Tap the word ‘revision’ into Teachit’s search box and you’ll unleash 100 resources to help your students crank (or grind) up a gear or two, from revision packs to handy grids, to quizzes and quests. But of course there’s more! Our search engine also points you to other areas of the site, where you’ll find invaluable revision tips and treasure troves of further resources. Take yourself to the Poetry Place, which Trevor has been stocking with goods for GCSE revision, and to Technonanny, who has been similarly generous with resources for A Level Language. For guidance and inspiration, remind yourself of last year’s ‘skills and exam preparation’ issue of English Teaching Online, and dig out our editors’ favourite revision resources. Job done (as the Forth bridge painters remark daily).

The Teachit book group’s new book of the month is Gangsta Rap by Benjamin Zephaniah – ‘a fast-paced, exciting’ narrative, ‘combining drama, tension, humour and pathos’.

• Does it excuse teenagers’ anti-social behaviour?
• Is it just for ‘difficult’ groups?
• Does the presence of the character Yinka, an intelligent woman and positive influence, do enough to counter the offensiveness of the boys’ sexist attitudes and language

Teachit book group

Now's the time to revise those poems, eh? And you need a few fresh approaches if you're going to:

• keep your students on task
• give them confidence and
• keep yourself feeling fresh, too!

Over the next few weeks, Trevor will be suggesting ways of revising poems and staying sane...

www.teachit.co.uk/poetryplace

Words and Whiteboards – building your ICT confidence and competence
Friday 27 June 2008 at Bath Spa University, Newton St. Loe, Bath

The Big Idea

Summer is a coming in. It might seem unlikely now, but June will bring a little release. Exams will arrive, classes will go, and you’ll suddenly find you can draw breath. Time to spread your wings, get out of the classroom for a day and learn something new.

This June you’re warmly invited to our third Big Day Out. We’re hosting a training day for English teachers to help you do more with ICT – practical, inspiring and creative approaches that you can use right across the subject. It’s about English teaching, not about technology for its own sake, so the techniques will be interesting, easy to learn and thoroughly adaptable. Teachit has always focused on what teachers actually want and need – and our Big Day Out will take exactly the same approach. Result: a raft of realistic ideas that you can take back and use the very next day. Not to mention next week, next month, next year…

Find out more ...