Unseen Poetry: How to approach a poem

Unseen Poetry: How to approach a poem

English Literature Exam: Poetry/ Unseen

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:• Identify key words and themes in an unseen poem. • Read and responded to key ideas presented in an unseen poem. • Write a paragraph with three interpretations of the poem.


Bell task: What question would you ask the boy in this picture?

Write your question on the pink post-it note

provided.



Learning Objectives By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

• Identify key words and themes in an unseen poem.

• Read and respond to key ideas presented in an unseen poem.

• Write a paragraph with three interpretations of the poem.



Carousel Graffiti

Around the room are words/ phrases from the poem that we will study during today’s lesson.

Whilst the music is playing visit each word/ phrase and graffiti your response to the connotations attached to it.SONG Connotation: NounAn idea or feeling that a word invokes for a person in addition to its literal or primary meaning.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qei_ccdgTMU


Learning check point: initial response

In the first section of your progression placemat answer the following question:Using the words around the room, what is your initial

response to the poem?



‘Slow Reader’ By Vicki Feaver

Slow ReaderHe can make sculpturesand fabulous machines,invent games, tell jokes,give solemn, adult advice –but he is slow to read.When I take him on my kneewith his Ladybird bookhe gazes into the air,sighing and shaking his headlike an old manwho knows the mountainsare impassable.

He toys with words,letting them go coldas gristly meat,until I relentand let him wriggle free:a fish returningto its element,or a white-eyed colt – shyingfrom the bit *– who seesthat if he takes itin his mouthhe’ll never runquite free again.



Learning check point: after first reading

In the second section of your progression placemat answer the following question:

What do you think the poem is about?



Group task: analysis

In the exam you only have 30 minutes to write about an unseen poem, therefore you must be clear about what to analyse!Important aspects of an unseen poem:1. Important images - what do they suggest?2. First line - what mood is created?3. Last line - what mood is created?4. Voice - who is speaking and how do you know?5. Title - how does it relate to the poem?

In groups of four you will be given one of these key areas to

study, be prepared to feedback your ideas.




In the third section of your progression placemat answer the following question:

How has the group discussion aided your understanding of the poem?



Model Response

• The mother’s despair is revealed at the end of the first stanza. Comparing the boy to an ‘old man’ suggests her love, as though she can see all his life to come, but with the love the despair is shown by the idea, perhaps unconscious, that he will never succeed in this task. ‘The mountains / are impassable’ seems very final, the finality again emphasised by the line break after ‘mountains’, making them seem to hang in the air before the child, and the stanza break after ‘impassable’, creating a void which seems impossible (‘impassable’ is close to this, of course) to cross. The ‘mountains’ not only suggest the height and size of the task and the old man’s failing power to cross them, but also the mother’s desire: she desperately wants the child to pass over to the greener pastures of reading beyond them, but fears he will not. By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

• Identify key words and themes in an unseen poem. • Read and responded to key ideas presented in an unseen poem. • Write a paragraph with three interpretations of the poem.


Now write one high quality paragraph as demonstrated on the previous slide about your favourite line within the poem.

Use some of these phrases to help you express your ideas in a more sophisticated and literary way:

The writer presents____________ as The writer has used_________ to intensify the feeling of_______ The use of ___________ accentuates the idea that_________ The writer’s use of ____________ emphasises Evocative imagery of ____________ encourages the reader to ____ Other useful words: illustrates, highlights, creates a sense of, creates the

impression that…

Now it’s your turn!




In the third section of your progression placemat answer the following question:Can you interpret a quotation from the poem in three

different ways?



Peer Assessment


Swap your work with your shoulder partner and check their paragraph alongside the lesson objectives.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:• Identify key words and themes in an unseen poem. • Read and responded to key ideas presented in an unseen

poem. • Write a paragraph with three interpretations of the poem.


Reflection Plenary: How does the image relate to the poem?

Write your question on the

post-it note provided.


Documents

Unseen Poetry: How to approach a poem