I realise that in my pieces on Heaney's Death of a Naturalist, I have not written an exploration of the poem Storm on the Island. Storm On The Island We are prepared: we build our houses squat, Sink walls …
Category: poetry
War Photographer: Duffy. An introduction
A visualizer video to introduce Duffy's poem for study at GCSE and IGCSE Microsoft Stream link Read More "War Photographer: Duffy. An introduction"
Introducing analysis in Y9: Whitman. ‘Come up from the fields, father’.
Whilst fully aware of the move away from prescriptive PEE type structure in essays, I still use PEARL as my most familiar process for structure. I see this as embodying a 'what, why, how' approach and find it a good …
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Follower, Heaney: thoughts on metre and language
Follower -note the lack of an article suggesting the whole range of potential meanings and sub-meanings to the word. Heaney is writing literally of a boy who followed his father around the fields and farm in his youth and who …
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Poetic Form and how to use it: A guide for Edexcel IGCSE and all unseen poetry
Dr Ammara Ashraf, who joined my department last term has produced many little gems which glitter proudly in our shared resources area. She has allowed me to share further this PowerPoint on Form for exam students at IGCSE, GCSE and …
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Tissue: Dharker, for GCSE…
My twitter timeline has pulsed with tearful teachers reaching for their tissues - and I don't blame them. This poem, a feature of the AQA anthology for GCSE is hard and seemingly impenetrable for many teachers, let alone students. In …
Remembrance Poetry prize winner.
Each year since I joined the John Lyon School I have run a competition in Year 9 for Remembrance Poetry. The boys are working on poetry and Journey's End during the term and it seems a fitting opportunity to link …
Search for my tongue, short video clip
From the BBC - an introduction to the poem for IGCSE English Lit. Search for my tongue: BBC Read More "Search for my tongue, short video clip"
Structure-strip: poetry comparison
Aimed at students using the Edexcel IGCSE anthology but applicable to all. I would welcome some feedback on my first attempt at producing a useful structure strip to help students structure a comparative essay. structure guide poetry comparison WordPress seems …
Comments as feedback on essay: Compare the depiction of relationships in Poem at 39 and one other from the Edexcel anthology for IGCSE.
Rather a long-winded title for a short post. This essay, designed to practice the English Literature paper 1 section on the Anthology poems is aimed at a student who has just left my office worried and frustrated about his apparent …