Research School Network: Developing Disciplinary Practices in the English Classroom ‘How do we make sure our staff buy into reforming the way we teach the reading of poetry?’ asks Johnny Richards

In the first blog about developing the way we teach poetry, I talked about the difficulties I faced when trying to implement change.

We had delivered two sessions, during the Autumn Term, that were mainly focused on teacher knowledge, but the majority of the team were struggling to see how this could be implemented in the classroom properly. We realised we needed to add more of a ​‘do that’ session, thereby creating a ​‘balanced diet’ approach, where new knowledge was paired with actionable classroom strategies.

We had our reformed approach to teaching our GCSE poems to Year 10s that I had introduced in the previous term, based on a set of standard questions that encouraged pupils to read new, unseen poems through a more disciplinary lens:

• Before reading – ​‘What is the structure?’
• ‘What resonates?’
• What is the tone and the perspective?
• What is the poem’s message?
• A piece of writing bringing these ideas together – with sentence stems.

In order for the team to ​‘feel it’, I planned a 40 minute lesson, modelling the approach in what was essentially roleplay for the classroom. The ultimate aim was to have the team feel what it is like to be on the other end of the process, to then make us consider our approach to poetry more thoroughly.

To make it more authentic, I chose a poem they would not be familiar with – which is where the new AQA Worlds and Lives anthology came in handy. I also practiced it with both of my Year 11 classes to fine tune my questioning, and consider the pace of the lesson as it was visible from observations and discussions about the process that some struggled with time.

I wanted to include as many aspects of a good English lesson as possible:

• Do Now activating prior knowledge – background and vocabulary in the poem
• Explaining unfamiliar ideas and providing a mental model
• Modelling thinking behind reading and asking questions
• Some writing to consolidate thinking and understanding.

But there were three main things that I wanted to highlight during the session, having noticed the difficulties of these in observations and discussions.

Challenge 1: The anxieties over ​‘What resonates?’*

We also knew that this part of the process, where students say what they feel, or think, or are reminded of after reading the poem once, was something of a sticking point – students were not comfortable with offering much here, and teachers struggled with forcing it.

One strategy I tried in this session was to use the mini whiteboards (MWBs) – making this lower stakes and potentially something students are therefore happier to engage with.

I also tried to tailor my Do Now and exposition before reading the poem to guide certain ideas for this, potentially to things they’re reminded of. It is truly meant to allow students to bring something of themselves to a poem, something personal, but this is a hard thing to do if they’re not used to it. 

If students really don’t ​‘feel’ anything or find something truly personal in it – we had to accept this was ok. This is also dependent on the poem – Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade is unlikely to truly ​‘resonate’ with students, while a poem like The Emigree or Remains is likely to be easier here.

This is still something we struggle to get full ​‘opt in’ with, and is why we have introduced this earlier in the curriculum, to encourage our students to offer themselves to a poem more regularly.

Challenge 2: Questioning during reading

Poetry can be difficult, and expecting students to be able to explain a poem’s message, give a considered interpretation, or answer the question ​‘what is the effect of ….’ is unfair. Nor is it enough just to ask our ​‘noticing questions’ shared in our guidance:

There is also language comprehension to consider when reading, so asking ​‘Check Link Connect’ (more on this below) questions is important here. Comprehension and basic understanding are perhaps things we do not always consider when reading poetry as we want it to be entirely about ​‘feeling’. But it is much easier to have an emotional connection to a text when you understand what’s going on.

In my demonstration, I made sure to fine tune my questioning, and also share my thinking, and drafting of questions with the team in subsequent sessions.

Such questions during reading make our students actively participate in the reading process, and draw potential misconceptions that we can respond to during reading. This stage can still be a sticking point – we have a historical tendency to ask too many questions and/​or move onto analysis too quickly, alongside detailed annotations. This can make the process longer than it needs to and remove opportunities for independence from our students.

Taking time to consider the best questions, for the best moment, and which words to define or not, when reading poetry, is one thing in isolation that may need training. It is certainly something we have returned to a number of times.

Challenge 3: The hardest part of the process – drawing thoughts together

The main idea of the process is to draw each part together to consider how they contribute to the poem’s meaning. This is something that is very difficult. Our chief strategy here is to gather thoughts during the lesson on a large board at the front, not a screen, trying to order the points in some way that the students can follow, and combine to make meaning. 

This is never going to happen naturally, and is something we have to guide students towards doing. If we return to the points made by students, naming them and their contributions, and use questions and model sentences to guide further thinking, then this is one step towards this.

Another is to consider the difficult challenge of where in the poem we make an initial interpretation, hold it, or develop it. This would really get to the nub of reading poetry, but is something we haven’t quite got to yet.

Developing disciplinary practices in Poetry is a challenge where we will always be evolving. Our free webinars for this season are up and running. Do sign up to Monday’s session where we can share and discuss processes used.

You can find the guides in our Resources section:

• Understanding Disciplinary Literacy. An introduction
• Understanding the Discipline of History. A guide to Disciplinary Literacy in the History classroom 
• Understanding the Discipline of English Literature – Poetry edition. A guide to Disciplinary Literacy in the English Literature classroom – Poetry edition
• Understanding the discipline of Mathematics. A guide to Disciplinary Literacy in the Mathematics classroom

For more details on our ​‘Check Link Connect’ strategy, do take a look at our Secondary Reading Resource and sign up to our free Check Link Connect webinar.

* an idea borrowed from Andrew Atherton’s Experiencing English Literature