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FREE RESOURCE – If you find this lesson helpful, I’d really appreciate it if you could take a moment to leave a review. A lot of thought and care has gone into planning these materials. This is the first in my complete set of 15 ready-to-teach lessons for the 2025 Eduqas Poetry Anthology (assessment year 2027). This fully resourced lesson on William Blake’s The Schoolboy includes a thesis-based writing task, technique support, scaffolded activities, and visually engaging slides — ideal for helping students build confidence with unseen and anthology poetry.

This lesson introduces students to the sights, sounds and structure of Elizabethan England – the world Shakespeare lived and wrote in. Designed for Year 7, the lesson blends accessible historical context with rich sensory writing tasks to help students step into the shoes of different Elizabethan characters, from nobles to market traders. Includes: Clear key questions to guide learning A scaffolded vocabulary slide on “Hierarchy” A choice-based sensory writing task with detailed examples A creative diary entry activity with social roles to choose from A final reflection using emoji responses and sentence starters Suitable for lower ability and SEN learners with visual and sentence-level scaffolding throughout Perfect for building historical understanding ahead of any Shakespeare unit.

Literacy Teaching Order Are you looking to enhance your students’ literacy skills? Look no further than our comprehensive teaching resource on sequential language skills! Our approach is specifically tailored to students aged 11-15 and provides a structured and sequential approach to teaching literacy. By providing a sequential approach to teaching language skills, our resource ensures that students have a strong foundation in the basic building blocks of language and can progress to more complex skills as they gain mastery. With our resource, educators can help their students develop the skills needed to communicate effectively and confidently in written language. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS RESOURCE DOES NOT INCLUDE ANY LESSONS BUT IS A SPECIFIC ORDER TO TEACH LITERACY TO 11-15 YEAR OLDS. There are 19 topics included in the sequence. They are as follows (in a mixed up order): Expanding noun phrases Personification and oxymorons Sentence openers Synonyms and antonyms Apostrophes and commas Homophones Verbs and Adverbs Fronted adverbials: Alliteration Similes and metaphors Structuring and organising creative writing Nouns Concrete, abstract, and compound nouns: Ellipses, question marks, and exclamation marks Collective and plural nouns Adjectives Simple, compound, and complex sentences Colons and semicolons Parenthesis

A full lesson on Claude McKay’s I Shall Return, created for the new EDUQAS poetry anthology (first assessment 2027). This lesson explores emotional longing, identity, and nature through guided analysis, vocabulary tasks, thesis-style writing, and visually rich slides. Key Question: How does McKay explore longing for home and emotional healing through nature? Supporting Questions: – What natural imagery and memories does McKay associate with home? – How does the repetition of “I shall return” shape the speaker’s emotional journey? – Why does returning home represent more than just a physical place? Now includes one clear slide: The Poets’ Messages and Who They’re Speaking To – all poems summarised on one page with message, audience, and critique. Easy to use, student-friendly, and straight to the point.

A complete lesson on Thomas Hardy’s Drummer Hodge, fully aligned with the new EDUQAS anthology (first assessment 2027). Includes vocabulary building, guided analysis, thesis-style writing, and engaging visuals to support understanding of Hardy’s portrayal of war, alienation, and remembrance. Key Question: How does Hardy present the loneliness and tragedy of a young soldier’s death in war? Supporting Questions: – What emotions are suggested by Hardy’s description of Hodge’s burial and setting? – How do natural images like the stars and trees create a sense of alienation? – Why do you think Hardy wanted readers to remember Hodge? Now includes one clear slide: The Poets’ Messages and Who They’re Speaking To – all poems summarised on one page with message, audience, and critique. Easy to use, student-friendly, and straight to the point.

Introduce students to the sights, smells and sounds of Shakespeare’s world through immersive empathy writing and sensory description tasks.

Lesson 4 – Actors & Audience Compare the lively behaviour of Elizabethan theatre audiences to modern expectations, with a focus on projection and performance skills.

Lesson 2 – Inside Elizabethan England Explore how society was structured in Shakespeare’s time and how social class shaped people’s experiences.

Lesson 5 – Shakespeare’s Language Break down barriers to understanding Shakespeare’s language through paraphrasing, decoding, and discussion of meaning.

Lesson 7 – Comic Relief and the Fool Unpick the role of comic characters in serious stories and analyse how Shakespeare uses humour to reveal deeper truths.

Lesson 8 – Theatrical Devices Introduce students to dramatic techniques like soliloquies, stage directions and monologues through short performance tasks.

Lesson 10 – Dramatic Irony Analyse how dramatic irony creates tension and audience engagement, with links to Romeo and Juliet and familiar stories.

Lesson 12 – Writing Your Own Soliloquy Support students in writing powerful, emotionally rich soliloquies that express vulnerability and inner conflict.

Lesson 3 – The Globe Theatre Discover the unique design of The Globe Theatre and how its structure shaped the performance experience for actors and audience alike.

Lesson 13 – Conflict in Relationships Explore family and social conflict through character arguments, focusing on the language of tension and power dynamics.

Lesson 6 – Power and the Monarchy Examine Queen Elizabeth I’s leadership and influence, and explore how power shaped Shakespeare’s world and writing.

Lesson 15 – Analysing Language and Structure Focus on Shakespeare’s use of language, structure and rhetorical technique with extract-based close analysis.

Lesson 17 – Writing a Poem Students plan and write their own poem using Shakespearean themes, incorporating imagery, rhyme and emotional tone.

Lesson 11 – Soliloquies – Inner Thoughts Delve into soliloquies as a dramatic device by analysing Macbeth’s dagger speech and uncovering hidden emotion.

Lesson 14 – Short Story – Theme of Betrayal Encourage creative writing through the lens of betrayal, using planning grids and modelled language to guide students.