This lesson is all about first days and storytelling. The learning focus is ‘chronological order’ and the activities include sequencing a set of lovely open source images that tell a story of a first day at school. Includes a paired activity, discussion task about the elements of a good story and individual writing time with suggested sentence stems. Suggested homework activities at the end. Have fun! NB Ideally you’ll want to print copies of slide 5 for each student.

A guide to support students in achieving higher grades in AQA GCSE English Paper 1 Section B - Question 5: Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing. This resource offers five practical exercises, supported by images and extracts from literary texts all designed to support and stretch students to reach higher grades. You could use this as a walk-through lesson in which everyone completes each activity at the same time or alternatively, print out the images and set up five task stations around the classroom. Students move between each station in small groups until they have completed all five exercises. Includes short extracts from: Hard Times by Charles Dickens The Woman in Black by Susan Hill The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams The Secret History by Donna Tartt Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Also includes sample question and mark scheme for higher levels. NB The powerpoint uses animation, so some exercises will appear with mouse click.

A lesson for GCSE Power & Conflict anthology poem Kamikaze by Beatrice Garland. Includes starter activity with terms and definitions, focus on themes, breakdown of what-how-why paragraph and sample paragraph. Also includes homework questions based on video interview.

A step by step guide to language analysis using the What How Why framework. Focus on Question 2 of the AQA GCSE Language Paper 1. Includes starter activity, worked example using a past paper, opportunity for students to demonstrate their learning and a guided peer assessment plenary.

A complete lesson on Andrew Motion’s Journal of a Disappointed Man from the Poems of the Decade anthology. Suitable for inviting exploration of the poem with A Level English Literature students. Includes original text from Project Gutenberg and activities to encourage consideration of themes and poetic form.

Ready-to-go lesson on Question 5 - descriptive writing. Includes mark scheme, sample answer. Walk through and practice image with questions.

14 questions in the style of AQA Literature exam on the Power and Conflict anthology. Useful for revision and practice essay writing.