GCSE
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Teaching 1984 in the surveillance culture of schools
Teaching Orwell’s “1984” as a set text in an examination-obsessed and heavily surveilled school system.
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The Turn of the Screw: The Study Guide Edition
This edition of Henry James’s haunting narrative contains a comprehensive study guide as well as activities that stimulate and engage. Aimed specifically at pupils reading the book as an exam text, there are detailed instructions about how to understand the challenging language, to appreciate the novel’s contexts and to write effective essays.
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Brontë’s Wuthering Heights: The Study Guide Edition
Aimed specifically at pupils reading the book for exams. The complete text is punctuated by analysis and questions on every chapter with answers provided at the back. Essential reading for all students and teachers!
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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: The Study Guide Edition
This edition of Shelley’s classic horror novel contains a comprehensive study guide, as well as extensive questions for students to help their understanding. Buy the paperback, and you get the e-book for free, so you can use the embedded web links.
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Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: The Study Guide Edition
Aimed specifically at students and teachers reading the book as an exam text, with a detailed introduction that outlines the historical context of the novel, the ways in which it was influenced by the other genres/writers and how it is structured.
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Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde: The Study Guide Edition
This brilliant edition of Stevenson’s novel may be the answer to your prayers. Written by an experienced teacher and best-selling author, this version is aimed at students who must analyse the text in depth or teachers wanting to deliver outstanding lessons on it.
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My blogs, YouTube, Soundcloud and Twitter channels…
Together with a number of other eminent journalists and educationalists, I co-founded and help run the popular educational blog, Local Schools Network. I also blog for Mumsnet on Tales Behind The Classroom Door. My YouTube channel is Wonderfrancis. My Soundcloud Channel is Electric Schubert. I am @wonderfrancis on Twitter. Other blogs: A Streetcar Named Desire for […]
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Proof that GCSE are more rigorous than O Levels?
I spent an interesting morning at Television Centre today, appearing on Broadcasting House, the Sunday morning magazine show hosted by the affable Paddy O’Connell. Taking a light-hearted look at the current O Level and GCSE debate, he sat an English O Level question and a GCSE one; they were both ‘writing’ or composition questions. As a […]
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Wilfred Owen’s poetry — a Prezi with links to YouTube explanations of the poems
Wilfred Owen’s poetry and life on Prezi
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Using personal experience to improve your writing
Using personal experience to improve on Prezi
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How did Edinburgh influence the writing of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
I think I’m getting a bit better at making these videos now. I produced this video for my GCSE pupils who have not been to Edinburgh but really need to know how the city influenced the writing of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for their English Literature exam. Robert Louis Stevenson had a love-hate relationship with […]
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Five reasons why Media Studies is a great subject
I used to be a bit sceptical about the whole idea of Media Studies until I started teaching it at A Level. The process of choosing a suitable syllabus (we opted for OCR), devising schemes of work and delivering the lessons over the last few years has now convinced me that it should be an […]
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A grade essay on A Passionate Shepherd and The Nymph’s Reply
Plan: Passionate shepherd… Nymph’s reply… Sims: -Direct language -Rhythm Diffs: -Imagery (remember caesura!) – Answer: In ‘The Passionate Shepherd’ a shepherd is pleading to a nymph (a beautiful woman) to go and live with him in the countryside. To persuade the nymph to go with him, Marlowe uses beautiful imagery of nature being harmonious […]
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How does Hemingway develop a sense of anticipation and drama at the beginning of the Old Man and the Sea?
Hemingway’s opening is dramatic for a number of reasons. Read through the first two pages and/or listening to my podcast, and then list FOUR ways Hemingway develops a real sense of anticipation in the opening of the novel. Do you agree with these points? 1. Hemingway immediately tells us that there is a great deal […]
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Composed on Westminster Bridge — an explanation for GCSE English Literature Podcast
Composed on Westminster Bridge; an audio explanation by Francis Gilbert “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” is a sonnet by William Wordsworth describing London, viewed from one of the bridges over the Thames, in the early morning. It was first published in 1807. Earth has not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of […]
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Town and Country quiz – revising the poems
Please add in annotations to the poems if/when you see fit as you are answering these questions London What does Blake notice in every face he meets? (weakness, woe or sorrow) TRUE OR FALSE: ‘Mind-forged manacles’ are chains created by minds which have been oppressed or brainwashed They are a special type of clothing people […]
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Comparing Poems from Town and Country — mock exam questions
Comparing poem from Town and Country by FGI Comparing The Passionate Shepherd to His Love and The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd. Marlowe’s poem is very passionate. What imagery does the poet use to make the shepherd’s love seem so passionate? What are the delights that the shepherd is offering? In Ralegh’s poem, the […]
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Comparing Lake Isle of Innisfree and A Dead Harvest In Kensington
How to write a fandaglistic hyperpolished poetry essay in timed conditions. Use this frame to help you! Explore the different ways in which the poets portray nature in ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’’ and ‘A Dead Harvest in Kensington’ Introduction: where you introduce the poems by explaining BRIEFLY what they are about. Remember you get […]
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War Poetry – analysing and thinking about the poem, improving essays
Learning objective: to learn how to use quotation to develop your criticisms of the poems Key quotes: “German guns” Eyes were wild blindfolded English bullet in his heart Abject fear of death Deserter’s grave Panicked down the trench Mother’s grief The Deserter “To add more sympathy at the end, the poet goes on to say […]
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Compare in which the poets movingly portray sympathy for the loss of life in wartime in these two poems: The Deserter and The Hero.
Format: Explain poem 1 Explain poem 2 Similarities In imagery and language Structure and themes Differences In imagery and language Structure and themes Conclusion to the question.
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The Opening of the Novel — True or false questions, analysing the opening
True or false? Gabriel Oak complains about Bathsheba’s vanity in the first chapter. Gabriel Oak is a shepherd NOT a farmer at the beginning of the novel. Oak rescues Bathsheba from dying of suffocation in his hut. Bathsheba doesn’t want to marry Oak because she does not love him. Oak would have been financially […]
The government is wrong to devalue vocational qualifications
Vocational courses help students develop key skills employers are crying out for. League tables should reflect this The government’s decision to drastically downgrade the value of vocational qualificationsis deeply troubling for teachers like me, and must be sending many schools and colleges into a tailspin of despair. At the moment over half a million teenagers are […]