Power and Conflict poetry: developing comparative essay writing skills
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can develop my comparative essay writing skills whilst writing about poems from the Power and Conflict anthology.
Key learning points
- Topic sentences must be comparative when comparing texts.
- Comparisons should be made between ideas, intentions, themes, and messages.
- Correlative and comparative conjunctions are a good way to signpost your comparative writing.
- Within paragraphs, evidence can move back and forth between the two poems and be linked with connectives.
- Drawing a direct comparison of quotations should take place at least once across the essay.
Keywords
Discourse marker - a word or phrase whose job is to organise writing or spoken language into segments
Imperative - give an authoritative command
Superlative - highest attainable level of something
Common misconception
A comparative response just needs to reference two poems.
A comparative response must explicitly compare two poems on big ideas. It is important to use discourse markers to signpost comparisons.
Teacher tip
The poems compared in this lesson can be replaced with other poems according to your class' needs.
Equipment
You will need access to a copy of the AQA Power and Conflict Anthology for this lesson.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What does it mean to compare?
Q2.How many poems from the Power and Conflict anthology will you be expected to compare at a time?
Q3.The ''lone and level'' sands of 'Ozymandias' are comparable to the __________ of 'Extract from The Prelude'.
Q4.How do Shelley and Wordsworth use nature imagery in 'Ozymandias' and 'Extract from the Prelude'?
Q5.Match the technique to the appropriate quote.
Q6.Both 'Ozymandias' and 'Extract from The Prelude' show how nature is powerful enough to...
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of the below is a comparative conjunction designed to show comparison?
Q2.''Ozymandias assumed his work would be remembered for centuries to come. Thus, Ozymandias was ignorant of nature’s ability to outlast and erode all traces of his power''. The word 'thus'...
Q3.Which of the below quotes contains an imperative?
Q4.Match the sentence stem with the purpose
Q5.When writing a comparative poetry response you should...
Q6.Order the phrases to create a coherent segment of a comparative response.
To help you plan your 10 English lesson on: Power and Conflict poetry: developing comparative essay writing skills, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 10 English lesson on: Power and Conflict poetry: developing comparative essay writing skills, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 English lessons from the 'Power and Conflict' unit, dive into the full secondary English curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.