8 clips of characters from Fantasy and Sci-fi films speaking. The students are asked to write down the names of the characters and the films in the first round. In Seychelles we had watched clips from several of these beforehand, but in England I think it would work from general knowledge. In the second round, students are asked 4 questions about genre and comparing sci-fi to fantasy. The whole quiz is out of 20 and should challenge everyone from my EAL lower ability kids to the top set ones. The first time they are shown, the video effect should mean they cannot see the characters clearly. If your students really struggle, the videos play through without a filter at the end and the answers come up after each clip. With some of my less confident classes, I would only play this part and ask students to hold up answers on a whiteboard after each clip. I would also pause between each clip to allow writing time. I created this for my Fantasy scheme of work, but it would work well as an introduction to character building in any story writing. These particular characters were all selected because they have unusual character voices which would be written down in a way which is outside of the norm, i.e.: Hagrid's elision of h sounds; Gollum's additional s's, etc. My students went on to try to write the speech for each character phonetically, compare them to the scripts/books and then to write phonetic speech for one of the minor characters in their stories. Bonus idea! I showed my top set a clip of all the times Hodor says "Hodor" and then played them the "Hold the door" video too, to illustrate character arcs shown through speech. I'd recommend it! Please rate and review if you use it. This is my first video, so I'd happily make more if it's enjoyed. I hope it's as useful to you as it has been to me.

I hate spoon-feeding Shakespeare to students. Shakespeare deserves better! This unit of work is for GCSE and focuses on the first three acts of The Merchant of Venice. It is designed to give background information and close reading practice in order to build up to an essay on audience sympathy for the character of Shylock. The last scene with Shylock in (Act 4, scene 1) was then given for independent analysis and students watched different versions of the trial scene before writing that paragraph in class in controlled conditions. This gave me a chance to see them move from more structured group and whole class work to their personal, independent ability. Their essay results were excellent and the range of approaches to the question really paid off with a wide range of different answers, quotations chosen and analysis of language. In this unit you will find a range of interactive games, PowerPoint presentations and note-making worksheets suitable for students from D to A*

8 adjectives, superlatives and adverbs activities which make great starters for writing lessons of all kinds or as part of a literacy lesson. Accessible for all ages and very active, including drama, team games, timed races, etc. Very versatile activities and still academic enough for any HOD to approve of. I've done these lessons with students aged from 10 to 18!

I wrote this modern-day version of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice which became the school's secondary performance. Like The Merchant of Venice, it has a range of parts for all abilities (we had students from 12 to 18 taking part) and some more adult themes and references. It was designed to be performed in the round with various scenes filmed in advance and played on a screen for the audience. We ended up filming the entire production and selling DVDs to raise money for the school. I have aimed to be as true to Shakespeare's version as possible and it was interesting to see the humour coming through the somewhat grim situations. The prologue was rapped by one of our students while a pre-recorded video (detailed in the comments) played in the background. This was created by a small group of students in Media and Visual Arts Club after school, but there would be enough pre-recorded scenes for an entire Media Studies group to storyboard, film and edit in advance.

Our school provides students with a qualification in ICT in year 9 (ages 13 - 15) but students from year 7 and 8 practice these skills beforehand. I have attached the syllabus (available from Cambridge) here http://www.cie.org.uk/programmes-and-qualifications/cambridge-secondary-1/cambridge-ict-starters/ Teachers work these projects into normal school lessons taking perhaps 6 hours to practice before the final exam which is done in an hour and a half. The qualification is fairly straightforward and accessible. These resources are the ones I used to prepare students including vocabulary work and papers very similar to the final exam so they can access it independently. The actual qualification requires software such as Movie Maker, Paint and the ability to download free music and sound effects from the internet, though these resources provided are mostly for classroom use before going to the computer room. Students generally use their own phones to take photos for animation or video. This was done in class or for homework. I teach several subjects, so year 7 worked on a "growth mindset" animation for PSHE, year 8 on a Geography project on coastal processes and year 9 on a Drama video for the topic "Fear". The resources are exceptionally easy to adapt. After these lessons completed in the classroom, students will go to the computer room to practice editing and using the software using the practice assessment and then when ready, can try the final exam.

This part has lesson by lesson story writing support for students of all abilities as well as extracts from a range of fantasy stories to be performed, analysed and inspired by. There is more of a focus on spelling and grammar skills in starters for these writing lessons covering apostrophes (contraction and omission); there, their and they're; punctuating speech; paragraphing (how to develop and when to move on) and tension building techniques as well as clear instructions for acceptable and unacceptable endings (...or are there????? Yes. Yes there are.) During writing, we listened to the soundtrack from Oblivion, which is suitably epic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpqSdORmCX4 Lesson 7 was a Geography cross-over lesson to support map making. The Hogfather would make a nice extract to analyse in the run up to Christmas. The last section, writing up, was run in conjunction with ICT and Art, giving students the chance to produce their own short story collections which were then sold at school to raise money. The kids and their parents loved seeing their work in print and I'm sure yours will too! Reviews are much loved and appreciated!

Are you falling asleep while marking your students' work? Whether descriptive or narrative, these resources are designed to help get those uninspired writing to the next level, making their work imaginative and engaging to read. I used them initially with a top set GCSE group, but quickly started rolling them out all the way down to year 7 low ability (high expectations are the key!). Each lesson has specific outcomes with resources for students to self or peer assess so they can see their progress. There are 7 complete lessons which deal with vocabulary building, word connotations, sentence structure, paragraphing, planning, etc. I found my students' marks went up by as much as two grades by using these key ideas and students who found it hard to be creative before had the confidence to take much better risks with their work and enjoy the process. I felt like I'd discovered a secret of some kind with these ideas and I hope you feel the same.

Ten games which cover a range of skills and focuses in English. These have made my lessons really fun and kept the kids hooked and happy, not realising that there's some serious learning or revising going on. Want to trick them into reading? I got you. Want to introduce them to different word types? Here you go. Want them to revise key quotations? It's here. I hope there's plenty here to keep you going and examples are given wherever needed so very little preparation is needed. Enjoy!

An active and engaging poetry lesson on Annabel Lee. There are a range of activities including a crossword with secret message, questions and activities to draw out ideas about characters, genre, structure, form, themes and meanings as well as an AFL plenary and engaging starter. The worksheet attached has a lower ability option with word bank provided and a higher ability option which asks students to work out and then create their own hidden message from the characters. There are also questions to get them thinking on this sheet. The main development of the lesson is built around De Bono's Thinking Hats so will support students' speaking and listening skills and could be assessed as a group discussion. This would make an excellent one-off lesson for or as part of a wider SOW on * Poetry * 19th century literature * American Literature * Gothic Literature Enjoy!

An introduction to a SOW on podcasting and radio for KS3 students. Designed for students in groups of 4 - 6. The final game could also be played in groups with a mini-whiteboard or as a whole class. There are two articles on podcasting and radio with a reading race (or just standard questions if you prefer), activities and worksheets to help with new vocabulary (three versions for different ability groups) and a brainstorm to help students KWL their learning. The homework structures their research of podcasts. A selection of recommended and student-friendly podcasts are given. These are differentiated (green for my EAL students, blue for more able or native speakers). I would suggest downloading a select few from some of the blue list as certain episodes can have more adult themes than others. Questions to structure each week's homework are included. There is an overview on the first slide which explains what will be covered in the unit for students. This can be adapted as you need, of course.

A baker's dozen of revision creative tasks and activities. Little to no preparation time needed. These are student-focused, varied for different abilities and to keep students engaged. These make the student work hard, not you. These would form either the main focus of a lesson or part of a carousel of activities which students tackle over the lesson. They could also be set as homework tasks with opportunity to feedback in the following lesson. These are revision tasks, so students should have already read the book and discussed the themes and issues.

A great couple of high-quality cover lessons or mini-SOW for Romantic poetry or poetry from the 18th century. Everything you need is here: the poems, questions for different abilities, differentiated outcomes, differentiated tasks, a vocabulary quiz, in-depth self-assessment plenary and some fun games to do with rhyming. No planning required and possibly no printing. There are also differentiated assessments on two unseen poems for upper and lower abilities. The responses to these can be peer-assessed by students first to help them understand how to respond to literature questions. Enjoy!

EVERYTHING YOU NEED!! This is a lesson-by-lesson scheme of work with EVERY SINGLE WORD of the ENTIRE book covered in a sequence of 19 lessons. Every lesson has objectives designed to help your students not only understand the characters, themes, events and messages but to make excellent PROGRESS in manageable steps. A range of activities including group work, speaking and listening, essay writing and extract analysis, Q&A, quizzes, games, wider reading, webquests and active reading strategies to help your students stay ENGAGED. Starters and plenaries to hook the students and then help them reflect on the progress they've made. Structured examples of how to get to a C grade and an A grade and how to self- and peer-assess their writing. 10 different homework tasks, none of which are "read pages blah blah to blah blah". This is a must-have resource if you're teaching Cry, the Beloved Country and will save you hours of time and energy which you can put into the teaching! If you have any requests for additional CtBC resources, or resources for any other topic, please contact me. And if you love this resource, please review it to help others. Thank you :)

A range of games and activities to make students work on their vocabulary. These work fantastically with any group from EAL KS3 to KS5. They can all be done independently, in pairs or in teams and most have a competitive element. I use these as starters in English lessons, but my school used to have a Literacy Form Time every Monday when we would play one of these. Most don't require any printing but can be adapted into a more physical resource if this suits your group. These always make fun and engaging links into creative writing lessons or literacy lessons. My students love them! I even caught some of my year 7s playing the Alphabet Game at lunch! I hope your students enjoy them just as much.

These resources focus on essay writing skills and revising knowledge of characters in an active game (though this could be done with students just writing notes on each character - feel free to adapt it to your needs). There is essay writing guidance including grade C and grade A mark scheme, colour-coding revision of essay paragraphs and an interactive plenary with a venn diagram for students to place themselves on. These are resources which will challenge every student to take part. They are easily adaptable for any essay question. These work really well in conjunction with the other resource packs I have for sale. The PowerPoint has been re-uploaded from the working copy I have.

FIVE different activities to help students refresh their memories of the characters, events and quotations from The Secret River. These could be spread out over several lessons or combined into a couple. Students should have their own copies of the books, but there is no specific need for them here. I would suggest using these in the first week of revision. They are enjoyable, engaging, team activities with a bit of something for every learning style. Some notes on using the resources: Answers are provided for all of the quizzes on the same PPT. Cut up the dominoes beforehand because they are currently in the correct order. The pictures are taken from the TV mini-series, but should be obvious even if the students haven't seen it. The only ones who seem a little nondescript are Dan and Ned. Enjoy!

This resource pack is aimed at helping students analyse the text in close detail for a passage question and to structure that kind of response, and at students who will tackle a whole-book essay question. There are some activities which focus on Grenville herself and the information is provided for students along with some active reading challenges. This background information then links into a lesson helping students develop an empathetic response and a question on where our sympathies as readers lie. It succinctly takes them through the steps of structuring sentences, paragraphs and the whole response. There are clear objectives for each task, breaking down the C grade descriptors and A grade descriptors and helping students push themselves to the next grade. Best of luck to all of you guiding students through iGCSEs! I'm sure they will be a credit to you!

Several lessons which help students recap on the characters and plot of Spies by Michael Frayn and then some engaging activities to help students think more deeply about the text. There are slides to help with paragraph structure to ensure students are getting the level of detail required for an A grade and to help them self- or peer-assess their essay writing. As well as this there are some quizzes on spying and on memory to link in with another essay topic (available online). Best of luck to all the iGCSE students out there and to those tackling Spies for A level! Well done to all the teachers too! I hope this saves you some time and energy!

An all-in-one poetry lesson on the poem For Heidi With the Blue Hair by Fleur Adcock. A fantastic poem for KS3 and 4, dealing with themes of teenage life: friendship, rules and rebellion at school, and bereavement as well as hair! It is simple enough for any class to understand and enjoy. The resource focuses largely on understanding the events of the poem and how the personas feel, but also asks a range of questions about language and structure and guides students through annotating the poem. There is a peer- or self-assessment checklist to help students gain higher grades and a message ranking activity at the end. This is a set text for the CIE Songs of Ourselves iGCSE English Literature. It's a lovely poem to study and students understand its relevance to them and their lives. Enjoy!