SOW - War and Conflict poetry - Y8 / Y9

A fully resourced scheme of work that was designed to prepare students for their GCSE study of poetry. This unit was taught to a mixed ability year 9 class who made excellent progress and were well prepared for their GCSEs.

• 6 week unit
• 5 lessons per week
• 2 assessments built in
  - Assessment 1 - analysis of single poem
  - Assessment 2 - comparative analysis
• Opportunities for creative writing interleaved (descriptions, narrative writing)
• Opportunities for transactional writing interleaved (speeches, articles)
• Opportunities for writing poetry interleaved
• Context interleaved throughout
• A variety of poems taught including WW1 poetry & modern war poetry
• Cover lesson included

Overview of unit:
Week 1 - Introduction to the theme of war
Week 2 - Analysis of propaganda poetry, speech writing (‘Who’s for the Game’, ‘Over There’)
Week 3 - Analysis of poetry and assessment 1 (‘The Man he Killed’, ‘Anthem for the Doomed Youth’)
Week 4 - Analysis of poetry and imaginative writing (‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, ‘Suicide in the Trenches’)
Week 5 - Comparing poetry, assessment 2, sonnet writing
Week 6 - Analysis of poetry and ‘The Not Dead’ documentary (‘Disabled’, ‘The Manhunt’)

I hope you enjoy teaching this unit as much as I did making it :)