Starting to Teach: Power and Conflict Poetry for AQA

"You are here — that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse... What will your verse be?”

Robin Williams' character, teacher, John Keating (love or hate him) summed up reasons for poetry to be read and written: “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race." He goes on to quote Walt Whitman, “O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless… of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?” “Answer. That you are here — that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse... What will your verse be?”

For me, although an idealised version, this does hold some truth. I do want my students to study poetry, not solely for exams, but because poetry talks to them about life and the human condition; interpretations can be multifarious and students can take risks and along this journey they might feel there is something they can take away or relate to.

Although there are different approaches, the first thing I do is annotate my own copy of the anthology. I have done this for GCSE and A Level texts, as a student of literature myself, why wouldn't I? Indeed, I can show them mine as a model and demonstrate that I am only asking them to do something I have already done. Furthermore, I add in questions that I could ask students to deepen their understanding in the lesson.

I have found studying them chronologically and in pairs works well. So I start with 'Ozymandias' and 'London' and once we have gone through the first poem move onto reading and drawing comparisons with the second. I will start with images or statements linked to the poem's central ideas in order to ensure students have that first, then draw out how it is explored in the poem. To stretch students I bring in non fiction articles such as those from the British Library:  https://www.bl.uk/discovering-literature, as there a lots in there for example on Ted Hughes and War https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/ted-hughes-and-war , a video from The Guardian on The Last Kamikaze  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3qoNE4XwhM or even a video based on Guardsman Tromans for some context on 'War Photographer'.

Annotating: with the best will in the world (unless you have embedded this strongly at KS3 or taught the same class the previous year) at the outset they might well just be colouring in words! Students will need the skill of annotating modelled for the first couple of poems. Students need to be shown they are highlighting evidence linked to the question steer only and then a note by the side of what they might add to say about it: method, tone, effect on meaning, what light it throws on the question- does the writer challenge or question perceptions for example, but all pertaining to and having a sharp focus on the question. You could do the first one totally then with the second, do examples of relevant highlights for them. Coupled with a ‘what’ linked to the Q, I might then get students to add in ‘hows/effects’ in discussion or using some pre prepared leading questions on the board. 

Planning essays. This needs to be modelled and guided in a comparative way not just for this section but for other sections/contexts also. I have realised in both my A level and GCSE classes that students default to planning by quotation. Instead what they need to do is plan by argument or topic sentence and then quotation. This makes them have to think of their overall thesis first, then arguments to back that up, then quotations to support. This helps to ensure they have an overall argument which is coherent and threaded through rather than paragraphs on quotations linked to the steer. Breaking down the question and asking students to think about the specific power or conflict in question and synonyms for these is really useful. Furthermore, getting students to also think the converse as there are poems which show powerlessness or conflicting emotions, not just the obvious: attitudes towards conflict or more generally war.

Often, they find it tricky to write introductions that don’t just narrate or sum up the poems. This is important for grade 7+ students who need to think conceptually and have that overview and argument threaded throughout. Show models of these that get to the heart of what the poem wants to have a conversation about . Ask students to think and discuss what ideas, themes and messages they might take from the poem. Also ask them to consider whether the poem: questions, challenges, opposes, reflect or condemns something in relation to the question steer. Practise modelling and writing these in pairs on a variety of questions. We try to ensure we include both poets’ names (write from the writer) and a thesis statement which is essentially our argument in a nutshell, really trying to get to the crux of the poems and the bigger conversation they are having about life or the human condition.

Students also find it hard to access high marks if they have been taught formulaic, repetitious ways of writing about evidence. Exam boards have stated year on year this is a reductive approach and results in students trying to remember the formula rather than just giving their interpretation about a quotation. I get why we did this and it still can enable our lower ability students but losing the formula sets students free to talk about the what, how, why in the order they want. I stopped using it with KS3 a couple of years back, and if they can cope, Year 11 students definitely can. 

Being brave and taking risks. Do create a culture where students feel confident to put an idea forward. Obviously, if we are wrong we are wrong - that can be an idea scratched off in search of a better one. If a student told me Scrooge lived in the sea because of the simile he was “as solitary as an oyster” I would have to correct that, but at least that idea has been thrown out in the open and the misconception corrected! Giving students chance to discuss and rehearse ideas before feedback to the class is helpful. Another idea I taught a very able top set was a ‘get out’ phrase like, “I’m not sure if this is right but one idea could be...” This allows them to put a risky or half baked idea forward without losing face. Another technique is to give six valid statements that are written in quite an academic way and asking them to choose the one they feel captured the crux of the poem and to discuss, find evidence and feed that back to the class. Finally, alternative interpretations. The beauty of literature is that we all bring our lives and our baggage to it. Aspects can be ambiguous, can have shades of meaning and different readings should be encouraged so students can see that their interpretation can be at an angle from their partner's but nevertheless, equally valid.

Encouraging students to take risks can, as I mentioned, lead to misconceptions. However, there is another kind of student who, in their enthusiasm, goes the other way: they extrapolate too far from the text. This also has to be addressed otherwise they will be writing exam essays on these ‘far out’ theories. The best take on this I heard was at an A level student conference where an examiner was talking about being original but not without convincing support in the text and your argument. He said something similar to- I don’t have to have thought of your interpretation before or even agree with you, but since I am marking your answer you will need to convince me your idea is valid, which means there has to be evidence of this in the text and you need to have argued it persuasively. Therefore, if you ever meet one of these students, (and I have about three at the moment) either tell them they are wrong if it’s a misconception or use questioning to ensure their interpretation and thought process are both clear and valid.

Students do have the uncanny ability to mistake the persona in the poem for the actual poet themselves. Many times teaching ‘Kamikaze’ I have had to remind students that the persona is the daughter and that she is not actually Beatrice Garland or that the father is not actually narrating the poem. Another good example is ‘Ozymandias’ - no, the story is not told by Shelley. It is second hand and we are informed, originally told by (in a Chinese box style) a ‘traveller from an antique land’ whilst echoing some of Ozymandias' words. Adopting words like: persona, construct, narrator can all help create the smallest of light bulb moments.

So, with input from my fellow Lit Drive associates I have pulled together a sort of summarised Dos and Don'ts:

Some dos:

• Start with big ideas, themes and statements. Before even reading a poem discuss this issues and ideas it illuminates.
• Consider, as you go, different types of power and conflict e.g. conflicting emotions, power of time, individual versus society.
• Teach students to discuss and write about the: WHAT, HOW and WHY of a quotation.
• Remember the 'HOW' of methods is more than word class. Other things are worth while exploring: persona, structure and tone.
• Share model essays with them and pick apart. Get a half baked one and ask them to improve it.
• Practise choosing poems to compare and discussing the pros and cons of different choices.
• Practise comparative sections and redrafting these over again.
• Practise writing thesis statements and defining the steer as it relates to both poems.
• Plan and model planning essays together on a range of examples of the themes.

Some don'ts:

• Teach poems line by line.
• Study poems in isolation- they need to be drawn together as soon as possible.
• Allow students to feature spot techniques or learn very convoluted terminology that they then say nothing about the effects of.
• Teach a prescribed structure -there is none. Have faith in your students, if they know the poems they can write confidently about them.
• Teach PEE or overly formulaic responses e.g. This word usually means...In this context the writer .... The impression this creates... The reader's response is,,,,These actually restrict thought and produce descriptive or limited interpretations.
• Treat the persona like a real person (a construct) or confuse them with the actual poet (they might not be!).
• Teach loads of bolted on historical context -drip it in where relevant as you go.

Now into the fourth year of teaching the new spec, I am still refining as I go, but one of my favourite aspects is the poetry anthology. And whilst I haven’t got the kids standing on the tables shouting ‘Captain, my Captain!’ I do hope it gives them a space to think and consider aspects of life they wouldn’t ordinarily be inclined to: ‘ that life exists, and identity’ and that they ‘contribute a verse’.

Starting to Teach: ‘Jekyll and Hyde.’ Some Ideas on Initial Teaching of Contexts and Concepts.

Starting to Teach: ‘Jekyll and Hyde’. Some Ideas on Initial Teaching of Contexts and Concepts.

“All human beings… are commingled out of good and evil” -Dr. Henry Jekyll.

Modern readers usually have some snippets of knowledge about the story before reading it. Students usually articulate variations of: a crazy scientist releases his ‘evil side’ into society to do things he cannot.
Since it is a short text, a cold, teacher led read could be a good option here. Depending on the lesson time you have, it could take less than two weeks. It gives an early opportunity to get all the plot covered and iron out any possible misconceptions as they arise. Quick options as you read might be:
-Simple ‘key event’ chapter timelines
-Have some big questions to spider diagram with quotes that you can go back over later or as homework or MCQ
-Character statements
-Paper 1 question 2 style language analysis bursts or quotation explorations
-Silent debate some key statements Paper 1 question 4 style.

One question is, does the student in 2020 having a snippet of an idea give the infamous story away? If you have read the novel you’ll know, not at all. Initially,  it could be seen as problematic in some ways for us knowing ‘the plot’ as we are not then in the same position as the Victorian reader, piecing together the mystery alongside Mr Utterson. But I would argue we still are. Indeed, an interesting choice of name from the start - utterances do not exist in written language, only their representations do.
This is the same for Jekyll and Hyde. Hyde does not exist as we might expect. He is Jekyll’s utterance: a representation. Ironically, the tale is narrated through the cleverly named Mr Utterson’s and events are filtered through his character apart from epistolary sections of ‘evidence’ such as
letters and Jekyll’s final confession.
It is important to note: there is only ever Jekyll. Hyde never narrates and we only get his opinion from reported speech or Jekyll’s perspective. It is the duality IN man, the ‘commingled’ we look to explore, not duality as in two people. Even when he is in Hyde’s form he is still Jekyll calling himself ‘I’ the dissipated atavist according to theories expounded by Cesare Lombroso. In this way Stevenson reflects and taps into Victorian fears warning that: degeneration, immorality and deviant sexuality. He continues the duality motif into the London setting, that in this urban Gothic setting such evil could be lurking around every cobbled street behind any ‘clean and brightly coloured’ house. Stevenson therefore presents the setting of London as a dark place both literally and metaphorically. Certainly, the introduction of the buildings in chapter one and not knowing where, ‘one ends and another begins’ is representative of the ‘duality in man’ and foreshadows the inhabitants’ traits. Indeed, the fact this building has ‘no window’ highlights Hyde’s inaccessibility and mystery remaining in darkness at this point of the novel, symbolically enshrouded in the ‘pall’ of fog. Furthermore, the door having no knocker or way of apparently being opened or called on from the outside reflects Hyde’s characterisation as Jekyll’s id- hidden away and repressed because of the conservative morals of Victorian society.
As the text continue Jekyll becomes more isolated. He sits at his ‘half open’ window when Enfield and Utterson go to visit him. Previously, the window at Hyde’s house was described to be closed allowing no contact and secrecy to continue behind the façade. Here, as Jekyll is dealing with the conflict of releasing Hyde this window is described to be ‘half open’. Indeed, Jekyll is described to be ‘taking in the air with an infinite sadness of mein’ evoking the sense that he is becoming suffocated in part through his duplicitous existence. This is compounded by Stevenson’s use of simile to present Jekyll as a ‘disconsolate prisoner’ miserably trapped in his own body and possibly (as we later learn) unable being able to control the changing from one outwardly appearance to another. During his conversation with his friends the window is ‘thrust down’ rapidly and forcefully in a panic by Jekyll. This window serves as a symbol for the barrier now between Jekyll, his friends and Victorian society. Jekyll has physically cut himself off. He is able to see and take part in society but where he thought Hyde would lift barriers for him actually, he is isolated further due to his immoral acts that are unaccepted by society which instead of making him guilt free make him very conflicted and full of regret in chapter ten. Stevenson arguably criticises the Victorian era’s repression of naturally occurring immorality and illustrates as Jekyll later considers, that by doing this it causes a much bigger ‘devil’ to ‘come out roaring’.

Reputation is a definitely a key concept to be covered. To lose one’s reputation in Victorian society was to lose everything. I turn here to ‘Othello’ and Shakespeare’s Cassio who on losing his job -due to villain Iago’s behind the scene manipulation- exclaims, ‘“Reputation, reputation, reputation! Oh, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.”’ So, Jekyll’s position in society allows him no room for misdemeanour, or outlet for freedoms based on his privileged position. However, in reality and thoroughly relevant to today’s society, the upper classes used their position in society as a protective veneer, a reflective ‘cheval mirror’ to deflect any insight into their misdeeds, drug use and debauchery. Such behaviour is alluded to with Jekyll’s friends also. Enfield is described to be walking back from ‘some place at the end of the night’ at three in the morning and later we learn that the well known ‘kindly’ and ‘innocent’, Danvers Carew is walking in the ‘small hours’ through the streets of London. Where had both of these been or where were they going at such a time? At the very least we know, both witnessed despicable acts further emphasising the dark underbelly of not only Victorian London’s people but the space itself.
Arguably, more genteel Victorians saw themselves as civilised and acting within prescribed moral boundaries. To transgress these, as Jekyll has, gives rise to the terror Hyde initiates in those who see him. Why can’t other characters quite put their finger on what it is that’s wrong with him? He is ‘not easy to describe’ and ‘deformed somewhere’ and yet Enfield cannot ‘name anything out of the way’. Perhaps evil is indescribable. Moreover, it creates terror because Hyde reflects the evil inherent in all of us, which also makes it is so hard for Enfield or anyone else to define. The mere sight of this evil is enough to kill Jekyll’s foil, Dr Lanyon who functions as a symbol of rational Victorian science and a warning against Jekyll’s tempting brand of ‘balderdash’ .
Here Stevenson also taps into another Victorian fear by posing the question: what might happen if civilised society could degenerate? The Victorian era was a time of massive progress. Indeed, Darwin’s theories of evolution and ‘The Descent of Man’ led to some thinkers like Edwin Ray Lankester proposing a sort of evolutionary degeneration possibly to the ‘ape like fury’ of Hyde. Such a concept in a time of conservative morals and relatively quick progress may have been the stuff of nightmares: humans are not only evolved from apes but also could arguably degenerate in less demanding environments to the point of trampling calmly over a child. This is seen in other Gothic novels, for example Dracula turns into a bat and a wolf, both predatory animals. By inhabiting this liminal state between animal and human these characters emphasise for Victorian readers, that potentially terrifying indeterminate link between humans and animals.
Stevenson’s protagonist then is only ever Jekyll, holding up his reputation whilst indulging desires viewed as taboo. In his own confession in chapter ten he continued being ‘radically both’. Certainly, it can be useful to introduce students to Freud’s theory of id, ego and superego to highlight the characteristics of Jekyll and Hyde.  Stevenson does indeed illustrate all humans are ‘commingled’ out of good and evil, a rather less black and white version than Victorians perhaps wanted to believe, but that many suspected existed based on the high levels of crime and low confidence in the police . The hidden life Jekyll tried to maintain reflects that of Deacon Brodie - a professional cabinet maker- a useful job to have when you are actually a housebreaker funding your gambling addiction. Brodie was, on the surface, an upright citizen and on the town council no less, but using this façade to fund his extravagant lifestyle. Once caught, Brodie was hanged (a fate Jekyll also refers to) ironically by a gibbet he designed. This emphasises the horrific realisation that reputable citizens in which Victorians placed their trust were maybe not as respectable as they seemed.
Getting students to find examples of appearance versus reality or duality in key moments would be very valid. Arguably it is more unsettling to have the real fear that the appearances of those who might seem the most respectable in society - doctors and town councillors are actually the very people we should be afraid of. People we trust. This is still very relevant in recent times with respected figures actually committing heinous crimes. Perhaps, sadly, the human psyche hasn’t changed that much. Ultimately, it is a lot more of a terrifying proposition to consider there is no evil side to blame our decisions on, that it is simply down to our humanity to indulge or resist them. There is no way for Jekyll to escape Hyde. So, Jekyll kills himself. Often here we talk about the nomenclature with associations to Je meaning I in French and that ‘I kill’ ( for Jekyll) was always a hint of Jekyll’s agency. It certainly creates a great deal of discussions whether in the end good or evil triumphs after all.
Hyde never gets a voice precisely because he does not have one. The most terrifying evil, as Golding also symbolised with the beast in ‘Lord of the Flies,’ is the evil in all of us.

Merry Pop-ins

As teachers, there's never enough time is there? Especially with reference to simply having time to talk about our subject. This is definitely something my department have felt this year. Naturally, marking and moderating take over and other priorities fall by the wayside. In a busy department consisting of a good mix of trainees, NQTs and non specialists, I asked myself: when do we have those important conversations about our subject knowledge, lesson ideas and areas we need help on? How do we keep pedagogy up to date, avoid formulaic lessons and generally chat enthusiastically about our subject together? This is where the lunch pop-ins began.

Firstly, I started offering two sessions a week based on developing  knowledge of texts we were studying. Some colleagues had never taught 'Frankenstein' before we began discussing key scenes to cover with our classes obvious starting examples being: Walton's frame narration and the function of it; Victor's childhood; influences at university and chapter 5. We spent time discussing Prometheus and how this myth is embodied by the text. We looked at a lesson from the scheme and talked about how, with a great TED-Ed video The myth of Prometheus, students might secure their knowledge perhaps rewriting the myth before they made links over to the novel.  We also came to the conclusion that to understand the novel and really get to grips with chapter 5 students would need to understand the Gothic tradition. As seen previously, for our students videos can be a real way in and I found this one from The British Library The Gothic as a fantastic starting point and covers briefly: Walpole's 'The Castle of Otranto' , 'Jekyll and Hyde' , 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein' as well as typical features of the genre. Discussions turned to looking at the opening of chapter 5 together and pulling out some Gothic features we could all talk to students about, increasing teacher confidence in analysing a text they hadn't taught before in front of their class. Whatever we discussed I had on a power point that I then shared with the department. These were not fully fledged lessons but ideas and resources teachers could adapt for their class.

Next, 'Macbeth' appeared to be a hot potato as some teachers either hadn't taught Shakespeare before or weren't sure which topics or scenes were best to focus on. These pop-in sessions featured us looking at Lady Macbeth and how she persuades Macbeth. We considered different interpretations of her such as: loyal wife, villain, strong female (as per other characters in Shakespeare's oeuvre) challenging the idea of subservient womanhood, witch and mad woman. We also honed in on Act 1 scene 7 to see how in a matter of lines Shakespeare has her manipulate her husband to agree to commit regicide. Here we picked out features such as : insulting his masculinity, emotional blackmail, hyperbole, emphasising her own determination by monstrously dashing her baby's 'brains out'.

This led on to me modelling how to model a paragraph about Lady Macbeth. Like the majority of other English teachers, I have moved away from the formulaic and reductive: PEE, PETAL, PEEZE and other variations of letters previously created in good faith to get students to hang an analysis on. I don't even do it with Key Stage 3 classes. We just have a list of  prompts by the side depending on the group. There was a great discussion about real concerns of modelling in front of a top set or making mistakes.

I found in my own modelling journey there are many ways around this to alleviate worries.
Make a list of word prompts, as sort of aide memoires if you like, to aid your own thought process whilst demonstrating use of analytical or evaluative vocabulary. For example in the pink box below next to my blue Year 10's first effort:

Another strategy was to pre pick the quotation and type out some sentence starts which could be combined by the class in the lesson. This could then be colour coded or annotated to show how it features the AOs.

The easiest option we discussed was to start as a 'rookie modeller' and to use one from an exam board exemplar, of which there are many on eAQA an other exam board sites.

Naturally, this turned into an essay or analysis opportunity and we discussed how introductions, especially conceptual style ones were highlighted by AQA to be something seen in high quality exam responses. So we looked at some student intros and talked about how to get more students responding more conceptually with thesis statement style introductions. Generally, we concluded these needed to include 'writing from the writer' so in its simplest form, using the author's name. We also decided referring to the key words in the question and creating the thesis statement (argument in a nutshell) around these which might feature: some nod to context or what the writer 'might' have wanted to have a conversation about in writing the text would be a really effective starting point.

In Year 8 this year we taught poetry on the theme of Social Injustice. Students had already read 'Of Mice and Men' and 'Noughts and Crosses' so had some previous knowledge of this in a literary context - although this did have to be explicitly pointed out to them since, as we know, the ideas don't always transfer easily over to a new topic. In these pop-ins we felt so excited by the topic and where it could go and on looking at the scheme reflected that it did not start with the same passion we felt and didn't really activate their previous knowledge or set up a context. I shared some lessons I had done with my class where before beginning the scheme, we looked at music videos of protest songs like: Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick in the Wall' , 'Just a Girl' by No Doubt, Green Day's 'American Idiot' (very easy for students to relate to apparently) and 'Free Nelson Mandela'. These all helped to set up a context to discuss initial big questions like: What kinds of social injustice are there?  How do people feel about social injustice? How can it affect people's lives on a daily basis? It was here students began to fully understand the concept and could then apply it to the poems we moved on to study. One of the poems in this collection was 'Nothing's Changed' by Tatamkhulu Afrika. Anyone with a few years of teaching behind them will be able to cast your mind back to the old AQA Poetry from Other Cultures Anthology which featured the aforementioned poem and other gems like Achebe's 'Vultures'. However, many recently qualified teachers had never come across this poem before, so this was a good place to start in sharing ideas. One idea was we watched the trailer to 'District 9' and we talked about the social injustice here and how this could be a way in to the poem for students before giving them a little more context about District 6 in South Africa at the time.

Finally, as we came up to GCSE revision time I shared my 'Three things to teach for...'. These were just snippets of areas in each text you might want to revise or share with your class to revise their knowledge. For example with 'A Christmas Carol' the pop-in featured the opening sentence of the book, the motif of time and Dickens' use of parallelism. Admittedly, the opening sentence one became a bit of a geek out and a key quotation for my students to revise as it fits into so many possible essay questions! Here, we talked about Dickens' use of: hypotaxis, withholding of information, setting up key themes (death, change and loss) , narrative perspective (whose actually is it?) and why Dickens would go to such lengths setting up an air of finality to convince us how dead Marley was, after starting the novel stating that he was only dead 'to begin with'.

Before writing this blog I messaged the department to see what they would say they got out of the pop-ins. Here's some of their opinions summarised (thanks ladies!):

• Staff liked having time to discuss and have resources to take away that they could adapt into the scheme of work and adapt for their students. 
• Also, recapping or quickly gaining an overview of key extracts with colleagues' input in advance of teaching them.
• Stealing ideas of tried and tested strategies that had worked for others- finding different ways of teaching something taught before.
• Discussing obstacles we have come across teaching a skill or topic and finding ways to solve them from all experience levels.
• Practical elements such as writing conceptual intros and modelling strategies that could easily be used with any class.

All of the above are great outcomes but the main thing the group felt these sessions contributed to their teaching life was a real sense of collegiality within the department. We created a safe space to discuss ideas, texts, knowledge and misunderstandings. We also had time to throw ideas out the window or time to consider trying a strategy out of our comfort zone with the support of other colleagues. From our group chat we realised it was important for us to celebrate this. Indeed, on a daily basis when we are all so busy rushing around, marking, tweaking lessons, it might not have necessarily been stated out loud the impact these sessions actually had on our lessons and pedagogy. However, as we reflected, this magic was occurring and was inspired by our 'Merry Pop-ins!'