Eat Me by Patience Agbabi

fully-resourced lesson is designed for the Edexcel A Level English Literature (9ET0) course, specifically targeting the Poems of the Decade anthology. Focused on Patience Agbabi’s powerful and provocative poem Eat Me, the lesson guides students through contextual exploration, analytical skills development, and personal reflection. It promotes close reading, thematic analysis, and a confident understanding of form, structure, and voice.

Lesson Stages:

• Starter Reflection: Students reflect on previous poetry study and their personal preferences and challenges.
• Reading the Poem: First reading of Eat Me with a brief contextual note on the word “juggernaut.”
• Personal Learning Goals: Students set individual goals for their progress in this unit.
• Gender Role Activity: Creative diagramming of the characters’ roles with supporting quotations to examine power dynamics.
• Imagery Analysis: Paired with visual prompts, students identify and evaluate imagery and associated poetic techniques.
• Form and Structure: Exploration of the dramatic monologue form, rhyme, enjambment, and stanza structure to assess how they reinforce meaning.
• Exit Cards: A final reflective task consolidating learning, inviting students to share a takeaway, reflection, or question.