IGCSE English Literature Songs of Ourselves Volume 2, Part 3 - Scheme of Work - 0475 Cambridge 2025

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First Exam in 2025.

Full lessons, with all materials for teaching the entire anthology. Including: engaging “ways in” to each poem, vocabulary building starters, contextual learning material tied to English Language IGCSE questions, practice exam questions for each poem, models and scaffolds.

The scheme is designed to take roughly 45 lessons to complete and can be extended through the addition of timed essays, or shortened by removing the English Language elements or simply looking at the texts without writing responses to questions.

This scheme of work is designed to integrate IGCSE English Language skills alongside English Literature skills.

The scheme is built with the concept of spaced retrieval in mind, and thus each poem focuses on particular English Language skills.

For example:

The lessons on the poem “Boxes” utilise a model piece of descriptive writing on living in a coffin apartment. This model is then used with Paper 1 Question 2 style questions in order for students to understand not only the thematic concerns of the poem, but also, to practise their Paper 1 skills. Following on from this, the lessons build into work on Paper 2 and descriptive writing, using the model and planning examples as a jumping off point. In essence, the aim of this scheme is not only to engage students in poetry through a variety of tasks that go beyond simply annotating, but also to treat the IGCSE courses as complementary rather than distinct.

Each poem also contains tasks which are designed to engage students in the subject matter, from mime, to drawing, to exploration via google street view. The hope is that students learn to find poetry exciting.

The model examples, checklists and strategies are a culmination of the understanding of the course developed whilst working as an examiner.

The scheme contains guides for some poems, although poems which already have decent guides on websites such as LitCharts do not contain guides. Instead I hope this scheme works to teach analytical skills and essay writing, rather than attempting to get students to regurgitate line by line analysis.

All IGCSE English Language questions have mark schemes which I have constructed.

Poems:

Nancy Fotheringham Cato, ‘The Road’
Sarah Jackson, ‘The Instant of My Death’
Arun Kolatkar, ‘The Bus’
Julius Chingono, ‘At the Bus Station’
Imtiaz Dharker, ‘These are the Times We Live in’
Elizabeth Jennings, ‘The Enemies’
Sampurna Chattarji, ‘Boxes’
W H Auden, ‘The Capital’
Arthur Yap, ‘an afternoon nap’
Elizabeth Smither, ‘Plaits’
Elizabeth Daryush, ‘Children of Wealth’
Thomas Love Peacock, ‘Rich and Poor or, Saint and Sinner’
Musaemura Zimunya, ‘A Long Journey’
Stevie Smith, ‘Touch and Go’
George Szirtes, ‘Song’

Also included is a recommended structure for the course based on the order I wish I had taught the poems in.