1. Approaching Unseen Texts
Register Task
Read the unseen text
Thinker: to understand how to approach an unseen text in order to identify what the poem is about.
Super Tough Thinker: to synthesise your knowledge
Tough Thinker: to consider how a poet presents their key themes within an unseen poem

2. Poetry Workshop: the next seven weeks
Approaching and analysing unseen poetic texts
Revising a set of core poems from the Poems of the Decade collection
Comparing and contrasting core poems with unseen examples
December test on poetry.

3. Poetry Workshop: Information about A2 Exam

4. Poetry Workshop: How to approach this?
Spend approximately 12 minutes reading and annotating the text. And then take the following steps:
1. W: hat is the poem about and what are the main themes?
2. M: ethods and techniques used by the poet to communicate these themes?
3. Q: uotation selection. Judiciously select the most important quote.
4. C: comparative points to the named poem

5. Step 1
1. Broadly identify the 5 ws of the text and note the main themes:
Who
What
Where
When
Why
2. Also make note of the key themes and ideas.
5 mins

6. Step Two and Three
Sheers presents the stoicism, resilience and strength of an individual who has discovered that she has breast cancer.
Highlight and annotate your poem considering the following:
What quotes best portray the themes of illness, death and stoicism?
What poetic techniques and methods does the poet use?
Challenge: which poem(s) from Poems of the Decade might be suitable to compare this to?
10 mins

7. Task 2
Remind yourself of the poem ‘A Minor Role’ by Fanthrope.
T: How does the poet present the theme of illness and death?
TT: Select two or three quotes that support your ideas. Write up your interpretation of these quotes. What are the different layers of meaning?
STT: What poetic techniques or methods are being used and how do these shape meaning?
T: How does the poet present the theme of pity vs stoicism?
TT: Select two or three quotes that support your ideas. Write up your interpretation of these quotes. What are the different layers of meaning?
STT: What poetic techniques or methods are being used and how do these shape meaning?
15 mins

8. Poetry Workshop: comparative writing
30 marks out of a 2.15 hour exam worth 60 marks overall!
AO1: Clarity of response
A02: Analysis of language, form and structure
AO4: Exploring similarities between texts
A constant comparison between texts
Explore subtle similarities and differences between texts by analysing:
Themes
Language
Structure

9. Poetry Workshop: comparative writing
In both Shapcott’s ‘Somewhat unravelled’ and O’ Driscoll’s ‘Please Hold’, both speakers have to grapple with the differing sorts of newfound powerlessness. In ‘Please hold’, the speaker discovers that he is unable to influence his phone-call with an automated robot. Indeed, throughout the poem, there is an anaphoric repetition of “the robot”, which serves to highlight the robot's prominence and dominance of the conversation, while the repeated use of a definite article gives the robot a heightened appearance of power, contrasting against the speaker’s powerlessness. Shapcott uses a similar technique at the beginning of her poem, when the word "kettle" is repeated three times in the first two lines, highlighting the increased difficulty and frustration the aunt faces as she tries to interact with everyday objects despite her old age and limited mobility. Furthermore, O'Driscoll highlights the debilitating sense of powerlessness with the abrupt realisation that "I'm paying a robot for doing nothing." This construction contrasts with O’Driscoll’s over-use of connectives during the previous conversation, with this statement marking the abrupt realisation that nothing can be done to shift the balance of power between him and the robot. This blunt moment of recognition does not take place in Shapcott's poetry, as the aunt's deterioration is a much more gradual process. Instead, we are shown a disjointed attempt at conversation between the personas as he says "Let me make you a cup of tea. She says “ah ha!" The use of the imperative "let" highlights the dependence of the aunt upon the speaker, while her reply shows her failure to understand her niece and, more importantly, to connect with her.

10. Development
Begin to plan a comparison between the poem ‘Amazon’ and ‘A Minor Role’ to answer the following question:
Compare the methods both poets use to present the effects of terminal illness.
10 mins

11. Revising John Burnside’s ‘History’
Register Task
Reread the poem.
Thinker: to revise and develop your analysis of key themes within the collection.
Super Tough Thinker: to continue to develop your deep analysis of key techniques and methods.
Tough Thinker: to continue to develop your textual analysis of key poems.

12. Destruction Innocence Existence Starter 5 mins
Look at the following discussion cards. Only perform Task 1 on the card discussing the following themes.
Destruction
Innocence
Existence
5 mins

13. Task 1
Good analysts…
Select the most relevant textual evidence
Clearly identify the method
Analyse at word and phrase level
Explore the deeper meaning
In groups of three, now perform Task 1 on your cards answering all three questions.
You will need detailed answers for the next task!
20 mins

14. Task 2
Now pair up with two new people. You must have a red, blue and purple in each group.
Take it in turns to discuss your analysis of each theme within your new group.
You should take notes or further annotate your poems according to feedback.
20 mins

15. Resources Theme: Innocence Theme: Destruction
Starter Task : Discuss how Burnside presents the idea of innocence.
Task 1: Answer the questions below.
T: How does Burnside use everyday events to show the thin veil between innocence and destruction?
TT: How does Burnside use structure to present his train of thought and change from his son’s innocence to his ecological fears?
STT: How far do you agree that Burnside presents the idea humanity is naturally inherently innocent and conservational?
Theme: Destruction
Starter Task : Discuss how Burnside presents the idea of destruction.
Task 1: Answer the questions below.
T: How does Burnside present the tendency of humanity to oppress nature?
TT: What methods does Burnside use to present the relationship between mankind and the natural world?
STT: How far do you agree that Burnside presents humanity as a destructive force within existence?

16. Theme: Philosophical existence
Resources
Theme: Philosophical existence
Starter Task: Discuss how Burnside presents his philosophical outlook.
Task 1: Answer the questions below.
T: How does Burnside present materialism as inconsequential?
TT: What methods does Burnside use to present his deeply ecological perspective of human existence?
STT: How far do you agree that Burnside presents humanity as prising the superficial over a natural existence?

17. Read the poem ‘Mametz Wood’
Exploring Conflict
Register Task
Read the poem ‘Mametz Wood’
Thinker: to revise and develop your analysis of key themes within the collection.
Super Tough Thinker: to continue to develop your deep analysis of key techniques and methods.
Tough Thinker: to continue to develop your textual analysis of unseen poems

18. Poetry Workshop: A close and distant reading P. Barry
To make a close reading of a poem you need to read it several times. But don’t rush. Start by just looking at it.
‘The War Correspondent’ is divided into two poems, with a gap in between. So perhaps it presents a topic from two different viewpoints, or time events. We need to examine the nature of this shift.
Once having completed an initial reading try to become a slow reader. Also, don’t read the lines, or the stanzas – read the sentences. Line endings and the stanza breaks and read the sentences, because lines of poetry are not intended as stand-alone units of sense.
If you lose the overall sense at any point, go back to the beginning of the sentence in which the loss of sense occurred (or, better still, the one before that) and read through again from there.
So the ‘distant reading’ briefly summarises the situation depicted in the poem. It is the necessary frame within which all the details commented on in the close reading cohere and make sense. For the close reading, try not to snip out from the poem isolated words, phrases or lines to use as evidence.

19. Poetry Workshop: A close and distant reading P. Barry
Advocates using block quotations of a longer nature rather than individual works and phrases, and presenting them as they are in the poem. Writing it out in full is another way of slowing down, making me notice things about these lines that I might otherwise have missed. He then comments on these lines as a whole, picking out individual aspects.
The close reading should also comment on tone or diction (meaning word choice and style).
Use this approach to analyse Mametz Wood

20. Starter Task
Use the advice of Peter Barry to perform an initial reading.
Good analysts…
Re-read from one sentence to another.
If you lose meaning start again.
Note down any initial observations about how the poem is structured or looks. Any link between content and structure?
Key ideas or themes
Note down anything you notice about language.
10 mins

21. Task 2
Now select two block quotes that you think are good examples of the key ideas presented.
Lay them out as they are in the poem.
T: Give a summary of what is happening in these frames.
TT: What do you notice about the poet’s use of diction?
STT: What do you notice about the tone of the poem?
7 mins

22. Task 3
Look at the sub-poem allocated to your group. Which words best describe the subject matter portrayed? Form an diamond with the most important at the top and least important at the bottom.
Cross-cultural
Cross-geographical
Temporal
Deterioration
Glorious
Natural
Ironic
Macabre
Didactic
Graphic
12 mins

23. ‘The War Correspondent’
Task 4
Compare the key themes and methods used to present them in the poems ‘Mametz Wood’ and ‘The War Correspondent’.
‘The War Correspondent’
‘Mametz Wood’
Ask students for one thematic comparison between the poems, actively model comparison, using quotes and analysis. Explore subtle similarities and differences.
Differences
Similarities
12 mins

24. Homework question: comparison of ‘The Fox’
Compare the methods both poets use to present the theme of destruction in ‘History’ by J. Burnside and ‘The Fox’ by Minhinnick?
Use this approach to analyse Mametz Wood

25. Revisiting ‘Inheritance’ by Boland
Register Task
Re-read the poem ‘Inheritance’ and remind yourself of the key themes presented.
Thinker: to revise and develop your understanding of key poems within the collection.
Super Tough Thinker: to continue to develop your textual analysis of language and structure.
Tough Thinker: to revise and develop your analysis of key themes within the collection.

26. Starter 7 mins Consider the title of the poem, ‘Inheritance’.
What types of things can we inherit? Can you split these into different categories?
Which of these types of inheritance do you find in the poem? Select a quote to support your ideas.
7 mins

27. Task 1
Which of the following statements are correct? Discuss each individually.
Identify the poetic methods and structure
Identify key quotes.
Upon a first reading, ‘Inheritance’ appears to be the personal and private thoughts of a mother contemplating what she has to pass down to her daughters.
The poem takes the idea of motherhood and uses it as a metaphor for the struggles of women throughout history.
The poem is more about what the poetic speaker has not inherited rather than what she has?
Present these statements as discussion cards. Each group rotate their cards every five mins.
15 mins

28. Task 3
Use one of the approaches studied to analyse the poem ‘Whoever She Was’ by Carol Anne Duffy.
Annotate and make notes on the following:
Key themes and ideas
Techniques
Structure.
10 mins

29. Compare the methods that the poets use to present a crisis of female identity in ‘Inheritance’ by Boland and ‘Whoever She Was’ by Duffy.
Write an analytical paragraph focusing on comparing the two poems.
12 mins