Teaching Pack

Unseen Poetry – Personal response

Cambridge IGCSE™
Literature in English 0475

Version 1
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Contents

Introduction........................................................................................................................................4

Lesson plan – Personal response (Unseen Poetry)...........................................................................5

Teacher notes....................................................................................................................................9

Lesson resources.............................................................................................................................10

Worksheet 1: Personal responses to education...............................................................................11

Worksheet 2: Model analysis...........................................................................................................12

Worksheet 3: Self-/peer-assessment sheet.....................................................................................13

Icons used in this pack:

Lesson plan

Teacher notes

Lesson resources
Teaching Pack: Unseen Poetry – Personal response

Introduction

This Teaching Pack focuses on supporting learners in communicating a considered personal

response (directly and by implication). We have chosen to demonstrate this by using ‘The Lesson’
by Roger McGough, but this lesson plan could be adapted to use any other similar poem which is
quite contentious. The lesson is designed for learners that already understand common poetic
techniques such as:
 rhyme
 powerful lexis
 alliteration
 symbolism
 metaphor.

It is expected that learners should already know how to approach an unseen poem. The mnemonic
CATS is useful as a basic aid to getting learners started in this manner:
 Content
 Attitudes
 Techniques: rhyme, powerful lexis, alliteration, symbolism, metaphor etc.
 Structure.
It would be useful if the learners know what the literary canon is. This can be set as homework in
advance of this lesson.
In this Teaching Pack we have suggested resources and online links you may like to use as well as
some worksheets to print off and use in the classroom with your learners.
A PowerPoint presentation ‘Unseen Poetry: Communicate a considered personal response
(directly and by implication)’ is also provided for you to use alongside this pack (PowerPoint
slides 17).

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 Teaching Pack: Unseen Poetry – Personal response

Lesson plan – Personal response (Unseen Poetry)

Resources  Copy of a poem the learners have (preferably) not seen

before, for example, ‘The Lesson’ by Roger McGough:
www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/roger-mcgough/the-
lesson
 Worksheet 1: Personal responses to education (displayed
around the classroom for discussion)
 Worksheet 2: Review sheet
 Worksheet 3: Model analysis
 PowerPoint slides (17)
 Teacher notes
 Access to ‘Expanding the literary canon’ on Youtube at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHgzEDFRXJY&t=5s
 Highlighters and pens to annotate the poem

Learning objectives By the end of the lesson:

 all learners should be able to: Offer up a personal
response to the poem
 most learners will be able to: Offer up a considered
personal response contextualising the poem against a
basic definition of the literary canon
 some learners will be able to: Offer up an implied
considered personal response by using evaluative words
and phrases.

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Teaching Pack: Unseen Poetry – Personal response

Timings Activity

Starter/Introduction
Show learners an image of your chosen poet. Choose one where the
poet is looking quite serious. PowerPoint slide 1 features an image of
Roger McGough, who wrote the poem, ‘The Lesson’.
Ask what type of poetry you would expect from this poet. Allow learners
to freely answer this question with their own opinions. It is good if they
are biased with their expectations (serious, stern, old fashioned, etc.) as
the poem chosen should surprise them in its content.
Hand out or display the quotations from Worksheet 1 (or PowerPoint
slide 2), and allow learners to discuss their own opinions about
education.
Introduce the name of the poem, e.g. ‘The Lesson’.
Ask them to predict what perspectives on education they might expect
the poet to refer to.

Main lesson
Hand out copies of the poem and highlighter pens. Read the poem out
loud to the class. Ask how their initial expectations have been
challenged, if at all. Are they surprised at the content? Why?
Learners complete the tasks in PowerPoint slide 3 (Reading the poem
– initial responses) in their books. Starter answers:
 Where is the poem set? The classroom
 What are the feelings expressed in the poem? Anger, hurt,
fear, bravado, pain, etc.
 How does this poem compare to others you have studied?
Unusual content and perspective, challenging the nature of
learning and education.
 Write down two questions in relation to this poem.
- Why does the teacher go in?
- Why does the Head react in this manner?
 Pass these on to someone in the room to answer.
 Share the most interesting questions and responses from
other learners.
Explain that these initial thoughts are a personal response and that the
rest of the lesson will be spent looking at developing and informing these
responses considering the idea of the literary canon and using
evaluative phrases to imply a response.
Task
Define the idea and purpose of the literary canon.
The term ‘literary canon’ refers to a body of books, narratives and other
texts considered to be the most important and influential of a particular
time period or place.
A suggested video link to help think about the purpose:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHgzEDFRXJY&t=5s

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 Teaching Pack: Unseen Poetry – Personal response

Timings Activity

Read each statement on PowerPoint slide 4 in turn:

 ‘I felt, with my first poem, that I had entered this brotherhood [the
poetry canon]. Which turned out not to be the case.’

Ask learners why McGough did not enter into the literary canon with his
poem, ‘The Lesson’.
Read the answer:
 ‘The implication was that if we were Liverpool poets we couldn't
be serious.’

Learners discuss whether ‘The Lesson’ is a serious poem.

Learners discuss:
 Should ‘The Lesson’ be part of the literary canon?
Give the learners a few minutes to add to their discussions to their initial
responses from the starter. Learners can use the following sentence
starter to help them add to their notes:
‘The Lesson’ should be /should not be added to the literary
canon because…
Optional additional task:
Learners read the comment taken from a member of the public from the
Poem Hunter website on PowerPoint slide 5.
 What is their reaction to this?
 Do they agree or disagree with the idea that this is a genius
poem?

Analysis
Divide up the poem amongst the learners. 10 pairs of learners will cover
the 10 stanzas. Ask the learners to focus on identifying CATS and their
effects:
 Content
 Attitudes
 Techniques: rhyme, powerful lexis, alliteration, symbolism,
metaphor, etc.
 Structure.
Reinforce that, as long as they can justify opinions, all reasonable
answers are acceptable in Unseen exams.
Share their ideas.

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Teaching Pack: Unseen Poetry – Personal response

Timings Activity

Application
Set the essay question:
Based on your thoughts on education, the canon and your
consideration of the content of the poem, what is your reaction to
McGough’s ‘The Lesson’?
Read the model analysis on Worksheet 2 (or PowerPoint slide 6).
Explain the structure of this considered personal response to the poem.
Highlight the evaluative phrases that imply a considered response
(‘indeed’, ‘notably’, ‘particularly’, etc.).
Learners create their own considered, personal response to the poem.

Plenary
Using Worksheet 3 (PowerPoint slide 7) learners should read each
other’s work and offer up opinions as to how they can improve their
considered responses to unseen poetry.
Homework
Learners research the idea of the literary canon and create a poster.
This will help to contextualise any further analysis of unseen poetry for
learners.

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 Teaching Pack: Unseen Poetry – Personal response

Teacher notes

What type of poetry would you expect from this poet?

Allow learners to freely answer this question with their own opinions. It is good if they are biased
with their expectations (serious, stern, old fashioned, etc.) as the poem chosen should surprise
them in its content.
Once the poem has been read to the class, then hopefully this should have challenged their initial
expectations about the content and style of poetry.
Starting points for the answers to the questions on PowerPoint slide 3:

Where is it set? The classroom

What are the feelings expressed? Anger, hurt, fear, bravado, pain, etc.

How does this poem compare to others you Unusual content and perspective, challenging
have studied? the nature of learning and education.

Write down two questions in relation to this Why does the teacher go in?
poem.
Why does the Head react in this manner?

Explain that these initial thoughts are a personal response and that the rest of the lesson will be
spent looking at developing and informing these responses considering the idea of the literary
canon and using evaluative phrases to imply a response.
The term ‘literary canon’ refers to a body of books, narratives and other texts considered to be the
most important and influential of a particular time period or place. A suggested video link to help
think about the purpose: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHgzEDFRXJY&t=5s
Give learners a few minutes to add to their discussions to their initial responses from the starter.
Learners can use the following sentence starter to help them add to their notes:
‘The Lesson’ should be / should not be added to the literary canon because…

Optional additional task:

Learners read the comment taken from a member of the public from the Poem Hunter website on
PowerPoint slide 6.
What is their reaction to this?
Do they agree or disagree with the idea that this is a genius poem?
Reinforce that, as long as they can justify opinions, all reasonable answers are acceptable in
Unseen exams. Highlight the evaluative phrases that imply a considered response (indeed,
notably, particularly, etc.) on Worksheet 2: Model analysis.

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Teaching Pack: Unseen Poetry – Personal response

Lesson resources

Worksheet 1: Personal responses to education

Worksheet 2: Model analysis

Worksheet 3: Self-/peer-assessment sheet

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 Teaching Pack: Unseen Poetry – Personal response

Worksheet 1: Personal responses to education

Here are some personal responses to the concept of ‘education’:

I’ve never let my school interfere with my

education.
Mark Twain

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what

one has learned in school.
Albert Einstein

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance

but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to
go to school, were more educated and more intelligent
than college professors.
Maya Angelou

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters,

your brothers, the school, the teachers – but never blame
yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault,
because if you wanted to change you're the one who has
got to change.
Katharine Hepburn

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Teaching Pack: Unseen Poetry – Personal response

Worksheet 2: Model analysis

A true education should aim to shock and inspire action and reading
texts that broaden a reader’s capacity to humanise teachers is an often-
used plotline.
However, McGough’s poem does not cover this topic safely. Indeed, it
captures a bloody and visceral sense of a teacher’s frustration by
describing the dark levels of violence he stoops to; this is bound to be
controversial and divisive at a time when political violence is rife.
By positioning the reader in such a way as to make them feel very
unsafe themselves, through his teacher’s unrestrained and bloodthirsty
violent actions, McGough is deeply effective in his engaging and
accessible style.
Notably, the clever way in which the alliterative rhythm, with the
repetition of the ‘H’ consonant, mirrors the action and sound of his
‘sword’ as the teacher moves between the rhyming ‘rows’ to
rhythmically cut off 'fingers, feet or toes’ to teach the ‘undisciplined
students’ a lesson is particularly effective.

My thoughts on education

My initial response to the poem –

overview

Why I think this

What techniques make me think this

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 Teaching Pack: Unseen Poetry – Personal response

Worksheet 3: Self-/peer-assessment sheet

What went well:

What could be improved:

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