51ºÚÁÏ

This detailed and engaging lesson enables students to gain an understanding of what animal classes are, and which animals belong to the different categories. Furthermore, they learn to categorise animals themselves, using scientific knowledge of the features of each animal class. Students justify their choices using critical thinking skills. Students learn through a number of fun and interactive tasks, which enable them to: - Define each animal class and understand its features; - Exemplify each animal class, justifying their choices; - Use research and investigative skills to categorise animals for whom the class is not immediately obvious; - Evaluate the learning and understanding of themselves and their peers. The resources include: -Visually engaging and comprehensive whole-lesson presentation; -Resources for the card-sorting activity; -A categorising and justifying worksheet (and answer sheet for teacher); -An investigation log; -Step-by-step lesson plan. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final page of the slide.

This engaging and detailed lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of the lead protagonist in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Victor Frankenstein. The lesson places a particular focus upon how Victor fits the role of a tragic hero, and it studies the actions and behaviours that lead to his inevitable demise. Students also analyse how Shelley uses the character of Victor to present key messages about religion, unchecked ambition, and the treatment of the ‘others’ in society. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through: - Defining the role of the tragic hero and exploring how Victor personifies these features; - Understanding prevailing attitudes towards religion, ambition, and appearances, and investigating how Victor would have been received considering these ideas; - Reading and understanding extracts in which Victor’s fatal flaws are evident, and considering how they are relevant; - Analysing how Shelley utilises Victor and his demise to present key messages to readers; - Linking knowledge of time, place, and author, and relating these to specific areas of the text; - Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and substantial; (including an animated Frankenstein’s monster to guide them through the lesson); - Mood map - to track Victor’s role in the plot and eventual destruction; - ‘Frankenstein’s Actions’ worksheet; - Analysis template with success criteria for creating well-structured responses; - Comprehensive lesson plan. There are also opportunities for group learning, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. This was originally taught to middle-ability year 10 groups, but can easily be differentiated for groups of different ages and abilities.

The year is 2086, and the students are needed for a special mission! This space mission has been designed to provide students with a fun and interesting group challenge, whilst also building key skills in critical thinking and collaboration, and essential knowledge for Science, English, and Mathematics. Students are placed in a scenario in which Earth is no longer habitable, and humans must seek to move to another planet in the Universe. Compiled for them is information on each of the potentially most habitable planets that are known to man (these are the real planets that have been confirmed by NASA and other agencies as having the most potential for life). In reading the key information, students will be drawing upon their knowledge of Science terminology, and will need to make some Maths calculations to work out implications of living on different planets. What will become clear fairly quickly is that none of the potential planets are perfect, and they must use reasoned judgements to determine which of them have cons that could perhaps be overcome. They then present their ideas, using clear and articulate speaking and listening skills, and write up their report, using appropriate written communication (a scaffold is provided to frame this). Everything is provided for you to download, print, and teach: - A comprehensive, whole-activity PowerPoint that guides the students through the mission; - Detailed and colourful information sheets on each of the contender planets for being the next Earth (these include links to amazing websites that can provide the children with more information); - A ‘Pros and Cons’ scaffold, to help students record their findings; - An information sheet on the ‘habitable zone’ around stars; - A scaffold for writing up findings; - Sorting cards for help with determining the key features of habitable planets; - Full teacher guidance. Considering the time and effort that it took to create these resources, I think that they offer exceptional value. Whenever I have used this activity before, it has taken at least 2-3 lessons, including the introduction, starter challenge, main mission, presentations, and write-up. I originally have used this with mid-ability Year 6,7, and 8 groups, but colleagues have easily adapted it for students across key stages 2-4. All images have been cited at the end of the PowerPoint presentation and are licensed for commercial use.

This interesting and highly-stimulating lesson enables students to describe and understand the key aspects of physical geography (e.g. climates, vegetation belts, flora, fauna, mountains, and rivers) and human geography (e.g. types of settlement, populations, use of resources, and trade) in the vast and varied continent of Asia. Whilst gaining a wide range of knowledge about the content, students also become familiar with a wide range of vocabulary pertinent to the geography curriculum. The lesson follows a clear, logical, bite-size learning journey, which guides students towards relevant and constructive learning objectives. Over the course of this journey, they become able to: - Identify Asia on a map, and identify the countries and regions within Asia; - Understand key information about the physical and human geography of the continent, through a fun, interactive quiz; - Retrieve, share, and describe their understanding of the physical and human geography of specific locations in Asia (Dubai, Yala National Park, Gobi Desert, and Tokyo) through a jigsaw model task; - Complete a case study of the physical and human geography of their own place in Asia, and describe their findings to others; -Peer assess each other’s descriptions using the learning objectives. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - Key case-study information sheets on Dubai, the Gobi Desert, Yala National Park and Tokyo; - A blank case study template; - A detailed lesson plan, complete with what the teacher and students should aim to achieve at each stage of the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint. Note: The final task works best with access to ICT/internet resources.

There’s been a murder! This exciting, engaging investigation activity allows students to control the direction of their own learning, through speaking, listening, discussing, and reasoning. I initially created these resources to provide something interesting for the students to engage with for their Functional Skills Speaking and Listening discussions, but it has since been used across Citizenship and PSHE departments, as well as by form groups, as a catalyst for social and moral discussions. Students play detectives aiming to solve the case of a death of an old lady. Using a range of evidence, from video clips, to interviews with key suspects, to positioning events on maps, students work in teams to try and solve the case. They must use skills of communication, to decide which leads to prioritise, and which evidence to discount. They also need to use their skills of literacy, to read and understand key evidence, and skills of numeracy to ensure that they keep their case within budget! Included in this resource pack are: - Full PowerPoint lesson talking students through the case; - A range of ‘Exhibits’ - evidence that the students use to build a case, including video clips; - A map of the local area, to help visualise the events leading up to the death; - Budgetting and recording sheets to track their progress; - A prime supsects list; - Clue cards containing interviews with prime supsects; - Full teacher guidance. Considering the time and effort that it took to create these resources, I think that they offer exceptional value. Whenever I have used this activity before, it has taken at least 2-3 lessons, including the introduction, investigation, conclusions, and evaluation. I orignally have used this with lower ability Year 8,9, and 10 groups, but colleagues have adapted it easily for students of all key stages. All images have been cited at the end of the PowerPoint presentation and are licensed for commercial use.

This is a fun, engaging, and highly informative lesson/set of tasks on Wilfred Owen’s war poem 'Dulce et Decorum est. This has been taught during an observation lesson where the teacher received an Outstanding judgement. It comes complete with: - Engaging and visual PowerPoint to guide students (and teacher!) through the lesson; - Colourful and thought-provoking worksheet for the main analysis task; - Lesson plan/ teacher guidance sheet, which goes through the lesson step-by-step; - Resources to enable the teacher to make ‘flags’ for the development task. As well as building students’ knowledge of the text, they also learn crucial analysis and speaking and listening skills, in addition to using and applying key terminology. All pictures are licensed for commercial use, and image authors cited on the final slide.