Telling Tales: Short Stories Anthology Activity Pack for GCSE AQA English Literature

Set text for: AQA

Telling Tales, the varied and engaging short story collection, is a rewarding option for your modern text. This companion provides a variety of stimulating, ready-to-use activities, covering all aspects of the anthology.

Takes the teacher (and students) through the stories in a logical and methodical order with a wide variety of tasks, which would ensure that all students have an understanding of the characters, themes and events

L Deighton, HoD & Peer Reviewer

Activities include:

  • Insightful questions
  • Stimulating reading and writing tasks
  • Pair and group work
  • Creative activities for visual and kinaesthetic learners
  • Appealing tasks based on modern media

Carefully considered structure develops understanding:

  1. Build a foundation for learning and get students interested with introductory pre-reading exercises.
  2. Dig deeper with text-based activities. Every chapter is explored through a range of thought-provoking tasks.
  3. Consolidate knowledge with whole-text activities focusing on: Characterisation • Language • Themes • Setting • Context
    • Bring the threads together with guidance on linking the stories.

All activities are perfectly matched to the GCSE Assessment Objectives, and the fantastic structure makes the pack accessible for your whole class.

Plus! Suggested answers for questions and activities included.

What do teachers say about this resource? (6827)

This is a very useful resource as there are so few resources currently on the market for this anthology. It takes the teacher (and students) through the stories in a logical and methodical order with a wide variety of tasks, which would ensure that all students have an understanding of the characters, themes and events... [It] enhances learning as it provides tasks to cover all of the stories in detail... I particularly like the wide variety of tasks in the booklet and the way they are structured into pre- and post-reading activities.

L Deighton, HoD & Peer Reviewer

The in-depth nature of the resource is really good. There are many activities and there is a lot of support for learners – all extremely valuable... I particularly like the detail and the amount of support provided throughout this resource... Each story's task is in-depth and addresses various aspects of the narrative. I like the focus on characters, themes and language and particularly appreciate these approaches – learners will need to be familiar with different approaches; therefore, having such information is relevant to the English Literature exam... The range of tasks is excellent, ranging from questions to crosswords – so learners can select tasks according to need... The exemplar answers are also very useful. M Tett, Teacher and Independent Reviewer

M Tett, Teacher & Peer Reviewer

Gives staff and students a good starting point to approach the teaching of the short stories. Details and guidance from the board have been in short supply, so I can see the appeal of this resource to schools.

D Corns, Teacher & Peer Reviewer