Anthology Resource Packs for GCSE OCR

Explore your chosen cluster of poems with these student-friendly packs. Visual overviews, analysis, mind maps and exam preparation lead students through each poem and theme in the GCSE OCR Poetry Anthology. Everything you need to tackle these poems in class, for homework or as revision.

  1. Detailed Individual and Whole-anthology Analysis!
    • Develop understanding of each poem with insightful and thorough analysis. Each poem is concisely summarised in a visual overview sheet, then investigated in depth.
    • Take a broader look by exploring key themes, ideas and issues shared across the anthology.
    • Key quotation analysis included throughout.

  2. This pack would be useful for students who need cover work, or who have missed learning and need a straightforward way of catching up...

    ...The answers for the questions allow for easy assessment – teachers can share these to allow for peer or self assessment

    T Copestake, Vice Principal & Peer Reviewer
  3. Effective AO Support!
    • Differentiated questions to deepen understanding and encourage informed, personal responses needed to hit AO1.
      • Use short comprehension questions for homework or quick-fire classwork and ‘deeper thinking’ questions to stretch and challenge high-flyers!
    • AO2 focused ‘Language Close-up’ and analysis – provides insight on key literary and linguistic features.
    • Valuable contextual and biographical info for each poem to meet AO3 requirements.
    • PLUS! ‘Link’ boxes and comparative mind maps help students discover connections and comparisons across poems.

  4. Excellent Exam Prep!
    • Original exam-style essay questions with indicative content – great practice for the real thing!
    • Helpful exam tips and guidance so students can develop and refine exam technique.
    • Suggested answers for questions and activities – makes peer- or self-marking simple.
      • Includes two sample essay answers per pack with examiner commentary and AO mark-up – students find out what the examiner is looking for and how to improve their answers.

What do teachers say about this resource? (10402)

A comprehensive resource that not only works well as a guide for studying the poems in detail but also gives clear guidance on the AOs for this exam.

The introduction to the Anthology is comprehensive and ideas from this can be used for introductory lessons before studying the individual poems. This is particularly helpful as some students are not keen on studying poetry, but also given the exam specification where there are two questions on the poetry section that both have to be answered, the pack gives opportunities to become more confident in the analysis of poetry as a genre.

The deeper thinking questions can be used to challenge more able students as more in-depth analysis and understanding is really essential to get a higher level in the GCSE.

For less able students the summary sheet is a way into each poem and they can be given this sheet to help with annotating the poem. These materials are valuable both for planning lessons and as a ready resource for use by the class teacher and/or TA and could be used for cover lessons. The analysis sheet for each poem also provides a way for students to address the task of comparing and contrasting two poems and how they can approach this in a written response. I think using a summary sheet is a really good way of engaging the students with the key areas and the following headings for the summary.

The comparison mind maps are also useful to show how the poems are connected by different themes within the genre and again that is a useful aid to the less able students who might not be as confident and can be used by either the teacher or a TA.

The summary sheet, analysis sheet and comprehension questions are useful starting points.

I think the resource enhances learning as it clearly meets its key aims: to give clear information and guidance on how to approach teaching this unit in a structured way and whether you are a newly qualified teacher or an experienced teacher, there are opportunities to draw on the materials for teaching and to guide and develop the understanding of students.

All the elements: the analysis of the poems in detail both individually and in comparison with others; exploration of key themes, making links to other poems; exam questions and sample responses make it an essential resource and because the poems are approached in a clear and systematic way, teaching the unit over time would enhance the learning of students as they keep building on the themes and ideas generated by the different poems in the collection.

I would imagine that all teachers struggled during the lock down period when we were providing lessons remotely, so the resources within this pack would be useful and could be adapted as students were having to learn on their own at home – summary sheets, linking of themes and key questions would be a useful way of guiding students if they worked on their own. In my own school we were creating some summary sheets and other resources and it was very time consuming, so to have a pack like this to use in school would have been beneficial.

M Linney, Teacher of English, Harlington Upper School & Peer Reviewer

The summary sheets for each poem are well laid out and include useful terminology, contextual information and key analytical parts for each poem.

The extended analysis sheets are clear and concise and are very much aimed at students who want to extend their learning or consolidate the knowledge they may have gained through study of the poems.

The answers for the questions allow for easy assessment – teachers can share these to allow for peer or self assessment.

This pack would be useful for students who need cover work, or who have missed learning and need a straightforward way of catching up.

T Copestake, Vice Principal & Peer Reviewer