I created this matching exercise for my students in A-Level Language and also in A-Level Combined Language and Literature, who were confident in applying literary terms to texts but who consistently neglected to apply language terminology in their analyses. We’ve drilled on this a few times now, and I’m starting to see more confident application of these terms. I’ll continue to use this exercise as a starter activity from time to time to keep these terms at the front of their minds.

Students use designated connectives to craft sentences that make comparisons and that draw contrasts.

Two-part lesson on written and spoken discourse, designed for students taking A-level English Language as well as students taking A-level English Language and Literature combined. The first slideshow (focusing on written discourse) covers: mode genre structure cohesion and referencing (exophoric, endophoric, anaphoric and cataphoric) intertextuality interdiscursivity The second slideshow (focusing on spoken discourse) covers: turn taking adjacency pairs phatic expressions back-channelling false starts fillers repairs ellipsis

Complete lesson covering terms and concepts linked to the language level of semantics. Designed for students taking A-level Language as well as A-level Language and Literature Combined. The lesson covers the following: literal language vs. figurative language figures of speech (metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole, metaphor, simile, personification) denotation connotation synonyms and antonyms hypernyms and hyponyms semantic fields semantic change (ameiloration, pejoration, broadening, narrowing and semantic reclamation)

Complete A-level English language grammar lesson on verb phrases. Includes slide presentation and worksheet with exercises (answers included in slide presentation). The lesson covers: grammatical person grammatical number active and passive voice of verbs verb tense (past, present and future) verb aspect (progressive, perfective and perfect progressive)

Complete lesson designed for students taking A-level English Language as well as A-level English Lang/Lit Combined. Slideshow covers the following: schema, face theory, politeness theory (positive face, negative face, face-threatening acts), the cooperative principle, Grice’s maxims, implicature, deixis (personal, spatial, temporal).

Complete lesson which includes a slide show explaining concepts to students, a printable worksheet with exercises for practice (answers included in slide show) and a printable knowledge organiser (in both colour and black and white). Focus of the lesson is on lexis and identifying these 9 word classes within texts: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, determiner, interjection.

Complete lesson covering aspects of phonology and phonetics for A-level English Language as well as A-level English Language and Literature Combined. Lesson covers the following: Consonants voicing place of articulation manner of articulation glottal stops Vowels monophthongs diphthongs Phonetic transcription using the IPA (with practice exercise) Sound iconicity lexical onomatopoeia non-lexical onomatopoeia alliteration consonance assonance sibilance

(Starter or mini-lesson) Provides a quick revision of the guidelines for punctuating direct speech to encourage students to incorporate quotes/ dialogue in a creative writing task (e.g. English Language Paper 1 Section B). It’s in Powerpoint format; simply copy and paste into your own existing Powerpoint for a ready-to-use starter activity. If you find this useful, please leave a review to spread the word!

Based on the assessment objectives for AQA A Level Language and Literature combined; designed to be printed on two sides of A4. Covers the following: Social and historical context (the Industrial Revolution, Edmund Burke’s theory of the sublime, Rousseau’s theories regarding the nature/nurture debate, the alchemists Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus) Biographical context of Mary Shelley Literary context (explanations of important allusions and general characteristics of fantasy, science fiction, Romanticism, Gothic fiction and the tragic hero) Themes (the pursuit of knowledge, nature versus nurture, justice and injustice, the importance of family, isolation and companionship, fortune versus fate, personal responsibility) Characters (the roles and functions of Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, the creature, Elizabeth Lavenza, Justine Moritz and Safie) Settings (untamed natural settings versus university cities) Features of lexis, grammar, discourse and pragmatics to consider No coloured ink used, so the resource will print equally well on different colours of paper to suit student needs/preferences.

Two lessons on Seamus Heaney’s ‘Blackberry Picking’ designed for students taking AQA A-level Language and Literature Combined. The first (day one) lesson introduces the poem to students and guides them in conducting a linguistic analysis of the text; the second (day two) lesson invites discussion of their findings and covers important aspects they may have overlooked.

A fully resourced grammar-for-writing lesson that teaches students what adverbs and adverbials are and then gives them practice with placing adverbials in different places within sentences (i.e. at the front (fronted adverbials), in the middle or at the end). I have found it particularly useful in preparing students for Section B of GCSE English Language Paper 1 and Paper 2. The powerpoint includes a starter, an explanation of adverbs and adverbials (with examples), instructions for the worksheet (with an example), a list of possible answers and a plenary.

Complete lesson including slide presentation, exercises (with answers provided in the presentation) and knowledge organisers. The lesson covers: simple, compound and complex sentences main clauses subordinate clauses functioning as adverbials relative clauses (defining and non-defining) participle clauses infinitive clauses

Two lessons on Seamus Heaney’s ‘Digging’ (day 1 - reading and analysing, day 2 - discussing student findings), designed for students studying the Poetic Voices portion of the AQA A-level Language and Literature Combined course. Also includes a slideshow explaining the format and mark scheme for the *Poetic Voices *assessment (Paper 1, Section C)

Complete lesson on language levels with slide show, printable exercise sheet (answers included in slide show), and printable notes for teacher and/or students. Designed for use with both A-level English language and A-level English language and literature combined classes. Introduces students to the following language levels: lexis, grammar, discourse, semantics, pragmatics, phonology, graphology. Also explains and provides students with practice in identifying the following sentence elements: subject, copular verb, main verb, subject complement, direct object, indirect object, object complement, adverbial.

Worksheet with explanation of the concept and 3 different exercises: Adding punctuation to sentences that contain noun phrases in apposition; Removing unnecessary uses of ‘who’ and ‘which’ to transform relative clauses into noun phrases in apposition; Combining sentences to create new sentences with nouns phrases in apposition. This resource can be used as the basis of an in-class lesson or as revision homework.

Fully resourced lesson that teaches students how to use semi-colons to combine simple sentences into compound sentences. It also teaches them about conjunctive/linking adverbs (e.g. ‘however,’ ‘besides,’ ‘likewise,’ ‘consequently,’ ‘instead,’ etc.) and how they can be added immediately after semi-colons to clarify meaning. Resources include printable explanations and practice exercises along with a Powerpoint presentation that can be used to guide students through the lesson (the Powerpoint includes the answers for the exercises on the worksheet).

Fully resourced grammar-for-writing lesson that teaches students about prepositions and prepositional phrases, then uses sentence combining exercises to provide practice in placing prepositional phrases at different points in the sentence. Very useful in helping students to achieve sentence variety on Section B of Paper 1 and Paper 2. The powerpoint includes a starter, an explanation of prepositions and prepositional phrases (with examples), instructions for the worksheet (with an example), a list of possible answers and a plenary. It also provides examples of misplaced phrases/modifiers to help students to recognise when they have not placed prepositional phrases in a sentence correctly.

This complete lesson: explains what an adverbial is, gives students practice identifying adverbials, challenges students to construct their own adverbial phrases and clauses. The lesson was prepared and delivered during lockdown, so it is very straightforward and tailored for direct delivery. If you find it useful, please spread the word by leaving a positive review!

A summary of major periods in British Literature from 1485 to the Twentieth Century in six pages, originally created for use with 11th and 12th grade / Sixth Form students but useful for helping all students of British Literature to place and understand works within a historical context.