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A fully-fleshed resource, which has activities designed for analysis of two extracts from The Woman in Black. There is an activity which looks at Ann Radcliffe’s definitions of horror and terror. Included is an extended writing question and writing frame. I have also added a creative writing task with a model response, plus a re-drafted model which could be used to illustrate the importance of making conscious choices as an author. I use the resource with very able year 8 classes, but it would be suitable for key stage 3 and 4 students alike. 18 slides in length and enough material for up to two lessons. Links have been checked to ensure they are working (May 2025). The visuals on the resource have been updated to fall in line with copyright regulations.

An updated version of this lesson designed for the extract from 127 Hours: Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston from the Edexcel IGCSE anthology for English Language specification A. This resource provides a two-lesson sequence analysing language, suspense and tension. It includes engaging activities on structural techniques, language analysis, and exam-style writing practice.

A lesson designed to teach the poem The Deliverer by Tishani Doshi for the Edexcel A level Literature qualification. The lesson begins with a video covering the abandonment of female children in India and then provides information on the Indian caste system. There is a group language analysis ‘jigsaw’ task, for which a separate worksheet with a set of instructions is provided. Following this, students can engage in a simple activity where they match elements of form and structure to their definitions, and then explore these features in the poem, commenting on their effects. Activities and a simple table are provided for the comparison of The Deliverer to either Child Burial by Paula Meehan or Refugee Mother and Child by Chinua Achebe as unseen poems. Due to copyright, the text of neither poem is supplied but they are easily sourced online. A warning that both poems contain sensitive subject matter and are very emotionally hard-hitting.

A fully-resourced, accessible lesson on My Last Duchess by Robert Browning for the Edexcel IGCSE English Literature (4ET1) Poetry Anthology. This lesson explores Browning’s dramatic monologue, the presentation of power and control, and the Duke’s character. Includes contextual background, vocabulary support, close reading tasks, scaffolded comparison with The Tyger, and an analytical writing frame. Ideal for first teaching or revision — ready to use. Lesson Features and Content: Engaging Starter Activity: Students reflect on how portraits can reveal power, control, and personality, preparing them to engage with the Duke’s psychology. Contextual Background: Clear, student-friendly information about Robert Browning, dramatic monologue form, and the historical inspiration for the Duke of Ferrara. Guided Reading with Vocabulary Support: The poem is unpacked with glossed definitions of key terms (e.g. countenance, dowry, officious), supporting confident and independent reading. Creative Character Exploration: Students complete a visual task mapping how the Duke sees the Duchess versus how she may have felt — helping them understand conflicting perspectives. Worksheet: Using a table, students explore what the Duke’s speech reveals about his character. Suggested vocabulary is included to support students in making their inferences and deductions. Comparative Focus: Includes a structured task and example scaffolds for comparing My Last Duchess with The Tyger — ideal for exam preparation and practice of comparative skills. Analytical Writing Support: A clear PETALETAL paragraph scaffold is provided, helping students write confident, comparative analytical paragraphs suitable for Edexcel IGCSE requirements.

This fully-resourced and engaging lesson on War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy is designed for the Edexcel IGCSE English Literature (4ET1) Poetry Anthology. Students are guided through close reading, form and structure analysis, and thematic discussion with a strong focus on empathy, detachment, and the emotional cost of witnessing war. Includes contextual material, annotation carousel, analytical tasks, and a thoughtful reflective activity. Ideal for first teaching or revision — no prep required. Lesson Features and Content: Thought-Provoking Starter: Students engage with an emotionally impactful photograph, sparking debate about the ethics of war photography and setting the tone for the poem. Contextual Slide on Carol Ann Duffy: A clear, accessible overview of Duffy’s poetic style and the key themes of War Photographer, including the contrast between conflict zones and Western detachment. Guided First Reading: Students choose emotionally striking lines and explore their effects - encouraging personal engagement and analytical discussion. Stanza-by-Stanza Annotation Carousel: In groups, students rotate through stanzas with guided questions to support close reading and analysis of techniques such as metaphor, sibilance, parataxis, enjambment, and volta. Exploration of Form and Structure: The lesson breaks down the poem’s use of sestets, rhyme scheme, and tonal shifts, encouraging students to consider how structure reflects theme and control. Final Reflective Writing Task: Students write a short paragraph in response to a big question: Is the war photographer helping the world – or exploiting suffering? This encourages moral reflection and synthesis of the lesson’s learning.

An upgraded version of this resource with more activities, including exemplar material, a quiz, and support material for extended writing. 2-3 lessons worth of content on Significant Cigarettes, an excerpt from Rose Tremain’s 2007 novel The Road Home, which appears in the Edexcel IGCSE Anthology. These lessons were used to help produce the poetry and prose coursework. Students wrote on the theme of ‘identity’ in three texts. There is a wide range of activities, including guided annotation, discussion questions, analysis and practice paragraph writing. The PowerPoint is 19 slides in length (with an additional 4 slides at the end unused by me in recent teaching), so there should be plenty for you to pick and choose from. The excerpt is not supplied with the lesson.

This fully-resourced lesson is designed to support Edexcel IGCSE Literature students in exploring Rudyard Kipling’s inspirational poem If—. The lesson guides students through a detailed reading and analysis of the poem, focusing on understanding tone, thematic ideas (especially maturity and resilience), and the use of poetic voice. Aimed at high-ability students or those ready to be challenged, it includes clear modelling, a structured annotation activity, and opportunities for independent and creative responses. There is easily enough material for two lessons on the poem (22 slides). Lesson Stages: An overview of the Literature course and exam is provided. Starter: Students Mind Map everything they know about poetry - a generic activity, as this is the first poem in the teaching sequence. Poetic terms introduction: Key poetic terms/techniques displayed around the room and students put up definitions using sticky notes. Thematic engagement activity: students write down the top 5 qualities they think are important in a person - and the top 5 qualities they think are missing. Reading and initial impressions: a YouTube reading is embedded. Analysis of the title and reading of the poem. A contextualising slide is provided. A brief outline of Stoicism and its main proponents. Quotation hunt: students track down quotations related to the key qualities/values alluded to in the poem. Guided teacher-led analysis through annotated slides, demonstrating how students can engage with the poem. Detailed information on the form and structure of the poem. An exam style question with PETAL writing frame.

This resource is a full lesson, which covers the background, form and structure, and imagery of Moniza Alvi’s An Unknown Girl. The lesson was designed for use with students writing their coursework for the Edexcel IGCSE Language A qualification. We wrote our essays on the theme of identity, but the resource could easily be adapted for any question. The presentation is highly visual and word banks are included to support students in the writing of their coursework essay. Analysis of imagery is conducted via group task, where groups have a short section of the poem surrounded by prompts and questions, which they need to annotate their answers to and then present back to the class.

This comprehensive two-lesson resource is designed for the Edexcel IGCSE English Literature course and focuses on U.A. Fanthorpe’s imaginative and emotive poem Half Past Two. Perfect for introducing or revising the text, this updated lesson sequence engages students with visual storytelling, rich language analysis, and a deep exploration of childhood perspective and the concept of time. Lesson 1: Starter Discussion: Thought-provoking questions explore the nature of time, memory, and early childhood. Visual Reading of the Poem: Students experience a visually supported reading of Half Past Two, accompanied by warm, nostalgic images to enrich understanding and evoke the poem’s mood. Thematic Exploration: Learners reflect on the moral of the poem, the idea of time as a social construct, and their emotional responses to the boy and the teacher. Exploding quotations activity with an exemplar. Lesson 2: Compound Word Starter: Students decode Fanthorpe’s invented compound nouns to understand childhood perspective and poetic voice. Form and Structure Focus: Analysis of tercets, free verse, parenthesis, and capitalisation builds understanding of how form reinforces theme. Guided Annotation or Carousel Activity: Students explore key stanzas through targeted questions that prompt analysis of imagery, tone, language choices, and figurative devices. Essay Practice: PETAL scaffold helps students write analytically on how Fanthorpe presents the boy, with a focus on sympathy, imagination, and emotional freedom.

Up to two lessons’ worth of work on the extract from Benjamin Zephaniah’s Young and Dyslexic in the Edexcel IGCSE Language anthology. The resource includes a series of scaffolded activities: Starter: students consider how the education system is one-size-fits-all through the use of a well-known cartoon Students engage with what it would be like to be dyslexic through an image containing only partial text Dyslexia is simply defined A chunked reading of the text Analysis of an exemplar paragraph that answers a typical Paper 1, Question 4 A second starter with a Quick Quiz (comprehension) if you choose to teach the text over two lessons An annotation exercise Practice paragraph writing with sentence stems

A lesson sequence on Wilfred Owen’s poem Disabled. The lesson is designed with the coursework element of the Edexcel IGCSE in mind. Students answered a question on the presentation of ‘identity’. The lesson is highly visual and contains video clips. Also included are slides on Jessie Pope’s Who’s For The Game? and Owen’s most famous poem, Dulce et decorum est, as they provide students with a strong foundation for their study of Disabled. Included in the lesson are writing support materials such as word and phrase banks and a writing frame. Also included is an exemplar response. There should be enough material for 2-3 lessons.

A lesson sequence on the excerpt ‘Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan’ from the Edexcel IGCSE anthology. There may be two lessons worth of material here, focused on having students identify and annotate the key features of language and structure. Then, then class are divided in two and provided with tables to complete, which focus them on analysing either the presentation of the people or the place, for question 4 of Paper 1. The resource may be better used with higher ability students, as the majority of the work is student focused, relying on their thoughts and analyses and those of their partner/group. Two AI-generated images have been used for decoration.

This fully-resourced lesson is designed for students studying Christina Rossetti’s sonnet Remember as part of the Edexcel IGCSE English Literature (4ET1) Poetry Anthology. It supports students in developing a secure understanding of the poem’s ideas and techniques, while encouraging personal reflection on themes of love, loss, memory, and emotional selflessness. Lesson Stages and Features: Sonnets & Technique Matching Starter: A matching task introduces or revises key poetic terms—Volta, Octave, Metaphor, Anaphora, and Imagery—laying the groundwork for confident analysis. Contextual Introduction: Concise contextual notes explore Rossetti’s life, faith, and Victorian values, helping students appreciate how the poem reflects both personal and social attitudes towards death and remembrance. Guided Reading and First Impressions: Students read the poem closely with questions prompting reflection on tone, imagery, and the speaker’s relationship with the addressee. Focused attention is given to the tactile imagery, metaphor of the “silent land,” and the emotional turn at the volta. Language and Structure Analysis: Clear explanation of the Petrarchan sonnet form supports understanding of the poem’s structure as a ‘problem–solution’ format. Model Paragraph and PETAL Planning: Includes an exemplar analytical paragraph and PETAL paragraph scaffold to support students in crafting independent, well-structured exam-style responses.

This fully-resourced and engaging lesson is designed for students preparing for the Edexcel IGCSE English Literature (4ET1) Poetry Anthology. Focused on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116, the resource enables students to explore how the poet presents ideas about love through structure, imagery, and language, while supporting them in building strong exam-style analytical responses. Lesson Features and Content: Engaging Starters: Interactive quizzes and reflective questions (e.g. How do you know when you’re in love?) prompt personal engagement with the poem’s core theme. Accessible Introduction to Form: A student-friendly guide to the sonnet form — including an entertaining breakdown of rhyme scheme, structure (octave, sestet, volta), and Shakespeare’s variation on the traditional Petrarchan form. Contextual Vocabulary Support: Key vocabulary (e.g. impediments, tempests, sickle, bark) is pre-taught and reinforced to support confident reading and annotation. Modern Translation Matching Task: A worksheet is provided for students to match Shakespeare’s language to a modern translation. Quotation ‘Exploding’ Task: Students select key quotations and ‘explode’ their meanings through guided scaffolded notes — supporting precise exploration of imagery and authorial intent. Model Analytical Paragraph Frame: Includes a PETAL paragraph scaffold with sentence starters and prompts, encouraging students to write clear, well-structured responses about how Shakespeare presents love. Challenge and Extension: students consider whether Shakespeare’s view of love remains relevant today — encouraging personal responses and critical thinking.

A full lesson designed to lead students through the extract from Adichie’s TED talk ‘The Danger of a Single Story’ found in the Edexcel IGCSE Literature and Language anthology. The lesson is recommended for students in years 10 and 11. The resource includes a choice of two starter activities, a linked video of the original TED talk (check the notes section for recommended times to watch with your class), a group discussion activity with prompt cards, a table with key quotations and devices for students to complete with analysis, and a PETAL writing frame to support students in writing an exam-style response. This version of the resource is updated and enhanced.

A lesson on An Easy Passage by Julia Copus designed for the Edexcel A level qualification. The lesson begins with a simple starter on stereotypes of adolescents and adults. Following this is some information on ‘liminal space’, the literary concept of thresholds which applies to this poem, and students should take notes. Can they think of any examples of liminal spaces in literature? Then, some observations about the presentation of adolescence versus adulthood are provided and students are asked to gather evidence from the poem supporting these impressions. This leads on to students writing an analytical essay paragraph in response to a question on the theme of adolescence and adulthood, and an exemplar response is provided.

A full lesson on Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale, covering context, form and structure, themes and language. The resource has been updated with new, original images. The resource now contains a three-round quiz testing students knowledge of content and context.

This fully-resourced lesson is designed for students studying Prayer Before Birth by Louis MacNeice as part of the Edexcel IGCSE English Literature (4ET1) Poetry Anthology. It supports students in exploring the poem’s language, themes, form and structure. The resource contains 19 slides of teaching material; enough for two full lessons. Lesson 1: Starter: Students analyse the title through guided questioning, forming predictions about the themes and ideas of the poem. Summary and background: Brief contextualising information is provided, explaining the poem’s literal meaning, its themes, and its publishing. YouTube video: a dramatic reading of the poem. Symbolism: class discussion on the symbolic significance of the setting of the womb. Carousel or guided annotation: key extracts of the poem are provided with thought-provoking questions students need to answer. Lesson 2: Starter: Students write their own prayer from the perspective of an unborn child, thinking about the modern age. Form and structure: key information is provided, including the poem’s prayer-like form, the use of the refrain, and the development in stanza length. Essay writing practice: an essay question on the speaker’s fears for the future and PETAL paragraph writing frame are provided. Exemplar PETAL paragraph provided. Additional task on the theme of nature versus industrialisation.