Outcomes and Skills
These outcomes describe what students should be able to do by the end of the unit. They are formative: use them to plan, self-check and give feedback. They do not rank students or record results.
Knowledge
- Know the main tensions of Romantic writing: nature and the city, imagination and limits, liberty and tyranny, beauty and mortality, the individual and society.
- Know how a sonnet, ode, ballad and terza rima poem organise thought and feeling.
- Know the difference between a technique, an effect and a claim.
- Know that context is evidence for an argument, not a substitute for reading.
Skills
| Skill | What it looks like | Next step if it is not yet secure |
|---|---|---|
| Close reading | Selects a short quotation, describes what it does, and explains how it shapes the reader's understanding. | Annotate one line at a time: verb, image, sound, turn, effect. |
| Formal analysis | Connects a formal choice (turn, stanza, metre, refrain) to meaning. | Ask: what would change if this were prose or a different form? |
| Contextual judgement | Uses historical or intellectual context to sharpen a reading, and says why it matters. | Write one sentence beginning “This context matters here because …”. |
| Comparison | Builds an argument across two poems rather than listing similarities and differences. | Choose one shared question and answer it with both poems. |
| Academic writing | States a claim, embeds evidence, explains effect, and links back to the argument. | Rewrite one paragraph so every quotation is followed by an explanation. |
| Creative and oral response | Makes a deliberate transformation or spoken walkthrough and explains the choices. | Name the effect you wanted, then change one choice to achieve it more clearly. |
Formative success criteria
- I can read a poem aloud and mark its turn, refrain or change in direction.
- I can name a formal choice and explain what it does to the reader.
- I can use a short quotation accurately and explain its effect.
- I can connect one poem to another around a shared question.
- I can use context to sharpen a claim rather than replace analysis.
- I can revise a paragraph for clarity, evidence and effect.
- I can respond creatively or orally and explain the choices behind the response.
What progress looks like
Progress is visible when a student moves from describing what a poem says to explaining how it works, and from naming a device to making a claim about its effect. A stronger response usually has a narrower claim, better-chosen evidence and a clearer account of the reader's experience.
Teacher note
Choose two criteria for a feedback lesson rather than all seven. Model the difference between “the poem uses personification” and “the city is dressed like a person, which makes the speaker's praise feel temporary”. The second sentence is the learning.