A detailed but compact A3 reversible revision resource for A Level students studying Angela Carter and The Bloody Chamber. One side of the sheet focuses on context and the other side on critics and theoretical approaches, both key Assessment Objectives on the OCR new linear A Level. The theoretical approaches covered are feminism, post-modernism and pyschoanalysis and a list of key critical quotations is provided. The context side includes a summary of source texts, a reminder of the text's artistic influences, a number of quotations from Carter herself, taken from her letters and essays, and information on other key Carter texts The Sadeian Woman, Fireworks and The Passion of New Eve. My Sixth Form students found this resource extremely useful for revision as the contextual and critical knowledge required for the exam can seem overwhelming - this brings it together in one place.

A thorough introduction to Angela Carter designed for A Level students beginning study of The Bloody Chamber. The booklet covers key biographical information on Carter, including the experiences in Japan which shaped her as a writer. There are accessible introductions to essentialism, feminism, including the virgin-whore dichotomy, and post-modernism. Charles Perrault's version of 'Bluebeard' is also included to kick off study of the title story of the collection, as well as an exploration of artistic influences on Carter's version of this tale, including Impressionism and Symbolism. There is an analysis of each of the Marquis' wives and a collaborative research task. The booklet includes a number of questions and wider reading tasks. Designed for the OCR spec as part of the 'Gothic' module which heavily weights context and requires knowledge of the author's biography and wider works as well as critical traditions and alternative readings. Includes occasional reference to Dracula, as this was the partner text, however could be used with any other Gothic partner text or on its own. I studied Carter for my undergraduate dissertation and Master's degree and draw on that knowledge here, in a format that aims to be compact and accessible for students.

A 24-page detailed and interactive character revision resource for Macbeth covering key characters in depth and twenty-two characters in total. This booklet is designed to give students the thorough and complex knowledge required by the new GCSE. The character profiles for major characters contain: Key Facts, covering their role and relationships in the play Character Function & Development, focusing in detail on how each character functions at a symbolic level, linking to relevant context, and how they develop over the course of the play Characteristics Key Quotations section, including space for students to do their own analysis of each quotation Summary of themes linked with the character Key summaries are also provided for minor characters, e.g. Lennox, Angus and Ross . Although the focus is on character, the resource also provides much detail on key events, themes and context. At the end of each section there is a space for students to make their own revision notes. At the end of the resource, there is a character development activity focused on how key characters evolve over the course of the play - the first of these is completed as an example and students should complete the others themselves when they have completed their character revision from the booklet. I have used this resource to: Provide staggered revision homework and followed up with tests on each character As a support resource for essay-writing As a way to introduce characters or explore them in more depth as a class. As a research resource for jigsaw learning activities, dividing the class into groups and assigning a major character to each group. To help students understand how to think about character function and development. Differentiation can be done in a number of ways - through the character assigned to a student, the sections they are asked to work on, and the number and length of quotations they are expected to revise. This is a particularly useful resource for a high-ability group with high target grades. It gives them the level of detail and breadth of knowledge that will allow their essays to stand out, and is designed to get them thinking at a functional and symbolic level considering the whole of the play. Any questions, please ask.

A twenty-two page revision guide on The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Contains a combination of information and activities for students to work through, taking them back to the text and asking them to think deeply and independently about characters, language, themes and context. Once completed, the activities then act as a further revision resource for students. This was written with the new AQA GCSE specification in mind and has information on the AQA assessment objectives, but beyond that would be useful for revising the text for any exam board. The booklet includes sections on: The AQA paper and assessment objectives Author Biography Plot Themes & Context Character function, traits and quotations Form and Narrative Structure Language and Structure Nineteenth Century Art and the unconscious mind Setting Practice extract question I have found this very useful as a homework pack for a half term/term, which can be reflected on and further discussed and developed in lessons. Differentiation is inbuilt - for example, a range of quotations is provided for the character activities. Students can analyse and learn a selection of these, or all of them, depending on skill level. A straightforward author biography is provided which will contain sufficient context for some students, but context is returned to in much greater depth in the 'themes and context' section of the booklet to provide stretch and challenge. The section on 19th century art could be used as an optional extension for targeted students or be used to challenge a whole class to develop their contextual knowledge even further. Any questions, please just ask. Thanks.

A descriptive writing lesson drawing on the opening scene in Macbeth, the meeting of the witches on the heath. The lesson focuses on on sensory description and using a range of writing techniques including descriptive words, similes, metaphors, alliteration and personification. The activities check and reinforce understanding of these techniques before they put them into practice. The resources are fully differentiated with modelling and scaffolding included. Students identify one or more target skills to focus on and there is a further challenge activity for those who complete the main writing task. The progress slide allows you to demonstrate progress within the lesson easily and students enjoy working through the levels. Engaging full colour resources are provided. This could be used with a KS3 or lower set KS4 group and is great for using alongside the study of Macbeth to develop essential writing skills and create interleaved English studies.

A detailed knowledge organiser for AQA Power & Conflict Poetry Anthology, with chunked up knowledge designed to be easily digested and learnt while challenging students at the highest level. Images are used as cues to support memory. Each poem has sections on: Key ideas on power and/conflict Key quotations Key ‘soundbites’ of language analysis that can be easily digested and learnt Form, structure and perspective Context Suitable poems for comparison, with a brief summary comparative points At the end, there is space for students to practice: Retrieval of key quotations from memory Retrieval of key points of comparison for each recommended pair of poems.

A 7-page, in-depth guide to writing essays suitable for A Level and GCSE students. The resource includes a combination of advice and practice activities and covers the following: 1. How to re-draft essays, with strategies to make them clearer and more sophisticated. 2. Writing a hypothesis to start your essay effectively. 3. Using the passive voice. 4. A long list of sentence stems that are suitable for use across the board in literature and language essays. I originally designed this booklet for A Level writing workshops but now use it with GCSE classes as well. I find it particularly useful at the start of the A Level course, but also at any other point when you want to improve students' essay writing skills. Some of the examples used are taken from a range of essay-writing subjects, not just English, to demonstrate the fundamental principles of good essays which are applicable to a range of subjects. The guide would therefore be useful for other essay-writing subjects with the exception that most of the Sentence Stems section is most suitable for English.

An 8-page workbook on the treatment of women in Romeo and Juliet. The first page contains a summary of key points about the role of women in the play, contextual information and societal expectations of noblewomen. The booklet then focuses on Juliet, Lady Capulet, The Nurse, Romeo, Friar Laurence and Lord Capulet. For each character, students are asked to find and analyse evidence for relevant events and relationships. For example, the Lady Capulet section asks students to look at: Her relationship with Juliet, including her limited involvement in her day-to-day upbringing; her relationship with the Nurse and her relationship with Lord Capulet. This could be used as a first-teaching resource or as a revision resource. It can be differentiated through different roles in group work - asking less-skilled students to find evidence and more-skilled students to analyse it.

A carousel lesson on Angela Carter's 'The Lady of the House of Love' for A Level Literature. Gets students focused on close analysis of language and symbolism and encourages them to make links to themes and context. Resources included are: Instruction slides; twelve A3 sheets containing key quotations from the story, with space for students to write their ideas in response to these quotations; a completed version of these sheets containing many points which are useful for understanding and revising the tale. The completed version is very useful for students to compare with their own version and is particularly helpful for revision.

An A Level revision resource with fifteen key quotations from The Merchant's Tale which cover a range of themes and events. The meaning of each quotation is explained in modern English and there is a ticklist for the student to use when they have learnt the quotation. I found this particularly helpful for students who struggled to learn many quotations in Middle English as it provides a good range of quotes which could be used in lots of different essays.

A double-sided A3 quotations revision resource for Romeo and Juliet, organising key quotations by theme and character. Characters run down the side of the table and themes run across the top. Where a quotation is relevant to both a theme and a character, it is included in the relevant square. 44 of the 88 squares are filled with one or often numerous quotations. The other squares are blank for students to fill in their own additional quotations as part of the revision process. The characters covered are: Romeo, Juliet, Lady Capulet, Lord Capulet, The Nurse, Friar Lawrence, The Montagues, Mercutio, Benvolio, Tybalt and some quotations from minor characters and the Chorus. Themes covered are: Love & Sex, Fate, Death, Conflict & Reconciliation, Parent/Child Relationships, Friendship, Youth & Age, Marriage (linked to women's roles). My students said that they found this a useful and detailed overview of key quotations which helped them to make connections between themes and characters in their revision.

Detailed 2-page resource of analytical notes on 'A Passage to Africa' by George Alagiah - for use with Section B of the Edexcel IGCSE in English Language. I prepared these notes for first-teaching of the extract but also ultimately gave them to students who found them very useful for revision purposes. The notes begin by focusing on purpose, audience and form and then focus in close detail on key linguistic and structural choices made by the writer. This helped my students to gain the in-depth and high level knowledge and skills required to score well on this section.

A 2-page quotation revision resource on key motifs and symbolism in Romeo & Juliet. The quotations are grouped as follows: - Fire & Heat Imagery - Light & Dark Imagery - Stars Motif - Infection & Disease Motif - Religion & Pilgrimage Imagery - Graves, Death & Corruption Imagery Includes 27 quotations in total so is useful for focused revision; each quotation is briefly contextualised within the play. It is designed to engage students and make them feel that quotation-learning is achievable. This could be used as a homework or in-class resource as part of exam preparation or as an essay-writing prompt. It provides a realistic number of quotations for middle and lower ability students to focus on for these key motifs. For higher ability students, it can form part of a wider quotation revision programme. Revision can also be differentiated by the number of sections that students are given to learn.

Two English Language exams suitable for Year 7 and Year 8/9 respectively. Each exam has a reading section (Section A) and a writing section (Section B). There are two versions of the Year 8/9 exam, one of which has extra scaffolding to help students structure their essay response. The reading sections are both based on responding to the articles named below, which I cannot include here due to copyright issues but can easily be found on Google. Year 7 exam: Section A Reading - 8 comprehension and analysis questions based on the article ‘Remember When: Memories of Childhood Holidays in Mombasa’ by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. There is a glossary of challenging vocabulary in the article. The first four questions are based on comprehension and information retrieval and the last four focus on language analysis. Questions 6, 7 and 8 require longer responses and offer students the opportunity to demonstrate extended analytical responses without requiring a full essay response which students at this stage might not yet be ready for. (Google the title of the article to find it on The Independent website). Section B Writing - Students have a choice of three writing questions. They should respond to one of these. The options are a descriptive piece based on a choice of two images, a creative piece and writing to inform the reader about a personal experience. Year 8/9 exam: Section A Reading - An extended essay question based on the extract from ‘Taking on the World’ by Ellen MacArthur. (Google the title of the extract to find it in the Edexcel IGCSE 2012 Anthology). There are two versions of this question, one of which has extra scaffolding to help students to structure their essay response. This is useful for students who are not yet confident in formulating independent essays. Section B Writing - Students have a choice of three personal reflective writing questions. They should respond to one of these. The options are a descriptive piece based on a choice of two images, a creative piece and writing to inform or explain. Any questions, please ask!

A detailed, 22-page e-Book on the background, key themes and characters of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad focusing on historical context, power, sexuality and weaving. Also provided in a powerpoint in case of any compatibility issues. Created to give A-Level students the necessary background on The Odyssey and the roles of Penelope and Odysseus in Homer’s text, it looks at themes of power and sexuality in the original text, throughout history and the ways in which Atwood explores, challenges and expands on these. The e-Book is divided into the following sections: - Aristotle’s philosophical conceptions of power. - Male power in The Odyssey, focusing on Odysseus, Telemachus and The Suitors, followed by a detailed analysis of how male power is represented in Homer’s text, looking in particular at storytelling as a male prerogative. - Female power in The Odyssey, focusing on Penelope, the Maids, Circe and Calypso, and the threat of female power and sexuality. - Context on the Virgin-Whore Dichotomy and the Femme Fatale in 20th Century Culture. This is developed into a discussion on the cultural conception of two Penelopes; the virgin and the whore. - Detailed section on the Maids in both texts and their connection to Artemis and her 12 Moon Maidens. - Does Penelope sleep with the suitors? An exploration of this question in Homer and Atwood’s texts. - What other forms does female power take?: A look at inaction and weaving as key forms of female power. - Penelope throughout History - An overview looking at Penelope in Ovid’s Heroides, 16th and 17th Century poetry and 21st Century film and theatre. - How far does Atwood reject and rewrite the limiting portrayal of Penelope? - An exploration of what Atwood’s Penelopiad achieves. Contains critical quotations from Cixous, Stein and Gregersdottir. Please note, the file will need to be opened and read in iBooks, which can be done on any iPad or iPhone, so works well for student revision on the go.

1-page resource with key quotations Space to add attributions or explanations for each quotation I use for retrieval practice

My version of the 'Secret Spy Card' idea (*not* my idea but I thought I would share the resource I've made!). How it works: 1. Tell students that they will be 'spying' on another student that lesson in order to assess their behaviour for learning. 2. Give them a Secret Spy Card with another student's name on at the start of the lesson. (Students can write their own names on the cards at an earlier time and you can collect them in and redistribute them appropriately). 3. The students should know who they are 'spying' on but should not know who is' spying' on them. 4. They observe the behaviour of this student throughout the lesson and write them feedback at the end. 5. Each student can then give their card directly back to their 'target' or you can collect them in and redistribute them if you want the secret to remain secret! I have found this particularly useful with students who may struggle with behaviour for learning, as they enjoy the opportunity to observe another student and give them feedback. It also encourages them to behave well themselves as they know they're being observed. You can choose how to distribute the cards strategically, giving students the opportunity to observe a student whose behaviour they would benefit from replicating. Enjoy!

An A4 cloze exercise on Aristotle's Concepts of Tragedy which could be used with Shakespearean or modern tragedies. I designed it for use with A View from the Bridge and used it as a revision exercise, but it would also be a useful in-class test of students' understanding after you've introduced the concepts. Differentiation = the missing words are on the back for students who need support but they can attempt to complete as many gaps as possible before referring to this.