Two lessons exploring the character of Hermia in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The lessons lead well into a character-based essay. Activities include: reflecting on what we know about Hermia looking at sections of the text more closely collating moments in the play that are revealing about Hermia collating evidence that could be used to answer an essay question about Hermia quizzing to refresh their knowledge on Hermia planning for an essay question

Developing on from Act 3 of Frankenstein the play by Philip Pullman, students think of the key dilemma of whether Frankenstein should or should not create a wife for the monster. Students develop their ideas and then organise them, moving onto planning a letter from Frankenstein to Clerval. The resource includes three lessons’ worth of work: one lesson considering Frankenstein’s dilemma of whether to make the monster a wife and planning a letter to Clerval. one lesson writing a letter to Clerval (including a one slide PPT to display and a word document with task, success criteria and writing frame) one lesson reflecting on feedback (that the teacher needs to have given). This is a two slide PPT intended to support the students working independently while the teacher circulates. Skills: considering the key ideas behind the play. developing more nuanced and developed ideas and arguments. group work. organising their ideas for coherence. applying their understanding of the play to their own context. letter writing (the series of lessons assumes students are already familiar with letter writing from previous units). reflecting on and responding to feedback given by the teacher.

This resource explores Egeus’ speech in Act 1 Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It looks at Egeus’ motivations and considers the language and structure of the speech, leading into planning an analysis essay. Key elements considered: Character motivations Shakespeare’s techniques and terminology The structure of Shakespeare’s speech A consideration of writer’s effect (looking specifically at how Egeus is presented) The PPT also includes notes to guide the activities and an example plan to demonstrate the sort of thing students might produce. This would work well in combination with the summary task on gender roles in Shakespearean England: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12840407 or with the summary task on Shakespeare and his influences: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12840068

Pre-reading questions for the Cambridge Songs of Ourselves poem ‘Mid-Term Break’ by Seamus Heaney. The questions on the worksheet are designed to guide students towards a deeper understanding of the poem and to prevent misunderstanding. They are also designed to prepare students for a more detailed exploration of how Heaney conveys meaning - required for A* or level 9. Finally, the questions use key vocabulary in a way to encourage students’ confidence with using and understanding these terms.

A Knowledge Organiser to help students prepare and revise for their Cambridge IGCSE unit on Purple Hibiscus. Includes: Relevant literary terms and definitions. Relevant tier 2 vocabulary. Relevant context. Name meanings. Discussion of themes.

This lesson explores Pullman’s use of antithesis and dramatic irony as well as recapping his use of juxtaposition. It uses drama, discussion and written tasks to deepen students understanding. Students explore the monster’s interaction with Agnes as well as the impact of Felix’s re-entrance and the dramatic irony this involves. It is intended to encourage students to connect the events and structure of the play with the ideas Pullman is exploring through it. Notes are included in the notes section of each slide to explain the purpose of key activities and to give suggested teaching ideas.

A Frankenstein the Play lesson aimed at KS3 - suitable for either year 7 or year 8. Resources include a PPT, a word document and suggestions on each slide to guide teaching. Learning objective: to explore the character of VIctor Frankenstein. Lesson uses drama activities followed by a discussion and finally a written collection of ideas to guide students through exploring the character of Frankenstein. The lesson assumes that students have read the first Act of the play but could be adapted as suggested on the slides for students who have not yet read the first Act.

Two full lessons supporting students to plan and write a diary entry written from the perspective of Victor Frankenstein at the end of Act 1 of Frankenstein the Play by Philip Pullman. The lesson starts with students recalling their knowledge from previous lessons and building on it and then uses an active game to refresh or introduce knowledge about diary writing vs journal writing. It then gives students prompts and guidelines to help them plan a response to the prompt. A simple planning document is provided for students who struggle to structure their ideas. The second lesson is for students to write their diary entry (and is mostly silent writing with reflective starter and plenary - which is why it is incorporated with the planning lesson as one resource). By the end of the two lessons, students should have carefully reflected on their knowledge of Victor Frankenstein and the key events of Act 1, they should have produced a diary entry following the more general conventions of the form and they should have reflected on their own writing skills, including their ability to take on a voice.

This is a Cambridge IGCSE Paper 1 Question 1 style practice paper on Elizabethan gender roles and their impacts. This would be useful for general language paper 1 practice or for preparing students for the study of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello or any other Shakespearean play. The questions are intended to integrate exam preparation with developing students contextual knowledge. The paper can be completed as a summative assessment, or as a teacher-directed walkthrough. This would be a great preparatory task for an introduction lesson to Shakespeare.

A two to three lesson resource getting students to look at how humour is created in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Students will be encouraged to look at scenes including the Athenian court, the fairy court and the mechanicals. They will also be encouraged to consider how the humour on the page relates to the physical humour often enacted on the page. Finally, they will also be supported in learning and using literary terminology such as malapropisms. Activities include: Pair and group discussion tasks Short clips of the play in performance Fun quizzes on terminology Annotation practice Carousel activities Group work activities Production of a revision resource The lesson could also easily lead into a formative or summative essay practice. Three practice papers are included which include both passage-based questions and whole-text questions.

Two lessons supporting students in exploring and understanding each of the different characters in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In the first lesson students will get into pairs and research the characters of Helena, Demetrius, Lysander, Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, Oberon, Titania, Puck and the Mechanicals. They are given guiding questions to scaffold their research and highlight what to focus on. The second lesson they take part in a speed dating activity to share their knowledge and collect knowledge from others. The lessons also use games and quizzes to support students’ understanding and knowledge.

A lesson encouraging students to think about Shakespeare’s use of parallels in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Part one focuses on how the Athenian Court, the fairy court and the world of the mechanicals / the play of Pyramus and Thisbe parallel each other and why. Part two focuses on the terms ‘frame narrative’ and ‘nested story’ and encourages students to think about the choice to include the play within a play and how this highlights ideas that Shakespeare might wish to explore. The lesson builds on the previous lesson in my collection: L5 Structure in A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Foils and Genre https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12846381 The lesson culminates on students creating or adding to a mindmap to encourage them to build connections with their wider understanding and prior knowledge of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

A series of lessons looking at an extract-based questions for the drama paper and teaching students how to approach both the analysis and planning. Content is based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act 2 Scene 2 Includes: reminder of the differences in how to approach extract-based or passage-based questions as opposed to whole-text questions. An example extract-based / passage-based question focused on Hermia and Lysander. Guidance on how to plan An annotated copy of the extract as an exemplar A teacher-written plan in response to the question as an exemplar A teacher-written answer to the question as an exemplar A PPT to support students having a try at the passage-based questions under exam conditions if desired. A lesson in which students reflect on their essay and improve it.

A practice exam paper for Cambridge IGCSE 0500 Paper 1 questions 1 a -f focusing on context for Shakespeare. The idea is to use texts relating to their literature course 0475 to support both curricula. The key text gives a very general context overview of William Shakespeare and his influences and influence. The question paper includes the short questions and the full length summary question (1f) as well as a mark scheme that the teacher can use to assess their students with or which can be given to students to help them to self-assess. This resource would be especially useful for those teaching either A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Othello although it can also be used purely for its language application. This resource can be chained with other practice papers in my collection which cover the other question types.

A series of worksheets introducing iambic pentameter and some of the literary terms commonly used by Shakespeare and then using this knowledge to explore the prologue. This is then followed by a worksheet which breaks down how to write an analysis paragraph and includes an exemplar paragraph. The activities should take students a full lesson and are suitable for online, blended and in-person learning.

A lesson scaffolding students towards analysing how Seamus Heaney creates meaning in ‘Mid-Term Break’. The lesson uses group work and reinforces students’ tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary. It also gives them the skills to approach poetry more generally through an analytical lens. Lesson includes: Vocabulary quizzes at the start of the lesson. Targeted questions broken into categories. Group work activities. Questions intended to deepen understanding and prevent misconceptions. Tasks and questions designed to prepare students for A* or level 9 responses.

A resource using drama to explore Pullman’s use of structure to compare Agathe and Felix’s relationship with that of Frankenstein and his monster. Students are encouraged to use the key terms juxtaposition and soliloquy and to consider what ideas Pullman might be trying to emphasise through his juxtaposition of Act 1 and Act 2. Drama activities are based on / inspired by the RSC approach to teaching Shakespeare and are followed with discussion and written activities to reinforce the ideas they’re exploring. All slides have detailed suggestions and explanations in the notes section. If anything is at all unclear, please feel encouraged to email me for clarification. This includes two lessons which lead on from each other. The first lesson (L6 in the total scheme) looks at the interchange between Agathe and Felix and encourages students to consider the juxtaposition between this and the end of Act 1. The second lesson focuses on Agathe’s soliloquy and encourages students to think about the similarities between these characters.

A resource introducing students to the gothic genre and outlining some of its influences. The resource includes: a basic starter to identify students’ prior learning a reading comprehension with questions discussion opportunities to deepen students’ understanding of gothic influences a four corners game for the plenary to check learning Brief notes are provided in the notes section of each slide to support teacher delivery of the resources. The reading comprehension has a separate page including suggested / example responses for the comprehension questions.