This unit of work is designed to guide Year 8/Grade 7 students through Gillian Cross' The Demon Headmaster. While Teachit resources are referenced (and are available for free download via that website), many other resources and activities are also included, which are designed to stretch students in this age bracket given the text involved. Ultimately, however, it is accessible to all, including ESL, with various differentiation suggestions included (e.g. vocabulary-based activities).

This quiz was designed to be used in an English lesson to reinforce student knowledge of Irish history in relation to Brian Friel’s play “Translations”. However, it could of course also be used by history teachers! The quiz could be done traditionally, whereby students revise in advance and then sit the quiz on their own. However, I used it as a team game, whereby at around Easter time, the slips were cut up and hidden around the classroom treasure hunt-style. Students had to work in teams to find the slips and fill in the answers where they thought they went on the answer sheet. The first team to get a full sheet of correct answers - or the highest number of correct answers - by the end of the given time - won an Easter egg (I appreciate that edible prizes and/or the religious aspect won’t work in all schools so obviously feel free to substitute this with a reward of your choosing if needed). Ground rules worth setting include: no hoarding of slips in your team (they should be put back where you have found them so other teams can also find them…) and no using chairs/tables etc as weaponry to guard the slips you have found (yes, really!!).

These comprehension questions can be completed by students in groups or on their own, in class or as homework. They are also great revision resources and can be handy if you need to set cover work. Multiple copies of the questions are duplicated on one sheet in some cases, for ease of printing, photocopying, and distribution. The questions are designed for MA-HA students and range from identification and interpretation of techniques used (such as paradox) to encouraging students to explore issues surrounding translation, narratorial reliability, and choices of nomenclature in the novel. Motif and symbolism are also covered. Some extension tasks are included. These questions were originally developed for use by KS4 students working towards their IGCSE in World Literature. They could also be used for native French speakers, or students of IB/A Level French (although they would of course need to be translated).

This lesson was designed for KS4 and was used in English lessons to illustrate the impact of persuasive language and connotation. However, it could also be used as part of lessons in business studies/marketing. Opportunities are given for whole-class and small-group discussion, as well as for students to work alone. Students are invited to compare their initial thoughts about a brand with the brand’s mission statement, and to chart their changing impressions over the course of a lesson. Students are also able to consider the ethics of companies’ decisions behind their choices of brand name. There are some elements of the PPT which pertain specifically to the IGCSE First Language English syllabus run by CIE; however, these are not the main part of the presentation and could be easily adapted or deleted. For extension in an English lesson, there is the opportunity to discuss euphemism (especially in relation to Simpsons episode Realty Bites) - or this could be done as a separate lesson. This PPT was created for use with KS4.

This resource is a great introduction to descriptive writing for students in Years 8-9. It uses Mark Haddon’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” as a stimulus but you could adapt this to suit any text where the character finds a journey difficult. The PPT should get you through a minimum of 2 lessons depending on your students’ abilities. It goes through the basics of getting students to name the five senses and to talk about journeys they have completed, before progressing to finding textual evidence for why Christopher finds his journey to London difficult and planning/creating their own piece of descriptive writing based on a journey. Opportunities for peer assessment are also included.

These comprehension questions on John Keats’ Bright Star sonnet were designed for (I)GCSE students studying the poem but could also be used for A Level/IB students. The 4-page pack includes a copy of the poem as well as a vocabulary matching activity, space for handwritten definitions of any other unfamiliar vocabulary, note-taking space, comprehension questions, and an optional extension task.

This unit plan for The Great Gatsby is aimed at students aged 14+. While many ideas will suit abler students more, it is ultimately made accessible to all with differentiation suggestions included. The unit should take around 4 weeks to complete (based on the idea of 4 x 55-minute lessons per week), but this may vary depending on your class' ability. Also included is an extension task regarding the reference to the 'Platonic conception of himself'.

This PPT presentation/lesson encourages students to consider the differences between the way people speak in normal life vs how they speak on television documentaries. The starting question could be explored in a whole-class discussion or via various Kagan Strategies (e.g. Think-Pair-Share), and the resultant ideas revisited later on. An excerpt from a David Attenborough documentary (about the lyre bird) is transcribed onto the PPT for a student to read aloud in their normal voice. Students then watch the corresponding video clip (linked to in the PPT, or can be found on Youtube/supplied on request if there are problems with this). They should then compare how the student read it with how the text is spoken by Attenborough. They may wish to consider elements such as accent, pace and enunciation. Reference to the initial ideas generated by students is encouraged. The speech features terminology table (or a version of it adapted for your students) can be used optionally to help. I recommend using relevant exercises from the CGP GCSE English workbook as a plenary activity. This lesson was conceived of for students entering KS5 but is also suitable for KS4.

This handout provides students with a glossary and definitions of key terms to help them analyse comics (e.g. political strips in newspapers) and graphic novels (e.g. Maus, Fun Home, Persepolis), and is useful for revision purposes so that students can use the correct terminology accurately in assessment situations.

This scaffolded note-taking grid encourages students to consider the information provided to them through stage directions in plays, whether implied or explicitly stated. The grid includes space for note-taking on characters’ movements, descriptions of lighting, and descriptions of sounds, as well as space for quotations and explanations of effects on the viewer. This grid can be used to analyse the stage directions in any play, and can be subsequently used for revision and/or essay-writing. Printing on A3 comes recommended as this gives students more space to write.

This Powerpoint represents a full lesson on the characters of Bellamira and Pilia-Borza in Christopher Marlowe’s ‘The Jew of Malta’, and how these can be directed and played to comic or tragic effect. Please note that you need to source the appropriate scenes (IIIii and IIIiii) yourself. The Powerpoint directs students through various activities, including a ‘write 3, share 1’ starter, a class reading task, independent work on the direction of the scenes (which is differentiated via the methods through which students can carry it out: continuous prose, Flipgrid, collage, storyboard), and a plenary consisting of a gallery walk and exit slip for reflection.

This resource relates to the end of Margaret Atwood’s novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and contains questions encouraging students to assess the reliability of the novel, its narrator, and its ending. This helps to integrate critical thinking into English lessons, and as such is especially helpful for teachers teaching the text as part of the IB Diploma programme, which requires integration of the IB core component of Theory of Knowledge.

This resource consists of 7 comprehension questions (printed on the page three times for ease of printing/distribution) based on the Moniza Alvi poem ‘Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan’. The questions help students to interpret the use of techniques including juxtaposition, metaphor, and imagery, and to better understand the effects of these on the reader.

Students should be assigned a speech topic that they could give to either Grade 9/Year 10 students or staff members/parents/governors. This could be, for example, “school uniforms should be abolished” or “the school day should start one hour later than it does now”. This planning grid enables students to compare what is required in terms of diction, tone, syntax and so on. Students should be made aware of the meanings of the terms in the grid before proceeding. Once they have planned, they could either write a comparative/analytical paragraph, explaining what is the same/different about each speech to each audience, and/or actually choose a speech to write based on the grid.

This Powerpoint introduces the etymology of ‘anthropomorphism’ and explains the differences between personification and anthropomorphism. The PPT then showcases examples of texts which use these, before setting students a task to anthropomorphise a classroom object and write a monologue ‘in character’ (students should be familiar with monologue-writing). There is still scope to add additional imagery/animations to the PPT if desired, as well as film clips (e.g. Fantastic Mr Fox, Toy Story, Cars).

This resource begins with a simple matching game to reinforce/refresh student knowledge of techniques found in poetry. While this resource was designed with Sylvia Plath’s ‘Blackberrying’ in mind, it could be easily adapted for other poems. There are also sentence starters to help students write an analytical paragraph about the poem, as well as extension tasks for early finishers. Printing on A3 is recommended to give students maximum space for note-taking. Note that a copy of the poem is not included but is easily accessible online.

This grid serves as an ongoing revision resource that students build up themselves over time. It encourages students to take notes on characters encountered in Wole Soyinka’s play “Death and the King’s Horseman”, including appearance, speech, and attitudes. This grid could then be used to help students plan an essay on any topic relevant to the notes they have taken (e.g. compare/contrast 2 characters’ attitudes towards the British). Printing on A3 is recommended.

These six comprehension questions help to develop student understanding of the Keats poem ‘When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be’. The questions are laid out with 2 sets on one page for ease of printing, photocopying and distribution. The questions cover understanding of technique (such as metaphor and imagery) as well as ideas. There is scope for the final question to serve as an extension/optional question for early finishers.

This resource shows visually, on a continuum line, the political leanings/affiliations of most major British print news outlets. This is particularly useful for international students who may have to deal with British media texts in examinations but are not familiar with the cultural aspects surrounding them. The continuum shows whether each paper is a tabloid or broadsheet and whether they lean politically to the right or left, or whether they are more centrist. There is further scope to add extra imagery if desired. Students are also provided with weblinks to four independent analyses of British newspapers’ politics and culture (all links still active as of July 6th, 2021).

These two pages of comprehension questions are divided by stanza, enabling students to work on these as they progress through the poem and allowing teachers to use them as a carousel or jigsaw activity if preferred. The questions cover comprehension of techniques (e.g. imagery, symbolism, allusion) as well as ideas.