A fully resourced scheme, covering 34 lessons (which can be reduced if needed, as covered below) on a range of engaging short stories. This allows KS3 students to enjoy reading without getting bogged down in a single text, while covering key skills for both GCSE Language and Literature further down the line. It is most suited to Year 8 or 9, but could also be tailored for use with Year 7 or even as an introductory unit to GCSE skills in Year 10. Included: A ‘five a day’ style ‘Do Now’ activity, to recap key knowledge and settle students on entry, for each lesson. Learning intention/objective (as a ‘big question’, with differentiated success criteria - bronze, silver, gold) for each lesson. Regular opportunities for reflection, peer/self assessment and improvements. All stories, worksheets, assessments and PowerPoints. Mark schemes and conversions to estimated GCSE grades. Coverage of key assessment objectives for Language and Literature, based on AQA spec but transferable across boards. Work on building tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary. Extensions for students who finish tasks before others. Embedded challenge tasks for higher ability students. Opportunities to scaffold and support. Model answers. Quiz at the end of each story to check learning, which can be peer assessed. Embedded AfL opportunities to check knowledge. Guidance for teachers within ‘Notes’ of relevant slides. Potential to use creative tasks as homework pieces. Five short stories have six lessons each, following the same pattern and developing skills further each time: 1: Reading, understanding and enaging with the story. (Lang & Lit AO1) 2: Checking understanding and covering literary concepts, such as theme and genre. (Lang AO1; Lit AO1 & AO2) 3: Structure skills. (Lang & Lit AO2) 4: Evaluation skills (including language analysis) - with support. (Lang AO2, AO4; Lit AO2) 5: Independently applying evaluation skills. (Lang AO4) 6: Reflecting on evaluation and creative writing. (Lang AO5, AO6; Lit AO4) This scheme can be taught ‘straight out the box’. The only parts you might wish to edit are the references to red and purple pen for reflection and extending work, if your school has a different policy. Lessons can also be easily edited to suit your students; the scheme can be shortened if necessary by removing one or two of the stories - it could cover a few weeks, a half-term or even a full term. Sections could even be taken to set as cover for a few lessons’ absence. My students, particularly boys, have responded really well to this unit and enjoyed the stories, which were selected in consultation with both students and English teachers.

This is a booklet which covers the 2009 film version of Skellig by Annabel Jankel. It has rough timings as to when students should be able to answer the question from. Covers a range of Bloom’s skills. Can be used either as an activity during teaching or post-reading recap.

Covers plot, characters, themes, context and techniques/terminology.

This is a booklet which covers the 2009 film version of Coraline by Henry Selick. It has rough timings as to when students should be able to answer the question from. Covers a range of Bloom’s skills. Can be used either as an activity during teaching or post-reading recap.

This is a booklet which covers the 2009 A Christmas Carol film. It has rough timings as to when students should be able to answer the question by and bares in mind methods used by the director and Dickens whilst allowing them to compare the two media types. Covers a range of Bloom’s skills. Can be used either as a pre-reading activity or post-reading recap.

This is a booklet which covers the 1996 Baz Luhrmann film version of Romeo and Juliet. It has rough timings as to when students should be able to answer the question by and bares in mind methods used by the director and Shakespeare whilst allowing them to compare the two media types. Covers a range of Bloom’s skills. Can be used either as an activity during teaching or post-reading recap.

17 lessons that covers the whole play of 'Frankenstein'. Looks at plot, characters, themes and context.

This is a booklet which covers the 1992 film version of Of Mice and Men by Gary Senise. It has rough timings as to when students should be able to answer the question from. Covers a range of Bloom’s skills. Can be used either as an activity during teaching or post-reading recap.

After discounting all extracts and questions used in AQA’s sample and past papers, and considering the length of extract and question styles used by AQA, I came up with five potential extracts and questions AQA could use this summer. This resource consists of those five extracts, each with a question, in the style of the AQA GCSE English Literature exam. Please note that these are purely predictions and I have no advance knowledge of the content of the exam!

A pack of 21 original sample GCSE English Literature Paper 1, Section A assessments on Romeo and Juliet, in the style of the AQA paper. Each text gives key information on the extract, the extract itself (with line numbers), and a task relating to the presentation of a character/theme and the relevant bullet points instructing students to respond to the extract and whole play. Useful for exam practice and/or recapping key scenes - when sequenced alphabetically, the documents are ordered chronologically in line with the play. New specification (8702).

Covers plot, characters, themes, context and techniques/terminology.

This is a booklet which covers the 2012 film version of The Hunger Games by Gary Ross. It has rough timings as to when students should be able to answer the question by. Covers a range of Bloom’s skills. Can be used either as an activity during teaching or post-reading recap.

This is a booklet which covers the 1954 Guy Hamilton film version of An Inspector Calls. It has rough timings as to when students should be able to answer the question from and bares in mind methods used by the director and Priestley whilst allowing them to compare the two media types. Covers a range of Bloom’s skills. Can be used either as an activity during teaching or post-reading recap.

This is a booklet which covers the 1954 film version of Animal Farm by Joy Batchelor and John Halas. It has rough timings as to when students should be able to answer the question from. Covers a range of Bloom’s skills. Can be used either as an activity during teaching or post-reading recap.

I have now uploaded a second set of A-Level Othello exam questions - see my other resources for Pack 2. This pack is a set of 14 assessment tasks, following the same structure as the AQA A Level Paper 1 (Love Through the Ages), Section A, Q1 sample materials, all on Othello. This is for the new specification (7712). The assessments focus on the presentation of varying types of love across a range of key scenes in the play. This makes them useful as practice exam material, and/or for recapping key scenes in the play. Each task has a question based on the presentation of [aspect of love] in response to a statement, followed by an extract.

This is a booklet which covers the 1999 film version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Michael Hoffman. It has rough timings as to when students should be able to answer the question from. Covers a range of Bloom’s skills. Can be used either as an activity during teaching or post-reading recap.

This is a booklet which covers the 2012 film version of Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo. It has rough timings as to when students should be able to answer the question by. Covers a range of Bloom’s skills. Can be used either as an activity during teaching or post-reading recap.

After discounting all extracts and questions used in AQA’s sample and past papers, and considering the length of extract and question styles used by AQA, I came up with six potential extracts and questions AQA could use this summer. This resource consists of those extracts, each with a question, in the style of the AQA GCSE English Literature exam. Please note that these are purely predictions and I have no advance knowledge of the content of the exam!

Lessons designed to teach year 7 the skills they will need to know for their GCSE. These lessons use two Test Packs created by AQA.

Could be used during form time as a whole school literacy task or in English lessons. Covers: Varying vocabulary Homophones Reading: skimming and scanning Capital letters and full stops Spoken English - discussion skills Reading for meaning Sentence types (excludes complex) Apostrophes Paragraphs Speech marks Connotation and denotation Proofreading