I initially designed this scheme (of up to eight lessons) for a very low ability group of students who were, as reluctant writers, worried about their writing assessment. The assessment is placed across the first few slides, but you could skip it. It is heavily scaffolded, with accompanying planning and assessment sheet fir the assessment and some worksheets. The scheme then teaches punctuation and grammar, with starters assessing current learning and short writing activities designed to demonstrate progress. After students have mastered this, they move on to exploring how to use simile and metaphor. You will need a DVD copy of War of the Worlds and Hunger Games for the first few lessons.

This lesson examines Mercutio’s role in the play and the significance of his death. It includes some re-capping, lead annotation, challenging questions and the learning objective is differentiated throughout. Suitable for KS3 or KS4. Includes a worksheet which reproduces the slide with questions and annotations, as well as a colour-coded writing frame.

Each PowerPoint contains several lessons which address the learning in their title. I made these lessons for my year 13 students, who sat the AQA exam this summer (2018) and I am pleased to say that they had great success,I like to think that at least some of it was as a result of these lessons, though they were a conscientious bunch! The final lesson (Exam Practice) uses AQA’s example questions and marking material. Many of the OLA (Own Learning Assignments) tasks are reading or research based. I’m afraid that I couldn’t reproduce the articles here for copyright reasons, but a quick Google search will turn up loads of useful articles and papers - as you know.

This lesson asks students to interpret the language of love and flattery used by Romeo and Juliet in the famous balcony scene with flexibility. Students are asked to consider how we use language to ‘win people over’ romantically and reflect on the sincerity of the young lovers’ words. There is a challenging context-based task at the end. Your students will need a copy of the scene.

This is a self-contained lesson which can be used for introducting your class to ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by discussing and exploring contextual factors, such as class, gender roles and violence in Elizabethan society. It invites students to discuss and reflect upon these points before consolidating what they’ve learned through a creative writing activity at the end.

These three lessons aim to build students’ creative writing skills, using the idea of Jack the Ripper as a running theme. I made this to use after my class had been studying poetry, so the first lesson builds on existing knowledge of poetic devices and asks them to write a poem. The classes I have used this with have thoroughly enjoyed it and wrote some chilling masterpieces. The three lessons also embed AfL throughout. Slide 7 is a task based on an article about Jack the Ripper that I can’t reproduce here. I got it from BBC Bitesize, but the task is not specific to this article.

This lesson (complete except for the poem itself) invites students to explore the idea of character that Armitage creates in ‘The Clown Punk.’ I used this as a one of a few introductory lessons for some reluctant poetry readers. Learning objectives are clearly displayed at the start and end, and differentiated.

This lesson explores Act 1 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet, including the famous sonnett. The aim is to enable students to understand how Shakespeare uses form. Students will learn about the conventions of the sonnett form as well as be asked to consider the differences between poetry, prose and drama. Most questions are differentiated and there is ample opportunity for discussion.

This short scheme of up to six lessons aims to enable students to understand what genre is as well as how it forms an integral part of any text. Students are invited to discuss their existing understanding of The Gothic/Sci-Fi/Dystopian fiction before reading extracts from seminal works from each genre and trying to identify how conventions are used. The scheme builds students’ creative writing skills by asking them to identify linguistic and narrative features of each genre before having a go at writing some of their own. The scheme builds up to students planning and writing a dystopian piece. All extracts were found easily online and include: The Woman in Black, War of the Worlds, 1984, The Road, and The Hunger Games.’ I printed sigle full page copies of the slides with extracts to give to students. The Youtube links at the end also prompted some interesting discussions.

A lesson examining how Poe creates a haunting atmosphere in The Raven. Suitable for KS3 but sufficiently challenging for a KS4 group if focus is shifted onto the musical qualities of the poem and analytical writing towards the end of the lesson.

A simple and engaging lesson designed to introduce students to Shakespearean language in a fun and playful way.

This scheme of (up to) eleven lessons is designed to engage KS3 students in studying ‘The Tempest’ with particular attention payed to language and context. The design is simple, clean and guides the class through the play, Act by Act. One of the key aims is to enable KS3 students to feel confident in understanding, using and interpreting Shakespearean language, as well as reflecting on how the play is affected by its contexts. I used the performance at The Globe to supplement reading the text in class, easily found with a quick Youtube search. There is a creative writing assessment bolted on to the end of the scheme.

An A’Level introduction to Behaviorism and Nativism, including Own Learning Assignment.

I made this resource as a reference tool to help my ‘very able’ KS4 class to explicate poetry more independently. It outlines eight steps you should take if you want to dismantle a poem in order to take a closer look at how it works. I’ve named it a ‘worksheet’ because this is how my students used it, but I dare say it would look alright on the wall as well.

A concise scheme of work, suitable for either a first introduction or revision of An Inspector Calls, with a focus on essay-writing skills.

A short scheme of work, originally designed for less able KS3 students. Some lessons use War of the Worlds as a running stimulus for creative writing. Worksheets are carefully designed to help students with the planning process of creative writing.

A short burst of lessons designed to engage learners in thinking about and discussing the musical qualities of poetry. The lessons introduce poetry as a narrative form, using The Lady of Shalott to guide students’ understanding.

The Sound of the Shell

Ophelia’s Death

Perfect for A’Level Literature or Classics, this lesson examines the disruption of nature in Paradise lost, with a contextual focus on perceptions of the cosmos in 1667.

A simple and fun, ready to go lesson, which could be extended into several, which introduces students to the idea of metaphor in an accessible and engaging way.