This fully-resourced lesson is designed for students studying Prayer Before Birth by Louis MacNeice as part of the Edexcel IGCSE English Literature (4ET1) Poetry Anthology. It supports students in exploring the poem’s language, themes, form and structure. The resource contains 19 slides of teaching material; enough for two full lessons.
Lesson 1:
- Starter: Students analyse the title through guided questioning, forming predictions about the themes and ideas of the poem.
- Summary and background: Brief contextualising information is provided, explaining the poem’s literal meaning, its themes, and its publishing.
- YouTube video: a dramatic reading of the poem.
- Symbolism: class discussion on the symbolic significance of the setting of the womb.
- Carousel or guided annotation: key extracts of the poem are provided with thought-provoking questions students need to answer.
Lesson 2:
- Starter: Students write their own prayer from the perspective of an unborn child, thinking about the modern age.
- Form and structure: key information is provided, including the poem’s prayer-like form, the use of the refrain, and the development in stanza length.
- Essay writing practice: an essay question on the speaker’s fears for the future and PETAL paragraph writing frame are provided.
- Exemplar PETAL paragraph provided.
- Additional task on the theme of nature versus industrialisation.
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