In this unit you will:

• explore and understand the importance of poetry as a genre
• explore and understand how poetry is being used in today’s society
• recognise how a poet uses poetry as a voice to express their own feelings and views
• understand that poems can be a voice for change    
• explore spoken word and performance poetry  
• know how to listen, read and respond to a range of poems
• write your own poems expressing a voice
• compare ideas and methods of two poems from different eras
• understand the structure of a comparative Literature essay

Academic vocabulary:

colloquialism

industrialisation

palindrome

refugee

tone

dramatic monologue

irony

patriarchal

ridicule

voice

free verse

marginalised

personification

Romanticism

immigration

oppression

prejudice

satire

Description of best work: Your teacher will provide you with models of excellent writing, demonstrate effective peer assessment and share success criteria.

Model example – introductory paragraph to a comparative essay:

‘Carol Ann Duffy explores women’s rights in ‘Havisham’ by giving a voice to the famous jilted literary character, exploring the anger she may have felt and therefore highlighting the lack of a voice women had in the Victorian era. However in ‘The Farmer’s Bride’, Charlotte Mew writes her dramatic monologue in the farmer’s voice thereby not explicitly giving the bride a voice at all. This similarly highlights the lack of a voice women had, but emphasises the bride’s vulnerable situation. Both poets explore a patriarchal society and a woman’s voice in it.’

Success Criteria

• Use success criteria for introductory paragraph of a comparative essay
• Identify and explore a theme and viewpoint/s
• Understand the context and its influence on the writer/s
• Identify a range of language and structure methods
• Compare a range of language and structure methods
• Analyse a range of language and structure methods, demonstrating layers of meaning
• Give a personal response

Assessment Tasks:

Checkpoint

• introductory paragraph to a comparative essay
• one comparison of ideas and viewpoints

Assessment

• comparative essay