This engaging and informative lesson enables students to make precise and perceptive interpretations of the character of Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre. Through close analysis of specific extracts from the text, students develop an understanding of how Bertha fits the conventions of a quintessential ‘gothic monster’, and also explore her position as a prime example of the ‘Other’ in Victorian society. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which students learn through: Defining the key term ‘gothic novel’ and understanding the key conventions of gothic literature; Reading selected extracts from the text and answering comprehension questions considering Bertha Mason as fulfilling the role of the gothic monster; Considering ideas of the Victorian ‘Other’ and establishing how Bertha Mason recycles these ideas; Analysing how ideas of Bertha link to predominant 19th Century ideas about mental health and ethnicity; Using the knowledge they have gathered over the lesson to design and describe their own gothic monsters; Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts. Included is: Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; Bertha Mason worksheet; Selected extracts (from chapters 11, 20, and 26); Character profile template; Comprehensive lesson plan. There are also opportunities for group learning, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. These resources were originally taught to GCSE students, but with subtle adaptations they have also been used with both younger and older (up to A Level) students. Worksheets are provided as word docs (so that you can edit) and PDFs (to protect formatting). All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising William Shakespeare’s ‘Othello.’ It contains comprehensive sections on: Context; Scene by Scene Summary (with quotes); Main Characters; Themes; Dramatic Devices; Features of Tragedy. Key words and ideas are underlined for easy reference. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).

This engaging and detailed resource pack has been designed to make the learning of fronted adverbials (particularly prominent in the new curriculum) easily accessible, engaging and interesting for all children. Throughout the lesson, students learn to improve their skill at using appropriate, concise, and precise fronted adverbials within their own writing compositions. In addition to the comprehensive lesson, resources, and plan, it also includes a fronted adverbials writing mat to assist students in building their extended writing skills. The lesson follows a clear, logical, bite-size learning journey, which guides students towards differentiated learning objectives. Over the course of this journey, they become able to: - Define what fronted adverbials are; - Identify fronted adverbials in sentences; - Analyse and evaluate what it is that makes some fronted adverbials more effective than others; - Write an extended piece with the employment of fronted adverbials; -Peer/self-assess learning attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - A clear and interesting worksheet for the development task; - An interesting short story for students to analyse; - A hyperlink to an engaging and heart-warming video through a hyperlink in the presentation; - A detailed lesson plan, complete with what the teacher and students should aim to achieve at each stage of the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint/ the bottom of worksheets.

This engaging and stimulating lesson enables students to create travel brochure texts containing appropriate and imaginative language choices, utilising a range of different language techniques with subtlety in order to craft writing that serves the dual purpose of being descriptive and persuasive. In particular, students learn how descriptive language such as of similes, metaphors, and personification, in addition to persuasive devices such as statistics, rhetorical questions, and personal pronouns, can help to create truly authentic and effective travel brochure pieces. The lesson follows a clear, logical, bite-size learning journey, which guides students towards differentiated learning objectives. Over the course of this journey, they become able to: - Define what travel brochures are and understand their purposes; - Identify the persuasive and descriptive language devices that travel brochure writers employ - Analyse the effects of the language in a model travel brochure text; - Utilise a clear and challenging success criteria document in order to construct their own travel brochure pieces; - Self/Peer assess travel writing attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - An interesting and ambitious travel writing extract (with a highlighted version for teachers): -A logical and challenging worksheet, encouraging students to analyse key features; - A detailed lesson plan, complete with what the teacher and students should aim to achieve at each stage of the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint.

This engaging and highly-purposeful lesson enables children to write about emotions and feelings using vivid imagery. Children learn how to show, not tell in their writing, focusing on precise details relating the senses. This helps to make their writing more immersive - painting an image in the mind of the reader with their words. Children learn through: -Defining and understanding what is meant by showing, not telling; -Considering how each of the major emotions/ feelings can be shown; -Turning their ‘showing’ simple sentences into compound and complex sentences; -Editing and enhancing their showing sentences through consideration of precise verbs, adverbs and the use of analogies. Provided in this resource pack are: -Colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation, offering a step-by-step guide through the lesson; -Showing Emotions table template; -Showing Emotions helpsheet (for LAP students). The worksheets/ templates are provided as Word (for ease of editing) and PDF (to prevent formatting issues between devices). The lesson was originally created for children in upper KS2, however with minor adaptations could easily be suitable for those in lower KS2 or lower KS3.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ Teachers have found them particularly useful in exam revision, comprehension tasks, or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of students towards meeting the KS4 expectations within the new National Curriculum framework - this makes the tasks suitable for all examining bodies. Students have found these resources extremely engaging, and for teachers there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the story, ensuring that students gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: ‘Context: 'The Great Depression’ - to aid students with ‘Drawing on knowledge of the purpose, audience and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs, to inform evaluation;’ ‘Lee’s Description’ - to aid students with ‘Analysing a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features, and evaluating their effectiveness and impact;’ Boo Radley, Atticus Finch, and Bob Ewell’ - to aid students with ‘Seeking evidence in the text to support a point of view, including justifying inferences with evidence;’ ‘Editing the Text’ - to aid students with ‘Making an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these.’ Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is around 30 pages in length!) I’ve also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer. All images are licensed for commercial use.

This informative and engaging double lesson aims to improve students’ ability to compare and contrast two different texts based on a similar subject. They will focus particularly on the purpose, audience, language, and structure of texts, and will learn to use comparing and contrasting connectives to highlight any similarities and differences. This has always been a crucial skill in English, but has an increased importance in the newest GCSE for English Language, as there is a greater requirement for students to be able to make links and comparisons between texts. The lesson follows a clear and logical learning journey, with students learning to: - Understand the key terms ‘compare’ and ‘contrast’, and the importance of these skills in English; - Categorise the different features that they can compare, under the headings ‘Purpose’, ‘Audience’, ‘Language’ and ‘Structure;’ - Read (and identify the key features within) two morally and ethically intriguing texts, offering diverse views of young people in the media; -Compare the two texts, using a clear and concise template, and newly-acquired knowledge of different types of connectives; - Peer-assess each other’s comparative essay attempts. Included in this resource pack are: - Whole double lesson, colourful and engaging PowerPoint presentation (Including assessment for learning referral slides) - Cards for card-sorting activity; - Two interesting and thought-provoking non-fiction media extracts (one a newspaper extract from The Evening Standard, and another a persuasive leaflet, both focused on the issue of how young people are perceived.) - Template for main comparative analysis task; - Full teacher guidance plan. All images are licensed for commercial use and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint presentation

This clear, detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for year 5 and 6 children when writing non-chronological reports. The organiser is also perfect for teachers, parents and English subject leaders - aiding their planning and supporting of children’s knowledge development for this writing text type. The organiser has a particular focus on the content, language and structural features required to write effective non-chronological reports at upper KS2. It contains distinct sections covering: -An Overview of Non-Chronological Reports; -Content: Title and Introduction, Main Body, Key Features to Include; -Language: Vocabulary Choices, Tone, Tense, Conjunctions, Cause and Effect Techniques, Adverbs, Conjunctions, Punctuation Checklist and Word Mat; -Structure - Paragraphs, Whole Text Cohesion, Images and other tips; -Key Vocabulary The content is fully aligned with the age-related expectations for upper KS2 children in writing. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).

This detailed and engaging lesson enables students to gain an understanding of simple, compound and complex sentences, and to use a variation of sentence types in their own writing for clarity and effect. Students learn through a number of fun and interactive tasks, which enable them to: - Define and exemplify simple, compound, and complex sentences; - Identify them in writing; - Understand and analyse how different types of sentences can be used for clarity and effect; - Create a written piece using a variety of sentence structures for clarity and effect; - Evaluate their use of different sentence structures. The resources include: -Visually engaging and comprehensive whole-lesson presentation; -Resources for the card-sorting activity; -A model example and analysis worksheet; -A success criteria; -Step-by-step lesson plan. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final page of the slide.

This engaging and interesting lesson enables students to make clear and developed interpretations of the characters of Mickey and Edward in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers. In particular, students infer and interpret key information about the characters from their introductions into the play, before tracking how their characters develop through close analysis of their key actions and quotations. The lesson utilises a range of tasks, that require students to be both independent and collaborative learners. It follows this learning journey: Considering the idea of money ‘buying happiness’ and applying this concept to characters in the play; Engaging with the opening to the play and interpreting how Mickey and Edward are presented; Tracking how the characters are developed throughout the play, through engagement with their key actions and quotations; Creating character profiles which demonstrate their understanding of Mickey and Edward’s introduction and development throughout the play; Self-evaluating their learning in the lesson. Included in this resource pack are: A well-presented, thorough, and informative, whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; Appropriate extracts from the play; A template morale graph to enable students to track the development of characters; Character profile templates to help scaffold the main task, complete with quotes from the text; A comprehensive teacher guidance form/lesson plan to assist delivery. Resources are provided in both Word (for easy editing)and PDF (to prevent formatting issues between computers). All images in this resource are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the lesson presentation.

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising William Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice.’ It contains comprehensive sections on: Context; Scene by Scene Summary (with quotes); Main Characters; Themes; Dramatic Devices; Features of Comedy. Key words and ideas are underlined for easy reference. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).

The year is 2086, and the students are needed for a special mission! This space mission has been designed to provide students with a fun and interesting group challenge, whilst also building key skills in critical thinking and collaboration, and essential knowledge for Science, English, and Mathematics. Students are placed in a scenario in which Earth is no longer habitable, and humans must seek to move to another planet in the Universe. Compiled for them is information on each of the potentially most habitable planets that are known to man (these are the real planets that have been confirmed by NASA and other agencies as having the most potential for life). In reading the key information, students will be drawing upon their knowledge of Science terminology, and will need to make some Maths calculations to work out implications of living on different planets. What will become clear fairly quickly is that none of the potential planets are perfect, and they must use reasoned judgements to determine which of them have cons that could perhaps be overcome. They then present their ideas, using clear and articulate speaking and listening skills, and write up their report, using appropriate written communication (a scaffold is provided to frame this). Everything is provided for you to download, print, and teach: - A comprehensive, whole-activity PowerPoint that guides the students through the mission; - Detailed and colourful information sheets on each of the contender planets for being the next Earth (these include links to amazing websites that can provide the children with more information); - A ‘Pros and Cons’ scaffold, to help students record their findings; - An information sheet on the ‘habitable zone’ around stars; - A scaffold for writing up findings; - Sorting cards for help with determining the key features of habitable planets; - Full teacher guidance. Considering the time and effort that it took to create these resources, I think that they offer exceptional value. Whenever I have used this activity before, it has taken at least 2-3 lessons, including the introduction, starter challenge, main mission, presentations, and write-up. I originally have used this with mid-ability Year 6,7, and 8 groups, but colleagues have easily adapted it for students across key stages 2-4. All images have been cited at the end of the PowerPoint presentation and are licensed for commercial use.

This 16-page resource booklet contains a wide range of challenging and engaging comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Brian Bilston’s poem ‘Refugees.’ This is a clever poem that can be read in two ways - offering two perspectives regarding attitudes to refugees. Teachers have found the activities particularly useful throughout teaching, or for revision or guided reading sessions. Students have found these resources extremely engaging, and it is clearly highlighted within each task regarding which assessment strands the task is designed to demonstrate. It is provided in both Word (to allow for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure for consistency of formatting between computers). Activities within the booklet include (amongst many others): ‘Analysing Context’ - helping students to ‘Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written.’ ‘Analysing Subject Matter, Language and Structure’ - to help students to ‘Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.’ ‘The Speaker’ - to help students to ‘Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to: maintain a critical style and develop an informed personal response use textual references, including quotations, to support and illustrate interpretations.’

This stimulating and informative lesson develops students’ skills in creating formal letters that precisely meet the content, language and structural features of the form. In particular, they gain an in-depth understanding of how formal letters should be set out on the page, what information should be included within them, and what style they should be written in, in order to meet form, audience and purpose. Students follow a clear and logical learning journey, in which they: -Understand when and where formal letters are an appropriate form of communication; -Unjumble a model example of a formal letter in order to establish its structure; -Work collaboratively to identify and analyse the content and language features in further model examples of formal letters; -Create a success criteria for effective formal letters (although a ready-made success criteria is included); -Write their own formal letters, using a structure strip and helpsheet (if needed) and the techniques that they have learnt; -Peer/self-assess their writing attempts. There are enough resources here really for two lessons, including: -Visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint; -Formal letters x 3 (a complaint, information about a school trip, and a covering letter for a job application) -Formal letters structure strip; -Formal letters helpsheet; -Step-by-step lesson plan. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final page of the slide.