This PPT looks at new words and where they come from, which includes looking at blended words (jeans + leggings = jeggings), clipped words and new, organic words. They begin to understand how new words are added to the dictionary. If possible, allow students access to computers and let them explore the Oxford Dictionaries website which has lots of information about new words added to the dictionary.

This short activity tests students' ability to follow instructions. It is a fun starter and shows students the importance of reading ALL the instructions before starting a task.

10 examples of written reports for Year 10 students studying for their GCSEs. There are examples of reports for students making 'adequate', 'good' and 'excellent' progress. Reports include targets for improvement.

Poetic devices glossary to assist with students' study of poetry.

In this lesson students will develop skills in writing to argue, and structuring an argument. This is a fun and engaging approach to writing to argue. This lessons involves debate to get students actively arguing, but it also encourages students to articulate their arguments on paper, not just vocally. Two videos are also included in this lesson to encourage engagement in the central argument of: Is the internet a good thing or a bad thing? Instructions for the lesson are written on the PPT in the 'notes' section at the bottom of each slide.

L.O. To identify and understand emotive language, and its effect on readers. The PowerPoint begins by asking students to look at two different headlines at a time and to decide which one is most emotive, and why. They then focus on two particular headlines and translate their ideas to paper by writing a PEE paragraph. In the next activity, they then have a go at editing a series of headlines by replacing words with more emotive words. Students should share ideas as an entire class. Students then look at a newspaper article and underline/highlight the emotive words. They then complete a table whereby they think about 'more emotive' and 'less emotive' words than the ones in the article. As a final activity, or as homework, students answer the following question about the newspaper article in PEE paragraphs: How does the writer’s choice of emotive language make us (the readers) feel about the dog and its previous owners?

Language devices to use when writing to argue and persuade, put helpfully into the mneumonic 'A RED FOREST'. When I was teaching students to write to argue, I display the language devices around the room to encourage students to look for them and use them.

Revision booklet full of activities for students to do at home, lasting 10 weeks. It gives clear activities and reading for students to do each week. There are practice exam questions throughout the booklet. The booklet functions as a workbook that students can hand in once they've finished. It's proved incredibly successful with GCSE students.

GREAT 10-MINUTE STARTER TO CEMENT THE FOLLOWING KEY TERMS AND THEIR DEFINITIONS: Accent Adjacency pairs Back-channel features Blend word Contraction Deixis / deictics Dialect Discourse markers Elision Ellipsis False start Fillers Hedge Idiolect Interactional talk Initialism Jargon Micropause Non-fluency features Overt prestige Paralinguistic features Phatic talk Prosodic features Received Pronunciation Repairs Slang Sociolect Standard English Tag question Transactional talk Transcript Turn taking Utterance Vague language INSTRUCTIONS FOR ACTIVITY: Cut out these dominoes and laminate them (optional). Give individuals or pairs one domino, including you, the teacher. You begin by reading out the definition on the yellow side of your card. The student who has the term on the blue side of their card that matches with your definition then puts up their hand and says their term out loud. They then read aloud the definition on the yellow side of their card. All class members will have to listen carefully to see if their term matches with the definition they’ve just heard, and so the game continues until it goes full circle, every student has spoken, and you eventually hear the definition that matches with the term on the blue side of your card. Essentially, you’re playing a large game of dominoes, where students have to match key terms with definitions they hear. Depending on your group’s knowledge/ability, you may work altogether to match up the terms with definitions, or, alternatively, you may decide to play this as an actual dominoes game on the floor. This is a great 10-minute starter that really helps students to remember key terms and their definitions.

GREAT 10-MINUTE STARTER TO CEMENT THE FOLLOWING KEY TERMS AND THEIR DEFINITIONS: Narrative stance Semantic field Prosodic features Syntax Paralinguistic features Idiolect Figurative language Imperative Graphology End-stopped line Interrogative Enjambment Phonology Pun Colloquialism Connotation Dialect Discourse structure Genre Lexis Idiom INSTRUCTIONS FOR ACTIVITY: Cut out these dominoes and laminate them (optional). Give individuals or pairs one domino, including you, the teacher. You begin by reading out the definition on the yellow side of your card. The student who has the term on the blue side of their card that matches with your definition then puts up their hand and says their term out loud. They then read aloud the definition on the yellow side of their card. All class members will have to listen carefully to see if their term matches with the definition they’ve just heard, and so the game continues until it goes full circle, every student has spoken, and you eventually hear the definition that matches with the term on the blue side of your card. Essentially, you’re playing a large game of dominoes, where students have to match key terms with definitions they hear. Depending on your group’s knowledge/ability, you may work altogether to match up the terms with definitions, or, alternatively, you may decide to play this as an actual dominoes game on the floor. This is a great 10-minute starter that really helps students to remember key terms and their definitions.

Using the PowerPoint, explain to students the three main types of newspaper writing – news stories, features and opinion pieces. Students should make notes in their books as you explain to them. Quick test (slide 6): Ask students to decide whether the headlines are for news, features or opinion pieces. They should explain what clues helped them, e.g. the use of the personal pronoun ‘I’ Issue the three Articles to pairs. Students are to decide which one is the news story, the feature article and the opinion piece. Students are to read the articles closely. Under the headings of ‘news stories’ ‘features’ and ‘opinion pieces’ in their book, students are to identify word level features in the different types of writing. Display slide 7 on the PowerPoint to assist students. But encourage students to be open-minded about what the find. Differentiation: some features will need explaining. For lower ability groups, delete tricky features as appropriate. After activity, ask students to explain what language features they're likely to find in a features article/news story/opinion piece? This resource is taken from my KS3 English Newspaper/Journalism SOW which you can buy from my shop.

Students are issued with a scenario and asked to represent/show the story from the perspective of any of the people numbered 1-9. They must consider their perspective carefully. Ask themselves what can they see and hear? Write a short account; write in as much detail as your perspective allows. This activity is a hands-on way of finding out how narrative perspective can alter the narration of a story. This will lend itself well to leading into a discussion about a narrator's point of view and reliability of narrators.

When I first met my new classes I went through a 'classroom code' so they were familiar with my expectations. This is the PowerPoint I used. You may edit it as you wish to suit your own purposes.

Students get into pairs. One partner must face the board, the other partner must face the back wall. The partner facing the board must try to describe the poetic device without actually saying what it is. The partner must guess what that poetic device is before their facing partner can move onto the next word. Students then swap places to swap roles. This starter activity lasts approximately 10 minutes. Students, especially boys, enjoy the competitive element. I've also enclosed a poetic device glossary which you may wish to hand out to students before or after the activity, depending on your group's ability, to recap some of the poetic devices.

Students are shown a collection of objects on the screen. They have two minutes to try and remember them all without writing them down. After the two minutes they must write down as much as they can remember. They are then able to see their age equivalent test score. For example, if they remember 10 objects, then they have the memory of an 8-year-old.

Will Christopher get to London? Christopher is about to face a situation that will be very difficult for him. How will he cope? Will he manage to get to London? In this resource students are asked to consider how Christopher's Asperger's Syndrome will affect his experience at the train station. They're to consider challenges he'll face and strategies he'll use to cope. This will take students 10-15 minutes to complete. Using either thumbs-up, thumbs-down or thumbs in the middle, vote as a class for whether Christopher will cope at the train station or not. This resource is taken from my KS3 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time SOW which you can buy from my shop.

How to use resources: Ask students: What do you already know about the structure of newspaper stories? You may need to establish the term ‘structure’ – I find asking them how a Big Mac burger is structured helps (two bread buns, burger, relish etc.) Display PowerPoint. Discuss with students. Issue Article students. Read through and discuss the structure. Go to slide 2 on PowerPoint. Students are to answer the questions in their books. Issue the Card Sort to pairs of students. Display slide 3 on PowerPoint to assist students. Ask students to write a short paragraph in their books explaining how they approached the task. What did they find easy or difficult? What language clues helped them to unscramble the text? Remind students that they were presented with a pyramid diagram at the start of the lesson to illustrate a news story structure. Ask students to draw a new diagram in their books which will help them remember the structure of a news story. Compare with a partner. This resource is taken from my KS3 English Newspaper/Journalism SOW which you can buy from my shop.

Place the photographs around the room before the start of the lesson. Tell students that placed around the room are some of the most iconic photographs ever captured. Ask students to walk around the room, view the pictures, read the information and decide which one the most powerful impact. Why? Ask: How important are photographs in newspapers? Do you think it would be possible to run a front page which did not have a photograph with it? Why/why not? Ask: Are there times when using photographs is not justified? Ask students to look at the list and decide what they think. - Pictures taken of celebrities without their permission - Brutal pictures of people hurt or killed in war or violence (The Falling Man 9/11 and Death in Africa caused controversy) - Page 3 semi-naked shots Students to write a short response in their books, giving reasons for their answers. This resource is taken from my KS3 English Newspaper/Journalism SOW which you can buy from my shop.

Issue 'Poem Analysis' and tell students that they're going to analyse a poem (cue students' inevitable groan). The 'poem' is really the lyrics from Eminem's and Rhianna's Love the Way you Lie, but DO NOT tell students this. Allow students to analyse the 'poem'. They're to: Underline the word/phrase you and your partner really like (you can do one each) What is this poem about? How do you know? What makes this a poem? Underline and label things that make this a poem. Discuss after students have had 10 minutes to analyse the poem and annotate it. Without saying anything, just play the beginning of Eminem's and Rhianna's song and watch students' faces. They'll be amazed and suddenly quite engaged with poetry which they thought they hated. Lead into a discussion about how musical lyrics are a form of poetry. As an extension task, you could ask students to bring in their favourite musical lyrics and analyse them like a 'poem'. A similar activity I've created is in my shop called: KS3 Poetry Starter - Engaging Students Who 'HATE' Shakespeare - Shakespeare or Singer QUIZ

The SOW takes students through the following learning objectives: Lesson 1 Obj: To be able to define ‘allegory’ and ‘satire’ Lesson 2 Obj: To be able to identify persuasive devices / To research the background and context of Animal Farm. Lesson 3 Obj: To be able to identify language used for characters in Animal Farm Lesson 4 Obj: To be able to identify differences between Snowball and Napoleon Lesson 5 Obj: To be able to use knowledge of the content of Chapter 4 to plan newspaper article. Lesson 6 Obj: To be able to identify improvements to be made through planning. Lesson 7 Obj: To be able to understand how power and language are interlinked. Lesson 8 Obj: To be able to understand how Animal Farm relates to Russian history. Lesson 9 Obj: To be able to analyse and interpret events in Chapters 8 and 9 Lesson 10 Obj: To be able to identify what makes an effective speaker and listener. Lesson 11 Obj: To be able to work effectively as a group and prepare a speech Lesson 12 Obj: To be able to present speech and peer-assess Lesson 13 Obj: To be able to analyse and discuss the film adaptation of Animal Farm Lesson 14 To be able to analyse and discuss the film adaptation of Animal Farm