1. The Crimean War was fought between Britain and Imperial Russia from 1853-1856.
For the first time in history, newspapers carried eye-witness reports as well as detailing not just the triumphs of war but the mistakes and horrors as well.
The most significant moment in the Crimea came during the Battle of Balaclava. An order given to the British army's cavalry division (known as the Light Brigade) was misunderstood and 600 cavalrymen ended charging down a narrow valley straight into the fire of Russian cannons.
Over 150 British soldiers were killed, and more than 120 were wounded. At home the news of the disaster was a sensation and a nation that had until then embraced British military exploits abroad began to question the politicians and generals who led them.
Provide students with an image of the Crimean War and ask students to read and add contextual details to compile a spider diagram of information
Then, play video:
Consolidating info and asking students to jot down further ideas
Vs.
AO1: Read and understand texts, providing a critical, personal response; using quotations to support and illustrate interpretations
AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate
AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written

2. Meet Tennyson… Thackeray Darwin
Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England into a middle-class line of Tennysons, but had a noble and royal ancestry.
Two of his elder brothers also wrote poetry, and one other brother, Edward, was institutionalized at a private asylum
Very good friends with Thackeray and Darwin
Was made poet laureate by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria became an ardent admirer of Tennyson's work, writing in her diary that she was "much soothed & pleased" by reading In Memoriam A.H.H.after Albert's death.
Provide students with an image of Tennyson and ask to create spider diagram with the essential facts
Then watch video to enhance this:
Thackeray
Darwin
AO1: Read and understand texts, providing a critical, personal response; using quotations to support and illustrate interpretations
AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate
AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written

3. ‘Causeless as the sacrifice was, it was most glorious … The British soldier will do his duty, even to certain death, and is not paralyzed by feeling that he is the victim of some hideous blunder’.
Then explain to students how Tennyson was motivated to write this poem by reading a newspaper article, a quote here from the Times
^ watch one minute video which sees a historian discussing how Tennyson was motivated to write the poem – try and get students to make the link (once they’ve read the poem) to the use of “blunder” which recurs in his poem
- The Times
AO1: Read and understand texts, providing a critical, personal response; using quotations to support and illustrate interpretations
AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate
AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written

4. S Structure Third person (omniscient narrator) Six stanzas
Clear attempt at rigid structure in stanza 1
Stanzas grow in length as the poem (and battle) progresses
Structure becomes less rigid
Probe student answers – what could six stanza rep? etc
Six stanzas: 600 men
Stanzas grow in length as the men are in battle
Strong structure in stanza 1: long lines followed by shorter 5 syllable one > representative of the cavalry formation and order
As men begin to loose the battle/control (stanzas four and five) stanza structure is considerably less clear – more 6 syllable lines as they loose control
Shorter stanza lines: loss of men?
Omniscient narrator: representative of newspaper observer
AO1: Read and understand texts, providing a critical, personal response; using quotations to support and illustrate interpretations
AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate
AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written

5. S Sussing structure dactylic dimeter
Now, which two syllables per line are STRESSED?
How many syllables are there per line?
"Forward, the | Light Bri/gade!"  Was there a | man dis/mayed? Not though the | soldier knew  Someone had | blundered.  Theirs not to | make re/ply,  Theirs not to | reason why,  Theirs but to | do and die. 
"Forward, the Light Brigade!"  Was there a man dismayed? Not though the soldier knew  Someone had blundered.  Theirs not to make reply,  Theirs not to reason why,  Theirs but to do and die. 
"Forward, the Light Brigade!”   Was there a man dismayed? Not though the soldier knew  Someone had blundered.  Theirs not to make reply,  Theirs not to reason why,  Theirs but to do and die. 
"Forward, the Light Brigade!"  Was there a man dismayed? Not though the soldier knew  Someone had blundered.  Theirs not to make reply,  Theirs not to reason why,  Theirs but to do and die. 
STRESSED
unstressed
The use of “falling” rhythm, in which the stress is on the first beat of each metrical unit, and then “falls off” for the rest of the length of the meter, is appropriate in a poem about the devastating fall of the British brigade.
DUNdundunDUNdundun – heartbeat sound ? Sound of hooves?
Shorter line here – 5 syllable – heart skips a beat?
Dactyl
dactylic dimeter
AO1: Read and understand texts, providing a critical, personal response; using quotations to support and illustrate interpretations
AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate
AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written

6. S
What about rhyme?
"Forward, the Light Brigade!" Was there a man dismayed? Not though the soldier knew Someone had blundered. Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die. Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!" Was there a man dismayed? Not though the soldier knew Someone had blundered. Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die. Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. A B C D E
Rhyming couplet
Slant/Near rhyme
Triplet
Break in momentum by random rhyme could reflect the fall of a soldier/horse
What could the breaks in momentum caused by the unrhymed lines represent?
AO1: Read and understand texts, providing a critical, personal response; using quotations to support and illustrate interpretations
AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate
AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written

7. What could this arguably chaotic rhyme scheme reflect?
Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
   All the world wondered.
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre stroke
   Shattered and sundered.
Then they rode back, but not
   Not the six hundred.
Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
   All the world wondered.
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre stroke
   Shattered and sundered.
Then they rode back, but not
   Not the six hundred. A B C D E F
What do these
AO1: Read and understand texts, providing a critical, personal response; using quotations to support and illustrate interpretations
AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate
AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written

8. Glorifying war/soldiers Negative portrayal of war
Valley of death
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
Sabring the gunners there,
hero fell.
They that had fought so well
All that was left of them,
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
   Noble six hundred!
When can their glory fade?
valley of Death
Someone had blundered.
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
Plunged in the battery-smoke
   Shattered and sundered.
   Not the six hundred.
Stormed at with shot and shell,
All that was left of them,
Ask students to create two columns and ask students to place quotes from the poem under each relevant heading
Additional stretch and challenge: get students to say why each quote has been placed under each heading
AO1: Read and understand texts, providing a critical, personal response; using quotations to support and illustrate interpretations
AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate
AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written

9. Point Evidence Technique Explanation
"The Charge of the Light Brigade" glorifies war and the duty to die for one's country. How far do you agree?
Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade remains ambivalent in it’s true standing on the status of war. The battlefield in to which the soldiers “boldly” charge is described negatively throughout the poem as the “valley of death”, “jaws of Death” and “mouth of hell”. The metaphorical facial references made by Tennyson here suggest that war is consumptive and inhumanely consumes the brave soldiers who dare to enter. By personifying death and giving it “jaws”, Tennyson renders death into a living being, not only emphasising its importance but its destructive capability in the battlefield.
However, the soldiers are not merely consumed by Tennyson’s negative presentation of the battlefield, as throughout the poem they presented as brave and heroic. Tennyson refers to the soldiers as a “hero” and “noble” and describes how they rode “boldly” into battle. Tennyson uses the adverb “boldly” to emphasise the soldier’s gallant descent into battle and to glorify their sacrifice.
Give students and go through and label pieces
Show grade 8/9 examples
AO1: Read and understand texts, providing a critical, personal response; using quotations to support and illustrate interpretations
AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate
AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written