Shadowing the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry in the Classroom
advanced level students only (e.g. A Level, IB, Pre-U, Diploma)

NB: There is nothing to prevent Key Stage 4 students taking part in these activities or voting in the online poll but the individual writing competition is open to A Level students only.

• Tea and cakes and poetry in the library?
  
• A panel discussion in a Year 12 assembly?
  
• A blog on the intranet?
  
• A post-it comments board in the dining hall?
  
• Staff v. student debate?

Six suggestions for organising the reading and discussion of the poems in your school or college.

1. Put aside one or two class lessons. Download the poems, and print them off. Either give them all to students to read in advance, or allocate individual poets to different groups or individuals and ask them to read their poems aloud and talk about them to the whole group, explaining the characteristics of the poems and what they particularly like or dislike. Debate the qualities of the poems/poets, leading to a vote in the class for the ‘favourite’. At the end of the lesson(s), cast your votes and record the numbers voting for each poet. Email the breakdown of your votes to lucy@englishandmedia.co.uk by December 15th.
   
   
2. Focus activities on an after school/college or lunchtime session in the library or resource centre. Make it clear that this would be a good ‘enrichment’ activity, particularly for those wanting to go on and study English at university. The librarian might want to be involved and do a big display of books to publicise it, or run the session him/herself. You could also decide to open it up to students studying other subjects, in other years or members of staff.
   
   
3. Talk to individual students who might be interested. Give them the poems, or suggest that they download them for themselves. Encourage them to vote for their favourite poet and enter the individual competition.
   
   
4. Make the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry and the student competition the subject of an assembly, where you open it up to all students, not just those studying English, and encourage them to follow the reporting of the winner in the days after the Award is announced on 16th January 2012.
   
   
5. Use the first 5 or 10 minutes of a sequence of lessons to introduce a different poet to the class, by simply reading the two poems aloud. Keep the poems in a folder in the classroom or post them up on the wall and encourage students to re-read the ones they like. When all the poets have been introduced, ask students to vote on their favourite.
   
   
6. After introducing the poets at the start of your English lessons (see 5) ask students (on their own or in pairs), to act as advocates for, or sponsors of one of the poets. Give students time, either in class or for homework, to prepare an argument in support of their poet. Take a full lesson to hold a judging panel simulation in which students present their arguments and debate the merits of the ten poets. You could hold this debate in front of another group of students, giving them the chance to contribute to the discussion. If you have followed suggestion 4 and held an assembly about the T.S. Eliot Prize, your students could do their presentation as a more public event in the library at lunchtime, for other students who want to attend.

Don’t forget to cast your votes in the online poll and send in individual entries for the writing competition by 4pm on 15th December.

Share your Shadowing Strategies
Tell us about what you are doing to shadow the scheme and we’ll post your experiences and ideas online. Email Barbara Bleiman barbara@englishandmedia.co.uk