Information sheets with little activities to introduce pupils to subject terminology and to signposting phrases which they can use in their own writing. GCSE skills - subject terminology, analysis, evaluation, higher-level explanation.

Resource for A Level language students to practise writing a directed writing task (exam task). Includes info on slang and taboo language, a card sort, powerpoints for two lessons, and two examples of opinion writing on the topic. A planning sheet/ info sheet on features of opinion articles and how to plan them can be found in my other resources.

Work for Neutral Tones (GCSE Literature Love and Relationships Poetry Anthology AQA). Close-reading skills, comprehension skills, different perspectives and critical material, essay-writing skills, thinking skills. Worksheet on responses (agree/ disagree) to poem to be done in pairs. Task where pupils replace the emotive words to create a poem with a different mood or tone (higher ability).

A detailed worksheet introducing the different types of sentence: simple, compound, complex and compound-complex to pupils with tasks. Includes references to popular culture and Disney villains to assist understanding. Designed to try and make a rather dry topic a bit more fun. Grammar, sentence structures, different sentence types, exam criteria, national curriculum.

This resource is an article about Electronic Dance Music (which many of my lower ability pupils like), with questions matched up to the new AQA Paper 2 English Language GCSE - a true/false task and a language analysis task at the end to brainstorm. There is a separate worksheet which requires you to cut up the sentences so pupils can do a card sort, focusing on PEEL paragraphs and being able to identify which sentence performs which function. It is aimed at a lower-middling ability class, but you can differentiate and ask higher ability pupils to focus on planning the language analysis task without the paragraph/PEEL sheet (which they could present to the class). Skills: analysis, synthesis, interpretation, close reading, paragraph writing, P E E, reading skills, language analysis, true or false

Can be used with KS3-KS4 towards GCSE skills for English. Pupils self-assess how confidence they feel about the skills they will eventually need. Great AFL/ Assessment For Learning when starting exam skills with a new class for the first time. Fits with National Curriculum and AQA GCSE Learning Objectives. Two versions - one for year 9 and one for GCSE years.

Exam style practice question for new AQA spec Paper 1 English Language using an abbreviated excerpt from The Great Gatsby. In the format of an exam paper it gives pupils practice with the layout and with the assessment objectives. The topic is designed to be engaging - it focuses on a party scene in Gatsby. It then includes a practice writing question around parties and music. Practice reading comprehension questions and creative writing for the exam. Boost your pupil's confidence and provide them with an understanding of the layout of the assessment. Can also be used as a mock paper (one class or whole school) as it is correctly formatted.

Revision guide for English Literature new AQA Spec. Revision tips, revision questions, modelling. Guides to using revision booklets Practise questions and tasks.

Peer assessment for the new paper 2 - reading and writing skills. Includes glossary document - do not provide Able and More Able/ Gifted and Talented pupils with this! Differentiation. Pupils assess how confident they feel with the skills needed for the paper. This allows the teacher to spend future lessons addressing the right areas. AFL/ assessment for learning reading and writing skills reading comprehension inference etc.

Winter Swans is a poem in the GCSE AQA anthology for Love and Relationships. This lesson is aimed at a mixed ability group, and is differentiated and scaffolded, with a large element of personal choice for the final task. The powerpoint uses visual stimuli to appeal to visual learners. Powerpoint, lesson plan and copy of poem altered to emit the most interesting language - give pupils this first so that they are forced to think about the interesting choices the poet makes. close-reading, poetry, KS4, GCSE

Entire lesson on creative writing with prompts, interactive powerpoint (with visual timers with sounds) and fun visuals to engage your class. The worksheet includes a series of criteria which match up to the run-through of the powerpoint, and a graph for them to plan their plot structure. Useful for teaching Section B of the new AQA Paper 1 - Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing. The exam will give them criteria and/or a picture prompt and ask them to write the opening to a story - this teaches those writing skills.

2-3 WHOLE LESSONS This resource was created at the end of a GCSE module on An Inspector Calls. The powerpoint covers 2 lessons - the cover sheet can be set as the first lesson without the powerpoint but using the two worksheets (ingredients of genres, who is Inspector Goole). The powerpoint has interactive timers and visual stimuli to appeal to all learners and to keep the lesson at a good pace/ keep pupils engaged, and the starter worksheet should be done as a fast-paced discussion/ competition. The writing part of the unit of work can be set as homework or completed in lesson time - you can either have pupils peer mark, feedback on and rework just 1 paragraph OR an entire short story.

These two sheets help pupils plan and write creative writing which fits the A-level exam specs. The planning creative writing sheet takes a total of 50 minutes and gets them to think about their commentary, so this could be a full lesson with the commentary set. The Writing Fiction Lesson doc is designed to be printed on A3. It is designed to be a whole lesson which works collaboratively with a class - split them into pairs. Firstly, get the original pair to write their name on the top of their worksheet. 1) Pass the sheet around as many sets of pairs as it takes to fill the planning chart, giving them a certain amount of time to fill in one row per pair (can be differentiated). 2) The original pair fill out 'story one' as an excerpt from a short story - they choose the guidelines from the grid and tick it off. 3) Pass it on and repeat step two with a new pair. 4) Pass back to original pair to evaluate the writing (using two different colours) using the evaluation grid. Peer marking! Can then set easily set an improvement task, if you want to.

Differentiated lesson materials aimed at a class of students ranging from A-D grades. 2 x lesson plans and 2 x lesson powerpoints, and differentiated support resources including definitions of difficult terms. Quotes to give to any struggling pupils while the table-fill task is underway.

This lesson is designed to be a one-off, complete lesson for KS3-4 English. The powerpoint is differentiated with examples and higher ability tasks, and contains many visual stimuli for more visual learners. The presentation uses several gifs, which always go down well! The lesson starts with an activity about the origin of the word 'hello', and goes on to analyse Adele's hit song Hello. Learning objectives are clear and shared. Good for teaching approaches to unseen poetry in a fun manner.

Two lessons on Letters From Yorkshire, a poem in the new AQA anthology on Love and Relationships. Matched to the exam specification, with questions to really get pupils thinking and discussing. Includes a gapfill activity to do before they encounter the poem, to make them really analyse the language the poet is using. Skills: analysing poetry, unseen poetry, close-reading, poetic technique evaluation

TWO FULL INTERACTIVE/ FUN LESSONS INCLUDING HOMEWORK This is a resource designed to get reluctant pupils interested in analysing poetry. It was used as part of a module on analysing unseen poetry. Skills: unseen poetry GCSE, close reading, poem analysis The lesson includes a starter discussion question, and 1 main activity that can be done as a class to get pupils used to picking out interesting words and phrases before they complete a worksheet. Worksheet is differentiated with the green bulletpoints being the most difficult ones - encourage your higher ability/ able and most able pupils to focus on these. You can also ask pupils to start at different points on the worksheet corresponding to their ability, since the questions get progressively harder. There is a keyword hangman slide for a plenary activity at the end of the lesson, and the slides include homework to bring in their own song - the lesson 2 files use this homework for the main worksheet/activity, and there is an extension activity built in to lesson two. The song lyric word documents that are not 'Firework' are for those pupils who forget to bring in lyrics, or for those who finish early and need another song to do some deeper analysis of. To use the song as an audio learning aid, you can find the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGJuMBdaqIw and Google is saying you can generate an mp3 of the file using this tool http://www.youtubeinmp3.com/ should you know you won't have internet access in your classroom.

Have your department asked you to create a mock for Paper 1? This is a template for both a mock paper and a teaching powerpoint for the new AQA GCSE Paper 1 (Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing). All resources are basically completed for you - all you need to do is input your own sources which fit the spec, and edit the resources using those exemplars. The mock looks just like a real exam paper (use the cover sheet from here http://www.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/gcse/english-language-8700/assess/paper-1-specimen-question-paper to complete the look!) and the powerpoint repeatedly breaks down the key assessed skills and learning objectives fro the paper (many of which are new foci) and reinforces the previous points. Create a source booklet using the template, and then off you go! This could easily form a whole unit of work when used with teaching general reading and writing skills relevant to the paper.

Lesson created for comprehension skills for KS3 and KS4. Fully differentiated resources - worksheet pack includes differentiated choice-based activity, which the three different levels of Word doc correspond to. Can be used to teach the curriculum skills of inferring / deducing / synthesising which are important to the new AQA GCSE. Uses the idea of the Norse God Thor (popularised by Marvel comics and films) to engage pupils, and they have to solve the riddles in a story from Norse Mythology (which I translated). Interactive, engaging, always a success!

This is a resource aimed at GCSE English Language pupils following the new AQA specification. It is designed to introduce them to the format of Paper 2 in a fun, independent manner and give them time to research and read about a topic they care about. There is an opportunity for peer marking here if you ask them to answer each others' papers, and you can also ask them to create model answers and can differentiate this task as appropriate. Will increase their familiarity with all the learning objectives and with the markscheme. Requires additional documents which can be found at the following links but which I do not own the copyright of: AQA assessment resources: http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/gcse/english-language-8700/assessment-resources AQA reading support booklets: http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/gcse/english-language-8700/teaching-resources Teachit practice paper: https://www.teachit.co.uk/resources/ks4/comparing-texts/reading/practice-questions-on-animal-baiting/27041