Sample practice paper, written in the style of AQA English Language paper 1; the opening of Graham Greene’s “Brighton Rock” with AQA style qs. Excellent text leads to stimulating answers!

The whole text of Dr J&H, translated into clear, modern English for GCSE English Literature. Acclaimed by NATE review and applauded by students. Keeps all the excitement of Stevenson’s original. With detailed notes on context and theme and language for GCSE English Literature. By Frank Danes, published author of Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and GCSE English Literature examiner.

Sample AQA style practice paper for Section A, English Language paper 1; the opening of Orwell’s 1984 with AQA style qs. Excellent text leads to stimulating answers!

DETAILED notes for students on Grimbert’s UN SECRET: teachers - use as a bases for lessons. Covers: themes; guilt; identity; history/context; motifs; l’occupation; storytelling; form and structure of the novel; Laval; treachery; motifs of dogs, the body and bodies. History covered - occupied France, Laval, the Holocaust. This resource is in English. 2994 words, 7 sides. Successfully used with A level French students.

Excellent and humorous ESOL resource for beginner and intermediate adult/older learners. Role play for menu, ordering, conversation in real life situation. By an experienced ESOL teacher.

Top tips for students from an AQA GCSE Eng Lit examiner and a former Head of English with 36 years of teaching experience: how to maximise your marks in the Eng Lit AQA GCSE. A guide for students and a series of lessons. How to: plan; stick to the timings; use quotations; write about context; write a paragraph; satisfy the AOs; detailed breakdowns of how to answer each question - prose, poetry, unseen poetry, plays; how to write about style (“How is it written?”); how to punctuate quotations. This is both a set of notes for your students and a set of lesson plans: take your students through these notes to create a series of lessons; excellent for revision! Used by over 1000 students in different schools. 27 pages, 8000 words.

For beginner/intermediate ESOL learners: real life situation. Funny and lively lesson with dialogue and vocab learning. Used very successfully in class.

This new reading of “The Handmaid’s Tale” puts the novel into the context of feminism in the 1980s and the dystopian novel. This article is ideal for the Dystopia option of OCR English Literature A level. The article considers"The Handmaid’s Tale"'s reputation as a cult novel, as a satire of male power and Christianity and the debt it owes to Orwell’s “1984”. Attwood’s prose and structure are analysed. The author argues that “The Handmaid’s Tale” is not the greatest novel of the twentieth century or the greatest dystopian novel: it is a fine novel, written in excellent prose, but it has flaws. This article will help to engage your A level students and to give them something to argue with or against. It will thus encourage them, as the A level specifications require, to engage with critical views rather than simply to read them passively. It is written by Frank Danes, who wrote many of the materials to support OCR English Literature A level on the OCR website; Danes taught English for 30 years in English secondary schools and was Head of English in three schools.

Lesson plans and student notes on: exam technique; themes - regicide, the natural order, witches/the supernatural; tragedy, tragic hero, free will, fate, Fortune. This is both a set of notes for your students and a series of lesson plans: take them through the notes, use them as a basis for discussion. Excellent for context and extension work for higher ability students. 17 pages, 5926 words. Used by over 300 students.

Comma splicing - using a comma instead of a full stop - drives GCSE English examiners crazy. This resource explains how to avoid comma splicing, as well as the correct use of commas and full stops. It contains simple exercises for students. Successfully used in classrooms!

This resource clearly explains, for A level and GCSE Literature students, the difference between verse and prose in Shakespeare: differences in form; why Shakespeare uses verse and prose at different times; iambic pentameter.

Presents the plot of MACBETH as a diagram, so students can understand the play before they start to read it. Go over it with your students and TEFL students to help them to understand the plot before they start to study the play. Successfully used with over 100 students, including Chinese nationals learning English.

Media/film/ English: DOCTOR WHO - adaptable SOW for different ages. Compare two episodes from 1963 and 2005; history of show and British tv; why is DOCTOR WHO important as a media phenomenon? History of British television and how the programme slots into it (BBC 100 this year); case study 1 - “Rose”, episode one of revised show 2005 compare with original episode 1 from 1963, “An Unearthly Child”. Students analyse each episode and prepare and give presentations on each episode AND a comparison between them. 17 pages / 5000 words of material for your students. VERY ADAPTABLE for KS3 and TEFL students. Successfully used with TEFL and year seven students!

Basic vocabulary for shopping in a supermarket: pictures and words.

Basic transactional English - how to order food in a cafe. Used successfully with adult Ukrainian refugee students.

Explains the main differences between British and American spelling and vocabulary. Useful for English Language A level, AS level, GCSE and TEFL students, especially those confused by the differences between American and British English! Successfully used with EAL Chinese students in Cambridge, who said they found it very useful, interesting and helpful.

A quick and easy diagram for how to do descriptive writing for GCSE: point of view, personification, atmosphere, microscopic focus, mood and emotion, sensuous imagery. Use this resource to discuss different ways of creative writing with your students and to remind them of how they might include different forms of creative writing for GCSE and KS3. Successfully used with over 1000 students!

A diagram of THE TEMPEST’s plot, to introduce students to the play before they start studying it. Teacher goes over the story with students; students could then write out the plot as a written exercise. Successfully used with over 100 students, who find it very helpful to have the basic story of the play explained to them before they study it.

Everything your students will need to revise AN INSPECTOR CALLS for GCSE English Literature: how to write about context; family units; gender roles; the Conservative Party of the period; the Labour Party of the period; revision and exam technique; how to write about style (to answer the question, “How does Priestley do X Y and Z in the play?”). 8 pages, 2400 word resource.