Poetry

The Creativity of Poetry

In the past few weeks I have began to teach poetry lessons. I have really enjoyed planning and implementing these lessons as I find that poetry allows you to explore teaching and learning in a variety of different creative ways. Poetry itself is a form of expression and it can be looked at and interpreted in a number of different ways.

 One of the most enjoyable things about teaching poetry is the ideas and aspects of a poem that pupils come up with; in particular the thoughts that you yourself might not have considered before. One pupil in particular in my year 11 class has a so many different interpretations when she looks at a poem. She clearly enjoys studying poetry and is extremely inventive when analysing any poem. It is pupils like her that really help lessons to progress and have an impact.

I find that teaching poetry also help me to develop my creative abilities. There are so many different ways in which a poem can be taught. I try to use a variety of visual, audio and kinaesthetic learning styles when teaching poetry to help the pupils understand the poem fully and to develop my own skills when teaching and encouraging pupils.

This week I have been involved in a team teaching poetry lesson. This has helped me to gain new ideas and techniques to use when teaching poetry as I have been able to see how others approach poetry and the way in which they teach it.

Poetry is a form of expression and creative ability and it is important that when teaching it that the lesson fits in with these aspects.

Evaluate a lesson that you have differentiated and explain the strategies and resources used

 

When looking at differentiation it is important to ensure that every pupil’s individual needs are being met. This week I taught my year 11 set 2 class a poem called The Farmer’s Bride. This class has 26 pupils with target grades ranging from A-C. They are a quite able class but there are a few pupils who need support to reach the desired learning outcomes. I have one pupil that is targeted an A and when reflecting upon this lesson I could have differentiated the lesson better in order to push this pupil.

The start of this lesson had pupils working in groups. Each group consisted of a range of pupils with different abilities. This helped to support my lower ability pupils as they were able to share ideas with the more able pupils and therefore develop their thoughts and ideas. The starter aimed to get pupils thinking about the key aspects of marriage. Each group created a mind map that consisted of any words that they associated with marriage. This tied in well with the poem as they were able to compare these ideas with the poem. The starter worked well to engage the pupils and the groups worked well as everyone was able to contribute and get involved.

The main part of the lesson was spent looking at the poem. I first introduced the class to the poem by explaining some context about the poem and then used an audio to help them to focus and understand how the poem would be read. I used a PowerPoint to display the poem as the audio played in order to help both visual and auditory learners. The audio was used to help support the lower ability pupils as it would help their understanding when analysing the poem. The class was then kept in the same groups they were in for the starter. This would help support all pupils as they analysed the poem. Each group moved around the class analysing a stanza at a time. I left the entire poem on the board so that the pupils could understand where each stanza was in relation to the rest of the poem. In order to help the lower ability pupils I discussed the techniques that they should be looking for within the poem before they began. In order to differentiate I placed an envelope on each table. Inside each envelope was a help sheet that was created for the lower ability pupils. I told the group to try to analyse the poem independently and to not look at the sheet for the first minute at each table. The poem highlighted certain areas that they should look at and had questions that asked them to think about the key aspects and themes of each stanza. This help sheet worked extremely well for my lower ability pupils.

My plenary was used to question the pupils on what they had understood about the poem. I wanted them to think about their ideas from the starter and to link these to the poem. My learning objectives for this lesson were to be able to explore the key themes in the poem and to be able to analyse and interpret the language, structure and tone of the poem. The responses in my plenary ensured that my objectives had been met as the pupils answered my questions well and were able to reference certain points of the poem to support their answers. My plenary also helped all ability pupils to develop their understanding as it allowed them to discuss their own ideas and to also listen to range of thoughts and opinions about the poem.

Overall the lesson worked well to support the differing abilities. The group work, help sheets and discussion task in particular all helped to support the lower ability pupils. In order to improve this lesson I would try to implement more ways to push my higher ability pupils. I could have set a question for each stanza that would have helped the more able pupils to push their ideas forward. I could have also asked them to compare what is happening in this poem with the context of this poem or with another poem that they have recently looked at. I have decided that a personal target of mine is to ensure that I am differentiating for the higher ability pupils as well as the lower ability pupils.