What is this sequence about?
This learning sequence aims to develop and challenge students’ understandings of the concept of poetry, and to encourage students to experiment with and find joy in the deliberate use of creative language.
The sequence provides opportunities for students to read, analyse, perform, write and listen to poetry, building an understanding of how language features and text structures can shape meaning. Students will also consider how language evolves over time and develop a bank of metalanguage with which to talk about poetry.
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Big understandings Poetry allows us to appreciate the English language in all its variations and to develop a sense of its richness and power. The study of poetry helps us to develop the skills required to analyse the structural and aesthetic aspects of texts, and to communicate with accuracy, fluency and purpose. |
The sequence has been written by teachers for teachers. It has been designed to provide students with rich, engaging learning experiences that address the Victorian Curriculum. The sequence consists of five flexible stages, including suggested learning intentions:
Overview of stages
1. Challenging Perceptions of Poetry
Suggested Learning Intentions
- To understand that poetry has a variety of structural and language features
- To understand that language use can change in response to technology
3. Spotlight on Poetic Language
Suggested Learning Intentions
- To build understanding of poetic metalanguage
- To understand the way in which language features shape meaning
5. Poetic Exploration: Independent Writing
Suggested Learning Intentions
- To plan, draft and publish a piece of poetry, using relevant structure and language features
- To experiment with text structures and language features
2. Homing In On Poetic Structure
Suggested Learning Intentions
- To build poetic metalanguage
- To understand the way in way in which poetic structure shapes meaning
4. Co-Constructing and Experimenting with Poetry
Suggested Learning Intentions
- To co-construct a poem using appropriate structure and language features
- To experiment with stylistic features found in other texts
Prior knowledge
Before you commence this sequence, it is suggested that you ensure your students are familiar with grammatical terms such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and synonyms. In addition, you may wish to familiarise them with assonance, consonance, dissonance and alliteration.
You can find support for building students’ understanding of these concepts in Literacy Teaching Toolkit.
Teaching strategies
The Literacy Teaching Toolkit provides advice on the teaching strategies that you could use in this sequence. These strategies include:
The sequence highlights opportunities to apply the High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS), which are a component of the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model.
Vocabulary
Students should be able to understand and use the following concepts and terms by the end of the learning sequence:
| Lineation | Onomatopoeia |
| Enjambment | Hyperbole |
| Stanza | Imagery |
| Figurative language | Alliteration |
| Metaphor and simile | Rhythm |
You can find definitions of some of these terms in the Literacy Teaching Toolkit and the Glossary for the English Curriculum.
It is recommended that the explicit teaching of vocabulary occur throughout this learning sequence. The Literacy Teaching Toolkit provides resources and sample activities to support this practice. In addition, a vocabulary table can be found in the Resources for this sequence.
Assessment
Opportunities for formative and summative assessment are identified at different stages of the learning sequence, usually under ‘Review’ and are identified with the following tag:
You may want to develop a rubric to assess students’ progress. A range of Formative Assessment resources are available from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. This includes a Guide to Formative Assessment Rubrics, a series of modules to support you to develop your own formative assessment rubrics, and sample rubrics across six curriculum areas that demonstrate how you can put formative assessment rubrics into practice in the classroom.
In developing a rubric, you may wish to co-construct assessment criteria with your students. Each stage of the sequence provides sample success criteria for students working at Level 7.
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority has published annotated student work samples that provide teachers with examples of student learning achievement in each mode of the English curriculum: Reading and Viewing, Writing, Speaking and Listening.
Victorian Curriculum connections
Level 6
This sequence addresses content from the Victorian Curriculum in English and Critical and Creative Thinking. It is primarily designed for Level 7, but also addresses the following content descriptions from Level 6:
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Content description |
Stage |
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English: Reading and Viewing |
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Understand how authors often innovate on text structures and play with language features to achieve particular aesthetic, humorous and persuasive purposes and effects (VCELA339) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry |
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Identify and explain how choices in language, including modality, emphasis, repetition and metaphor, influence personal response to different texts (VCELT342) |
Homing in on Poetic Structure Spotlight on Poetic Language |
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Identify the relationship between words, sounds, imagery and language patterns in narratives and poetry such as ballads, limericks and free verse (VCELT344) |
Homing in on Poetic Structure Spotlight on Poetic Language |
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English: Writing |
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Investigate how vocabulary choices, including evaluative language can express shades of meaning, feeling and opinion (VCELA352) |
Spotlight on Poetic Language Poetic Exploration: Independent Writing |
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Experiment with text structures and language features and their effects in creating literary texts (VCELT355) |
Homing in on Poetic Structure Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry Poetic Exploration: Independent Writing |
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Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, choosing and experimenting with text structures, language features, images and digital resources appropriate to purpose and audience (VCELY358) |
Homing in on Poetic Structure Spotlight on Poetic Language Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry Poetic Exploration: Independent Writing |
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Reread and edit own and others’ work using agreed criteria and explaining editing choices (VCELY359) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry |
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English: Speaking and Listening |
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Participate in and contribute to discussions, clarifying and interrogating ideas, developing and supporting arguments, sharing and evaluating information, experiences and opinions, and use interaction skills, varying conventions of spoken interactions according to group size, formality of interaction and needs and expertise of the audience (VCELY366) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry Spotlight on Poetic Language Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry |
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Critical and Creative Thinking |
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Experiment with alternative ideas and actions by setting preconceptions to one side (VCCCTQ022) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry |
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Investigate thinking processes using visual models and language strategies (VCCCTM029) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry Homing in on Poetic Structure Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry Poetic Exploration: Independent Writing |
The sequence can be used to assess student achievement in relation to the following Achievement Standards from the Victorian Curriculum: English Level 6:
- Students understand how the use of text structures can achieve particular effects.
- Students can analyse and explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used by different authors to represent ideas, characters and events.
- Students understand how language features and language patterns can be used for emphasis.
- Students listen to discussions, clarifying content and challenging others’ ideas.
- Students apply questioning as a tool to focus or expand thinking.
- Students represent thinking processes using visual models and language.
Level 7
This sequence addresses content from the Victorian Curriculum in English and Critical and Creative Thinking. It is primarily designed for Level 7, and addresses the following content descriptions:
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Content description |
Stage |
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English: Reading and Viewing |
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Understand how language is used to evaluate texts and how evaluations about a text can be substantiated by reference to the text and other sources (VCELA368) |
Spotlight on Poetic Language |
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Analyse and explain the effect of technological innovations on texts, particularly media texts (VCELY376) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry Homing in on Poetic Structure Spotlight on Poetic Language |
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Discuss aspects of texts, including their aesthetic and social value, using relevant and appropriate metalanguage (VCELT373) |
Homing in on Poetic Structure Spotlight on Poetic Language |
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English: Writing |
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Experiment with text structures and language features and their effects in creating literary texts (VCELT385)
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Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry Poetic Exploration: Independent Writing |
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Create literary texts that adapt stylistic features encountered in other texts (VCELT386) |
Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry Poetic Exploration: Independent Writing |
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Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual, and audio features to convey information and ideas to a specific audience (VCELY387) |
Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry Poetic Exploration: Independent Writing |
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Edit for meaning by removing repetition, refining ideas, reordering sentences and adding or substituting words for impact (VCELY388) |
Spotlight on Poetic Language Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry; Poetic Exploration: Independent Writing |
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English: Speaking and Listening |
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Understand the way language evolves to reflect a changing world, particularly in response to the use of new technology for presenting texts and communicating (VCELA391) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry Homing in on Poetic Structure Spotlight on Poetic Language |
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Identify and explore ideas and viewpoints about events, issues and characters represented in texts drawn from different historical, social and cultural contexts (VCELT393) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry Homing in on Poetic Structure Spotlight on Poetic Language Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry |
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Identify and discuss main ideas, concepts and points of view in spoken texts to evaluate qualities, using interaction skills when sharing interpretations or presenting ideas and information (VCELY395) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry Homing in on Poetic Structure Spotlight on Poetic Language Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry |
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Critical and Creative Thinking |
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Suspend judgements temporarily and consider how preconceptions may limit ideas and alternatives (VCCCTQ033) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry |
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Consider a range of strategies to represent ideas and explain and justify thinking processes to others (VCCCTM040) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry Homing in on Poetic Structure Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry Poetic Exploration: Independent Writing |
The sequence can be used to assess student achievement in relation to the following Achievement Standards from the Victorian Curriculum: English Level 7:
- Students understand how text structures can influence the complexity of a text and are dependent on audience, purpose and context.
- Students demonstrate understanding of how the choice of language features, images and vocabulary affects meaning.
- Students create structured and coherent texts for a range of purposes and audiences.
- Students create texts showing how language features and images from other texts can be combined for effect.
- Students can listen for and explain different perspectives in texts.
- Students use a range of strategies to represent ideas and explain and justify thinking processes to others.
Level 8
This sequence addresses content from the Victorian Curriculum in English and Critical and Creative Thinking. It is primarily designed for Level 7, but also addresses the following content descriptions from Level 8:
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Content description |
Stage |
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English: Reading and Viewing |
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Recognise that vocabulary choices contribute to the specificity, abstraction and style of texts (VCELA401) |
Spotlight on Poetic Language Poetic Exploration: Independent Writing |
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Recognise and explain differing viewpoints about the world, cultures, individual people and concerns represented in texts (VCELT406) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry Homing in on Poetic Structure Spotlight on Poetic Language Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry Poetic Exploration: Independent Writing |
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Analyse and explain how language has evolved over time and how technology and the media have influenced language use and forms of communication (VCELY410) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry |
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Apply increasing knowledge of vocabulary, text structures and language features to understand the content of texts (VCELY411) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry Homing in on Poetic Structure Spotlight on Poetic Language Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry |
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Analyse and evaluate the ways that text structures and language features vary according to the purpose of the text and the ways that referenced sources add authority to a text (VCELY413) |
Homing in on Poetic Structure Spotlight on Poetic Language |
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English: Writing |
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Create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that raise issues, report events and advance opinions, using deliberate language and textual choices, and including digital elements as appropriate (VCELY420) |
Homing in on Poetic Structure Spotlight on Poetic Language Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry Poetic Exploration: Independent Writing |
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Experiment with text structures and language features to refine and clarify ideas to improve the effectiveness of own texts (VCELY421) |
Homing in on Poetic Structure Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry Poetic Exploration: Independent Writing |
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English: Speaking and Listening |
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Share, reflect on, clarify and evaluate opinions and arguments about aspects of literary texts (VCELT425) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry Homing in on Poetic Structure Spotlight on Poetic Language Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry Poetic Exploration: Independent Writing |
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Critical and Creative Thinking |
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Suspend judgements temporarily and consider how preconceptions may limit ideas and alternatives (VCCCTQ033) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry |
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Consider a range of strategies to represent ideas and explain and justify thinking processes to others (VCCCTM040) |
Challenging Perceptions of Poetry Homing in on Poetic Structure Co-constructing and Experimenting with Poetry Poetic Exploration: Independent Writing |
The sequence can be used to assess student achievement in relation to the following Achievement Standards from the Victorian Curriculum: English Level 8:
- Students explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used to represent different ideas and issues in texts.
- Students understand how the selection of language features can be used for particular purposes and effects.
- Students create texts for different purposes selecting language to influence audience response.
- Students listen for and identify different emphases in texts, using that understanding to elaborate upon discussions.
- Students use a range of strategies to represent ideas and explain and justify thinking processes to others.
Learning Progressions
The Literacy Learning Progressions support teachers to develop a comprehensive view of how literacy develops over time. You can use the Literacy Learning Progressions to:
- identify the literacy capability of your students
- plan targeted teaching strategies, especially for students achieving above or below the age-equivalent expected level in the Victorian Curriculum: English
- provide targeted feedback to students about their learning within and across the progressions.
The Literacy Learning Progressions have been mapped against the Victorian Curriculum F – 10: English. Teachers are advised to familiarise themselves with this map to understand how particular progression relate to the Reading and Viewing, Writing and Speaking and Listening modes and particular curriculum levels in English.