Single poet study: Maya Angelou
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Why this why now
This unit uses and builds on pupils' understanding of poetry, voice and performance from 'Poetry about Place and Home'. Pupils are now emulating more complex poetry, and starting to think about more complex themes of identity and belonging in their poetry. Pupils are now starting to think more about their own distinctive voice. This prepares pupils for later study of poetry, such as in their GCSE poetry anthology, and for other texts that reflect on themes of identity and belonging, such as 'Small Island' and 'Leave Taking'.
Prior knowledge requirements
- Pupils know the key conventions of poetry including stanza, rhythm and rhyme
- Pupils are able to make inferences and explain these logically
- Pupils are able to select relevant textual evidence or quotations, to support their points
- Pupils are able to comment on specific language features within a text and comment on their effect
- Pupils understand what is meant by the terms 'racism' and 'prejudice'
Threads
Why this why now
This unit uses and builds on pupils' understanding of poetry, voice and performance from 'Poetry about Place and Home'. Pupils are now emulating more complex poetry, and starting to think about more complex themes of identity and belonging in their poetry. Pupils are now starting to think more about their own distinctive voice. This prepares pupils for later study of poetry, such as in their GCSE poetry anthology, and for other texts that reflect on themes of identity and belonging, such as 'Small Island' and 'Leave Taking'.
Prior knowledge requirements
- Pupils know the key conventions of poetry including stanza, rhythm and rhyme
- Pupils are able to make inferences and explain these logically
- Pupils are able to select relevant textual evidence or quotations, to support their points
- Pupils are able to comment on specific language features within a text and comment on their effect
- Pupils understand what is meant by the terms 'racism' and 'prejudice'
Single poet study: Maya Angelou
In this unit, pupils read and discover the work of Maya Angelou. They explore some of Angelou's most famous poems, such as 'Caged Bird' and 'Still I Rise', and practise writing and performing poems inspired by her work. As the unit develops, pupils find their own distinctive poetic voice.
20 lessons in unit
slide decks, worksheet PDFs, quizzes and lesson overviews. You can select individual lessons from the Single poet study: Maya Angelou unit and download the resources you need, or download the entire unit now. See every unit listed in our secondary english curriculum and discover more of our teaching resources for secondary english programmes.