This is an English lesson on the poem ‘Prayer Before Birth’ by Louis Macneice.The speaker of the poem is an unborn child asking for assistance in a cruel world which it will soon be born into. It discusses the themes of cruelty, injustice and freedom which can be linked to other poems taught within a unit. The lesson begins by asking students to decide what advice they would give to a younger sibling about life, based on their own life experiences. This can then open an interesting class discussion. Students are then introduced to the ‘WPSLOMP’ method of analysing poetry which they can then apply in pairs before colour coding quotes which are examples of positive and negative imagery as well as some more challenging features such as simile, metaphor and repetition. The ideas they pull together for this can then be explored as a class and the slides can be annotated by the teacher on the board and there are also some quotes colour coded as the answers. Three slides follow this which have pulled individual quotes from the first three stanzas which the class can brainstorm one at a time. The lesson ends with a chance for students to write independent essay paragraphs with an adaptable success criteria but this can be adapted for your course. Here I have used SQUID (Statement, Quote, Infer, Device/Develop which is similar to PEA). There is then an opportunity to self or peer assess according to the key skills. As with all my lessons, there are ‘Talk for Writing’ activities and Challenge tasks for more able students. Attached is: -A powerpoint with the lesson clearly outlined An alternative word search style starter using images to allow student to guess the meanings of harder words -The poem with a word bank on it (2 can be printed to an A4 page or 1 to a page) -Link to online videos (see ‘Notes’ under slides). -An extension task: write a poem giving advice to another about life, using this poem as inspiration. All images are from Openclipart.org.

A’level Media students usually make blogs as a way to showcase their work and build up a portfolio of what they have planned and created (particularly concerning practical productions). This is a useful handout explaining how to make an account and lay out a blog, as well as how to attach links to documents. It is advised that teachers check that blogger.com is not blocked by their college network.

In this lesson students are asked to comment on what Lady Macbeth's use of language shows about her intentions within the story. As with the last lesson, there is emphasis on how dramatic irony works within scene. Students are asked to identify where she is deliberately being polite in order to hide her murderous intentions towards Duncan who has arrived at her castle. After this stage, students are then asked to find imagery within her dialogue which is a key skill that these lessons encourage throughout the project. All lessons in this series include: - Links to online videos (see 'Notes' under Powerpoint slides) - Starter tasks which introduce the main idea of the lesson - Differentiated tasks - Opportunities for pair and group talk within activities ('Talk for Writing') - Handouts of scenes or a selection of quotes from scenes studied - Alternating opportunities for self and peer assessment - Essay writing prompts to allow students to write about the scene - References to the AQA English Literature mark scheme for Paper 1, particularly to the demands for attaining a grade 5 - what is considered a 'good pass' for the qualification. It's suggested that you download the whole series to appreciate the full learning journey.

This lesson asks students to analyse what Sheila Birling’s dialogue shows about her as a character and consider how the audience is meant to react. The lesson starts by asking students to list the moment important moments in the play involving her. There is a ‘challenge task’ also provided which asks them to think about what she may symbolise to a modern audience. There is a list of quotes from across the play attached as a handout which students can think about in pairs and they can then be annotated on the board by students/the teacher. Students are then asked to list the positive and negative aspects of her character and what she does across the play. The lesson ends with a chance for students to write independent essay paragraphs with the AQA English Literature GCSE success criteria which can be adapted for your course. There are 3 options on how to approach essay writing: ‘layers of meaning’, PEA, or the ‘reading ladder’ which follow the same idea. There is then an opportunity to self or peer assess according to the key skills.

Ever run an English based film making competition at your school? This one asks students to plan and record a short film exploring a poem about the theme of remembrance. Students could use imovie on their iphones or by using the computers at your school. Attached is a handout which lists youtube videos which act as inspiration for keen film makers and and a list of poems which touch on the set theme. These poems include 'Ozymandias' by Shelley and 'Funeral Blues' by W.H Auden. There is also a poster which advertises the competition across the school - both of which can be uploaded to Homework websites. Perhaps a scheme of work can be build around this?

In this lesson students are asked to explore how Mr Hyde is portrayed as a villain. The lesson starts by presenting students with images of gothic villains and asking them to discuss what they know about each one. Students are then asked to read the extract where Mr Enfield tells Mr Utterson about how Hyde attacked a young girl in the street which is when the reader is first introduced to him. They can annotate and highlight it in pairs and the it can be annotated on the board where the class can feedback their ideas. There is another activity where students are provided with particular quotes and they are asked to link them with other moments in the novel (this is useful for classes who have finished the novel as a form of revision). The lesson ends with a chance for students to write essay paragraphs independently using provided sentence starters which come in 3 formats: a 'layers of meaning' approach, PEA or the 'reading ladder'. An opportunity to self assess essay writing follows this. The success criteria provided refers to the AQA English Literature course but can be adapted to suit your course. All lessons in this series include: - Links to online videos (see 'notes' under Powerpoint slides) - Starter tasks which introduce the main idea of the lesson - Differentiated tasks - Opportunities for pair and group talk within activities ('Talk for Writing') - Handouts of extracts from the novel - Alternating opportunities for self and peer assessment - Essay writing prompts to allow students to write about the scene - References to the AQA English Literature mark scheme, particularly to the demands for attaining a grade 5 - what is considered a 'good pass' for the qualification. It's suggested that you download the whole series to appreciate the full learning journey.

This is an interesting modern poem which features in both AQA and Edexcel's anthology of Literature exam poems. The poem, if you don't know it, explores the feelings of a mother whose son has gone to war as a soldier. It is a moving poem about loss which can be linked to other poems which share this theme. The lesson begins by asking students to define a list of key words which appear in the poem and then challenges them to link them together, thus predicting what the poem could be about. They are then introduced to the 'WPSLOMP' method of analysing poetry which they can then apply in pairs before colour coding devices that the poet uses for effect (metaphor, simile, sensual imagery and caesura). The ideas they pull together for this can then be pulled together as a class and there are slides which reveal the devices for them to then write about. The lesson ends with a chance for students to write independent essay paragraphs with AQA's exam success criteria but this can be adapted for your course. There are 3 options on how to approach essay writing: 'layers of meaning', PEA, or the 'reading ladder' which follow the same idea. There is then an opportunity to self or peer assess according to the key skills. Attached is; - A powerpoint with the lesson clearly outlined - A handout of the starter activity which can be cut up - Essay PEA styles sentence starters writing frames for weaker students Within this powerpoint are also links to online analyses of the poem as well as the BBC Bitesize video.