Up to two lessons’ worth of teaching material on The Lammas Hireling by Ian Duhig, designed for the Edexcel A level Literature qualification. There resource includes: An activity on the central themes of the poem A jigsaw language analysis activity with a separate worksheet An exemplar paragraph responding to a question on guilt and repression A series of structured comparison activities to get students to compare The Lammas Hireling to The River God as an unseen poem An exemplar paragraph comparing the two poems Please note that I have not included the text of The River God due to copyright, but it is easily sourced for free online.

A lesson on An Easy Passage by Julia Copus designed for the Edexcel A level qualification. The lesson begins with a simple starter on stereotypes of adolescents and adults. Following this is some information on ‘liminal space’, the literary concept of thresholds which applies to this poem, and students should take notes. Can they think of any examples of liminal spaces in literature? Then, some observations about the presentation of adolescence versus adulthood are provided and students are asked to gather evidence from the poem supporting these impressions. This leads on to students writing an analytical essay paragraph in response to a question on the theme of adolescence and adulthood, and an exemplar response is provided.

A lesson on the poem History by John Burnside designed for the Edexcel A Level Literature qualification. The lesson begins with a reading of the poem September 11th, 2001 by David Herd (p.85 of Poems of the Decade) without the title. Students give their impressions on what the poem could be about before the title is revealed. This provides a good stepping off point for discussion - why was 9/11 such a history-stopping event? Following this, there is a video where people recount where they were when 9/11 happened. Perhaps unlike other tragedies on a global level, everyone remembers vividly where they were when the terrorist attack occurred. Some brief information is offered, outlining what happened on 9/11, since students were not born when the events took place. The main activities for the lesson are: A ‘theme web’, where students identify the central themes in the poem and then mindmap a theme of their choice in a guided way. A ‘visual imagery map’, which encourages students to sketch (or generate) a key image from the poem and analyse the language by following prompts.

A lesson designed to teach the poem The Deliverer by Tishani Doshi for the Edexcel A level Literature qualification. The lesson begins with a video covering the abandonment of female children in India and then provides information on the Indian caste system. There is a group language analysis ‘jigsaw’ task, for which a separate worksheet with a set of instructions is provided. Following this, students can engage in a simple activity where they match elements of form and structure to their definitions, and then explore these features in the poem, commenting on their effects. Activities and a simple table are provided for the comparison of The Deliverer to either Child Burial by Paula Meehan or Refugee Mother and Child by Chinua Achebe as unseen poems. Due to copyright, the text of neither poem is supplied but they are easily sourced online. A warning that both poems contain sensitive subject matter and are very emotionally hard-hitting.

A full lesson on Simon Armitage’s Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass, designed for teaching students studying Poems of the Decade on the Edexcel A Level syllabus. There are meta-thinking activities for students getting acquainted with the study of poetry, and activities on theme and imagery. A simple worksheet (a table) is provided for students to engage with the imagery. Since, on this unit, students are required to compare a named poem to an unseen poem, Robert Frost’s Out, out- has been selected as a companion poem. A straighforward task is provided so that students can begin engaging with comparison. The text of Out, out- is easily sourced online for free.

A full lesson on Patience Agbabi’s ‘Eat Me’ from the Edexcel A level Literature anthology ‘Poems of the Decade’. This is a highly visual resource with tasks on the poem’s themes, imagery, form and structure. The lesson is highly task-based, providing opportunities to flip the learning and have students collaborate and think hard. This resource will be bundled with lessons on the other modern poems from the specification in future.

Two lesson’s worth of material on Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise, designed to get students to get students to engage with the poetic language and structure of the poem. These lessons were put together with the Edexcel IGCSE Language A coursework in mind. There is an array of activities, including a webquest with links, group work, analysis of form and structure, and a focus on imagery. The resource is highly visual and includes a video of Maya Angelou reading her poem. There is also some support material in the form of a word and phrase bank to help students write their coursework essay. We wrote on the presentation of the theme of identity. However, the resources would easily be adapted to another question.

This resource is a full lesson, which covers the background, form and structure, and imagery of Moniza Alvi’s An Unknown Girl. The lesson was designed for use with students writing their coursework for the Edexcel IGCSE Language A qualification. We wrote our essays on the theme of identity, but the resource could easily be adapted for any question. The presentation is highly visual and word banks are included to support students in the writing of their coursework essay. Analysis of imagery is conducted via group task, where groups have a short section of the poem surrounded by prompts and questions, which they need to annotate their answers to and then present back to the class.

A lesson sequence on Wilfred Owen’s poem Disabled. The lesson is designed with the coursework element of the Edexcel IGCSE in mind. Students answered a question on the presentation of ‘identity’. The lesson is highly visual and contains video clips. Also included are slides on Jessie Pope’s Who’s For The Game? and Owen’s most famous poem, Dulce et decorum est, as they provide students with a strong foundation for their study of Disabled. Included in the lesson are writing support materials such as word and phrase banks and a writing frame. Also included is an exemplar response. There should be enough material for 2-3 lessons.

Contained in this resource are a PDF document and PowerPoint version of display material and quote banks for each major character in Of Mice and Men. The quote banks are divided into four sections according to some of Steinbeck’s main themes and feature a small AI-generated image of the relevant character in the top right. Students can then populate the quote banks with key quotations for each character as they relate to the key themes. Please note: the quote banks are blank for students to fill in. The last slides/pages of the resource contain much larger versions of the AI images (one example can be seen in the cover image), which can be printed in colour and used for display.

A lesson sequence on the excerpt ‘Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan’ from the Edexcel IGCSE anthology. There may be two lessons worth of material here, focused on having students identify and annotate the key features of language and structure. Then, then class are divided in two and provided with tables to complete, which focus them on analysing either the presentation of the people or the place, for question 4 of Paper 1. The resource may be better used with higher ability students, as the majority of the work is student focused, relying on their thoughts and analyses and those of their partner/group. Two AI-generated images have been used for decoration.

A lesson on Kipling’s ‘If-’, which engages students with the poem’s main themes and ideas, and features of language and structure. It contains some background on the poem, information on stoicism (which seems to underpin many of the poem’s ideals), guided annotation, information on form and structure, and an exam-style question with writing frame. The lesson was designed for use with high ability students, studying the Edexcel IGCSE in Literature. The cover image was created using AI and does not reflect the appearance of the the slides in the resource. The image has been uploaded in case you would like to use it.

A full lesson on The Eve of St Agnes by John Keats, taking students through key points of plot, context, form and structure, language features and themes. I used this over a two-lesson teaching sequence.

A lesson filled with contextual information on Keats’s On The Sea. Discussion points are also provided for Keats’s use of the sonnet form as well as his philosophy of negative capability and the role of the poet. Some images have been created using AI.

Up to two lessons’ worth of content on Wilfred Owen’s poem Exposure. This was created and delivered to a middle-ability Year 8 class and provides a number of engaging activities including: Storyboarding Descriptive writing Language analysis (focusing on the presentation of nature, not war) Diary entry imaginative writing AI generated imagery has been used in this lesson, making it very visually pleasing.

An upgraded version of this resource. The approach is to compare Ode on a Grecian Urn to Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn by Tim Turnbull. Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn is one of the modern poems studied on the Edexcel A Level Literature course, so this lesson provides an opportunity to revise the poem and develop students’ knowledge of Keats’s Grecian Urn. There are tasks on theme, language, form and structure, and the infamously nebulous final lines of the poem. Also included is simple table for comparing the themes and ideas in the two poems.

An updated version of this lesson, now with more activities and greater aesthetic appeal. The presentation contains key context, activities on form and structure, language analysis, and comprehension questions. The final part of the lesson provides questions to prompt comparisons with other poems by Keats, so that students begin to forge connections and understand Keats’s prevailing themes and motifs.

A mini bundle with activities for comparing the following poems from the new Eduqas GCSE specification: Mametz Wood, Dulce et decorum est, Afternoons, Too Autumn and Ozymandias.

A full lesson designed to lead students through the extract from Adichie’s TED talk ‘The Danger of a Single Story’ found in the Edexcel IGCSE Literature and Language anthology. The lesson is recommended for students in years 10 and 11. The resource includes a choice of two starter activities, a linked video of the original TED talk (check the notes section for recommended times to watch with your class), a group discussion activity with prompt cards, a table with key quotations and devices for students to complete with analysis, and a PETAL writing frame to support students in writing an exam-style response.

A full lesson designed to guide students through the poem ‘Prayer Before Birth’ by Louis MacNeice, which is found in the Edexcel IGCSE Literature specification. The lesson is aimed at students in years 10 and 11. The resource is visually attractive and includes: a choice of starter activity; summary and background on the poem; an embedded YouTube video of a reading of the poem; 7 slides with key lines from the poem and guided questions to help students analyse the poem (these could be used for group work or guided analysis); a short summary of the features of form and structure; an additional task directing students to examine the theme of nature vs industrialisation.