Resources - Key Stages 3-5

Many of the ideas and plans on this page can be modified for use outside of the classroom in writing clubs and adult groups. You will find a range of written and video plans grouped by project. Projects include The Foyle Young Poets Award, Ecopoetry Study Packs and workshop ideas for groups working with mental health issues.  

Foyle Lesson Plans
KS3/4+

The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award is an annual programme supporting young people writing poetry. Each year, 15 poems by young poets aged 11-17 are published in the Foyle anthology. Each of the following lesson plans takes a winning poem as the starting point, and can be used to deliver lessons to inspire creative and independent writing. If you would like to enter poems by your students into the competition, you can find out more here.
 

DRAFTING by Sophie Breese (KS3/4)
Learning to redraft work is an important skill not only for young people deveoping their own poetry but to enable them to see inside how a poem works. It also teaches young people to imagine all their written work from the reader's point of view, which has benifits across the curriculam. In thie video lesson plan Sophie Breeze talks us through a lesson in which students learn about re-drafting by following in the footsteps of a young poet making changes to their own work. 

 KENNINGS by Richard Evans (KS3/4+). This lesson gets students using kennings, a Viking form where nouns are described using compound words e.g. Earth-biter (spade) whale-road (the sea) worm-snaffler (hedgehog). This flexible format can also bring out exciting poems in mixed age and ability groups. 
 

I REMEMBER by Cliff Yates (KS3)
Cliff introduces the traditional list form using 'I Remember' as a prompt to guide poets through a free writing exercise and looks at selecting and discriminating between phrases and words that have been produced. This lesson plan also includes tips for encouraging quality creative writing more generally. 

THE SALES PITCH by Debjani Chatterjee (KS3/4)
This lesson introduces the dramatic monolgue and pupils are encouraged to "sell" everyday objects and use activities as a starting point for their own poems.

ONCE UPON A POEM by Patience Agbabi (KS3/4)
Patience looks at poems using textual intervention - re-telling a familiar story from an unfamiliar viewpoint, or subverting the traditional story - such as Red Riding Hood from the wolf's perspective.

THE NAMING OF BODY PARTS by Roger Stevens (KS3) 
This plan helps pupils create poems describing someone by one part of their body. This restriction opens up a range of possibilities and ideas and allows pupils to produce detailed or fantastical descriptions. 

ROMEO AND JULIET by Jean "Binta" Breeze (KS4)
This lesson focuses on the poem "Romeo and Juliet" by Erica Berry which focuses on the mismatch between expectations and reality. It guides students to write poems, which may be very personal, about their own lives and expectations.  

GATHERING FRAGMENTS by Cheryl Moskowitz (KS3)
"Remember" literally means "to put back together" - this plan involves building up collages of memories about a loved one before arranging them into a poem. 

DON'T TOUCH by Andy Croft (KS3/4)
Grow a poem, taking Charlotte Runcie's "Ripe" and William Blake's "The Poison Tree" as a starting point. This lesson plan asks young people to study an emotion through organic imagery. 

SHOPPING FOR POEMS by Clare Pollard (KS3/4)
Not all poetry is about stereotypically "poetic" subjects. This lesson plan gets students to identify the literary terms in product names and adverting slogans. It then suggest writing poems about everyday experiences in the style of Frank O'Hara. 

POETRY OF THE MOMENT by Mandy Coe (KS3/4)
Poetry is in the detail. Focus on just one moment without backstory or conclusion to encourage rich detailed poems.

The Ecopoetry Study Packs

KS3/4/5+

Issues of Ecology and the Environment are coming to the fore throughout education, recreation and business.  Increasingly, writers and educators will need to grapple with core Environmental issues, both on and off the curriculum, through personal creativity as well as in the classroom.

The Poetry Society commissioned award-winning poet, ecologist and educator Mario Petrucci to develop the following environment-centred resource packs, designed for schools, young adults and poets:

1. Poetry : the Environment. (PDF 185KB)  Four of the most pressing Environmental themes, comprehensively explored through poetry.

2. Biomimicry : Poetry.  (PDF 118KB) This fascinating new branch of science is concerned with solving problems by imitating Nature. Mario’s unique poetry pack explores Biomimicry to support independent imaginative writing activity and National Curriculum alike.

3. The Green Poetry Pack. (PDF 272KB) Poems and writing ideas to engage with the natural world, soil and trees, and local self-sufficiency.
 

DEAL with Poetry

DEAL With Poetry: Using poetry to improve the emotional health of young people (KS4)

The pack contains four 45 minute session plans, each with 15 minute extension activities, followed by more detailed notes about how to conduct each activity. The sessions are designed to be taught by anyone who has experience of working with young people so whether you are a teacher, a poet, a volunteer or a youth worker, you can use and adapt these activities. In schools, these sessions can be used as part of an English or PSHEE curriculum.