A straightforward summary of Brian Clark's Whose Life is it Anyway to make clear who the characters are, what the play is about and what the major themes are. Particularly useful for SEN students who need to know what they have to 'get&' before reading the play.

Imagine if on one of the days we celebrate poetry every lesson began with a poem - that's what I hope this collection will inspire; no teaching, just savour, enjoy, discuss, think creatively and connect poetic insights with your subject area. Go with the flow and see what comes of just enjoying a wide range of poems. Also useful as a collection of unseen poems.

The aim of this series of starters is to show students that they do possess the skills required for the course; also, that the skills required for the non-fiction media paper is the same as for the literature paper and visa versa.

Students draw a postcard, with a given scenario, and write a message in the voice of the given writer to the given recipient - here they practice writing succinctly in a voice they take on. As an extra challenge, to practise tone, students can draw an emoticon to include that emotion in their message. The second phase of the task is to swap the postcards and then for students to write a reply to the postcard they receive in the voice of the given recipient, in either the tone appropriate to the postcard, or using an emoticon to suggest another tone. Lastly, both the sent and received postcards could be used to stimulate a longer piece of either narrative or descriptive writing. To make the teacher's life easier, the PP provides step by step instructions, the recipe for success gives the teacher tips and the tasks come either on the postcards or as strips. The emoticons can be printed in colour, laminated and used again to add extra challenge to several other tasks.

A first reading of the eponymous short story is best done privately as some students need to adjust to the graphic descriptions. So this is ideal as holiday homework before class reading begins; best made available electronically. If students have their own texts, highlighting different aspects or threads in different colours is really useful - the PP alerts students to the strands they need to notice as well as giving a link to the original tale, which they may not know. The vocabulary activity is best done digitally, but remember when uploading it to the VLE to remove the answer page! Answers can be projected in the next lesson. This is a good opportunity to discuss the 'body language' of a text - here the obscure vocabulary makes the reader experience what the character feels [confusion, a world more sophisticated etc].

Using short extracts from both modern and classic texts, as well as visual stimulus material, this lesson focuses on how implied meaning in the description of a setting helps to create an atmosphere. Thus it both helps improve writing generally, but also prepares students for the demands of the new AQA spec English Paper1, fiction reading and writing. Section A is about reading fiction and in section B students have ‘to demonstrate their narrative and descriptive skills in response to a written prompt, scenario or visual image’,

The most challenging wordsearch ever! Students have to find synonyms in the text for the listed words then find the synonyms, not the given words, so no mindless highlighting of any recognisable words. To make it slightly easier, two words are given for every word in the text and the chapter and page number are given too. Page 2 has the answers - the list of words to find and where they are in the grid. Do reward students who haven't fallen into the trap of highlighting any recognisable word rather than only the synonyms from the text.

In this lovely, easy to read novel by David Almond, the author uses both past and present tense. This starter brings this to their attention and begins a discussion about the merits of each. The task is really simple, just changing the verbs, but it can be developed into a discussion that moves analysis of reading to a higher level for some. Suitable for KS2 & weaker KS3/ reluctant readers. In addition, there is a starter on tense for those who feel imparting grammatical knowledge is important: students could take notes or just discuss tense, but this is a useful opportunity to give some clarity on a topic often left to 'what sounds right'.

This worksheet makes a quick plenary or homework for KS2 or KS3 reluctant readers or less able spellers. Although it can be used without reading the novel, the context does give it more appeal. The story is written by David Almond and published by Warner books, 2012. Using the PP, students check their work or peer assess if that is easier than projecting the answer page, then move on to a short homophone task. If the spelling was done as homework, this makes an ideal starter for the 'hwk due' lesson.

These tasks lend themselves to the revision of any topic or content subject and all you have to do by way of preparation is apply the tasks to the specifics of your subject and provide the postit notes. Slide one has 6 images – choose any icon to click on in a way that engages the class [throw a di, ask a question, choose a quiet student to make the choice]. A hyperlink will take you straight to the relevant slide, where the tasks will come up in steps on your click [adapt the wording of these to suit your specifics if you wish]. At the end of the lesson ‘end show’ to get back to slide 1 for the next lesson. Each task is explained in your ‘recipe for success’ word document and alternatives or ways to differentiate suggested. The central idea is to get students helping each other while you facilitate only when required.

Help more able students develop their powers of description with this exercise; although it uses colour to create mood and atmosphere, the technique can be transferred to sustaining metaphors or similes, skills top marks are made of. The PP begins with a hyperlink[click on ‘colours’] to a song, Donovan’s ‘Colours’ [you may want to move to slide 2 on the musical interlude, as by then the link between colours and mood has been made] and takes students through the steps of choosing a colour while also making useful notes on the technique by looking at quotes and extracts. In the end, their task is to describe something, weaving colour imagery and mood words through the description. This could be set as a homework – or a next lesson. Linking this task to the opening lines descriptive writing task as a follow up lesson works well.

If you're sick of suggesting alternatives to 'weird', this is the starter you need! Everyday 'bland' words are given synonyms in a sort activity. To differentiate - or speed things up - there's a handout version to highlight. This series of starters focuses on building up the student's word-hoard [as the Anglo-Saxons called it]. Little and often is the best way to extend vocabulary and if it’s a game, so much the better.

All these starters are designed to build students' vocabulary, familiarising them with words, getting them to build words and helping them to choose apt vocabulary: the right word in the right place. All are self-check, with clear answers that enable self- and peer assessment, minimising your workload. All have an element of differentiation in a worksheet option. Each is available separately as part of the 'Word-hoard series 1' starters, but as a bonus, all 6 are available here, so you get one free!

Each game is a 9-letter word for students to find and then use to make 4-or more- letter words from. Vocabulary is a vital – and these 3 games are can be used as a starter or reward that focuses attention on their word-hoard [as the Anglo-Saxons called it]. Little and often is the best way to extend vocabulary and if it’s a game, so much the better. Each PP has a last slide with possible answer, so students can check their own or each other's work and you won't have to do a thing!

Designed as a way of preparing y9s for the new GCSE, these resources may also suit some exam GCSE boards. Here 'The Diamond Necklace' by Guy de Maupassant introduces students to the concepts they will be studying at GCSE: context & structure. The 'Recipe for success' gives links to the text as well as a reading of the story and has various teaching suggestions. The Power Points outline whole lessons with handouts that allow for differentiation. The 'extend' PP introduces more able students to the idea of a 'context of production' and a 'context of reception' in a simple way.

The recipe for success describes lessons 1 and 2, introducing students to the contextual differences that make up the 19th Century world. In lesson 2, for which PP and extracts are provided here, the idea is to get students noticing the writers’ choices by changing them and thinking of their own choices. Short extracts from a range of writers are given on the extract sheet for analysis and /or changing. Instructions and a brief extract as model are given on the PP. PS The title 'Fiction and non-fiction' refers to the UNIT or COMPONENT of the syllabus, rather than this particular resource. However, a non-fiction extract has been added to extend the scope of the lesson.

Although these poems were both in the old OCR anthology and are easy to find online, they are given again on a handout to to enable the task to be done more easily as a cover or homework. The main worksheet is a fill-in which makes it suitable for all abilities - as extension more able students can work these ideas into a comparative essay. The second worksheet has possible answers in bold and can also be given out to students who have missed the work by way of catch-up help.

In this quick quiz students have to guess which story the quote comes from. In the process, they learn a useful quote and a point to make about gothic writing, for which the quote is evidence. However, if your class needs more than a quick brushing up on the stories, use the worksheet first as a long starter or homework prior to the lesson. Discussion is key to the success of this lesson - the 'reveal' is not definative, its to stimulate thought. Ask students to recall what is happening n the story - the 'moment' - to put the quote in context and then to think about all the things they might say about the gothic on the strength of it. This type of exercise should leave them with an armoury of quotes and able to recall one suitable to the exam question, as well as generally revising the stories.

241- Keep this resource in store for those times when you’re overloaded and need to let the students do a bit of the work. Begin with homework – 1 or 2 depending on amount and complexity - that don’t require marking. The first task will be the ‘flipped learning’ or revision content you want students to research, the second checks they’ve done it. Although these are designed for revision, set in advance of a new topic and you’ve got students engaged already. These tasks lend themselves to any topic or content subject and all you have to do by way of preparation is apply the tasks to the specifics of your subject and provide some guidance as to where students can find information, whether that’s in the text book, online or reference books. Slide one has 6 images – choose any icon to click on in a way that engages the class [throw a di, ask a question, choose a quiet student to make the choice]. A hyperlink will take you straight to the relevant slide, where the tasks will come up in steps on your click [adapt the wording of these to suit your specifics if you wish]. Once homework is set, ‘end show’ to get back to slide 1 and store for the next session. Each task is explained in your ‘recipe for success’ word document and alternatives or ways to differentiate suggested. The central idea is to get students helping each other while you facilitate only when required.

This lesson builds on the previous two Writing lessons to look at how to get top marks. The starter opens with a discussion about how students use persuasive devices and moves on to the ‘tool box’ of persuasive techniques they have. These are basically the same whatever the exam board. A handout enables the students to glue in a list of these - and what their effect is - into their books for revision purposes. The lesson PP focuses on example extracts - sentence variation and persuasive techniques - and gives tasks through which they explore how the writing is crafted. Their homework requires them to write a short piece on the same topic as their extract in timed conditions. You could spend another lesson peer assessing work and using the checklists to look for criteria, proof reading and editing as you go.