Paul Verlaine’s ‘Le Ciel Est, Par-Dessus Le Toit…’ uses simple language to set a beautiful scene then deliver an emotional punch at the end. The text has been set out in large font with lots of space around each short verse, for pupil annotation and illustration. After studying this poem, pupils can write their own poem that a) describes a setting then b) expresses a mood or state of mind. This formula works in any combination - e.g. lovely park + murderous rage, rainy day + joyful expectation.

This works as an introduction to Shakespeare’s characters and stories for young children. It also gives older pupils the experience of working with Shakespeare&'s raw materials of character, motive and props. This makes them think about how he wrote for the stage: crucial for gaining marks in Shakespeare exams! Please read Lesson Notes to understand how it works. I have provided two of the sheets in a version with cartoons: Characters and Props. Useful if you are doing this in an MFL. The other sheets would probably need a translation on the back. Have fun! - Also, check out my YouTube Channel, “pavertutor”, for my Shakespeare Puppet videos!

Click on the links in this Word Document to websites which advise advertisers about how to use language and images to sell products. Stimulating and thought-provoking for discussion, e.g. if you copy and paste selections from the advice and give it to a class when they have begun their study of advertising and already gained some confidence in using the terms. Reading about advertising from the advertising copywriters' viewpoint is quite revealing! The list of techniques with their effects shows how adverts carefully group consumers, then make them feel like special individuals.

A practical, hands-on way to get pupils to understand that Shakespeare wrote for the stage. You can print this out and give it to pupils as an introduction to speaking Shakespeare themselves - there are examples and things to listen out for, as well as connections made with how song lyrics use imagery to convey emotion. The idea is simple: these aren't books: they&'re plays - so play with them! You may want to give this sheet out one page at a time - it&';s up to you!

The Lesson Plan (in two parts) tells you how to help pupils to build their own fairy tales step by step. It can be used to teach any language. The videos are The Sleeping Beauty and Snow White in Spanish. There are plenty more fairy tale cartoons in Spanish on YouTube where I found these! Just watch out - a few of them are parodies, so goodness knows what's in those!

The Lesson Plan tells you how to help pupils to write their own fairy tales using a worksheet that gives them a series of simple choices about character, setting and plot. Two French fairytale websites follow, then the videos are cartoon versions of fairytales. Finally, enjoy Part 1 of 'La Belle et la Bête&' - a magical, classic film! The other parts are on YouTube.

A Powerpoint in Spanish introducing the characters and plots of some of Shakespeare's major plays, very briefly and in very simple Spanish.

This imaginative, moving poem goes down well with pupils of all ages. It builds simple images step by step into something highly original. The poem is printed in quite a large font and double spaced to allow room for pupils' own annotations, e.g. of unfamiliar words. They can also illustrate it to help them build up the picture of why death might be wonderful for a very poor person.

These sheets use cartoons to explain when to write 'it's and when to write 'its'. Crazy Dog hates getting apostrophes stuck in his tail and loves rain... Pupils make up plenty of their own sentences using 'it's' and then plenty of their own using 'its'. Only then let them switch between the two! Note: the first page starts 'When does 'its' need an apostrophe?' Give that one first so that it makes sense as a little story.

These are the lyrics to an Italian song about pirates, but I have so far been unable to find the tune. (I find that if I ask the class if anyone would like to make up a tune there is always someone who offers!) In any case, the rhythm is what helps pupils to remember the words, so speaking or chanting it and it works just as well. Great for revising first person plural verbs. Fun to get the class to write new verses for this song using the vocabulary of everyday life. So pirates are not only the demons of the sea - they also do the washing up!

Zeus or Poseidon? Let your class decide! Is he throwing a thunderbolt or a trident? Photo 3 shows his arm: what do you think was in it? Get pupils to look at the rest of him, & stand up, maybe look at other sculptures of both gods, to help decide. Apologies, I am hopeless at PowerPoint - but I took these photos, so you can them as you wish. This incredible bronze statue was found at the bottom of the sea off Cape Artemision (aka 'The Artemision Bronze&'.) C. 460 B.C. &';Severe' Classical Style. One of the few preserved original works of the Severe Style. National Archaeological Museum, Athens.

Tells you about the structure and content of Pindar's Olympic Victory Odes and then tells you how to write your own! You can write about a sporting celebrity such as Rebecca Adlington and there is an excellent example at the end of these sheets. &'English - Prize poetry&'; is the article I wrote in Resources with more ideas about how to use these worksheets: http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6257863

Dramatic Irony in Shakespeare explained with a model of the Globe Theatre. Catherine Paver, English Tutor, made the mini theatre to bring Shakespeare to life for GCSE students and A Level students. This video starts with a definition of Dramatic Irony using a green plastic dinosaur. It then discusses examples from ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Page to Stage - bringing Shakespeare to life! Terms used in the video: Dramatic Irony: When the audience knows something important that the character or characters do not. This may be something that has happened, is happening or will happen in the future. Heavens The roof over the Globe stage, painted with stars, moons, and signs of the zodiac. This image reflects the Renaissance belief in the influence of the movements of the stars upon the world below. Hell The area underneath the stage where the stage trap door leads. It might be used for graveyard scenes by Shakespeare’s company, as a tomb or a place from where devils or witches appear.

A puppet lobster explains the bizarre imagery that Dickens uses to influence our feelings throughout ‘A Christmas Carol’. ‘Like a bad lobster in a dark cellar,’ for example. This five-minute film engages pupils in finding their own examples of Dickens’ figurative language. It emphasies how important it is not just to label them ‘simile’, ‘personification’ and so on, but also to feel their emotional power. This in turn helps pupils to remember them and to write more perceptively about them.

This song is a ballad which tells a story through dialogue & third-person description. As well as performing it, pupils can write their own ballads é learn a lot about rhythm é rhyme. Other creative tasks: diaries, letters, posters éc. In literature lessons, the song can introduce ballad form to pupils. Then, when they study ballads in various GCSE Eng Lit anthologies, quatrains, dialogue, imagery and rhymes will make more sense. Enjoy using this song as a resource for lessons é concerts! This is my own song é recording so I own the copyright. See base of lyric sheet for details.

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.