Lesson video

Hello there, Mr. Barnsley are here.

Fantastic to see you today.

Thank you for joining me as we start our exploration of the "Eduqas Poetry Anthology".

Okay, in today's lesson, we're gonna be just looking at the anthology, thinking about how it works together, looking at the poems, the titles of the poems, what they might be about, starting to make some inferences.

So, you are gonna need to make sure you have a copy of the anthology at the ready.

That's gonna be really, really important.

Today's lesson is the 2025 "Eduqas Poetry Anthology".

All right, if you are ready to start then so am I, let's dive in.

Okay, so our outcome today then, is by the end of the day lesson, you'll have been able to explore and respond to the poetry in the Eduqas anthology.

So, five keywords, we're gonna be keeping an out for.

The first is anthology, and this means a collection of artistic works that have a similar form or a similar subject.

So, they're linked in some way.

A theme is a universal idea, a universal lesson, a message that's explored through a work of literature.

To represent something such as a picture or a symbol that stands for something else.

We're gonna be looking for connections today and that's something that joins or connects two or more things.

And of course I'll be expecting a response, which is your reaction to something.

So, keep an eye out for those words.

So, two learning cycles today.

And the first, we're gonna be exploring this anthology.

And the second half of the lesson, we will be responding to it.

So, it's time for us to explore the anthology.

And of course, as I said at the beginning, you are gonna need your copy of the Eduqas anthology.

We're gonna be looking through it together.

So, please do make sure you have it in front of you.

If you don't quickly pause the video, go and get it and then press play when you're ready to continue.

Right, we should absolutely all be prepared now.

So, we're gonna be looking at an anthology and a reminder from our keyword slide.

An anthology is a collection of artistic works that have a similar form or subject.

And we know that this is a poetry anthology we are looking at today.

So, it doesn't have a specific theme, it doesn't have a big idea within the title.

Some poetry anthologies do, this one doesn't.

But it is connected by the fact that it is a collection of poetry.

So, this one is a collection of artistic works that have a similar form rather than a theme or a big idea or a subject.

But, that does not matter that there is not an overarching theme 'cause we are still gonna be able to explore the poems. And actually it makes it more exciting 'cause we get to look for those connections between the poems. And we get to start thinking and exploring, what are these connections? How might we create them? Which poems link, pair nicely for us as readers.

So, let's start by thinking about the titles of the poems that are in the anthology.

Let's read through them together.

You can see them all in the front of your anthology.

"The schoolboy", "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", "Cousin Kate", "Sonnet 29", "Drummer Hodge", "Disabled," "I shall Return", "Decomposition", "Catrin", "Blackberry Picking" "Kamikaze", "War Photographer", "Dusting the Phone", "Remains", "Origin Story".

Over to you then, if you've got a partner you can discuss with them, otherwise you can just think through this independently.

But what ideas or different emotions do you get when you read these titles? How do they make you feel? And you can start thinking about your personal response.

Which one of these do you think might connect together? So, just looking at the titles, which might you pair together and why? So, let's start with how we are responding.

Our ideas, our emotions that we get just from looking at the titles.

And then challenge yourself to start looking for some connections.

Alright, pause the video, give this a go, press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back, I hope you are having some really detailed discussions there.

Or if you're working by yourself, you are having lots of ideas running through your mind.

Maybe you are even making a few notes.

One of our eight pupils, Izzy gave this a go.

Let's have a look at some of the connections that Izzy made and see if you had anything similar.

So, Izzy said "'The Schoolboy', 'Origin Story', 'Blackberry picking'." These could all be linked because their ideas.

And memories.

Childhood, nostalgia.

Nostalgia is when you look back on things and the memories that you have and often quite fondly.

"Sonnet 29." Now if you've ever looked at Sonnets before, these are often about, or have been traditionally used to discuss relationships, romantic relationships.

"Cousin Kate", "Catrin," these could all be ideas of relationships, connections with others.

We can see names of people there.

The "Cousin Kate", "Catrin", is a name.

So, this idea of relationships and how we connect with other people.

You might have spotted these themes of conflict, "Kamikaze", "War Photographer", "Drama Hodge", "Remains".

These feel potentially quite violent titles perhaps.

Certainly they might have reminded you of conflict or danger.

And then "Dusting the Phone", "I Shall Return", "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud".

Perhaps ideas of separation and longing, the idea of a phone not being used.

Maybe you've been waiting for a phone call perhaps that's what that poem's about.

We're just making kind of inferences here based on the title.

So, what did you think? Did you agree with any of Izzy's ideas? Why, why not? Did you have any different ideas? Why don't you just pause the video for a moment, go back to your discussions with your partner or go back to the thoughts that you were having and think, did you have any similar ideas to Izzy or did you have any different ones? Alright, press play when you're ready to continue.

Alright, welcome back then.

Which would we say then? Which of the following is not a theme that's been suggested by some of the titles of the poem in the Eduqas anthology? Is it A, childhood, B, relationships or C, migration? A, B, or C? Pause the video for me, have a think, select your answer and press play when you are ready to continue.

Yes, welcome back.

I would say C, migration.

We don't know, we are making educated guesses here.

We're making inferences based on the titles that we can see.

But I think there is definitely a hint in there that there'll be some poetry about childhood and memories.

And there'll definitely a hint that there's some about relationships with others.

So, I think migration here is the only one that didn't obviously stand out in the titles.

Okay, as well as the titles, we can often look at the first word or the first phrase in a poem.

That can be really useful indicator about the mood or even the wider theme of a poem.

So, I'm gonna give you some information.

I'm gonna save you doing the looking yourself.

Eight out of the 15 poems begin with "I", the pronoun "I", and four of those other poems, so that's 12 of the 15 in total.

But four of the other poems begin with a pronoun as well.

"They", "he", "her", and slight cheating here, preposition and pronoun "in his." Okay? So, eight, start with a pronoun "I", a further four start with a different pronoun.

What might the significance of this be? Okay, if you were gonna make a further inferences about the themes of this anthology, what can you infer from the use of pronouns? Alright, over to you for this one, bit of thinking time.

If you've got a partner, you can discuss with them.

Otherwise you can just think through this independently, pause the video, have a think and press play when you've got some ideas.

Welcome back.

Things that you might have been saying then.

You might have been talking about these being really personal poems. Perhaps some of these are gonna be written by poets who want to reflect their own personal, their own individual experiences.

We could zoom out a little bit further and say, 'cause not all poets write specifically from their own point of view, but this does suggest that lots of these poems are gonna focus on human experiences and what it means to be a human.

What it means to be a person, what it means to live, to exist, to thrive, to struggle.

Okay? So, some really interesting inferences we can make through the use of pronouns.

And who would've thought that so many of these would start with the same pronoun "I?" So, we can start making some really interesting inferences before we read any of these poems in detail.

So, true or false then? The first word of the majority of the poems in the Eduqas anthology suggests that these poems will focus on personal experience.

Is that true or is that false? Pause video, have a think, and press play when you've got some ideas.

Welcome back.

True.

Well, why might we have said that was true? Because actually we know the majority of these poems start with a pronoun and that can really indicate the focus on the personal, the individual experiences.

Weldon, have you got that correct? I am gonna give you a further taster of all of these poems. I've selected one word from each poem.

Distant, lonely, outcast, shattered, unknown, alone, trapped, torn, fragile, solitude, lost pain, silent, separate, sour.

Just take a moment to think about all of those words.

What do those individual words suggest about the mood of this anthology? What connotations do they have? What feelings and thoughts come to mind when you see those words? What connotations do they have? Why don't you pause the video now and if you've got a partner you can discuss with them.

Otherwise, as ever you can just think through this question independently.

What inferences can you make about the mood of this anthology through these very carefully selected word from each poem? Alright, pause the video, have a think and press play when you've got some ideas.

Okay, welcome back.

I wonder what kind of discussions you were having there.

I wonder if those words brought the mood down for you.

Alex, one of our pupils said, "To me, the words have connotations of isolation, separation, and generally unhappiness.

Perhaps that suggests that these emotions will play into the anthology as a whole, considering how people experience feelings of isolation and separation and what it means for them." What do you think? Do you agree with Alex's ideas or not? Were you having similar discussions? Pause the video, have a quick reflect and press play when you're ready to continue.

Yeah, welcome back.

It's interesting, isn't it? That we'd made these inferences, that lots of these poems were gonna be about personal experience and the human experience.

And perhaps we might have thought, well, that will be really positive because there are loads of wonderful things to celebrate about being people, about being human.

But there really is an indication here that this mood could be quite melancholic.

There's quite a bit of isolation and unhappiness here.

I wonder if that will come to light when we read all of these poems individually.

But certainly, we can make some early inferences here that there's gonna be some quite serious themes within this anthology.

Alright, true or false then? The individual words from each poem in the Eduqas anthology suggest a sense of happiness and contentment.

Is that true or is that false? Pause the video, have a think, press play when you've got some ideas.

Yes, that is of course false.

Certainly from the words that we have looked at that appears to be false.

Why? Well, actually, all of these poems seem to contain words that have connotations of isolation, separation, unhappiness.

So, onto our first task, and I want us to picture things, you can close your eyes for a minute and I want you to picture an image of a heart.

Okay? You can see a heart, but actually this heart is made out of pages of a book.

Interesting image.

Can you picture that in your mind? Okay, you can open your eyes.

I want you to think.

I'm gonna say that we want to represent this anthology.

We're gonna symbolise this anthology with this image.

This image of a heart, but this heart is made outta book pages.

Do you think that's a good choice, a good image to represent our anthology? Why or why not? So, you're gonna do this as a discussion activity.

If you have a partner, you can share ideas with them.

But if you're working by yourself, you could just make a few notes or think through this independently.

But some things that you should be considering while you are discussing or thinking.

Think about the titles, that we know they suggest ideas around childhood, nostalgia, conflict, relationships.

Think about those individual first words.

We know they are, lots of them are pronouns.

Lots of them are, I.

So, we know we are making inferences that there's gonna be lots of ideas here around individual personal experiences.

But we've also looked at some of these individual words that were slightly melancholic in tone, quite sad, slightly uneasy.

They have these connotations of separation and isolation.

So, when we put all of that together, does this image of a heart made out of book pages, does it make sense to you? Why or why not? Okay, time for you to pause the video, if you've got a partner discussed with them, otherwise you can just think through this independently.

Alright, press play when you've got some ideas.

Welcome back.

I really like a discussion like this, 'cause there are no right or wrong answers.

And when we think about symbolism and what symbols we might use to represent other things, they can often feel quite personal to us.

So, it'd been really interesting to hear what you were discussing or to see what you were thinking.

One of our eight pupils, Sam, said the following, she said, "At first I could easily see how a heart might represent ideas of personal experience and relationships, but not really of ideas of isolation or separation.

However, if you look beyond a heart as representing emotion in general, rather than just love," I think sometimes we think at surface level, heart equals love.

"Then actually, I think this link, all of the ideas together, 'cause this is an anthology that considers the emotional experiences of being human." What did you think? Do you like Sam's idea? Do you agree, disagree? Before we move on, why don't you pause a moment, take a moment to reflect on the discussions and the thoughts that you were having, and then press play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, we started today's lesson by exploring some potential connections across the anthology.

We're now gonna dig a bit deeper and respond to the anthology.

Now, the reason why I really, really love poetry is that we all get to have our own personal response to it.

Yes, we have to understand what you know, and think about what the poet might have been trying to say, what messages they might have been trying to convey, but we also want to think about how it makes us feel, how we respond to it.

So, reading poetry is, at its very core, is all about our emotional response or our emotional reaction to something.

And ultimately our emotions are really personal to us.

They're linked to the experiences that we've had in our lifetime.

And that's why poetry can have so many different interpretations, and so many different meanings to different people.

And that's what's great about it.

So, when we consider our personal response to a poem, here are some of the things that we might ask ourselves.

Do I think this poem is important? Is it about issues or ideas or things that are important to me or my experiences? Does it speak to me? Does it resonate with me? Or does it not? Because actually it's okay.

Sometimes poems will be about things that don't speak or don't resonate with me.

What emotions do I get from the poem? How does this make me feel as I'm reading it? So, true or false then? We would expect everyone to have the exact same response to a poem.

Is that true or is that false? Pause the video and have a think, and press play when you've got some ideas.

Yes, that is of course false.

Why is it false? Because our response is based on our own emotional reactions.

And these are very personal and individual to us because we've all had different experiences in our lives which might cause us to respond different ways emotionally.

So, our second and final task in today's lesson.

I would like you to pick a poem from the anthology whose title appeals to you.

So, there are 15 different poems. So, we could be picking lots of different ones here.

I want you to then read the poem, okay? Just read the poem to yourself.

And then I want you to answer the following questions to develop your own personal response, your immediate personal response.

Do you think this poem is important? Is it about themes or ideas that are important to you, to society as a whole? And does it speak to you? Can you empathise with the speaker? Can you resonate with the speaker? And if not, why not? And what emotions does this make you feel as you are reading the poem? Think about and like, think about the emotions, how they appear as you read.

So, are the emotions the same at the beginning, in the middle and the end? Okay.

I want you to now pause the video and give yourself plenty of time to do this activity.

Read, think about how does this poetry make you feel? Alright, pause the video, press play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

How was that? Quite often when we read poetry in English, we're so used to being guided through it, that we don't stop and think, how does this make me feel? So, I hope that activity where you were just thinking, it doesn't matter what anyone else is telling me, I can just reflect on this and see how I'm responding.

I hope that felt really nice for you.

Okay, what we're gonna do now, and this is gonna be different depending on whether we have a partner or whether we are working by ourselves.

So, if you have a partner, I want you to pair up with them and reflect on the following questions.

Did they look at the same poem or a different poem to you? It doesn't matter.

But did they have a similar or different emotional response to you? So, tell 'em about your poem, how it made you feel, and then, look to see if they had a similar or different response.

And did you both agree whether your poems felt important to you? Why or why not? Okay, so we're trying to see if we can see connections between different poems here.

Now, if you're working by yourself, obviously you can't do this.

So, what might be nice here is for you to do this, the activity again with a second poem, okay? But this time start to think, does this second poem make me feel the same way? Okay? Does it feel as important, more important, less important than the poem that I've just read? And again, start to try and find some of these connections between the poems in the anthology.

Alright, time for you to pause the video, and do some reflection and start to find some of those connections between the poems. Alright, press play when you're ready to continue.

Right? Okay, that is it.

We have reached the end of today's lesson.

We've been doing some great initial work responding to the "Eduqas Poetry Anthology".

In today's lesson, we've learned that an anthology is a collection of artistic works that have a similar form or subject.

And specifically this is a collection of poetry.

Although as we kind of dig a little bit deeper, whilst there isn't one overarching subject, we did start to see through the use of the titles and the first words, that there are connections between some of the moods and the themes of these poems. And by exploring these themes, we can make connections between individual poems. But what I've really enjoyed about today's lesson is we've thought about how we form a personal response.

And that's really important when we read poetry.

Alright, fantastic work today.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson.

I certainly have enjoyed guiding you through it, and I hope to see you in one of our lessons again in the future.

Alright, bye-bye for now.

See you all soon.