This student workbook contains activities based on poems from Benjamin Zephaniah’s poetry antholgy entitled “Talking Turkeys”. There are twelve lessons covering the following poems - “Greetings”, “Bodytalk”, “Running”, “Fear Not”, “Little Sister”, “According To My Mood”, “De Generation Rap”, “Civil Lies”, “For Sale”, “Who’s Who”, “Heroes” , “Memories” and “Pride”. There is also “Checking Out Me History” by John Agard included for comparison. Creative writing tasks include writing about a hero and writing about a time when you felt proud. This is designed to engage and enthuse low ability students with fun activities on the great Benjamin Zephaniah. An added bonus is a powerpoint that encourages students to write about a relative.

This forty-four slide powerpoint on “The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson contains four lessons covering the four sections of the poem and a final writing assessment task. The folder includes: Powerpoint with four lessons, using paintings by Sir John Waterhouse and others to inspire and engage students. A storyboard of the setting in Part 1. Comprehension questions on Part 2. Image of Sir Lancelot to analyse his presentation in Part 3. Opportunities to explore the themes and symbolic meaning of the poem. Two worksheets to support the task of writing about the lady and the events in the poem from the point of view of Sir Lancelot. These resources will help your students to fully engage with Lord Tennyson’s beautiful, magical and mysterious poem.

A basic scheme of work aimed at weaker students that you can build on and develop for students of higher ability. Eleven powerpoints guide you through the text with ideas for development. Many storyboards of the action are included to reinforce understanding of the plot. Background work includes a powerpoint on Mary Shelley and the history of the discovery of electricity.

This folder contains everything that you need to understand Maya Angelou’s brilliantly uplifting poem. A 48 slide Powerpoint introduces the poem and then goes through the significant features verse by verse. A separate Word timeline of facts from the advent of slavery in America to the Civil Rights Movement contextualises the poem. Follow-up activities include visualising the positive images used in the poem. A copy of the poem is also included.

Help your students to recognize and identify bias in newspaper reports. Students are presented with two newspaper reports which they have to make more biased using the techniques that they have identified throughout the lesson. Help your students to become more savvy readers of the media.

Inspire an interest in reading by telling your students about the fascinating life and work of Michael Morpurgo. This thirty slide Powerpoint covers his early life, his career, marriage and work. Find out the amazing story about how he discovered the identity of his biological father and how the author’s note at the beginning of War Horse was a little white lie until 2011. Finally there are four choices of activities for students to complete ranging from researching one of his books to writing an article about him. Students find real lives interesting, so this is a good way to hook them into reading.

This fifty slide powerpoint on Sherlock Holmes could be used as background to the study of a Conan Doyle text; as part of a crime writing scheme of learning; or as a one off lesson to get students to create their own detective character. The folder includes: A powerpoint with brainstorming activity on different fictional detectives; a ten question quiz on the character traits of Sherlock Holmes; historical background information about how Conan Doyle created Holmes and his popularity. A worksheet to support students to create their own detective. Follow-up comprehension questions to consolidated the learning for homework.

This folder includes a powerpoint which guides students through the poem. The first activity helps them to work out what the Latin sentence “Dulce et Decorum est…” means. This is followed by looking at the poem in terms of Owen’s use of similes, metaphors and imagery. Two example paragraphs of analysis of the first lines of the poem serve as a model to encourage students to write some analysis of their own. A storyboard worksheet is also included which students could complete for homework.This lesson could be used in conjunction with the background lesson on Wilfred Owen, also found here.

Three lessons using an extract from Bill Bryson’s “Notes from a Big Country” on the theme of junk food. The lesson sequence is as follows: With a worksheet of devices, students learn the techniques that writers can use to create humour. They then identify these devices in the extract. The second lesson is transactional writing where students write an article to persuade their class mates to eat healthily in timed GCSE exam practice conditions. The third lesson is a feedback lesson after the articles have been marked. The folder includes a WAGOLL from a real GCSE student and exercises to help students make their conclusions more powerful.

Calling all budding journalists. This twenty-three slide Powerpoint helps your students to analyze the key features of headlines and the key language techniques used. They are then prompted to write their own headlines for fictional news stories, culminating in them creating their own intriguing headline to grab the reader’s attention. Worksheet with techniques included. A fun lesson that might inspire your students to become the hacks of the future.

A twenty-eight slide presentation explaining the four types of sentences, with exercises for students to complete and answers.

Thirty questions and answers on Roald Dahl’s crazy characters designed to pique the interest of students and encourage them to read his books.

A 350 word ghost story callled “The Lighthouse” is animated on Powerpoint. The teacher reads the ghost story to the class to create a spooky atmosphere. Then students discuss how the writer creates irony and the supernatural atmophere. Finally, in pairs or groups, students write their own ghost story of no more than 350 words. A slide gives ideas for five different ghost stories. Teach your students the power of stories this Halloween or at any time with this perfectly structure, succinct story. A Word copy of the story is also included in the folder.

A comprehensive explanation of the regular and irregular formations of the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives. All exercises are provided with answers for peer or self-assessment. The seventeen slide powerpoint ends by challenging students to write a piece of advertising copy, using as many superlative adjectives as they can. A useful follow-up lesson to Adjectives, this lesson should take 30 to 45 minutes.

This Powerpoint encourages students to create a leaflet to promote an Open Day at your school. It could be used as an activity or a formal assessment. A Word planning sheet is included in the folder.

Full scheme of work comprising of lessons on each of the twenty-three chapters of the book. This powerpoint contains approximately two hundred slides. Each lesson features a starter, main and plenary and is designed to encourage students to create their own autobiographical writing, inspired by Roald Dahl’s experiences.

This folder contains a twenty-two page Student Activity Booklet corresponding to twelve lessons on the novel; a scheme of work; plus exam questions; a quote quest activity; a plot sorting activity with answers; as well as various resources to support discussion regarding what makes a true hero.

A set of twelve comprehension questions on the opening to Ray Bradbury’s novel helps students to subsequently tackle the English Literature exam-style question ‘How does the writer present Montag in the opening of the novel’. The folder includes a Powerpoint with starter activity and an exemplary introduction to the exam question, as well as a Word copy of the opening and a Word set of comprehension questions.

This twenty-slide Powerpoint guides you through the poem beginning with historical context and then annotated notes on each of the verses. Follow-up activities concentrate on Owen’s use of contrast and narrative writing from the point of view of the disabled man. A timeline of information about Owen is included in the folder also.

Teach your students to use a variety of interesting sentences in their writing, including complex sentences with this 13 slide Powerpoint that gives several examples of the most common types of sentence in modern persuasive travel writing.