Please could I have some interview advice I’m an English trainee

[umbrellaqueen12]

So for an interview I have been given 25 mins to deliver a year 9 poetry lesson. I’ve thought about doing one of Carol Ann Duffy’s poems as they have plenty of thematic ideas we could explore. When structuring a starter also as I don’t know their prior learning what could I ask. Maybe do 3 questions like 1. What is a metaphor 2. What is an extended metaphor 3. What is the purpose of these in poetry?

For the main task I was considering just giving out a grid with key quotes, we could read the poem and then focus on about 3 key quotes and how they add to the extended metaphor and what effect the quotes have?

As a plenary maybe we could do a true or false with coloured cards so question and then red cards up for true and white up for false?

Could anyone let me know if this would be okay or any other poem suggestions I’d possible as I’m struggling

Many teachers will advise against seeking detailed interview lesson ideas from others as it really should be the candidate's own planning.

Based on what you've posted, I'd be unsure what the aim/objective of your lesson is. You have lots of different content for the time given and it sounds like you're thinking of distinct tasks to fill 25 minutes, rather than what the students will learn in that time.

Duffy is a good poet to select for the reasons you've stated. Before you select your poem, think about what you want the students to learn/which skill you want to develop. Select the best poem for that skill/knowledge.

Your plenary needs to be something that demonstrates how well students have mastered the aim. Plan backwards from there so at the end the interview lesson is a coherent journey.

I would contact the school and ask for their prior learning in poetry.
I had an interview a few months ago and they told us what they had learnt in the first few lessons.
If you start talking about metaphors and they haven't ever heard of one you'll be a bit stuffed. Definitely ask the school about prior learning.

No need for faffing about with coloured cards. Thumb up for true, thumb down for false.

Also, try to make activities quite defined. So instead of ‘what is a metaphor’, give them a list of examples and ask them to pick out the one that is NOT a metaphor. Or the one that is. This will accelerate the lesson to the point where YOU know if THEY know. Then you can sort it in the first 5 minutes before launching into a poem.

As for poems, go for one chosen recently for the unseen poetry paper on GCSE. This ensures that you are looking at a poem which can be accessed without too much cultural context.
I agree with the poster who mentioned working backwards. What do you want them to know/be able to do at the end? Think of the lesson as a journey the students will go on with you, while you provide stepping stones and direct them along the way. Don’t be afraid to say ‘we are doing this/discussing this so that you will think about/learn to ....’

A school teacher on my placement told me to be wary of the unseens from gcse as it could spoil what’s ahead. Maybe if I take what’s on my syllabus at school for now? At least I can plan round that

@likeafishneedsabikeThat’s so helpful. You’re a true lifesaver. Thank hou

I can see why the teacher on your placement might have advised against doing a GCSE anthology poem for those reasons, but the nature of the unseen poems is that nobody sees them until the exam day. They're not poems that would be explicitly taught.

But Lola, English teachers use previous years' unseen poems to prepare for the real thing. We only have four previous papers (exam changed 2017), so I can understand the advice to steer clear of them.

Do you have to do something as rigid as what is a metaphor? I'd wNt yo see more joy! More fun and appreciation. Sorry.

Excuse typos!

StationView
They do, but at my school they are within a scheme of work with a range of unseen poems from previous specifications as well. Someone doing an interview lesson using one isn't going to spoil anything later. It would be one lesson, probably in a year's time.

It's still pushing it, in my opinion, to advise trainees to avoid GCSE anthology poems because different schools will do different specifications, but I can see some logic in that advice.

For each teacher that might say "avoid A B C because they might look at it at GCSE" there's another who would say "I like the way that candidate thought about progression to GCSE because they've selected a challenging poem and thought about continuity".

In reality as long as the candidate can talk about their lesson, what they wanted to achieve, and can explain why they chose the poem they chose, they're not going to get or not get a job due whether a poem was or wasn't on a gcse spec.

I may be a bit undemanding but I think year 9 should be year 9! Personally, I hate all this treating everything like mini GCSE. I would argue a lot of Duffy is hard for year 9, certainly in 25 mins! Have you read Tennyson The Eagle? Amazing, atmospheric,v short.

I always find that I can have a lot of fun with Year 9 Piggy, though have got into the habit of taking some of the old Moon On The Tides anthology down into Year 9.
I have to confess I dislike the idea of "X is a GCSE poem, Y is a KS3 poem". It's rarely as simple as that. As long as the poem is interesting and well-considered the who says it can't be taught to Year 7/8/9?

Yes, I agree with that. I just lament the loss of creativity in KS3 and also what I see as putting quite adult themes before children. Old fashioned, me !

Not old fashioned at all. It makes us kindred spirits.
One thing I hate is when people do a unit of war poetry in Year 9 because they're doing Power and Conflict at GCSE. It needlessly narrows the range of texts students access. It would be much better in my opinion do study a different theme or a particular poet in detail instead of a diluted GCSE.

Agree!

My DD started getting quite depressed in y9 about the content of English & Drama being so miserable. Lots of war, knife crime, drugs etc. She could definitely have done with more uplifting content.

OP. Good luck in your interview.

TeenMinusTests
(Also off topic)
Whispers That's probably because some schools and departments seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time planning an English curriculum to 'engage the boys'. It would a whole new thread to discuss why this is a terrible idea, and why it's insulting to boys, limiting to boys, limiting to girls, and depressing for everyone

In the noughties I remember teaching key stage 3 poems that would be considered poems for children. For example, ‘A Case of Murder’ by Vernon Scannell - the one about the nine year old cat murderer. This business of using GCSE anthology poems lower down is relatively new, perhaps.
Off to dig out that case of murder poem. Not on the scheme for y7, obviously, but they will get it and be full of outrage for the poor cat.

Love that poem!