Approaching Poetry using 'Beasley Street' by John Cooper Clarke

This lesson introduces students to the concept of engaging with poetry, and makes a great introduction to the GCSE scheme of poetry, using John Cooper- Clarke’s ‘Beasley Street’, which is suitably gritty enough to engage even the most uninterested of students! This PowerPoint will take several lessons to complete- a higher ability group may complete it in 2 lessons, however most groups will require 3 lessons to allow appropriate lengths of time for each task. There is room to adapt the tasks based on group size and ability, however the lesson gives a comprehensive introduction to the ways students can approach understanding a poem outside of annotation-by-rote. It would be perfect for use alongside other poems to introduce students to the wonderful world of poetry!