Hi! This is a compilation of resources to help students read and closely analyse the meaning, language and tone of Larkin's poem 'The Trees'. My students are reading this as part of the Songs of Ourselves anthology at iGCSE, but it could be an unseen poem for your students or part of a study of Larkin or of modern pastoral poetry. Everything you need is included including critical opinions of the poet and this poem, games, questions, language feature recognition, group work and paired work, all leading to differentiated outcomes by the end of the lesson.

At least two lessons of in depth study of London by William Blake. There are tonnes of activities here to guide students of any age through the poem's background, the language, structure and form and write responses based on the meaning and message of the poem. Outcomes and objectives are included throughout with a meaningful plenary to help students see their progress. This is part of my larger SOW on Romantic Poetry, but it is a beautiful poem to study on its own as well. Enjoy!

One of my favourite poems from Wordsworth, this lesson is structured as a mystery, encouraging students to find clues from the poem to work out what happened to Lucy Gray. I used to find it hard to get students to write about structure, even though they could recognise its effects. This poem makes it so easy for them to spot the features and discuss techniques used to build tension in the poem. This is a complete set of resources which could span at least two lessons. I have included everything you need, from games and activities to language analysis questions and contextual information. Just walk in and teach!

A fully resourced lesson with guided analysis of the poem, different activities to get students reading the poem independently and writing about the poet's background and the context of the poem. There is a stanza analysis carousel and a self-assessment plenary.

An all-in-one poetry lesson on the poem For Heidi With the Blue Hair by Fleur Adcock. A fantastic poem for KS3 and 4, dealing with themes of teenage life: friendship, rules and rebellion at school, and bereavement as well as hair! It is simple enough for any class to understand and enjoy. The resource focuses largely on understanding the events of the poem and how the personas feel, but also asks a range of questions about language and structure and guides students through annotating the poem. There is a peer- or self-assessment checklist to help students gain higher grades and a message ranking activity at the end. This is a set text for the CIE Songs of Ourselves iGCSE English Literature. It's a lovely poem to study and students understand its relevance to them and their lives. Enjoy!

Hi everyone! One of my favourite poems from the Songs of Ourselves anthology! I have included a collapsed version of the text for students to create their own poems out of as well as answer some guided questions on. The PowerPoint guides the students through their reading of the poem and analysis, gives some background information on the poet's life and contextualises the poem. There are objectives, a four part lesson and then an essay question with scaffolding to differentiate and an example of a war poetry essay which students can analyse too. In short, plenty of resources and activities to suit every secondary group. Good luck in the exams, everyone! x

An active and engaging poetry lesson on Annabel Lee. There are a range of activities including a crossword with secret message, questions and activities to draw out ideas about characters, genre, structure, form, themes and meanings as well as an AFL plenary and engaging starter. The worksheet attached has a lower ability option with word bank provided and a higher ability option which asks students to work out and then create their own hidden message from the characters. There are also questions to get them thinking on this sheet. The main development of the lesson is built around De Bono's Thinking Hats so will support students' speaking and listening skills and could be assessed as a group discussion. This would make an excellent one-off lesson for or as part of a wider SOW on * Poetry * 19th century literature * American Literature * Gothic Literature Enjoy!

A great couple of high-quality cover lessons or mini-SOW for Romantic poetry or poetry from the 18th century. Everything you need is here: the poems, questions for different abilities, differentiated outcomes, differentiated tasks, a vocabulary quiz, in-depth self-assessment plenary and some fun games to do with rhyming. No planning required and possibly no printing. There are also differentiated assessments on two unseen poems for upper and lower abilities. The responses to these can be peer-assessed by students first to help them understand how to respond to literature questions. Enjoy!

Everything you need in one place! A four-part lesson with a range of visual, auditory and kinesthetic activities to keep the students engaged and connect with the themes and language of this beautiful poem. The development lesson guides students through the analysis of the poem in detail before setting an essay question on the characters and relationships. There are differentiated activities to match points, evidence and language features in a table to scaffold student answers. I have provided the CIE mark scheme for students before they write the full essay and I have also written and provided an example essay. The students could be given this essay in cut out paragraphs which they have to reorder, they could use different colour highlighters to work out how to structure their paragraphs and embed quotations, and they should read the essay, mark it and provide feedback. This is a lovely poem , excellent for Masculinist studies, on the themes of death, regret, emotions, communication and nature. One of the set texts from Songs of Ourselves in the CIE iGCSE, a mark scheme and outcomes have been provided for this course. These slides can simply be swapped for your own mark scheme if it is different. Enjoy!

A lesson on the poem Meeting At Night by Robert Browning. The lesson opens with a game, then there is guided analysis and a creative project for students to tackle. Objectives, an essay question, potential ideas and a mark scheme are provided for students to practice their essay writing skills. This is a relatively simple poem for students to understand and the language features are fairly obvious. This should free up some time for an exciting creative project which could be completed for homework and seen the next lesson. Why not record them and put them up on your school's website or on YouTube? Tag me in if you do!

A complete and thorough lesson or two on Praise Song with several activities to get students actively reading the poem and analysing word choices and imagery. The outcomes focus on aspects of the poet's culture and background as well as language, structure and form.

I've designed this lesson to introduce poetry to KS4 students at GCSE, but it would work as well for KS3 too. It is an overview of what poetry is, building on what they already know. There are several games and activities which are linked to Songs of Ourselves, but easily adapted to any poetry you want to tackle with them. There is a poetry carousel as the main activity, so simply print the poems they will be studying or some poems about poetry for them to analyse. Enjoy!

I wrote this modern-day version of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice which became the school's secondary performance. Like The Merchant of Venice, it has a range of parts for all abilities (we had students from 12 to 18 taking part) and some more adult themes and references. It was designed to be performed in the round with various scenes filmed in advance and played on a screen for the audience. We ended up filming the entire production and selling DVDs to raise money for the school. I have aimed to be as true to Shakespeare's version as possible and it was interesting to see the humour coming through the somewhat grim situations. The prologue was rapped by one of our students while a pre-recorded video (detailed in the comments) played in the background. This was created by a small group of students in Media and Visual Arts Club after school, but there would be enough pre-recorded scenes for an entire Media Studies group to storyboard, film and edit in advance.

This all-in-one PowerPoint has everything you could need for an excellent lesson: just add YOU! I usually spend two lessons analysing the poem in some depth, but you could use this as a taster lesson for KS3 or 4 with great success as well. The activities are varied and include activities relevant to every student from EAL year 7s to KS4: just pick the ones that are right for your class. There is little to no preparation or photocopying required, but I have included some photocopiable activities which will add some extra kinaesthetic options. The lessons focus on the vocabulary, themes and background which lead students to an understanding of the poem. There are a range of outcomes and differentiated tasks to show clear progress. I have taught it in units of work on conflict, power and authority, poems about art and Egyptians. I hope you enjoy teaching this beautiful and thought-provoking poem.

A surprisingly light-hearted poem on the subject of loss and how we can "master" the art! The biographical information should help students make links between her personal life and this poem. One Art is one of the poems for study on the Cambridge International Exam iGCSE English Literature Spec. I will be uploading a lesson on every poem, so please subscribe if you want to see more. There is a biography of Elizabeth Bishop to read and then a presentation to guide students through their reading. There are starters, outcomes, activities and plenaries so this is a complete lesson. No prep needed: walk in, teach, walk out!

THE ONLY END OF TERM QUIZ YOU WILL NEED! There are celebrity names, cropped pictures, cartoon silhouettes, lateral thinking puzzles and an English Literature round and a music intros round just for fun! This goes well with the Speech and Characters video also available in my shop. This multiple round team quiz will keep every student interested. Some rounds could be printed out (I would recommend that for the first picture round so students can keep working on it) but the rest can just be put up on screen for three to five minutes each. Prizes for winners always go down well! After the quiz there are some extra activities to get students thinking about how authors (and real life humans!) create characters and why we do this, comparing quotations from Shakespeare, Russell Brand and Eminem on creating your personal character and place in the world. High ability groups would gain a lot from comparing and contrasting these ideas. Enjoy!

A wonderful lesson. Probably my favourite one ever. The kids enjoy the sense of mystery and the energetic, kinaesthetic lesson but it is based very solidly in seeing progression from them. This has worked for me at every school, with every ability and every year group. It's rare I get to bring up one of my favourite poets, Slyvia Plath, before 6th form, so I wanted to make sure they fell in love with her too. This poem is to her unborn child. The picture is painted pretty clearly in the imagery, so this is the overall puzzle the children have to solve: Who is she talking to when she says "You're". (Before this lesson is a great time to have a you're/your homework or starter.) At sixth form or for top set year 11 the students can work it out on their own or in pairs, but I have usually set it as group work in tables of four. This poetry lesson is also to get them to recognise different types of imagery, be able to analyse quotations and spot patterns in the imagery, making connections across the text. There is a second lesson attached which goes into much more detail about writing analytical paragraphs giving examples of other students' work. This could very easily become a mini-essay even at year 7. There are a range of different activities to suit each type of learner, so simply select the slides which are best for your class. Enjoy!!

Potential interview or cover lesson? I love Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire. Reading extracts from books I love always makes for more interesting lessons and revisting book 1 will keep me going until April when the new season starts! There are enough activities on the PowerPoint to easily cover a 2-hour lesson, though it could be cut down to an hour without difficulty. Activities include: learning new vocabulary; guided reading; drama; a short video clip for comparison and consolidation (caution: it uses the word "bitch" while talking about dogs, but is clearly also a joke at Tyrion's expense about his promiscuity); helps assess their ability to find quotations and read for basic meaning (Who is saying what? How do authors blend descriptions of people and places?); an assessment of their reading skills with questions focused on characters and relationships; differentiated from bottom sets to top sets with a range of questions; answers are included for those questions. Phew! I hope this is pretty much fool proof! I have tried it with all of my sets (bottom = levels 2 - 4; middle = 4 - 6; top = 5 - 8) who found it challenging (good!) but also showed some of their best work. Bottom set were able to complete the questions with short answers in about 20 minutes. My top set were still working after an hour, giving much longer answers with quotations and analysis of language. Obviously, some activities are more suited to some groups and lessons than others, but there is enough variety here to keep everyone interested. I would love to know how you get on with this! Please let me know, particularly if you use it for an interview. (Remember your relevant outcomes/objectives!)

Book the ICT room, print these two sheets, done!

Three lessons which focus on planning, developing ideas into paragraphs, structuring paragraphs, using language features and structuring the whole letter. I have also included a frame for weaker students as well as an exemplar article on Seychelles culture. Students can write about their own culture, of course. Everything from outcomes, starters, progress tracking, self or peer-assessment instructions and plenaries are provided for each lesson. Initially I created this for WJEC but have recently adapted it for CIE's Checkpoint English. Please feel free to put in your board's mark scheme where this one was. I have also included a lesson plan for the second lesson, just in case you are being observed, this will make adapting it much easier, as well as giving you clear guidance.