Teaching English: Poetry Unit - Seamus Heaney's 'Digging'

English Teaching Poetry Unit: Seamus Heaney’s 'Digging’

This short unit is designed to introduce and explore Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Digging’ as well as develop students’ ability to write analytically using a specific, taught paragraph structure. This unit is collaborative in nature with lots of opportunities for paired, group and class discussion. It includes a very nicely presented 30 slide teaching PPT as well as all 12 student resources and a set of detailed teacher’s notes explaining how you can deliver the unit. Outcomes include an analytical PETAL paragraph which could be extended into a longer essay using the structure provided. I have also included a free self-study professional development unit on teaching poetry. Please note that all resources are provided in pdf format and units on other Heaney poems are available. These include ‘Follower’, ‘Storm on the Island’, ‘Mid-term Break’ and 'An Advancement of Learning.

You might also like:
William Blake’s ‘London’
Seamus Heaney’s ‘Storm on the Island’
Wilfred Owen’s ‘Exposure’
Ted Hughes’ ‘Hawk Roosting’
Seamus Heaney’s ‘Follower’