This lesson is designed as a final opportunity to revise Jekyll and Hyde with Year 11 students. It was created for AQA GCSE English Literature. It contains: plot summary, with embedded quotations; a summary of the novel’s key concepts; past paper question and an explanation of my 3 step approach to planning; list of what the examiner is looking for at Level 4 and Level 6 example introductions and PEEA paragraphs; an activity to give students the opportunity to practice levelling up their ideas.

The attached document tells the story of “Othello” in 60 quotations. Each quotation is accompanied by a brief explanation of the context, and information about how students can dig deeper into Shakespeare’s language, staging and characterisation. This was initially created for students revising for AQA A Level Lit B (Tragedy).

World Book Day is on the 7th March, whilst International Women’s Day is on the 8th March 2024. This standalone lesson combines these two themes. It is suitable for use in English or PSHCE. The lesson includes: key dates quiz new vocabulary checkpoints (unconscious bias) focus on women authors who used pseudonyms to disguise their identity drop everything and read - link to “Bright Things a Girl Can Do” by Sally Nicholls a short response activity

This resource is designed to promote reading for pleasure with A Level English Literature students, and to help them track their progress. The booklet contains: A list of suggested reads organised by genre. These books are selected to challenge students in their reading for pleasure, pushing them to look beyond Percy Jackson and Colleen Hoover and to read both contemporary and classic fiction. Each suggested read is accompanied by a short blurb. A “book tower challenge” which aims to motivate students to read 10 books during an academic year. Pages for students to record their reflections on each read. The booklet is created in Powerpoint and can be edited. Once you have tweaked it, I suggest you save it as a PDF file and print in A5.

These bookmarks are perfect to encourage Key Stage 3 students to build an effective reading habit. Students need to read 15 minutes per day, 5 times per week. Parents/carers sign to confirm that their child has read. The file is an editable PowerPoint document. I recommend this is printed onto thin card.

This sequence of 4 revision lessons is designed to remind students of the key facets of descriptive writing. This is appropriate for revisiting descriptive writing in Year 11. The lessons include: Reminder of the style of exam question to expect; A model answer; Using a student-friendly mark-scheme to identify positives in the model answer; Snappy reading and writing tasks to develop students’ understanding of how to structure their descriptive writing (drop, shift, shift and circular structure); Snappy reading and writing tasks to develop students’ understanding of how to use language; Evaluation task to support students to identify strengths and address weaknesses in their own writing.

For Language Papers 1 and 2

Print off a class set at the start of the year (different levels of difficulty on different colours of paper, perhaps) and laminate. Then these sheets can be quickly put on desks at the start of a lesson, or students can collect them on their way in, to be used for stress-free knowledge retrieval practice.

Quiz sheets designed to be printed and laminated at the start of the year, and then used over a series of lessons. Students can be guided to choose the appropriate level to self-quiz during lessons.

Macbeth, Jekyll and Hyde, Love and Relationships Poetry, An Inspector Calls

This is a murder mystery activity based around the story of Porphyria’s Lover. It takes around 90 minutes and requires a room where students can move around. Start by reading the Police Inspector prompts (or we recorded a video of our drama teacher) and then talk through the timeline on the powerpoint. Give each student a character card and let them “interview” each other to gather evidence (using the evidence collection sheet). If students finish early, they can complete the back of the evidence collection sheet using the information from the various exhibits. Apologies - the character cards were missing - they have now been added.

I use these by printing the quizzes on different colours of paper at the start of the year and laminating them. Then students can be trained to pick up a quiz as they enter the classroom and sit down silently to do knowledge retrieval as the rest of the class arrives. Students can work their way up through the different levels of the quiz so that they can eventually remember the quotations with minimal prompts.

This lesson was originally planned for No Pens Day and focusses on consolidating knowledge of the plot of An Inspector Calls, as well as developing oracy in the classroom.

These quizzes can be printed and laminated at the start of the year. Students can be guided to choose the appropriate level and then self-quiz. Ideally they work their way up the levels until they know full quotations.

A set of flashcards for students to use to learn the key aspects of Shakespeare’s “Othello”. Designed for AQA A Level English Literature B.