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Teaching Literature at Key Stage 3 and 4
Poetry
Differentiation and supporting pupils' responses to poetry
Activity 2
Issue the student teachers with the worksheet on W. H. Auden's 'Song IX' and allow them to discuss it in terms of the four areas indicated (these are the same as the areas in Activity 1).
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. Key issues may include:
- How does this approach encourage the pupils to make targeted decisions about what is and is not important in their response?
- How does this approach encourage a different structure to a narrative or sequential response?
- How does this approach organise pupils' responses in a way that will give them a template for future response?
The following diagram is merely one suggested way that pupils can be encouraged to organise their thinking when they are asked to analyse and evaluate a poem: there are many other possible frameworks. However, it is important that pupils are given some kind of method of organising their thinking about a poem – or any other text, for that matter!
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Pupils' analysis is also aided by a 'building block' approach to writing critical essays. This approach is becoming ubiquitous, and, while some suggest that pupils can rely too heavily on this method as a support for their analysis, there is no doubt it helps pupils of all abilities organise and structure their responses to literature.
 
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