Ways into Poetry 1. Cloze exercise draws attention to word choices, diction, semantic fields 2.

. Chopped cut up stanzas or individual lines and students rebuild structure 3. Graph draw a graph of time against tension, passion, comedy etc theme 4. 5. Drama act out events in poem create tableaux soundscapes Select specific images out of context and students say what effect they have on them then after reading whole poem what their effect is in context prediction/imagery Point of view write from a different point of view from that in the poem Imagery students pick out effective imagery and group them into categories then draw a picture/s which represents what they see explain how the picture illustrates their interpretation of the poem Symbolism students design symbols for ideas, events or characters in the poem and explain how that symbol represents them Web Forums show students what other (not students or teachers) people think of the poem and ask them to add/retract from these opinions using direct reference to the poem to back up their opinions Social & historical context either a. dripfeed students snippets of information about the poet and ask if these change their opinion of the poem or b. students research social and historical context of poet and poem and explain how that affects or informs their response to the poem Powerpoints students create powerpoints with images and music to accompany a reading of the poem Students draw a graphic representation of the whole poem using quotations as illustrations to back up their graphics

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Mindmaps students create a mindmap analysis of the poem using the nine features of poetry - https://bubbl.us/ Divide the poem into new sections giving each one a title to work out structure Thematic grids when studying an anthology of poems this helps to categorise poems for different features, techniques or themes Comparison grids for pairs of poems or an anthology of poems Sort all the words in the poem alphabetically there is software/apps on the internet which will do this and then see which words occur most often and think about what this might tell them about the poem http://www.textfixer.com/tools/alphabetize-text-words.php Titles when studying an anthology of poetry to be examined give students the titles only and ask them to categorise them and predict main themes of the anthology PEE writing activities from one paragraph to whole essay From writing about one poem to writing about two poems compare/contrast Planning essays across the page to ensure comparison/contrast rather than writing about one and then the other Planning Venn Diagrams for contrast/comparison Thematic links tables Take words out of poems and create lists of linked words give to groups to title list and write a 50 word story using the words leads to themes gather all list titles together and explain they all come from one poem what could poem be about? Read poem are themes similar to thos suggested by list titles and/or stories? Narrator/character inference

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Nine features/techniques to consider to when reading/studying poetry; 1. 2. 3. 4. Theme Diction Imagery Voice/character

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Symbolism Structure Form/rhythm/meter Tone Attitudes/values/point of view