Descriptive writing lesson involving tasks that scaffold the student to be able to write descriptively independently. Follows the ‘I do, we do, you do’ model leading on from the previous lesson or works as a stand alone lesson. Involves improving a piece of writing as a class, then independently improving some writing. This helps encourage them to be able to spot the qualities of good descriptive writing which they can apply in their own. They have the opportunity to get creative and there are prompts provided. The lesson finishes with them evaluating one another’s creative pieces.

Lesson involves contextual information on the atomic bomb and the impact on humans. Involves tasks on the use of personification in the story, as well as looking for the message. Then a second lesson moves onto a creative writing piece. They have to pretend their school is alive and describe it using personification like Bradbury does in the story. Prompting questions are provided and a mark scheme.

Lesson focused on travel writing. Involves looking at Bryson’s writing and writing their own postcards.

This lesson focuses on the analysis. It goes step by step through the story looking closely at the different methods. Students look at setting, atmosphere, foreshadowing and how tension is created. Then a model answer is provided and an activity on writing their own exam style answers.

Lesson on ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte. The lesson begins with a clip of the wedding and a recap task. Then the lesson focuses on Jane’s reaction to Mr. Rochester already having a wife; Bertha Mason. Reading the passage in the text would be useful here, however I’ve provided extracts so the text isn’t necessary for this lesson. The lesson focuses on closely analysing the extracts with the help of a handout sheet that breaks everything down, prompting with questions.

A lesson on ‘An Inspector Calls’ themes revision.

A lesson on comparison. The ‘Tell-Tale Heart’ and ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ are compared by students based on things like the use of the supernatural or the display of extreme emotions. They then, after closely comparing the two, select quotations to explode with questions to answer to prompt their analysis. The lesson finishes on a writing task where they offer their opinion on which is the better example of the gothic and which feature makes it so effective?

This lesson focuses on introducing the text so most of the lesson will be spent on reading the text as a class. Activities are provided to prepare them for the story like becoming familiar with key techniques like foreshadowing and making their own predictions about what will happen in the story.

Persuasive writing lesson which allows students the opportunity to identify persuasive techniques in different pieces of writing. The lesson is scaffolded to support the student, firstly through looking at a small paragraph of persuasive writing to progressing to looking in great detail at Emma Watson’s UN speech on gender equality. The lesson then finishes with them having the opportunity to have a go at their own piece of persuasive writing. This task is focused around them persuading their headteacher to allow them to go on a school trip.

This lesson is on Act 1 Scene 1. It involves a starter task looking at the tragic arc to introduce them to the idea of tragedy as a genre. It also involves reading the first scene as a class and then looking closer at language. The lesson focuses on practicing skills like exploding quotations to closely analysis language and looking through an extract to find good quotations. Students are also prompted to think about the scene as part of the whole play, so why is it significant to the plot and the rest of the play? The concept of foreshadowing is introduced as well as the characters of Benvolio and Tybalt. At the end of the lesson they have an opportunity to write formally in a PEAL paragraph to show off what they have learnt and answer the question: Why is the scene so significant? (It’s a long lesson- may take two lessons if you spend more time writing and editing/evaluating.)

A lesson exploring how Jane Eyre is a feminist figure within literature. Involves a knowledge organiser recap starter and the handout is provided. This lesson is focused on the rejection of St John’s proposal. There is a recap and a movie clip to situate students within the novel. Tasks revolve around prompting students to make links between Jane’s rejection of the proposal with her values and ideas of breaking out of traditional stereotypes. This all encourages students to make contextual links with what life was like in Victorian times. Tasks include formal writing, creating time lines of events and character profiles. There are opportunities for open discussion and the development of students own opinions.

A lesson on descriptive writing aimed at key stage three. Includes a task on identifying literary techniques in a model answer as well as prompts for a descriptive writing task.

A revision lesson on ‘An Inspector Calls’ characters.

This lesson is on Macbeth and the theme of ambition. It focuses on an exam question and I break it down showing how I would approach it. I’ve also written model answers for students to use. The lesson involves key terminology like hamartia and tragic hero to encourage them to use in their exam style answers.

This lesson focuses heavily on exam technique. It takes the students through GCSE language paper styled questions. A breakdown of the PEAL structure is provided and sentence starters in order to scaffold.

A lesson on ‘An Inspector Calls’ character revision. Leads on from the previous.

A lesson on gender and power in regards to Mr. Rochester and Jane’s relationship. Involves looking closely at their relationship by looking at the language of how Mr. Rochester speaks to Jane and what he calls her etc. Involves a clip to show students an example from the film to help understanding. Contextual links to feminism to deepen student’s understanding.

A lesson on persuasive writing that can stand alone or follow on from the previous lesson. Involves reading two different articles and understanding the concept of for and against. Encourages them to identify what the article is arguing. The articles focus on the homework debate of whether or not it is needed. I’ve provided links to the articles online as well as handouts. The lesson finishes with a chance for the students to argue persuasively about the topic of social media and teenagers.

Mini Macbeth quiz taken from online to use as a recap starter activity.

Fun fairy tales lesson where students look at different fairy tales and identify common themes and tropes within them. They create presentations in groups to teach each other about the fairy tales they’ve looked at. I encouraged my students to think about gender roles within fairy tales and what issues are present. The article offers a great opportunity for a debate around whether we should change and update our fairy tale stories or whether they should remain unchanged…