OCR Youth and Age Poetry

This is a fantastic student workbook which can be used from the beginning of Y10 GCSE English Literature. Completing the activities in their own workbook allows students to take ownership of the poems they are studying and increases their familiarity and comfort with each poem. Please note that this doesn’t contain any notes or analysis of the poems: instead, it’s a workbook created for students to complete.

The workbook consists of a series of unnumbered pages, so that you can choose the order that best suits your class.

The contents are as follows:

1. Front Cover – this page allows space for the student’s name/class details.

2. Assessment Objectives and Exam Information – this page gives a clear, concise explanation of exactly how the AOs are rewarded in the Mark Scheme, showing your students exactly what they need to do to gain marks. It also explains the format, layout and mark structure of the poetry section.

3. Previous Questions - the poems and questions that have featured on the exam papers since 2017.

4. Poems and Poets – a full list of all the poems in your selection.

5. Sound Effects and Visual Effects – a superb examination of eight of the most common language techniques used by poets. Each section explains clearly what the technique is and gives a variety of quotations to illustrate this to the students. This is an excellent revision aid that students can use at any point in the year.

6. Your Sound Effects and Visual Effects – these two pages feature grids for students to fill in as the year progresses, allowing them to note and thus memorise examples of the various language techniques from their poems.

7. Poetry Profiles – these two pages are where the students will record essential information about each poem, thus building up a full set of their own notes as their study progresses. The first page prompts them to add information under the headings Poem, Poet, Context, Subject Matter, Themes and, most importantly, Links to Other Poems. The second page uses the headings Form/Structure, Sound Effects, Visual Imagery, Tone, Vital Quotes and Favourite Lines. The PDF includes one copy of these pages, so you will need to print one pair of pages for each poem on your selection.

I’ll be adding lots more GCSE poetry resources to my shop so please check back regularly!

I hope this is useful for you and instructive for your students - as always, I’d love to hear any feedback you may have.