Year 9 - English
Simon Armitage and the power of poetry
Simon Armitage: writing your world
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Study Guides
This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit, pupils learn more about how to read and write poetry by listening to words of wisdom from the Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage. They read a range of his poems about his life and the wider world, and start to write increasingly poetically in response to them.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to explore what a poem is and think about it as an art form.
Key Notes
- Simon Armitage is the UK poet laureate.
- Armitage suggests that there is something secretive about poetry - it can create a refuge.
- Armitage suggests that poetry has more similarities with sculpture, photography or painting than prose.
- Armitage suggests that poetry is different to song lyrics because poetry needs to bring musicality through language.
- Armitage suggests that poetry is a more thoughtful way of approaching the world.
Vocabulary To Learn
- poet laureate: the British Poet Laureate is an honorary position appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom
- furtive: done or acting secretly and quietly to avoid being noticed
- alternative: something that is different from something else, especially from what is usual
- refuge: a place that gives protection or shelter from danger, trouble, unhappiness, etc.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Poems and song lyrics are the same.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.
Simon Armitage is the UK poet laureate. Armitage suggests that there is something secretive about poetry - it can create a refuge.
2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'poet laureate'
the British Poet Laureate is an honorary position appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom.
3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.
Mistake: Poems and song lyrics are the same. Correction: While there are similarities, Armitage suggests that poems have to create musicality through language while song lyrics are a component of a larger whole.
More Lessons In This Unit
- How Armitage writes about personal events and memories in 'Harmonium' Study Guide
- How Simon Armitage writes about climate change in 'Futurama' Study Guide
- How Simon Armitage writes about hope in 'We'll Sing' and 'Only Human' Study Guide
- How Simon Armitage writes about human connection in 'All Right?' and 'Give' Study Guide
- How Simon Armitage writes about life in 'About his person' and 'Poem' Study Guide
- How Simon Armitage writes about news and media in 'Transmission Report' Study Guide
- How Simon Armitage writes about the world in 'Resistance' and 'Out of the Blue' Study Guide
- Simon Armitage talks about 'I am very bothered' and 'My father thought it' Study Guide
- Writing about the self and the world with Simon Armitage Study Guide
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