2. How will I be assessed?
AO1 – Respond to texts critically and
imaginatively; select and evaluate relevant
textual detail to illustrate and support
interpretations
AO2 – explain how language, structure and form
contribute to a writers’ presentation of ideas,
themes and settings
3. Your Unseen Poem
We know that your poem will have been written by one of the following poets:
William Blake
John Keats
Thomas Hardy
Christina Rossetti
W. H. Auden
Wilfred Owen
Robert Frost
Dorothy Parker
Maya Angelou
Jo Shapcott
Wendy Sope
Tony Harrison
Sophie Hannah
Owen Sheers
Brian Patten
4. 1. Firstly, come up with your own ideas based on
your reading of the poem
2. Identify any language features you could
comment on
3. Identify any powerful or interesting work
choices you could explore the connotations of to
help you form interpretations
4. Identify any structural features you could
comment on
5. Link to the bigger picture – the relevance of this
poem
5. Sophie Hannah: Your Dad Did What?
How does the poet present her feelings about
the education system?
6. Language and Structure
Language
• Use of questions
• “this girl” and “that lad”
• Direct address
Structure
• Enjambment
• Alternate rhyme scheme
• Caesura
7. Hannah seems to criticize the education system and how it tries to fit
everyone into the same box, despite their differences. By using the
pronouns “they”, “them”, “this girl” and “that lad” she depersonalizes the
students in question to try and reflect how the teacher sees his or her
students. Hannah suggests that in the current education system, it is easy
for teachers to forget that students are individuals but that they are all
unique so therefore they should not have the same expectations for
everyone.
Hannah also uses structure to continue her criticism of the current
education system. Interestingly, each stanza has four lines and there is a
regular alternate rhyme scheme throughout the poem. This reflects the
idea that everyone is seen as the same and that the education system
does not change to fit people, but that people must change to fit the
system.
Additionally, the use of rhetorical questions to reflect the teacher’s
confusion, “What? Your Dad did what?” create a sense of frustration.
Hannah implies that these are questions that should have been asked to
the student directly and then it would be apparent that the boy’s father
died and the teacher could have responded sensitively and accordingly,
rather than simply assessing him as an “’E’”. Hannah suggests that the
current education system does not allow students and teachers to
communicate effectively.
8. Owen Sheers : Not Yet My Mother
How does the poet present his feelings about his
mother? 18 marks.
9. Making Links
It’s all about making creative links (manipulating
evidence) between one thing and another thing:
• Alliteration of ‘h’ sound and feelings about his mother
• Repetition of pronouns “you”, “me”, “your” and “mine”
to feelings about his mother
• Caesura and feelings about his mother
• Repetition of “holding a horse” and feelings about his
mother
• 4 line stanzas which end in full stops and feelings about
his mother
