Foyle Lesson Plans: Bring poetry to life in the classroom

If you find any of these lesson plans useful, why not consider becoming a school member or making a donation? We also have printed resources and lesson plans which were produced for various projects in the past, such as for National Poetry Day. Please get in touch if you'd like to know more.

Each year we award two teachers with the title of 'Teacher Trailblazer' for their dedication, innovation and energy in the field of inspiring pupils and bringing poetry to life in the classroom.

2011: This year, we are bringing our lesson plans to life! Teacher Trailblazer Barbara Ferramosca offer her tips to help inspire young people using one of the 2010's winning poems, 'Him' by Ameerah Arjanee.

Barbara Ferramosca focuses on the use of imagery, language and relationships in Ameerah Arjanee's 'Him' (read the full poem here)

2010: Teacher Trailblazers Peter Carpenter and Sezgin Kemal offer their tips to help inspire young people with writing poetry.

 Sezgin Kemal's lesson plan uses Hattie Grunewald's poem 'kiss' as inspiration and focuses on use of imagery.

 Peter Carpenter's lesson plan focuses on greetings, and uses Adham Smart's poem 'Good Morning Palestine' as inspiration:

2009: Sophie Breese, Cliff Yates and Richard Evans offer their tips to help inspire young people with writing poetry.


Sophie Breese's lesson plan focuses on drafting, and uses Emma Jourdan's poem 'Confession' as inspiration:

Download the full transcript here

 

Richard Evans uses Andrew Wynn Owen's poem 'Terragogous' as inspiration:


  Download the full transcript here

 

Cliff Yates uses Abigail Maskill's poem 'I Remember' as inspiration: 


  Download the full transcript here

Cliff Yates' book Jumpstart Poetry in the Secondary School is available from the Poetry Society's Bookshop. An excellent companion for anyone bringing poetry to the classroom,  it takes the fear out of teaching poetry for the beginner and offers new ideas an inspiration for old hands.

Visit Cliff's website for more tips and information about his current publications. 

You might also want to have a look at our other education resources instead, such as the Poems on the Underground posters. And email us with your name, address, school if you'd like to join our education mailing list.

2008:

Debjani Chatterjee: The Sales Pitch
Debjani springboards off of Annie Katchinska's 'Crash' to produce a lesson plan that works surprisingly well alongside modern advertising techniques. Read it here.

Roger Stevens: The Naming of (Body) Parts
Taking Arabella Currie's poem, 'My Hands', Roger has provided us with an anatomical extravaganza! Read it here.

Patience Agbabi: Once Upon a Poem
Using 'Canute's Wife (after Carol Ann Duffy)' by Emily Mercer, Patience discusses how to create your own version of a well-known story, history, or myth. Click here to read it.

Jean 'Binta' Breeze: Romeo and Juliet
Taking Erica Berry's poem as a springboard, Jean launches the Foyle Young Poets 2008 competition for classrooms with some ideas for a lesson about love poetry. Click here to read it.

Cheryl Moskowitz: Gathering Fragments
This lesson plan looks at remembrance through poetry writing, taking Camilla Chen's winning poem as a starting point. The lesson plan was already sent out with our launch mailing to secondary schools and pupil referral units, and is now available here on the website. Click here to read it.

2007:

Andy Croft: Don't Touch!
Andy's lesson plan for inspiring 11-14 year olds starts with Charlotte Runcie's poem 'Ripe' in Radio Seventeen and then stirs in equal parts William Blake and emotional play. Click here to read it.

Clare Pollard: Shopping for Poems
Based on Callum Davies' poem from Radio Seventeen, poet and playwright Clare Pollard, editor of Young Writer magazine, has designed this lesson plan to encourage you to find poetry in the unlikeliest of places - even shopping centres. Click here to read it.

Eva Salzman: The Whole Picture
Eva's lesson plan launched the 2007 competition. This writing exercise uses visual images and 'ekphrasis' to create writing. Click here to download it as a PDF

2006:

Mandy Coe: Poetry of the Moment
Mandy encourages students to think of themselves as detectives as well as poets, looking carefully at a subject, asking questions, taking notes, missing nothing. Click here to read it 

 You can find more free lesson plans on our Poetryclass website