Zephyr Learning - English and General Literacy Shop
Average Rating4.93
(based on 15 reviews)
I hold an MA in literature and a CELTA in language, and over the last 20 years I've taught language and literature in the UK and USA as well as ESOL in France and Tanzania. In addition to my work as a teacher, I am the Literacy and Grammar Consultant for Zephyr Learning and Professional Development.
These resources have been refined in my own classroom and are the same ones I reference in my CPD sessions for teachers, priced so complete lessons cost the same as a cup of coffee.
I hold an MA in literature and a CELTA in language, and over the last 20 years I've taught language and literature in the UK and USA as well as ESOL in France and Tanzania. In addition to my work as a teacher, I am the Literacy and Grammar Consultant for Zephyr Learning and Professional Development.
These resources have been refined in my own classroom and are the same ones I reference in my CPD sessions for teachers, priced so complete lessons cost the same as a cup of coffee.
(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.
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Students place cards containing key events in the correct order on the A3 placemat or in their exercise books (they can work individually or in groups). This provides a straightforward and fun way to revise key events of the plot, and it helps students to place extracts in context when responding to the extract question and to organise essays chronologically when writing about a character or theme.
I have included a Powerpoint slide show that explains the activity and which also provides the correct answers for assessment after students have completed the task.
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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.
Fully resourced lesson. Students learn to identify the main verb in a sentence, no matter whether it is an action verb (a ‘doing word’) or a linking verb (a ‘being word’).
The Powerpoint explains action verbs and linking verbs, with examples of each. Afterwards, students practise identifying the verbs in sentences on the exercise sheet (there are 40 sentences in total; you might wish to do only a portion at a time and spread the activity over a few lessons). More able students can be challenged to classify each verb as either an action or linking verb.
Fully resourced lesson with Powerpoint presentation, worksheets and answer keys.
Students learn to identify when a sentence has ended and a full stop is needed. For the final task, they must insert missing full stops in an article about RMS Titanic.
Three lessons that teach students how to recognise, punctuate and compose simple and compound sentences. Each lesson includes worksheets with explanations, examples and practice exercises along with Powerpoint presentations that can be used to guide the lesson and display correct answers. Lessons are organised as follows:
Lesson 1: how to recognise when a simple sentence is complete and requires a full stop. For the final task students are given an informative article about the Titanic which contains no full stops or sentence-signaling capital letters. They must insert full stops in the correct places.
Lesson 2: how coordinating conjunctions can be used to combine simple sentences into compound sentences (and when joining commas should be included). Students are given pairs of simple sentences which they then join with coordinating conjunctions, inserting joining commas as appropriate.
Lesson 3: how semi-colons can be used to join simple sentences to form compound sentences. Students practise using semi-colons and linking adverbs to combine simple sentences into compound sentences.
I have also added a bonus resource examining simple sentences that do not follow conventional word order (i.e. questions, imperatives and inverted sentences). It includes two pages of explanation and examples followed by an exercise designed to help the teacher assess students’ ability to identify the subject in sentences with unconventional word order.
This fully resourced grammar-for-writing lesson teaches students how to use coordinating conjunctions (and, when applicable, joining commas) to combine simple sentences to form compound sentences.
*NOTE: Instead of using the American acronym FANBOYS in this lesson, I have included the more UK-appropriate ANTBOYS (most American dictionaries do not recognise 'then' as a coordinating conjunction, whereas the British council and most UK dictionaries do. Also, although 'for' is recognised as a coordinating conjunction on both sides of the Atlantic, it is almost never used in contemporary writing. As this is a grammar for writing rather than a sentence-parsing lesson, the archaic 'for' has been omitted and the British conjunction 'then' has been included, thus 'ANTBOYS'). With this in mind, teachers in North America or ESOL teachers teaching North American English may wish to hide, delete or replace the slide in the powerpoint in which I have listed the coordinating conjunctions most commonly used in the UK.
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.
A series of worksheets that provide students with extracts from the text depicting characters' words and actions. For each extract, students must record their impressions in the corresponding box. A straightforward but useful exercise in helping students to move from text to sub-text.
Fully resourced lesson - students use their knowledge of sentence structure to replace the missing full stops in an article taken from the BBC Wales website. Students start by circling the subject of each sentence and underlining the predicate (the verb and all the words that work with the verb to say something about the subject); they then add full stops and capital letters to separate the sentences from one another.
Fully resourced grammar for writing lesson; teaches students what participles are and how they can be used to enhance description and sentence variety, useful on Section B of both English Language Paper 1 and Paper 2.
The worksheet consists of sentence combining exercises designed to give students practice in constructing participles and participle clauses.
The powerpoint includes a starter activity, an explanation of participles and participle clauses with examples, instructions on how to complete the worksheet with examples, possible answers and a plenary.
Straightforward planning guide for a response to two unseen poems. Students read the poems and answer the questions in the boxes provided. This should give them everything they need for a satisfactory response.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
Complete grammar lesson focusing on grammatical phrases; it includes a slide show with explanations and examples, a printable worksheet with exercises (answers included in slide show), and a knowledge organiser summarising key points of the lesson.
The lesson covers these phrase classes:
noun phrases
adjective phrases
verb phrases
adverb phrases
prepositional phrases
Students practise classifying prepositional phrases by function as either:
adverbials
post-modifiers
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
