National Poetry Day Yesterday!

English Session Week 5

Timetables for Sandra (5 still
missing) if in the future you plan
to go on a school trip, you must
inform Sandra!
For the debating task (time allowing)
We have 4 volunteers for debating they have
prepared around the statement:
The house proposes that all poems with
references to violence should be banned from
lessons with anyone under the age of 16
The rest of you have roles
Reflective Writing
Some students need to re-read the criteria and peer/self assess try writing a
draft for one of the themes in Part 1
Wide range of references means not just the set texts, but beyond!
Learning theories and individual needs match them up
Presentation ensure carriage returns are removed if cutting and pasting from
Word, eradicate lower case i and other tpyos.
Dont DESCRIBE events link them. Reflect on the event and how it has shaped
your teaching
Stop wasting words: evaluate every sentence for how it helps you meet the
criteria
See the webfolio as lab experiment write up so:
theory/experience>planning>practice>reflection>target>theory/experience>pl
anning etc
Stop thinking about submission it is already submitted see it as a live
document and the implications of that
Share webfolios and get peer review
Base it on REAL LIFE PUPILS and REAL LIFE LESSONS anecdotal
Be proactive and reactive using theory and wider reading to raise your
standards (Whats the difference between you and an unqualified teacher? You
put a lot of effort into being researched and theoretical as well as practical)
Objectives
To develop your ideological position on the
teaching of poetry
To learn new methods of teaching poetry
To appreciate the impact of poetry in the
frameworks and the syllabi
Get into appropriate skill pairs
Confident
Fair to good
Fair to average
Need to revisit

Confident should sit together
Fairs should sit in pairs of good/average
Need to revisit should sit together
Starter in pairs
Using just the picture and
the refrain from Mariana,
come up with a starter for a
poetry lesson for Year 11 or
Year 7
She only said, 'My life is dreary,
He cometh not,' she said;
She said, 'I am aweary, aweary,'
I would that I were dead!
Tennyson
Mariana - Tennyson
Empathy with the students
Undertaking a task that you expect students to
do can help you understand the processes by
which they arrive at the finished product
You are then better able to demonstrate those
tools to your students in the same way we
looked at modelling the writing process last
week
In the next task, keep an eye on the tool kit you
use to undertake the task and overcome the
difficulties inherent within the task
Do not focus on YOUR individual response to the task!
Ophelia write a stanza of poetry
using Millais painting as inspiration

Deconstructing the tool kit
What processes did you employ to turn the
inspiration into poetry?
How did you know what to write at the start?
How did you know if it was any good?
What criteria did you subconsciously try to
meet?
Is you were to write out a sequence of actions
and thoughts for someone else to copy your
route to a successful stanza, what would you
write?
In pairs
Write out a tool kit to help other students
undertake a similar task
E.g. writing down rich words associated with the
picture
Reversing and adapting the meter
Incorporating thematic content

Poetry and contradictions
Poetry matters because it is a central example of the use human
beings make of words to explore and understandPoetry
embodies delight in expression, stretched between thought, feeling
and form.Poetry includes a concept of human creativity and a
notion of energy and value..Poets work at the frontier of language.
Teaching Poetry in the Secondary School, 1987

Teaching poetry is at the centre of English, and yet it is something
you cannot do unless you enjoy poetry. A teacher can only teach
poems he or she likes: there is no joy or value in teaching a poem
you loathe out of a sense of duty because you are told it is a classic.
You cannot teach a poem under such circumstances. You maybe
doing something of value, such as giving children a sense of how
dull and exasperating adults can be at times.
English for Maturity, David Holbrook
In pairs
Analyse and annotate the following
poems/extracts and give examples of the sort of
analysis you would expect of each Key Stage
Start with KS5 and work your way
backwards

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
What do they need to be
able to do at KS5?
Charge of the Light Brigade -
Tennyson
What should they be able to do at KS4?
Wild, wild the storm, and the sea high running,
Steady the roar of the gale, with incessant undertone muttering,
Shouts of demoniac laughter fitfully piercing and pealing,
Waves, air, midnight, their savagest trinity lashing,
Out in the shadows there milk-white combs careering,
On beachy slush and sand spirts of snow fierce slanting,
Where through the murk the easterly death-wind breasting,
Through cutting swirl and spray watchful and firm advancing,
(That in the distance! is that a wreck? is the red signal flaring?)
Slush and sand of the beach tireless till daylight wending,
Steadily, slowly, through hoarse roar never remitting,
Along the midnight edge by those milk-white combs careering,
A group of dim, weird forms, struggling, the night confronting,
That savage trinity warily watching.


Walt Whitman
Patrolling Barnegat
What should they be able to do at KS3?

The Highwayman

The wind was a torrent of darkness upon the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight looping the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding--
Riding--riding--
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn door.

He'd a French cocked hat on his forehead, and a bunch of lace at his
chin;
He'd a coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of fine doe-skin.
They fitted with never a wrinkle; his boots were up to his thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle--
His rapier hilt a-twinkle--
His pistol butts a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.




Alfred
Noyles
And KS2?What about T.S. Eliot?
Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden
Paw--
For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying
Squad's despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime--Macavity's
not there!

Macavity's a ginger cat, he's very tall and thin;
You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are
sunken in.
His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is
highly doomed;
His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are
uncombed.
He sways his head from side to side, with movements
like a snake;
And when you think he's half asleep, he's always
wide awake.
Three sides of poetry
Creation of Poetry
Verbal Understanding and Appreciation
Written Analysis and Comparison

If someone experiences a challenging life event,
what form of writing do they usually use?
Which form of creative writing are English
teachers most scared of teaching and assessing?
How do you judge creative poetry?
Real life example of drafting
Storm
Lightning crashing down, hailing every angle,
Hurricanes curling round, sailing in the tangles,
Strangling the bolts of light, evil to the core,
A merciless cursing fight, tearing through the
war,
Wild bright white stallions, canter in the gales,
Relentless siege of anger, this storm never fails.

Improved
Storm

Lightning crashing down, hailing every angle,
Hurricanes curling round, sailing in the tangles,
Strangling the bolts of light, evil to the core,
A merciless cursing fight, tearing through the war,
Wild bright white stallions, canter in the gales,
The clouds charge in battalions, wind chasing their tails,
The waves in the deep, whirling in the wind,
This blizzard never sleeps; Mother Nature has sinned.
Another spear of lightning, bellows in the sky,
The storm will not stop frightening, the end of time draws
nigh.

Finished?
Storm

Lightning crashing down, hailing every
angle,
Hurricanes curling round, sailing in the
tangles,
Strangling the bolts of light, evil to the core,
A merciless cursing fight, tearing through the
war,
Wild bright white stallions, canter in the
gales,
The clouds charge in battalions, wind chasing
their tails,
The waves in the deep, whirling in the wind,
This blizzard never sleeps; Mother Nature has
sinned.
Another spear of lightning, bellows in the sky,

The storm will not stop frightening, the end of time
draws nigh,
Crack goes the thunder, followed by drips of rain,
Clinging on to cliffs of wonder, slipping under the
strain,
Stallions still neighing in the wind, gallop through
limitless fields,
Innocent yet wild, a wasp that never stings, ignorant
to the venom it yields,
The stallions come to a sudden halt, the hurricane
leaves its sails,
The lightning ceases its vicious assault, the clouds
stop chasing their tails
Mother Nature has retreated attack, she cowers
within her realm,
Her wizardry no longer intact, the God of all creation
now at the helm.

Poetry to write or to analyse? Chair,
scribe and speaker
In groups of four, discuss your own experiences:
How were you taught to write poetry
How were you taught to analyse poetry?
How were you taught to write analysis
comparing poems?
What methods have you seen in school?
Are we right to teach poetry writing and
analysis?
Death by annotation, counting
similes, only studied poems that
would be in the exam
Poetry at GCSE
This is where all students are expected to show
strong familiarity with the conventions of poetry
and to be able to write discursive essays on the
poems
Even if you are in a group that has had
Literature disapplied, you will still have to study
poetry
The rules are strict and can be sometimes quite
alienating for weaker students it is imperative
that the teacher is confident in what has to be
studied and how poetry is examined
Working Backwards
Consider:
Question types
Skills needed
How to prepare students for these exams
How to prepare students for A levels
How to ensure that you dont bore your students to
death
Know HOW MUCH the exam is worth so you know
how much time to give to the component in your
course
Assessment of poetic analysis
Do you have the skills and knowledge needed to
ensure you stretch a G&T Year 11?
What about an Oxbridge entrance Year 13?
What areas of poetry would you be less confident
with?
Let us look at some basic GCSE requirements
from AQA Literature

Mark Scheme
As always the easiest way to work out what is
the minimum that needs to be taught is to look
at the mark scheme
Analysis of requirements

BREAK

Learning through SPL formal debate
Formal debate can be used effectively:
To help students present coherent ideas in short
time spans
To force students to consider alternative
viewpoints
To engage boys in the idea that analytical
assertions can be competitive and attractive
Deviated so that the form is miniaturised for
small group work
First choose a topic
The house proposes that all poems with
references to violence should be banned from
lessons with anyone under the age of 16
Then choose teams of two
A timekeeper
A host
A team of judges
An audience
Rules
Times are strict and rules - if broken will reflect
badly on the pair
Stipulate clear times according to the ability of the
students
Formal Comps 7 mins speeches for all with 4 mins
for one summary speaker
6
th
Form usually 4-5
GCSE usually 2-4
KS3 usually 1.5-3.5
Students MAY talk to each other and make notes if
they are a debating pair and the other pair are making
their speeches
Points of Information
First 30 seconds are protected (more/less if
increased/reduced times used)
Last 30 seconds are protected
Between this time any of the opposing pair may stand
and say Point of Information
You may say yes, or no sit down (this is funny!)
You should take two POIs in a session less or more
is poor
POIs are 15 seconds max!
A bang is sounded at the time junctions
The last ten seconds will be knocked out
Weak speakers who run out of ideas end up taking too
many POIs
Format
Person A speaks from Side 1 for 3 mins (or less)
Person C speaks from Side 2 (ditto)
Person B speaks from Side 1(ditto)
Person D speaks from Side 2 (ditto)
The host invites questions from the floor to named
sides which MUST be answered in the following
summaries by the named sides
Person C or D speaks for 2 mins (or less)
Person A or B speaks for 2 mins

To call POI, jump up, say Point of Information and see if you are accepted.
(Yes, ok. or No, sit down.) There is a 15 second limit for POI.
How could you vary the activity
Speed debating
Small group debating
Your own ideas?