the concept of corroborating sources (with a history skills video to consolidate this learning). Look at a sample exam question and deconstruct it. Then look at how to determine if a source is relevant (look at an example which focuses on origin, perspective, context, audience and motive). Then introduce the T.A.D.P.O.L.E acronym for a deeper level of source analysis. Afterwards, there are sources (about the Myall Creek massacre) for the students to evaluate (I use Gradual Release - we do then you do). Finally there is a PEEL/TEEL paragraph writing activity.
T.A.D.P.O.L.E handout with sources about the Myall Creek Massacre for students to analyse.
Example evaluating paragraph about the Hornet bank massacre (with labels to show key features).
Homework sheet - Sources about the Hornet bank massacre for students to analyse.(answers are included at the base of the PowerPoint).
I pride myself on the quality of the materials I produce, I don’t charge high prices because I don’t agree with paying £10 for a wordsearch. If you need to check before you buy, have a look at some of the free resources in my shop for a sample of the quality and depth.
This booklet has been designed as part of a year 8 English unit of work on Parvana (a novel set in Afghanistan during the reign of the Taliban). It includes activities about characters, the setting and language features which students are to complete as they read the novel. There are also questions about the events/themes/character's perspectives et cetera for each chapter.
This is all in preparation for a creative writing assessment where students take what they have learned to create a written literary transformation (a short story from a marginalised character's perspective). Their short story has to focus on a moral issue within the novel.
I have referenced the other study guides I drew on when creating this resource.
A PowerPoint and worksheet used to introduce students to the parts of a coffee machine, their functions and how to clean them. The worksheet includes a picture of a machine with arrows to each part which students are to label as they progress through the lesson. There are also underlined notes on the slides for students to add to a table on their worksheet. Included in the PPT is a brain break video from ‘Sorted’ (YouTube channel) reviewing a coffee machine. There is an extension part on the worksheet for fast finishers about the types of milk (whole milk, light milk, skim milk, organic milk, soy milk, UHT milk, almond milk, coconut milk).
Resources designed for use in an 11 Hospitality Practices class in Australia (2019 curriculum). Unit 1: Introduction to Hospitality, Topic 1: Beverage operations and services. My school has 70-minute lessons. The assessment at the end of this unit was an examination (short response).
Resources designed for the new senior Modern History syllabus (implemented in QLD in 2019).
This lesson includes:
1 x list of source types for warm up evaluation activity (can be laminated with a magnet on the back for sorting activity)
1 x PowerPoint
1 x Source Booklet with sources about Hitler Youth
1 x Independent Work Booklet with various activities designed to help students practice the evaluation skill
Context: My school runs this program in Alternative Sequence (yr 11 and 12s in together) due to the small size of the school. The lesson begins with some teaching that both grades can do together before the year 12s are assigned some independent work and the year 11s are given some more focused teaching. Then the year 11’s do independent work while the year 12s share their answers and receive feedback.
The sequence of the lesson:
The lesson begins with a warm up activity where students have to place types of sources on a grid in terms of how reliable and useful they typically are. Next students have to brainstorm some synonyms and antonyms for ‘reliable’ and ‘useful.’ Following this, year 12s are given a booklet which has evaluation activities (starting at simple activities and building up to those styled like the short response questions in the Term 4 exam). They begin completing these while the year 11’s get a more teacher centred lesson. In this portion of the lesson we begin with defining ‘evaluate’ before zooming in on the evaluation criteria we use in modern history – reliability and usefulness. There is information about what reliability is and that there are levels of reliability. There are tips for how to write a judgement of reliability and some things to look for when determining reliability. There is a list of reasons why a source may be deemed unreliable. There is an example reliability statement which has been colour coded to show how the writer has included various features of evidence in their evaluation.
Following this, the gradual release method is used to engage with the first few sources in the booklet. (I explain the first activity, we engage with Source 1 and then complete the question together – with me modelling my thinking process via think alouds. Students then do Source 2 as a pair and Source 3 on their own). This is followed by explicit teaching on how to determine the usefulness of a source. There is also information about the importance of corroboration (including a video from the History Skills website). This is followed by some sentence starters which can be used when corroborating. This is followed by completing activities from the booklet (first as a we do, then students do one in a pair, then they do one on their own). Following this, the year 11’s continue doing the booklet independently while I go through the answers with the year 12s.
PowerPoint 1: Paragraph writing. This ppt uses the I do, we do, you do approach. Firstly there is a slide explaining the PEEEL paragraph structure. There is also an example paragraph about Taylor Swift’s You Belong with Me music video. Afterwards, students watch another music video (Caught in the Crowd) and construct their own paragraph based on what they observed in the teacher example.
PowerPoint 2: Explaining the assessment task (analytical essay).
Document: Scaffolding booklet for assessment task.
This is a media lesson designed for a year 9 class (however a lot of the content could also be used for an English lesson).
Narrative music videos and their key components: plot, theme and structure
Defining narrative. Visual display of the narrative structure.
Defining the key terms plot, structure, and theme and watching a film clip to identify these (teacher answers provided on slides).
Links to other narrative music videos
Also included: a music video report card for analysing music videos
These resources are for the beginning of a crime fiction unit taught to senior English students. This unit provides many opportunities for students to develop an enjoyment and appreciation of language and literature. Students will be exposed to canonical and popular culture texts that explore crime fiction. Great value for money, see the explanation of the six resources included below.
Resource 1: A Brief Introduction PowerPoint (defining crime and genre, introducing students to the crime fiction genre, the three basic elements of crime fiction and listing some subgenres of crime fiction.
Resource 2: One lesson from a unit entitled ‘Revolutionary texts of the past meet popular culture texts of today.’ A PowerPoint introducing students to gothic romantic literature (genre conventions). It explains the social context of the time this genre originated, it outlines its key features and looks at two prominent examples: an extract from Frankenstein and Edgar Allen Poe’s Short Story ‘Tell-Tale Heart.’
Resource 3: Homework handout with questions about ‘Tell-Tale Heart’
Resource 4: A copy of the ‘Tell-Tale Heart’ to email to students.
Resource 5 & 6: Spelling words for the term and a template for students to write their definitions and sentences in.
The unit focuses on the study and analysis of texts including a film, novel extracts and a range of short stories to allow students to judge and value literary works in terms of the insights and truths they offer. Students should come to realise that both popular culture and canonical texts have meaning and value in contemporary society. If you are interested in the other resources from this unit, please visit my shop.
PowerPoint: Watching an Australian music video to identify the various Australian identities and pastimes it features (to discuss whether these are accurate or stereotypical). Watching an excerpt of a sketch comedy program called ‘Big Girl’s Blouse’ (1994) where Kath and Kim originated. The youtube link to the sketch ''Kim's Wedding'' is included. Post-viewing questions and answers are included.
A PPT designed to teach the following skills:
• HOW TO MODIFY A RECIPE FOR A LARGE QUANTITY (30+)
• HOW TO APPROPRIATELY PRICE A RECIPE (FORMULA)
• HOW TO FILL IN AN ORDER FORM
A worksheet for students to complete the activities on
A teacher answer sheet (with prices as per date when lesson was planned in 2023)
Resources designed for use in an 11 Hospitality Practices class in Australia (2019 curriculum). Unit 1: Introduction to Hospitality, Topic 2: Cafes, preparation and service of non-alcoholic beverages. My school has 70-minute lessons. The assessment at the end of this unit was running a pop up café. Students had to complete a planning booklet documenting their decisions in the lead up to the event.
Miseenscene definition and music videos to exemplify (one Coldplay and one Brittney spears).
Talking about genre and target audience and the importance of branding your artist.
Viewing Pink's music video 'Just Give Me A Reason' and completing a quiz about lighting and shot sizes.
Introducing new term - cinematography and what it means.
This powerpoint introduces students to the key features of magazine covers. It defines key terms including Mast Head, Main Cover Line, Cover Lines, Strap Line, The issue number, The date, Cost of a magazine, Main image, Background colour, Promotional material and Barcode. It includes pictures of magazine covers with annotations which recognise the effect these features have on the reader
Part of a set of resources created for a year 7 English class in Australia (ACARA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons (with extra activities as a back up if the class is advanced). The focus text is ‘Black Snake: The Daring of Ned Kelly’ by Carole Wilkinson.
PowerPoint 1 ‘Taking a closer look at One Stray Bullet’ - **
Reviewing what happened in the opening of chapter 3 ‘One Stray Bullet.’ This short piece of fiction told from the perspective of Ned’s sister Kate is one of the passages that students can choose for their written literary transformation {imaginative recount / short story}. The focus of this lesson is exploring characterisation (one of the creative writing techniques the author has used effectively in this extract) in order to prepare learners to develop their characters adequately within a small word limit. It includes a highlighting activity (colour coding the action/dialogue/actions/descriptions of the various characters in the passage.) The lesson also provides further historical context into the Fitzpatrick incident. It also includes scaffolding for if they were to re-write the opening of this narrative from the antagonists (Constable
Fitzpatrick’s) perspective. There are 8 sentence starters to aid students to begin writing a practice narrative from Fitzpatrick’s perspective. There is a proofreading checklist for students to use after they have written their orientation. This passage can be used to gauge the students current writing abilities.
PowerPoint 2 - Developing setting
Assessment expectations – what language features students need to use to get a C, B & A. Reviewing key parts of speech that students need to know and use in their short story assessment (adjectives, adverbs, verbs & abstract nouns). Learning how to establish setting in a narrative. Top writing tips with example sentences. The importance of showing not telling. The importance of avoiding cliches. Planning to write a story from Mrs Kelly’s perspective (based on the events in One Stray Bullet). The lesson concludes with a creative writing activity where students write their own description of The Kelly House imagining that they are Ned’s mother.
A PPT to introduce students to the second of the two films they can write a film review about for their assessment {a multimodal presentation}. It includes: some quick facts about the comic-book origins of the character and the creator. Information about King pin and his origin story in the comics. The inspiration for the film. A link to the trailer is included for introducing who the key players in the film are. Students are provided with information about the director, producer etc. to add into their retrieval chart. This is followed by images of the costumes of key characters (Kingpin, Prowler, Miles etc.) so that students can take notes about colour & props.
A film viewing report card (retrieval chart) to be used in subsequent lessons while viewing the film
Context: A lesson designed for use in a 12 Essential English classroom in Queensland, Australia as part of Unit 4: “Representations and popular culture texts.” During this unit students learned about Hero and Villain films and how filmmakers use cinematic techniques to portray them and create an intended message. Their assessment at the end of this unit was to write a 4-6 minute multimodal (speech) to be delivered live or pre-recorded reviewing one of the three films shown within the unit.
Films focused on in this particular year: Wonder Woman & Into the Spiderverse
1) PowerPoint - This lesson focuses on teaching students about the context of World War One so that they have some frame of reference for approaching the poems written in this period. Afterwards, it explores how the perceptions of war in poetry changed during this period from patriotic beliefs in its valour to disillusionment as World War One saw a complete change in the way wars were fought and the attitudes towards them. This lesson opens with checking students prior knowledge of WW1. It then explains what the world was like during the 19th Century and the imperialist ideology. The beliefs of Europe’s’ Great Powers, the major causes of WW1, The assassination of Franz Ferdinand: A Shot that Changed the World, societal beliefs about war at the time, exploring propaganda posters from World War One, new technologies used in this war and the outcomes of the war. Things we will learn by the study of poetry from the First World War.
Item 1: Key points from each chapter plus quotes related to moral dilemmas. This is a useful resource for teachers to save you from re reading the novel each year.
Item 2: A booklet to give students as they work through the novel. It includes key questions, some artistic activities (e.g. drawing a map from what they have read, creating a comic strip summary of a key chapter etc). Activities can be assigned for homework or completed in class.
Item 3: A word document containing quotes showcasing moral dilemmas from the novel. Can be used as a poster in the classroom.
A free PowerPoint which I think History teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please come and give me a positive star rating / review :). Constructive criticism is also appreciated.
PowerPoint 1: Causes of World War Two
• term overview (what we are learning + how we will be assessed)
• key questions for unit (from ACARA)
• context (what happened after WW1 that set the stage for WW2)
• statistics (number of casualties in WW2)
• information about the following:
o the treaty of Versailles
o Hitler’s rise to power: worldwide economic depression + the effects of the depression on Germany + the fall of Germany’s democratic government
o Anti-communism
o The basic ideas of the Nazi ideology + The source of Hitler’s power
o Other major causes of WW2: Japanese expansionism, appeasement, militarism, the rise of fascism in Italy, nationalism, American isolationism,
o Maps: Theatres of War: Where WWII Was Fought
o two homework tasks (developing a glossary of terms + reading from a textbook and answering questions)