About Rachel Clarke
Hello, my name is Rachel and I am the director of Primary English, a consultancy working with teachers and leaders across the UK to raise standards in literacy. I live in Coventry where I taught for many years and then worked as a Literacy Consultant for Coventry LA.
I've worked in education for nearly three decades and have been an English subject leader, SENCO, Deputy Headteacher and Literacy Consultancy. I have a huge collection of children's books that I like to share with teachers on my training courses and when I work with them in school.
I have written several books including Assess Fluency: Reception to Year 6 published by Collins and I enjoy writing magazine and blog articles about teaching English.
Introduction
English expert, Rachel Clarke, uses inspiring ideas and texts that will help your pupils to become wonderful writers. Watch the below video to learn more about the passion for reading that drives Rachel's incredible lesson plans.
Try a sample of Rachel Clarke's WOW lesson.
Year 5 - Past Perfect Forms: Back to the Beginning
In this lesson, you will explore the English objective relating to the use of the perfect form of verbs to mark relationships of time and cause. Children will learn specifically about the past perfect and how to form it.
Rachel Clarke's WOW English Lessons
Rachel Clarke's WOW lessons focus on the difficult to teach objectives of the English National Curriculum for KS1 and KS2.
Registration to EuHu is free, but you need a 'Primary Bundle' subscription to access the WOW lessons.
Register & try Rachel Clarke's Free sample above or visit our subscription page for more information.
Year 1 - Joining words and clauses using 'and': What do you like?
Join English expert, Rachel Clarke, as she shares a lesson that helps children to extend their sentences using 'and' to join words and clauses, using ideas from the story, 'Red Rockets and Rainbow Jelly' by Sue Heap and Nick Sharratt. In this lesson, you will explore the English objective relating to joining words and joining clauses using 'and'. Children will recap their understanding of sentence punctuation. They will practise using their new knowledge to write sentences about things that they like.
Join English expert, Rachel Clarke, as she shares a lesson that helps children to extend their sentences using 'and' to join words and clauses, using ideas from the story, 'Red Rockets and Rainbow Jelly' by Sue Heap and Nick Sharratt. In this lesson, you will explore the English objective relating to joining words and joining clauses using 'and'. Children will recap their understanding of sentence punctuation. They will practise using their new knowledge to write sentences about things that they like.
Year 1 - Question marks: Questions, Questions
Join our English expert, Rachel Clarke, as she shares this lesson which focuses on deepening children's understanding of writing question sentences. In this lesson, you will explore the English objective relating to the introduction of question marks to demarcate sentences. Children will recap their understanding of sentence punctuation and extend this to include punctuating questions. They will practise using their new knowledge to sort sentences and add full stops and question marks. They will then apply their learning to write their own questions.
He We Are: Using apostrophes for omission Join English expert, Rachel Clarke, as she shares a lesson that helps children to understand the use of apostrophes for omission. In this lesson, you will explore the English objective relating to apostrophes to mark where letters are missing in spelling. The learning will take place in the context of the book, Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth, by Oliver Jeffers. The book is written in the first person, so children will also learn to recognise this narrative voice. Children will apply their learning by writing their own notes to a newborn child or visitor to Earth.
Year 2 - Writing Commands: Simon Says
Join English expert, Rachel Clarke, as she shares a lesson that will help children to learn about commands by playing a game of Simon Says. They will then identify commands in the poem 'Don’t Lean Back on Your Chair, Claire by Jez Alborough' before writing their own short poem that includes command sentences.
Year 3 - Present Perfect: Product Review
Join English expert, Rachel Clarke, as she shares a lesson that will deepen children's understanding of different tense forms by introducing them to the present perfect. In this lesson, you will explore the English objective relating to the use of the present perfect form of verbs instead of the simple past. Children will learn specifically about the present perfect and how to form it. They will apply their learning to write product reviews about fictitious products they have bought. They will practise revising and editing these in order to bring their writing up to a published standard.
Join English expert, Rachel Clarke, as she shares a lesson on subordinate clauses using the book A Planet Full of Plastic by Neal Layton. In this lesson, you will explore the English objective relating to extending the range of sentences with more than one clause by using a wider range of conjunctions including when, if, because, although. There will be a specific focus on the conjunction if and using it as a subordinate clause sentence opener. Children will apply their learning to write short poems about the environment.
Join English expert, Rachel Clarke, as she shares this engaging lesson designed to deepen children's understanding of punctuating direct speech. In this lesson, you will explore the English objective relating to using and punctuating direct speech. Children will learn to use full speech punctuation and to set out dialogue correctly. They will apply their learning to write a scene from a well-known traditional tale that includes dialogue between characters. They will practise proofreading their writing to check for accurate punctuation.
Join English expert, Rachel Clarke, as she shares this engaging lesson centered around teaching children to use expanded noun phrases with help from the brilliant book, Firebird, by Saviour Pirotta. In this lesson, you will explore the English objective relating to noun phrases expanded by the addition of modifying adjectives, nouns and proposition phrases. Children will learn specifically about expanding nouns with prepositional phrases, with all children writing expanded noun phrases that use the preposition with. They will apply their learning to write an additional challenge for Prince Ivan from Firebird by Saviour Pirotta. They will practise revising and editing their writing to bring it up to a published standard.
Join English expert, Rachel Clarke, as she shares this engaging lesson using The Lost Happy Endings by Carol Ann Duffy and Jane Ray to help children identify similes and use them in their own writing to enhance descriptions. In this lesson, you will explore the English objective considering how authors have developed characters and settings in what pupils have read, listened to or seen performed. This is done through a focus on similes and how they are used to create description.
Year 5 - Past Perfect Forms: Back to the Beginning
Join English expert, Rachel Clarke, as she shares her expert lesson that will help your children understand the past perfect form of verbs. In this lesson, you will explore the English objective relating to the use of the perfect form of verbs to mark relationships of time and cause. Children will learn specifically about the past perfect and how to form it. They will revisit previous learning about fronted adverbials. They will apply their learning to write a short story in reverse chronological order. They will practise revising and editing these in order to bring their writing up to a published standard.
Year 6 - The Agentless Passive: Write Like an Expert
Join English expert, Rachel Clarke, as she shares a lesson that will develop children's understanding of the passive voice and the agentless passive, helping them to write like an expert. In this lesson, you will explore the English objective relating to the use of the passive to affect the presentation of information in a sentence. Children will learn specifically about the agentless passive and how to use it to create an authoritative written tone. They will also learn about layout devices such as headings, sub-headings, body text and text boxes etc. Children will apply their learning to write double page information spreads about Darwin and/or evolution. They will revise and edit their work to bring it up to a published standard.
Year 6 - Using a Range of Sentence Structures: Build a Sentence
Join English expert, Rachel Clarke, as she shares a lesson that will help children revisit and apply their knowledge of grammar punctuation and sentence structure. In this lesson, you will revisit a range of sentence objectives from the National Curriculum. The children will identify these features in given examples, then practise using these in a game. The lesson ends with children applying their knowledge of punctuation and sentence structure in order to create a descriptive paragraph.
