This video can be used with my ‘MACBETH’ - ANIMALS IN CHAOS! Worksheets. Two puppet horses explain ‘Macbeth’ with reference to beliefs about natural order in Shakespeare’s time. They focus on ‘Macbeth’ Act 2 Scene 4: 'Duncan’s horses…Turn’d wild in nature…‘Tis said, they eat each other.’ The horses then explain the Great Chain of Being, to help us understand the whole play in the context of its time. This eight-minute film will help anyone studying Shakespeare’s tragedies or history plays to grasp the beliefs about God, man and nature that underpin the plot, characters and language. It is particularly helpful to GCSE English Literature pupils who need to place Shakespeare’s plays in context. I’ve included two images from the video: the Great Chain of Being Diagram and the cartooned extract.

A study aid to help pupils connect a poem's techniques to its overall impact and meaning. Helps them to see how techniques work together, e.g. a metaphor may change the tone. By connecting the petals (techniques) to the centre (overall impact/meaning), pupils write more than just 'Look! A simile.' What is it doing? How does it relate to the rest of the poem? Pupils learn to move between the overall force of a poem and its details. They just need to think: 'I'm a bee. I can fly where I like!' To compare poems, fly between two flowers. Blank version is for your use or for their own notes. See also my 'HOW TO STUDY A NOVEL'.

This two-page worksheet uses explanations, quotations and cartoons to help students grasp that the murder of Duncan is a crime against God that upsets the whole natural order. ‘Macbeth’ is stuffed with animal references which are fun for students to look out for in lessons and extract questions, but they need help first to grasp why Shakespeare uses them. These sheets are designed to do this. You can use these sheets at any point during your study of the play. Act 2 Scene 4 is a good moment for them, though. You can show my video - ‘MACBETH - ANIMALS IN CHAOS!’ after going through the scene, then give them the worksheets. I have also included two images from the video: the simple diagram of the Great Chain of Being and my cartooned extract from Act 2 Scene 4.

This lesson gives pupils ways to dig themselves out of ‘going blank’. You can give the Worksheet to pupils & put up a choice of photos for them to write about. Example from Worksheet: Start by asking yourself some simple questions. There are no right answers. Just see what comes up in your mind: 1. Am I warm or cool? Hot or cold? See Worksheet for more ways to get ideas from your own mind! Note: You can use the Worksheet with any photos of places. (These were all taken in Greece; the tomb pix = Mycenae.) See my ‘WORD WITCH’ for another way to get ideas: rub two words together like sticks…

This set of handouts, illustrations, websites and spooky photos of ‘Strawberry Hill House’ includes an editable Word Document. Together, they tell the story of how the Gothic Novel began - and how its author, Horace Walpole, unleashed a host of strange, entertainingly frightening and imaginative elements into the English Novel! Students can read the handout with its illustrations, then lose themselves in the photos of the House in its many moods. These could then inspire their own Gothic stories. Students could even decorate the classroom - or part of it - to make it more Gothic, just as Walpole did with his ‘little Gothic castle’. The handout starts with a list of Gothic elements. The drawing ‘WALPOLE LET THEM IN’ does not label the strange creatures. So get students to discuss their own ideas of what they all are, what’s happening, and what the images remind them of in popular culture today! The final document is a list of four useful Gothic websites for further research. The drawings may also be helpful with students who might otherwise find this quite a disturbing topic. I don’t think my zombie would scare anybody. SEE ALSO ‘UNUSUAL FRIENDSHIPS IN CASTLE SPOOKY’ - CREATIVE WRITING.

This single-page sheet helps students to spark an idea for a great story about an unusual friendship. It can be used at any time of the year, not just Halloween. They can discuss in pairs or groups what they think the different creatures in the picture are like and maybe think of names for them. Names make characters seem real in the mind and give them a life of their own. You could have fun with alliteration, e.g. Bob the Bat, and with setting a mood, e.g. Snooty Candle. Old-fashioned or unusal names can sound mysterious, e.g. Winona the Witch, while nicknames can sound funny and approachable, e.g. Mike the Monster. It can also be funny if a name has absolutely nothing to do with the nature of the creature, e.g. Colin the Coffin or Tim the Ghost. ‘The Something of Something’ is another useful pattern, not just for a character’s name, but for a story title, e.g. ‘The Creatures of Castle Spooky’, ‘The Mummy of Mortlake’, ‘Mutterings in the Moat’. Letting your characters talk to each other is fun and unpredictable: you can never be quite sure what they are going to say. Don’t let the difficulty of punctuating direct speech inhibit learners. After all, if they type this, they can always correct things like paragraphing and punctuation marks afterwards. They could illustrate their work or even turn a key scene from it into a storyboard or a strip cartoon for a younger audience than themselves. Have loads of spooky fun! SEE ALSO ‘HOW GOTHIC BEGAN AND WHAT IT UNLEASHED!’

These two illustrated sheets explain a way of looking at handwriting which transforms the task of improving it from a vague worry to a fun task. Instead of saying ‘I have terrible handwriting,’ learners are encouraged to think of their handwriting as a class of little people. Very often, I find that there are just a handful of letters that are unclear. When these are noticed and practised, the handwriting as a whole improves. Learners can find it quite fun as well as helpful to think of their own handwriting as a class of little people over whom they have friendly but firm control. This creates a way of talking about handwriting in a way that is easier to visualise and remember. Your marking can be included in this, too. For example, ‘Can you see which letters are falling asleep here?’ or ‘Your ‘g’ is kicking the letters on the line below again’ are comments that create a vivid yet also helpfully specific image for a learner to act upon. I always find it a pity if someone ‘hates their handwriting’, as an unruly blob that cannot change and over which they have no control. Instead, these two pages describe an approach which combines friendly curiosity in the small details that can make a big difference. Check out my PUNCTUATION PEOPLE too!

This uses cartoon people to explain how the apostrophe is used to show possession. Always ask yourself: what does this apostrophe know? Check out my HANDWRITING PEOPLE too! That resource is called HANDWRITING: A CLASS OF 26 LITTLE PEOPLE.

This uses cartoon people to explain how the apostrophe is used to show that a letter has been omitted. The apostrophe is a spy who knows exactly which letter has escaped from a word! Check out my HANDWRITING PEOPLE too! That resource is called HANDWRITING: A CLASS OF 26 LITTLE PEOPLE.

The pupils’ activity is simply the lyrics for the song ‘When This Lousy War Is Over’, with guitar chords. The MP3 is a recording of a female voice. Also find the song on YouTube from the film, ‘Oh What A Lovely War’, with male voice choir - the link is included here. The other website has lyrics for the same song and a few others.