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Last updated

8 August 2026

pdf, 4.84 MB
pdf, 4.84 MB

The complete teaching companion for Once Before I Go (Phillip McMahon) in the Leaving Cert English Comparative Study, Higher Level, with the preparation already done.

A 24-page PDF written for the teacher, covering all four Higher Level modes: Cultural Context, Literary Genre, Theme or Issue, and General Vision and Viewpoint. All coupling guidance is partner-agnostic, so it works whatever texts you pair the play with.

What’s inside:
  • Before you teach: an unusually full sensitive-content briefing, page-referenced so you can preview each passage — the terminally ill character’s decision to end his life on his own terms and what to check against your school’s guidance, a suicide attempt recounted inside a funny scene, the AIDS material shown on stage, a father’s violence, addiction and recovery across both time periods, transition and transphobia, reported racism, and the slurs the play is directly about — plus practical notes for the classroom.
  • The play for the teacher: story and structure, the voices and figures who carry it, the world of the play, the themes read broadly, how the play is told, and the outlook.
  • A key-moments bank and a quotation and reference bank: the pivotal scenes and the sixteen quotations that do the most work, each referenced by part and page and ready to hand to students.
  • All four modes broken down: what examiners reward, where the play is strong, what to teach, the moments to lean on, and the errors to pre-empt.
  • Teaching the text: a workable sequence built for a play told out of order — establish the three periods first, stop at the end of Part One and record the class’s verdict, teach the transition as a technique, then return to the board once the structure pays out — and the misreadings of Once Before I Go to pre-empt.
  • Running the textbook’s working parts: how to use the companion Student Textbook’s comparison grids, sample paragraphs, mode primers and practice questions in class.
  • Coupling guidance: choosing partner texts and running the comparison.
  • Assessment essentials: PCLM marking, the PEAL paragraph shape, what lifts an answer, and timing.
  • Question-angle banks for every mode, drawn from recent SEC papers.

Written by a practising teacher. Pairs with the companion Student Textbook (sold separately); buy both in the Complete Bundle and save.

Get this resource as part of a bundle and save up to 17%

A bundle is a package of resources grouped together to teach a particular topic, or a series of lessons, in one place.

Bundle

Once Before I Go for the Comparative Study (HL) - Complete Bundle

Everything you need to teach *Once Before I Go* for the Leaving Cert English Comparative Study (Higher Level) in one download: the Student Textbook your class reads from, the Teacher Guide you prepare from, and the free Text Suitability Guide alongside them. London, 2019. Daithí is sixty and newly sober, packing up a flat he emptied to pay for a drug habit and sharing it with Jase, a twenty-two-year-old trans man he took in after talking him off a bridge. Lynn arrives after twenty-five years of silence, carrying wine and her brother's ashes. Then the play goes back — to Dublin in 1987, where the three are young, broke and political. Three parts, no scene divisions, about ninety minutes, with camp, drag and live music built into the form. As a comparative choice it arrives with its own control group: the same people in a society that criminalised them and one that legalised them, with every institution named on both sides. Add reverse chronology, a set that peels away on stage, doubled casting by age, and an ending that continues rather than resolves. The bundle covers all four Higher Level modes (Cultural Context, Literary Genre, Theme or Issue, and General Vision and Viewpoint), and every comparison point is partner-agnostic, so the set works whatever texts you pair the play with. **What's included (three PDF files)** - **Student Textbook (30 pages):** the play analysed in continuous prose students can read independently. Each mode chapter opens with a "Reading for this mode" primer and "What the examiners ask", works through the play's key moments with close readings and key-moment tables, and closes with a sample comparative paragraph the student completes with their second text, "Setting this text against others" notes, and a comparison grid: the *Once Before I Go* column filled in, the Text 2 and Text 3 columns left for their own combination. Eight original, SEC-style practice questions, two per mode, end the book. References are given by part and page, since the play has no scene divisions. Licensed for the purchasing teacher to copy for their own students. - **Teacher Guide (24 pages):** your preparation, done. A full, page-referenced sensitive-content briefing and practical notes before you teach; the play read for the teacher, from story and structure to the outlook; a key-moments bank and a quotation and reference bank holding the sixteen quotations that do the most work, every entry referenced by part and page; each mode broken down into what examiners reward, where the play is strong, what to teach and the errors to pre-empt; a workable teaching sequence built for a play told out of order; notes on running the textbook's grids, sample paragraphs and practice questions in class; coupling guidance for choosing partner texts; assessment essentials (PCLM marking, the PEAL paragraph shape, timing); and question-angle banks drawn from recent SEC papers. - **Text Suitability Guide (2 pages, free):** the at-a-glance overview: synopsis, themes, sensitive content, and the play's strengths in the comparison modes at both Higher and Ordinary Level. The comparison grid rows are identical across every Prescribed Shelf comparative Student Textbook, so if your other texts are covered too, the three books line up row by row for your exact text combination. Buy the bundle and save on the separate prices. Written by a practising teacher.

£14.99

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