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Lesson 8 of 5
  • Year 5

Exploring connections to ‘I Opened the Door’

I can make comparisons between an 'after' poem and its original influence.

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Lesson 8 of 5
New
New
  • Year 5

Exploring connections to ‘I Opened the Door’

I can make comparisons between an 'after' poem and its original influence.

Copyrighted materials: to view and download resources from this lesson, you’ll need to

Copyrights help

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. ‘I Opened the Door’ is inspired by another poem.
  2. When a poem is heavily influenced by another poem, it's acknowledged with the word 'after' and the original poet's name.
  3. The poem that inspired ‘I Opened the Door’ is called ‘A Poison Tree’, which was written by William Blake.
  4. We can compare and contrast poems based on many different aspects.

Keywords

  • 'after' poem - a type of poem that is written in response to or inspired by another poem, often continuing its themes, ideas or imagery

  • Inspiration - the creative spark or source of ideas that motivates a poet to write

  • Compare - involves identifying similarities between two or more things, ideas, concepts or texts

  • Contrast - involves identifying differences between two or more things, ideas, concepts or texts

Common misconception

Pupils may find understanding the symbolism in both poems challenging.

Pupils may benefit from additional images to support understanding and help with representation of emotions.


To help you plan your year 5 English lesson on: Exploring connections to ‘I Opened the Door’, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

The poems' responses to emotions could be linked with other lessons, for example PSHE - particularly in relation to dealing/coping with anger and working towards possible resolutions.
Teacher tip

Equipment

You need a copy of the 2021 Otter Barry edition of ‘Stars with Flaming Tails’ written by Valerie Bloom illustrated by Ken Wilson Max for this lesson.

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of sensitive content

Supervision

Adult supervision recommended

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

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