english lesson ideas

A Christmas Carol was sold as a hugely popular ‘Christmas Crawler’ in the Victorian era for a shilling; a meagre amount but far from affordable for all Victorians so it tended to be bought by one person and then read aloud to many. In my mind these readings take place… Read More

Starting a new text with your class is always a joy, reading collectively and hearing their opinions and reflections never fails to brighten my day. But how do you teach the text in a way that is creative and animated whilst also letting the crucial exam requirements take centre stage?… Read More

A new year more often than not means a completely new set of learners, each with their own individual ways of learning. Add into the mix those who do not have English as a first language, have additional needs or are more able, and it can be tricky to know… Read More

Time is of the essence. Never has that adage been more true than in the current educational climate: we are working harder and harder, and expectations for student progress are increasing year on year. I want ALL of my students to make outstanding progress, but that means that they all… Read More

I have an obsession. One that drives my teaching and learning. One that caught your attention just now. Go on – admit it. A short sentence which begins ‘I have an obsession’ probably makes you think I am going to reveal bones in the caretaker’s cupboard, a hoard of football… Read More

  We all want young people to read, to enjoy books, to get lost in a story.  But how do you do that with readers who just don’t want to read, or who find it difficult getting through a book? You have to grab those readers with that… Read More

Here's a thought experiment: what current books will be read in the future? What movies and TV shows will they watch a century from now? What songs from 2015 will they listen to in 2215? I don’t mean this in an academic or archival sense; I'm talking about the works people pick up and enjoy on their own — the way Pride and Prejudice and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes still grip us despite being over a century old. Read More

What can be done in Year 9 to ease students into the new demands they will face? The Collins GCSE Core book includes a suggested scheme of work for the year which highlights three different phases over the school year. The Teacher’s Guide spells out a range of ideas, but I want to deal with elaborating on one from the first term in the scheme - ‘Building skills and sharing stories’ Read More

The re-introduction of the 19th century novel onto the GCSE English Literature syllabus is one of the greatest challenges for teachers today. This isn’t because we haven’t taught it before, or because we don’t believe that students will benefit from reading novels from the Literary canon. It is because, all students, of all abilities will now be tested on their knowledge of these novels in exam conditions. They will not only need to have read, understood and analysed these texts, but remember them well enough to refer to them, unaided, in the exam. As I see it, there are five key challenges facing teachers. Here are my ideas on how to overcome them. Read More

Here are our top tips on how to get your students engaged in nineteenth-century literature and excited for every lesson! Read More