1. Be prepared for poetry Length: 3.5 hours Session Outcomes:
INFORMATION FOR SESSION FACILITATOR
Length: 3.5 hours
Be prepared for poetry
Session Outcomes:
By the end of this session you will be able to:
Explain the challenges of teaching poetry
Apply analytical techniques to unseen poetry
Apply scaffolding techniques from QTS ‘Scaffolding’ session and consider their impact on learning of lower attaining pupils
Plan lessons on an unseen poem and a pre-1914 poem for KS4 pupils
Links to Teachers Standards:
TS 2: Promote good progress and outcomes by pupils
TS 4: Plan and teach well-structured lessons
TS 5: Adapts teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils
Summary of Content:
Trainees will consider how to teach pupils to analyse poetry, including unseen poetry, in preparation for GCSE English Literature. They will reflect and refine their current approach to supporting lower attaining pupils, and apply scaffolding techniques to their own practice.
Links to other sessions:
This session addresses trainees’ lack of confidence in teaching poetry. It also develops the scaffolding skills introduced in the QTS ‘Scaffolding to support lower attaining pupils’ and prepares trainees for pre-1914 poetry session.
Resources: selection of unseen poems; GCSE Eng. Lit. past papers and Examiner’s Report on poetry
Reference/s:
Rosenshine, B. and Meister, C. (1992) The Use of Scaffolds for Teaching Higher Level Cognitive Strategies. Educational Leadership. April 1992 pp 26-33 
Rose, D and Martin, J. Learning to Write, Reading to Learn: Genre, Knowledge and Pedagogy of the Sydney School. Equinox Publishing, 2012

2. Be prepared for poetry (1 min) Slide : Welcome and Introduction
Link this session to the Scaffolding for Lower Attaining Pupils with specific reference to poetry at trainees request.

3. Do Now Reflect on teaching poetry:
What are your headline thoughts on teaching poetry?
How do your pupils respond to poetry lessons?
What is successful?
What are the barriers?
3 mins
Trainees reflect on their own feelings / confidence about teaching poetry and their pupils’ responses and challenges.

4. Session Outcomes By the end of this session you will be able to:
Explain the challenges of teaching poetry
Apply analytical techniques to unseen poetry
Apply scaffolding techniques and consider their impact on learning of lower attaining pupils
Plan lessons on an unseen poem and a pre-1914 poem for KS4 pupils
(1 min)
Slide 3: Session Outcomes
Share session outcomes

5. TDF Session links
TS 2: Promote good progress and outcomes by pupils TS 5: Adapts teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils
Gather information about pupils’ prior learning needs Take some steps to address pupils’ barriers to learning

6. Do Now Review
Discuss:
What are your headline thoughts on teaching poetry?
How do your pupils respond to poetry lessons?
What is successful?
What are the barriers for you or your pupils?
5 mins
Trainees feedback on feelings / confidence about teaching poetry and their pupils’ responses and challenges.

7. Intense Abstract Obscure 10 mins
If not covered in the DO Now feedback, ask trainees to unpick precisely why they and pupils may be put off by poetry e.g. intense, abstract ideas
Share extract from Trevor Wright’s ‘How to be a brilliant English teacher’ Chapter 4 ‘Poetry, texts and pupil responses’ where he questions ‘lofty’ approaches to analysis and compares it to a ‘forensic post-mortem.’
Tell trainees that we are going to analyse some poems today and they will have ideas to take away to help with their own planning.

8. A Martian sends …
It says … Mechanical bird with wings … Model T is a room with a lock … A haunted apparatus sleeps … Adults go to a punishment room …
It could be …
Show trainees Craig Raine’s ‘A Martian Sends a Postcard Home’ as an example of how KS3 pupils can enjoy exploring a poem and unravelling the clues.
‘About his person’ by Simon Armitage is another ‘detective’ poem which can lead pupils into enjoying the journey of trying to work out the poet’s message.

9. About his person…
It says … Five pounds fifty in change exactly Slashed, beheaded, stopped, expiry A final demand in his own hand … A ring of white unweathered skin …
It could be …
Show trainees Craig Raine’s ‘A Martian Sends a Postcard Home’ as an example of how KS3 pupils can enjoy exploring a poem and unravelling the clues.
‘About his person’ by Simon Armitage is another ‘detective’ poem which can lead pupils into enjoying the journey of trying to work out the poet’s message.

10. Assessing poetry
How is knowledge and understanding of poetry assessed in GCSE English Literature? Which assessment objectives are used? Which AO gets the most marks?
1 min
Begin with the End - refer to assessment of poetry to help trainees focus on purposeful planning.

11. English Literature AOs
AO1: Read, understand and respond to texts %
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 %
AO4: Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation. 5%
2 min
Remind trainees of the Literature AOs and ask them which ones are applied to poetry assessment (AO1-3) Look at the weighting of each AO – note that AO3 Context gets less than ½ the marks of AO1+2

12. GCSE Literature Paper 2 Section B Taught Anthology: AO1 AO2 AO3
Compare how poets present ideas about power in ‘Ozymandias’ and in ONE other poem from Power and Conflict marks
Section C Unseen: AO1 AO2
In ‘On Aging’ how does the poet present the speaker’s attitudes to growing old? marks
In both ‘Jessie Emily Schofield’ and ‘On Aging’ the speakers describe their attitudes to the effects of growing old.
What are the similarities and/or differences between the ways the poets present these attitudes? marks
2 mins
Show this example of how poetry is assessed in GCSE Literature – point out the weighting of marks – slightly more for C, the absence of AO4 (SPAG) in B+C and the absence of AO3 in C

13. Examiner’s Report 2018
Section B “Information about Rameses II, Stormont and the IRA, or Elizabeth Barrett- Browning's father's disapproval did not help most to answer questions, whereas what did help was thorough knowledge of the cluster of poems.” Section C “The unseen poem actually enabled some lower ability students to write with empathy and understanding and outperform their section A and section B responses. Students would really benefit from remembering that this task is all about the ‘ways’ as stipulated in the question.”
1 min
Refer briefly to Examiners report – copy available on AQA website.

14. Spot the difference: The ways the poets present their ideas:
Angelou resents the idea that just because she's old, people might feel she is useless "like a sack left on a shelf" while Judy Williams sees her grandmother as fragile rather than useless: "wet head felt delicate as a birdskull".
Angelou uses the image of a "sack left on a shelf" to show her resentment at people's perception of the old as useless, while Judy Williams presents a gentler picture through the simile "wet head felt delicate as a birdskull", showing her grandmother to be fragile and vulnerable.
5 mins
One at a time, show trainees these responses to Q2: ‘In both ‘Jessie Emily Schofield’ and ‘On Aging’ the speakers describe their attitudes to the effects of growing old. What are the similarities and/or differences between the ways the poets present these attitudes?’ and ask them to identify the AO met in each one. Can they articulate the differences?

15. Convert these to AO2
Angelou does not want to be pitied and says ‘Don’t bring me no rocking chair’, whereas Williams sees her grandmother as weakened by age ‘like a learning child’.
In ‘On Aging’ the poet speaks as an old person, so the message is authentic and powerful, whereas Williams is speaking for her grandmother, and can only imagine her thoughts.
Angelou wants us to see past the stereotypes of old age and acknowledge her relevance, asking for ‘understanding’ not ‘sympathy’.
Angelou uses imperatives ‘Stop! Hold! Don’t!’ to challenge our assumptions and detach herself from our sympathy.
Williams sees her grandmother diminished by age and imagines her more colourful past.
Williams chooses images from her grandmother’s past, ‘imagined chestnut hair’ and ‘wedding dress silk on a widow’, implying that all the best things are behind her.
15 minutes
Trainees convert A, C and E AO1 responses to AO2. Depending on confidence, I will share the examples B,D and F before or after they write themselves

16. AO2 ‘ways’: the creation of a mood / tone
the use / effect of particular word choices
the use / effect of description
structural elements
titles
sound patterning
imagery
perspective / voice
tense
punctuation
5 minutes
Explain that trainees are going to prepare lessons on the Unseen poems from the AQA 2018 Lit. paper and that this extract from the examiners report is a checklist of aspects to prepare / explore. The checklist was introduced in the Scaffolding session

17. Form, structure and language
Dual Coding
Form, structure and language
To see the difference between these three terms, think of a house:
the whole building is the poem's form
the rooms are the poem's structure
the furniture is the poem's language
(1 min)
Remind trainees of this model from GCSE Bitesize to help them and pupils understand the terms

18. Adding detail: Form Type of poem e.g. sonnet, ballad, lyric,
narrative, dramatic monologue
Number of lines, stanzas
Layout
Rhyme
Rhythm
Voice
Enjambment
Structure
Order and arrangement of ideas and events
Beginning – what idea / event is presented first?
Development – how does that idea, event unfold?
Volta – change of direction
End – what thoughts are we left with?
Language
The choice of words and their effects e.g.
Simile, metaphor
Personification
Hyperbole
Repetition
Alliteration, onomatopoeia
5 mins
Show trainees the grid with examples of what would be included under each heading. Explain that the pupils do not need to be overly concerned about the headings because all of these are included in writing for AO2. In particular, there are different views on what constitutes ‘form’ as opposed to ‘structure’ and it is therefore sensible to combine their ideas on these. The example above is based on the AQA glossary which most trainees are familiar with.

19. Section C AQA 2018 On Aging Form: Structure: Language:
Jessie Emily Schofield Form: Structure: Language:
30 minutes
Give out copies of the poems ‘On aging’ by Maya Angelou and ‘Jessie Emily Schofield’ by Judy Williams.
Trainees work in pairs on one poem to consider each bullet point and suggest how they might prepare 2 lessons with reference to the examiner’s advice about AO2 responses, then share ideas with the group.

20. Missing out words can stimulate thinking
What’s the title?
Missing out words can stimulate thinking
Someone has gone and left the swing Still swinging, slowly Slower, slow and now It stops, and someone else is coming Someone has gone and left the chair Still rocking, slowly It stops, and there is silence In the room. John Mole 1990
Explain to trainees that missing out words or a title can help pupils to think deeply about a poem e.g this one by John Mole ‘Youth and age’

21. Work with the challenge:
The Sick Rose O Rose thou art sick! The invisible worm, That flies in the night In the howling storm Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy, And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy. William Blake
Create a culture of error
Accept all responses
Acknowledge the tricky bits
Explore why it’s hard
Use this as the basis for analysis
What questions would you ask to help pupils explore Blake’s poem?
What aspects of form, structure and language would you introduce?
30 mins
Show trainees Blake’s poem as an example of how they can both engage and challenge pupils. The poem uses simple words yet it is hard to unravel. Consider form (‘song’ single stanza with abcb rhyme, and mainly regular 5 syllable lines; ) structure (first line is a declaration to ‘a rose’ or ‘Rose, then we learn about the invisible, sinister worm, contradicting the joy of love with destruction in last line) and language (negative words e.g sick, dark, secret, destroy- and connotations of bed, joy and love). This is an enigmatic poem – there is no right or wrong answer, and there are different interpretations even when context is added.
The “crimson joy” of the rose connotes both sexual pleasure and shame, thus joining the two concepts in a way that Blake thought was perverted and unhealthy. The rose’s joyful attitude toward love is tainted by the aura of shame and secrecy that our culture attaches to love.

22. To His Coy Mistress
In pairs:
Plan a lesson based on one section of To His Coy Mistress
Prepare a 3 minute section to model to the group
Be prepared to comment on your plan and discuss others’ plans.
Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678) was one of a group of metaphysical poets writing about thoughts and feelings. He was also a politician and a satirist; he held office under Oliver Cromwell and was an MP for Hull in Charles II reign.
2 mins
Introduce the task; give out A3 copies of To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell, presented an 3 sections Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis.

23. To His Coy Mistress Trainees listen to reading of THCM
45 mins. (25 mins to plan, 20 minutes to model and review)
Trainees work in pairs to plan a lesson based on one section of THCM. They will include references to form, structure, language and context to address AO1,2 +3.
Each pair will share their ideas and add suggestions from the group.

24. Session Outcomes By the end of this session you will be able to:
Explain the challenges of teaching poetry
Apply analytical techniques to unseen poetry
Apply scaffolding techniques from QTS ‘Scaffolding’ session and consider their impact on learning of lower attaining pupils
Plan lessons on an unseen poem and a pre-1914 poem for KS4 pupils
(1 min)
Slide 3: Session Outcomes
Share session outcomes

25. Questions?
QUESTIONS (1 minute)

26. Evaluation
Please take a few minutes to complete an evaluation of today’s training day (case sensitive)

27. Tissue by Imtiaz Dharker
“There was some beautiful writing about ‘Tissue’ which proved to have its own powerful effect on the students.”
Examiner’s Report 2018
30 mins (additional material)
This poem is from the Power and Conflict Anthology and was mentioned specifically in the Examiner’s Report. If time allows, give trainees the opportunity to explore this themselves and consider how they would encourage a powerful response from their pupils.