Unseen poetry: the scheme in five minutes

Transcript

Introduction0:00

This is Between the Lines, and this is the walkthrough of our Unseen poetry scheme of learning. I'm Hannah.

The scheme at a glance0:07

Unseen poetry is written for Literature Paper 2, Section C, unseen poetry. It's 12 lessons of sixty minutes, which is about three weeks, with three levels of support throughout. The lessons run in three sequences: Reading one poem, lessons 1 to 4; Comparing two poems, lessons 5 to 8; The exam, lessons 9 to 12. There are three assessment points. Two are Feedback Loop kits, in lessons 4 and 8, the first on one poem, the second a comparison, and the third is the end-of-unit assessment in Lesson 11, with its feedback lesson after it.

One lesson0:43

Let me show you with Lesson 3, The shape of a poem. The big question is: How do form and structure carry meaning? Apply is about fifteen minutes, and it has two parts. First you explode one quotation together. In this lesson it's "Yet if you should forget me for a while". Before you reveal anything, students try the four empty boxes on the first explode slide: method, zoom in, effect, purpose. Then you think aloud through the full version. The method is the volta at line 9, where a Petrarchan sonnet turns. The word to zoom in on is "Yet": it warns us that the argument is about to change, and "forget" appears for the first time after three uses of "remember". The effect: the tone softens from command to permission, so the reader hears the speaker changing their mind. The purpose: Rossetti uses the turn in the form to show love that can let go, because the speaker wants the lover's happiness more than their memory. That is the whole analytical move the exam rewards, done out loud, once a lesson, for the whole scheme. Then the hinge question, on mini-whiteboards. In lines 1 to 8 the speaker keeps saying "Remember me". What changes from line 9? The right answer is B: the speaker allows the lover to forget, if remembering would make them sad. And this is the bit I'd ask every teacher to use. The handbook tells you what each wrong answer means. A student who picks A, that the speaker gives up on the lover, has seen the change but missed its kindness, so you ask them to read the last two lines aloud. A student who picks C has read "silent land" literally, so you recap euphemisms for death and start them on Securing. The hinge question is how you decide, in thirty seconds, who starts on which level of support. That's what it's for.

Three levels of support2:31

Master is the last twenty-five minutes, and it's where the three levels do their work. Everyone in the room answers the same question as a What–How–Why paragraph. In Lesson 3 it's: In Remember, how does the poet present the speaker's feelings about being remembered? Securing, aiming for a 4, gives a choice of exact quotations, here "Remember me when I am gone away", "Only remember me; you understand" and "Better by far you should forget and smile", a worked example on a different quotation, and sentence starters for What, How and Why. Strengthening, aiming for grades 5 to 6, gives prompts instead of starters: a clear point for What, then choose a quotation from before or after line 9, name the method, repetition, imperative, volta or euphemism, and zoom in on one word, and for Why, what the poet wants the reader to feel when the speaker lets the lover forget, with a checklist. Soaring, aiming for grades 7 to 9, gives a debatable statement to argue with: The speaker of Remember is more generous than loving. How far do you agree? Two paragraphs, the second beginning with an alternative reading. Same poem, same question, same standard. Only the scaffolding changes.

Feedback Loop kits3:44

Two times in the scheme, the Master phase is a Feedback Loop kit: a twenty-five minute progress check that fits inside the lesson. You place the paragraph in one of the six AQA levels, using our indicative content for this task. There is no raw mark, and that's deliberate. A six out of thirty tells a student one thing, that they got six. A level, in AQA's own words, tells them what the paragraph does now and what the next one asks for.

Every scheme, the same shape4:11

That's the Unseen poetry scheme. The same structure runs through every Between the Lines scheme, so a teacher who has taught one has taught the shape of all of them, and a student who moves classes mid-year lands in a lesson they recognise. Lesson 3 of every scheme is free at btl.education if you want to show a colleague what a lesson looks like before they open the folders. Thank you for watching, and I hope your classes find the poems as rewarding as mine have.