3 lessons aimed at LA pupils to explore the presentation of characters. Included are: Birling Sheila Gerald Watch this space for resources on the other characters. Each ‘lesson’ consists of: true/false starter activity vocab match up task (adjectives used to describe the respective characters, to ensure understanding e.g: words like, ‘insightful’; ‘assertive’; 'responsible; ‘arrogant’ etc.) quotation wheel activity: a blank wheel with just the adjectives on (to print A3), with a list of quotations for pupils to cut up and stick in the correct segment of the wheel. Then to add notes to the quotations. What/How/Why template to put info from the wheel into paragraphs.

A lesson exploring and comparing the characterisation of Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons in Act 1 to Act 2 (Mrs Lyons confronts Mrs Johnstone), focussing in on the power balance shift between the two women.

Straightforward lesson to introduce the use of foreshadowing in the play, focussing on the ‘Summer Sequence’ in Act 2. Resources include powerpoint lesson with starter, main task and ‘increasing challenge’ plenary . Main task comprises of worksheet (included) that annotates the lyrics to ‘Summer Sequence’ and requires pupils to look for positive / negative imagery. This culminates in pupils writing a PEA paragraph on Russell’s use of foreshadowing in this scene. I use this lesson with my year 7 classes and believe it would be suitable for LA GCSE classes.

A lesson exploring the confrontation between the two mothers in Act 2, from the angle of exploring the power shift between the two mothers since Act 1.

A lesson exploring the topic of unemployment in Act 2 of Blood Brothers.

A lesson on exploring and reviewing the structural features used so far within the play (at the start of Act 2), with a task comparing the start of Act 1, with the start of act 2, searching for similarities and differences, moving onto specifically exploring the role of dramatic irony.

A lesson reviewing the events of Blood Brothers (post-reading) and exploring Russell’s intentions for the play.

Article writing task on the topic of Boxing. Perfect for AQA Language Paper 2, Q5 practice. This ppt includes lots of ideas and information for pupils to read and make notes on before formulating a viewpoint for themselves and presenting in the form of a broadsheet newspaper. This ppt does NOT overly go over article features. This lesson is best suited as a lesson to apply and demonstrate what they have learned about article features. Alternately, this could be used as baseline assessment, prior to teaching article features.

A homework activity to build pupil’s vocabulary when discussing characters and themes in An Inspector Calls. Task asks pupils to look up definitions for key vocab and then apply and find the links to characters in the play. This can then feed into lessons.

A set of 3 (potentially 4) lessons you could easily set as cover (as I have done so!) if a teacher is likely to be absent for a few days. Lesson 1: Implying information based on the image of a door. Lesson 2: Describing approaching the door (rising action / building tension) Lesson 3: The other side of the door (climax) Lesson 4 (optional): Neat write up of their 3 part description of the door ‘for display’ The lessons indicate that the writing should IMPLY, not state (i.e. my take on ‘show, don’t tell’), whereby certain rules are included such as 'you cannot use the word ‘door’. Lessons include examples / models; scaffolding and success criteria; peer assessment tasks.

A lesson that takes a closer, critical look at how Gerald’s account of his meeting of Eva Smith/ Daisy Renton is presented to the audience. The lesson includes relevant extracts taken from the play, set on one page for easy annotation. Students are guided to analyse multiple interpretations of Gerald’s dialogue - how Gerald is trying to present himself (positive), but then close lang analysis to examine the more cynical, negative aspects of what he is saying. For example: the excessive use of the pronoun ‘I’ to indicate he did what was best for himself, and his feelings, as opposed to Eva’s/Daisy’s; the use of imperatives such as ‘made’ and ‘insisted’. Have used this lesson a few times now for both first time teaching of the text and as revision and have found pupils really receptive to the lesson. JB Priestley - An Inspector Calls

An array of tasks on a variety of literacy /SPaG.

A homework sheet for pupils to completed, locating quotations / lines that reflect themes. Used in a LA set.

This resource includes two articles on the topic of ‘Elephants’. The powerpoint guides pupils to: Consider what is meant by the terms ‘viewpoint’ and ‘perspective’ and begin identifying from the texts Scaffolded paragraph as a first attempt. Model answers for EACH level in the mark scheme, for pupils to read and sort next to the correct level descriptor. Tasks to identify the differences between the model answers, getting pupils to identify what is needed to get their responses into the next ‘level’ on the mark scheme. Finishing with another scaffolded paragraph (to monitor progress), and a peer assessment task to engage with others work, as well as the mark scheme. PLEASE NOTE: I cannot take credit for the extracts, and apologies I cannot remember where I sourced them from (please do contact me if they are yours!). ALSO: This powerpoint is not set out into specific lessons however, I have used this PP with my year 11s (first time through the paper) and it took a weeks worth of lessons, to give you a guide.

Included is a storyboard of the poem, with some instructions on how you could use for Yr 11 revision: pupils to put them in order, from memory see if they can write a quotation from the poem for each of the images, pupils then to check back with the actual poem and add any quotations where needed, then begin to identify and analyse language. I have also used the story board to teach first time round, especially with lower ability pupils to help them visualise the poem better. Also included, is a storyboard image sort & language identifying task which is an A3 sheet. It consists of a copy of the poem, with space for the images to be sorted and stuck in and a table which gets pupils to identify key language techniques in the poem. The table can easily be adapted to add more advanced level techniques for idenitification, but as it currently stands is suitable for low to mid ability.

DIRT tasks for AQA Lang P2, Q2 & 3 - ‘Discoveries’ with model answers. Best used for after the class have attempted these questions for themselves. I set the questions as a mini in-class assessment and then used the following for DIRT. Included are example answers for Q2 &3 where pupils are to mark and annotate the examples, from a ‘expert’ checklist, and then use ideas from the examples to improve their own: ‘magpie’. PLEASE NOTE: cannot be credited as creating Q paper, but the model answers and the PP is my own)

Introduction lesson for AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2: Writer’s Viewpoints and Perspectives. A whole lesson & resources which focus on pupils exploring how to distinguish between ‘viewpoint’ and ‘perspective’.

A complete lesson giving a comprehensive contextual background in preparation for studying the play Blood Brothers by Willy Russell. This would work for KS3 or KS4 first time study of the play or revision. Ares covered: Willy Russell Liverpool City Liverpool Culture Marilyn Monroe The Play Housing

8 week’s worth of homework on Macbeth to support the study and revision of the play. Tasks focus on supporting vocabulary of pupils, linking vocabulary to our study of the play, as well as tasks on context, SPaG and a ‘Elizabethan pronoun’ challenge. All tasks have been designed so they can easily be marked in class either as self/peer assessment (to reduce teacher marking!) but also designed to be purposeful to student’s learning. Pupils will need to know the plot / summary of the play in order to complete these tasks (i.e. I always begin teaching Macbeth with context and summary / main plot, before studying in more detail).