Foyle Lesson Plans

If you find any of these lesson plans useful, why not consider becoming a member, or making a donation? We also have printed resources and lesson plans which were produced for various projects in the past, such as for National Poetry Day. Please get in touch if you'd like to know more.

2008

This year we released even more lesson plans than before, one per month from March to July! We'd love to hear from teachers who used these in class to find out what you thought - email us!

All the young winners' poems are available for free on our website, but due to the high demand for printed resources we have run out of copies of The Wouldbegoods, and FYP posters.

You might want to have a look at our other education resources instead, such as the Poems on the Underground posters. And email us with your name, address, school if you'd like to join our education mailing list.

Debjani Chatterjee: The Sales Pitch
Debjani springboards off of Annie Katchinska's 'Crash' to produce a lesson plan that works surprisingly well alongside modern advertising techniques. Read it here.

Roger Stevens: The Naming of (Body) Parts
Taking Arabella Currie's poem, 'My Hands', Roger has provided us with an anatomical extravaganza! Read it here!

Patience Agbabi: Once Upon a Poem
Using 'Canute's Wife (after Carol Ann Duffy)' by Emily Mercer, Patience discusses how to create your own version of a well-known story, history, or myth. Click here to read it.

Jean 'Binta' Breeze: Romeo and Juliet
Taking Erica Berry's poem as a springboard, Jean launches the Foyle Young Poets 2008 competition for classrooms with some ideas for a lesson about love poetry. Click here to read it.

Cheryl Moskowitz: Gathering Fragments
This lesson plan looks at remembrance through poetry writing, taking Camilla Chen's winning poem as a starting point. The lesson plan was already sent out with our launch mailing to secondary schools and pupil referral units, and is now available here on the website. Click here to read it.

2007

Andy Croft: Don't Touch!
Andy's lesson plan for inspiring 11-14 year olds starts with Charlotte Runcie's poem 'Ripe' in Radio Seventeen and then stirs in equal parts William Blake and emotional play. Click here to read it.

Clare Pollard: Shopping for Poems
Based on Callum Davies' poem from Radio Seventeen, poet and playwright Clare Pollard, editor of Young Writer magazine, has designed this lesson plan to encourage you to find poetry in the unlikeliest of places - even shopping centres. Click here to read it.

Eva Salzman: The Whole Picture
Eva's lesson plan launched the 2007 competition. This writing exercise uses visual images and 'ekphrasis' to create writing. Click here to download it as a PDF

2006

Mandy Coe: Poetry of the Moment
Mandy encourages students to think of themselves as detectives as well as poets, looking carefully at a subject, asking questions, taking notes, missing nothing. Click here to read it 

 

You can find more free lesson plans at our INSET site Poetryclass