High school librarian, expertise in Reading for Pleasure, SEND, and reluctant readers. I sell resources that encourage reading for pleasure, promote whole school literacy, and fun book related activities and quizzes.
High school librarian, expertise in Reading for Pleasure, SEND, and reluctant readers. I sell resources that encourage reading for pleasure, promote whole school literacy, and fun book related activities and quizzes.
This FREE sample lesson is taken from a full 10-story unit designed to prepare Year 9 students for AQA English Language Paper 1, with a strong focus on creative writing and critical reading skills.
This download offers a complete lesson on A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury, showcasing the structure and quality of the full 99-slide unit.
What’s Included in This Sample Lesson:
Context Slide – Key background on Ray Bradbury, Cold War fears, and why the story still matters today
Vocabulary Slide – Student-friendly definitions of challenging words from the story
Comprehension & Inference Questions – Understand plot, setting, character, and deeper meaning
Language & Structure Prompts – Analysis questions in line with Paper 1 Q2–3
Creative Writing Prompt – A task inspired by the story’s themes (e.g. cause and effect, time travel)
Visual Stimulus – A pair of striking images to support imaginative writing
Modern Non-Fiction Link – The environmental impact of AI and water usage: a real-world ethical dilemma linked to short-sighted decisions
Why Use This Sample?
Designed for AQA Language Paper 1 prep
Blends reading and writing in a purposeful, engaging format
Perfect for Year 9 and adaptable for KS4
FULL UNIT HERE: /teaching-resource/resource-13277450
This fully resourced 99-slide PowerPoint is a complete short story unit designed to build confidence and key skills for AQA English Language Paper 1, with a special focus on creative writing. Perfect for KS3, this unit blends engaging fiction, critical thinking, and modern issues, making it ideal for bridging the gap between Key Stage 3 and GCSE.
What’s Included:
10 carefully selected short stories covering a range of genres and themes (sci-fi, dystopia, realism, horror)
For each story:
Context slide (author, themes, why it’s relevant today)
Vocabulary slide
Comprehension, inference, language & structure, and personal response questions
Creative writing prompt (linked to themes and story techniques)
Visual stimulus to support writing
Modern non-fiction context (e.g. Flint Water Crisis, County Lines, Fast Fashion, Testing Culture, AI & environment)
Suggested media clips to deepen understanding
Why It Works:
Fully aligned with AQA Language Paper 1 requirements
Builds reading, analytical, and creative writing skills
Connects fiction to real-world issues and ethical questions
Excellent for discussion, independent work, or assessments
The Short Stories:
The Landlady – Roald Dahl
On the Sidewalk Bleeding – Evan Hunter
Button, Button – Richard Matheson
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas – Ursula K. Le Guin
The Birds – Daphne du Maurier
The Sound of Thunder – Ray Bradbury
Hey, Come On Out – Shinichi Hoshi
There Will Come Soft Rains – Ray Bradbury
Examination Day – Henry Slesar
The Wretched and the Beautiful – E. Lily Yu
*Please note the short stories themselves are not included but are readily available as pdfs online! *
Perfect for Year 9 students but easily adaptable for Year 8 or GCSE intervention groups.
FREE SAMPLE HERE: /teaching-resource/resource-13277463
Get a taste of this fully resourced KS3 English unit with Lesson 8, focusing on symbolism in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
This free sample gives you a clear sense of the structure, depth, and engagement offered by the complete scheme of work.
Love this sample? The full scheme includes:
158-slide PowerPoint
Full assessment & mark scheme
16+ detailed lessons
Creative, analytical, and comparative activities
Stretch content and discussion prompts throughout
FIND IT HERE: /teaching-resource/resource-13274746
Fully Resourced | 158-Slide PowerPoint | KS3 English | Thematic Focus: Inequality, Power, and Control
Bring The Hunger Games to life in your classroom with this comprehensive, ready-to-teach KS3 English scheme of work. Perfect for Year 8 or Year 9, this detailed unit explores key themes like inequality, power, and rebellion, while building students’ confidence in literary analysis and critical writing.
What’s Included:
158-slide PowerPoint covering 16 fully planned lessons – expandable to 25+ with stretch tasks and additional content
Editable Scheme of Work document with lesson objectives, National Curriculum links, and activity outlines
End-of-unit assessment with extract, success criteria, and detailed mark scheme
Differentiated tasks, model answers, and high-quality discussion prompts
Additional activities including:
Creative tasks
Non-fiction text comparison
Dystopian genre study and comparison work
Skills Developed:
In-depth literary analysis (theme, character, language)
Confident, structured analytical writing in a GCSE-style format
Effective quotation selection and use of subject-specific terminology
Critical thinking and awareness of wider social issues
Speaking and listening through guided discussion and debate
FREE SAMPLE LESSON: /teaching-resource/resource-13274766
Try before you buy!
Download the first two fully resourced lessons of a complete and engaging KS3 novel study and creative writing unit inspired by Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds – ideal for Year 7 or Upper Key Stage 2.
About the Full SOW:
The complete unit includes:
Fully resourced lessons (140+ slide powerpoint)
Extracts from Look Both Ways with a focus on different stories, characters and voices
Creative writing techniques such as repetition, simile, metaphor, structure and more!
Final assessment task and detailed mark scheme
Download these free lessons today before exploring the full SOW to transform your KS3 writing curriculum.
/teaching-resource/resource-13253951 - FULL SOW HERE
KS3 Complete SOW, PowerPoint, and Assessment: Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds
This fully resourced 146-slide PowerPoint supports a Scheme of Work built around Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds — a bold, funny, and emotionally rich text that captures the reality of young lives with empathy and authenticity.
Designed for Year 7 (though could be adapted for UKS2 or Year 8), this unit blends creative writing with close reading, oracy, and PSHE themes, while showcasing a diverse range of voices and experiences.
It is also a great transition novel, helping students move from primary to secondary school literature with relatable themes and accessible language that encourages engagement.
Highlights of this editable PowerPoint:
Structured lesson-by-lesson slides including Do Now tasks, key questions, scaffolding, and reflection tasks
Engaging activities that build toward an assessed creative writing outcome, with embedded narrative techniques
Deep links to Personal Development, exploring topics such as grief, poverty, bullying, friendship, and resilience
Focused grammar and vocabulary mini-lessons (e.g. repetition for effect, figurative language, varied sentence structures)
Opportunities for paired discussion, independent writing, and group presentations
Culturally responsive teaching that connects students to modern, relatable characters through literary analysis and voice development
Encourages reading for pleasure and critical thinking around race, community, and growing up
Ideal for teachers seeking a ready-to-deliver, contemporary English unit that inspires thoughtful dialogue, builds writing confidence, and meets key KS3 curriculum objectives.
/teaching-resource/resource-13254032 - FREE SAMPLE HERE
Bring language and identity to the forefront with this fully planned and resourced lesson on The Blue Book of Nebo.
This session explores the importance of language in shaping culture, memory, and identity, with a special focus on the Welsh language and its significance in the novel.
What’s Included in Lesson 5?
Exploration of Language as a Theme – Analysing how bilingualism, linguistic loss, and identity shape the characters’ experiences.
Historical & Cultural Context – Understanding the history of the Welsh language, its suppression, and its modern revival.
Close Textual Analysis – Examining key extracts where language plays a pivotal role in meaning and character development.
Ready-to-Use Resources – Fully planned slides and activities to support both teacher-led and independent learning.
Want More?
Full Scheme of Work Available for £12! – A comprehensive teaching package covering The Blue Book of Nebo in depth, with detailed lesson plans, assessment, and engaging activities designed to spark critical thinking and discussion.
/teaching-resource/year-9-full-sow-novel-study-2023-carnegie-winner-the-blue-book-of-nebo-13224938
Download today and inspire your students with this powerful novel!
A planned lesson for Carnegie Winning novel October, October.
Immerse your students in the beautifully poetic world of October, October with this fully planned and resourced lesson, focusing on metaphor (following on from a lesson on similes) with an extension activity on grammar and editing.
Looking for More?
Get the Full Scheme of Work for just £10! – A comprehensive teaching package covering the entire novel, packed with detailed lessons, assessment materials, and engaging activities to bring *October, October *to life in your classroom.
/teaching-resource/october-october-full-sow-ks3-13064818
Download today and inspire your students with this stunning novel!
Bring The Blue Book of Nebo into your classroom and immerse students in a thought-provoking post-apocalyptic journey that explores survival, resilience, and identity. This SOW offers a highly structured yet flexible approach to developing key literary skills while encouraging deep, meaningful discussions.
Why This Text?
A Powerful Story: A gripping dual-narrative novel that explores themes of isolation, relationships, and heritage in a dystopian setting.
Cross-Curricular Links: Rich connections to PSHE, History, Science, and Geography—sparking discussions on nuclear power and ethical dilemmas.
GCSE Preparation: Supports skills in literary analysis, critical thinking, and comparative study.
Identity & Language: Introduces students to Welsh culture, linguistic identity, and bilingual elements, enhancing their understanding of cultural heritage.
What’s Inside the SOW?
Engaging Lessons: From genre exploration to narrative structure, symbolism, and analytical writing, every lesson is designed to ignite curiosity and deepen comprehension.
Debate & Discussion: Encourages oracy and critical thinking through structured debates on survival ethics, nuclear power, and personal resilience.
Creative & Analytical Tasks: Students engage in dystopian creative writing, comparative literature analysis, and creative activities.
Assessment: an end-of-unit assessment complete with mark scheme.
Key Benefits for Teachers & Students
Ready-to-use PowerPoint 139 slides!
Explicit vocabulary instruction and recall questions
Encourages empathy, personal reflection, and moral reasoning through compelling themes and characters.
Aligns with KS3 National Curriculum objectives, ensuring reading, writing, and comprehension progress.
A further optional 7 actitivites that can be done at the end or thoughout the novel study including looking at Welsh poetry, There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury and Character Mapping.
Download now and bring the world of The Blue Book of Nebo to life in your classroom!
Free lesson sample: /teaching-resource/-13225009
GCSE English Language Skills Booklet (46 Pages) – Analysis & Creative Writing
Boost your GCSE English skills with this engaging booklet! Designed for both analysis and creative writing, it explores a range of novels, helping students understand how authors craft stories while improving their own writing techniques.
How It Works:
Book Cover Analysis – Make inferences about the story.
Extract Study – Read and analyze the opening of each novel.
Evidence Gathering – Find and use key quotes effectively.
Writing Tasks – Engage in analytical or creative writing linked to the text.
Novels Included: Of Mice and Men, The Book Thief, The Lovely Bones, To Kill a Mockingbird, Where the Crawdads Sing and more! (10 TOTAL)
Aligned with AQA GCSE English Language Paper, this resource builds essential skills for exam success. Perfect for students and teachers alike!
This resource was designed to introduce these core skills and begin to develop them in Year 9 students but could easily be used for Year 10 and 11 practice, revision, or cover lessons.
Printable bookmarks - popular and fun designs x12 including ‘romance reader’, ‘enemies to lovers’, ‘just one more chapter’, ‘books are magic’ and many more!
Also includes themed reading challenges based on popular media like Marvel, Harry Potter, Disney, Star Wars and many more!
Each themed bookmark features 8 challenges connected to the theme i.e. Star Wars = read a book set in space.
There are always a mix of book specific and book activities as reading 8 books can be a lot! These still remain connected to the theme i.e. Moana = read by a pond, lake, or the sea.
List of themed bookmarks:
Disney/Pixar
Tangled
Mulan
Luca
The Princess and the Frog
Encanto
The Lion King
Monsters Inc.
Soul
Big Hero 6
Moana
Other:
The Hunger Games
Studio Ghibli
Stranger Things
Harry Potter
Wicked
Star Wars
Lord of the Rings
Marvel
Gilmore Girls x3 (Rory, Jess, and Paris)
5 posters celebrating International Women’s Day, the categories are:
Sports
Business and Entrepreneurship
STEM
Politics and Activism
Arts
The posters feature a world map in the centre with a picture, name, and brief description about the woman’s contribution to their respective field. The world map format is to highlight the diversity of those featured.
21 posters for International Women’s Day celebrating women who have made contributions to the field of Literature.
Included:
Mary Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft
The Brontes
George Eliot
Julian of Norwich
Audre Lorde
Maya Angelou
Agatha Christie
Virginia Woolf
Jane Austen
Jhumpa Lahiri
Malorie Blackman
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Isabel Allende
bell hooks
Han Kang
Olga Tokarczuk
Simone de Beauvoire
Yoko Ogawa
Toni Morrison
Arundhati Roy
Printable bookmarks featuring themed reading challenges based on popular media like Marvel, Harry Potter, Disney, Star Wars and many more!
Each bookmark features 8 challenges connected to the theme i.e. Star Wars = read a book set in space.
There are always a mix of book specific and book activities as reading 8 books can be a lot! These still remain connected to the theme i.e. Moana = read by a pond, lake, or the sea.
List of themed bookmarks:
Disney/Pixar
Tangled
Mulan
Luca
The Princess and the Frog
Encanto
The Lion King
Monsters Inc.
Soul
Big Hero 6
Moana
Other:
Harry Potter
Wicked
Star Wars
Lord of the Rings
Marvel
Gilmore Girls x3 (Rory, Jess, and Paris)
A literary themed Christmas quiz! The perfect way to celebrate some festivity in English lessons or used as a round in a wider quiz.
Fourteen questions plus a tie-breaker
All questions are multiple choice
Answers at the end of the quiz with multiple choice letter and full answer
tie-breaker question is after the answers
Easy format, no prep needed, a bit of fun for pupils Y6-Y11!
INCLUDES:
A powerpoint walking through the project, expectations, and outcomes.
Explaining the learning outcomes, examples of work, and guideline for research.
Should take 1-2 lessons.
A document listing 30+ Black British figures that could be researched for the project, group by career type (e.g. Scientists, Musicians, Politicians).
Each person has their name, their field, and a short intro to their impact making it efficient for pupils to pick varied, appropriate, and impactful figures from history.
Unlike other resources, these are focused on British figures to make sure pupils learn about the impact Black people have had in their own country and not just the US/Civil Rights Movement.
A fun black history month quiz for KS3 and KS4!
14 questions
All (bar two) multiple choice
Answers on seperate slides
Each answer comes with ks3/ks4 recommended books related to question to read if interested in the topic/person
Cross curriculum links with History, PSHE, English and more!
A simple step-by-step guide to choosing a book with an appropriate level of challenge.
Can be used as a poster or visual aid.
Choose a book
Read the blurb
Read opening to assess understanding
Read book or go back to step 1
A fun literary halloween/gothic book quiz!
12 questions, a mix of multiple choice and fill in the blank.
A mix of classics, popular children’s horror, and yes even a Diary of a Wimpy Kid question!
Answers have individual reveal slides at the end of the ppt.