This 10 slide PowerPoint is great to accompany a first reading of Nichols’ “Praise Song for My Mother”. It offers biographical information and then contains a stanza by stanza break down with points of interest which can be discussed either altogether in class or as a small group activity. It ends with a GCSE/ IGCSE style essay question and a series of bullet point questions to serve as scaffolding and guidance in writing the essay.

This 5 page worksheet is a break- down of the STILTS acronym which is a useful and easy tool to arm students with when analyzing a poem for the first time. This worksheet gives an overview of how STILTS works and then asks students to apply it to Maya Angelou’s “Africa”. It rounds off the exercise with a sample unseen Cambridge style essay question (Syllabus 0486 Paper 42) where the student is asked to plan the essay using the analysis techniques described and practised in the worksheet. Updated to include a teacher’s copy with basic answers to guide the lesson!

This 8 page resource introduces the main devices found in the poem including the main features of an Italian and Shakespearean sonnet, iambic pentameter, imagery, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia and a Cambridge- style essay question at the end in which the understanding gathered from the various activities can be applied to write the essay. This would be a great resource for a first reading and teaching of Owen's poem with the focus on revising the literary devices found in the poem and building up an informed response to the writing which can then be used for the cumulative task of writing a Cambridge style essay.

A series of Cambridge- style essay questions on all 15 poems from "Songs of Ourselves" Vol 1 Part 5 , (Because I Could Not Stop for Death, etc) made up by my two IGCSE classes. Great for revision and essay skills.

A collection of IGCSE essay- style questions made up by my class (and edited by me) for revision purposes on poems 1-6 from Volume 1 Part 5 of “Songs of Ourselves” (Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” through to Nichols’ “Praise Song”- examinable 2017). Not a particularly pretty handout, but I hope you’ll find it useful!