Revision activity in which students plan a five episode TV mini-series of the novel. The planning sheets lead them to look back to the novel to revise the settings and characters involved in each chapter and scene. Students must also consider physical and personality aspects of the characters to select suitable actors to play each part (as this is a hypothetical exercise, I usually give them the option of choosing any actor -- living or dead -- at any age to gain a better idea of how they visualise the characters).

This is a series of straightforward planning guides for responses to extract questions focused on: - audience response to the extract - the impression we get of a relationship from the extract - mood (the feeling created by charaters and events) or atmosphere (the feeling created by objects and surroundings) in an extract. I have found these to be very useful with students who struggle to structure a response to the extract question. Before using any of these resources, I first ask students to draw lines dividing the extract into three sections (there are usually 2 or 3 shifts in an extract: from one event to another, one character to another, etc. Getting students to identify and focus on different sections of the extract helps them to structure their answer and to ensure that they're writing about the extract in its entirety).

A list of useful terms (along with their definitions) to use when discussing how an author creates an effect in a work of literature.

This is a grid for planning a response to an extract question focused on a character (as opposed to audience response, a relationship, etc.). I used the general label 'THE CHARACTER' throughout when designing this; whenever I use it with a text I go back and do a 'Find and Replace' search, inserting the actual name of the character in place of the general label 'THE CHARACTER'. This way I've been able to use it with a variety of texts and characters. I've found this scaffold very useful in helping students who have struggled with the extract question to plan and structure their response.

Teaches noun fundamentals (common and proper, concrete and abstract, countable and non-countable). In the lesson, students practise identifying the nouns in extracts from two classics (A Christmas Carol and The Wizard of Oz ). They must also identify and capitalise the proper nouns in each text. This provides very useful practice for helping students to analyse language (specifically lexis) on Language Paper 1 and Paper 2 as well as Literature Paper 1 and Paper 2. In addition to explanations and examples of common and proper nouns, concrete and abstract nouns, and countable and uncountable nouns, the presentation also explains the rule for when to use ‘less’ and when to use ‘fewer’ to present quantity of nouns.

A straightforward guide for helping students to structure a response to a literature paper question. Students answer 6 prescribed questions to craft a body paragraph that contains the elements they need for success. A sample paragraph based on Act I, Scene 3 of Romeo and Juliet is included as an exemplar.

A grammar-for-writing lesson with worksheet (answers provided in presentation). Students are given two simple sentences and challenged join them with a subordinating conjunction to create a complex sentence. Useful for encouraging sentence variety.

Worksheet that teaches students to identify the subject in sentences with unconventional word order (questions, imperatives and inverted sentences); concludes with an exercise to give them practice. This helps them to better understand sentence structure and to maintain subject-verb agreement when writing.

Lesson and worksheet - students read passages from The Call of the Wild by Jack London and identify the noun phrases in apposition/ appositive phrases that London includes in the text.