Year 8 English Poetry

Recently, Year 8 English have been studying poetry by Black American writers such as Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou. As many of the poems such as Caged Bird and Madam and Her Madam deal with the idea of empowerment and fighting for one's rights, Year 8 made an anthology of Empowerment Poems.

Students had to research other writers and poems until they found a poem that had a powerful resonance with them. They then curated their choice of poems with a short paragraph explaining the context and message of the poem. Finally, students held an Empowerment Exhibition in their English lessons, where they paired their annotated poems with empowering lyrics from rap, rock and pop songs before presenting their pairings to the whole class.

If you are looking for inspiring reading during the autumn break, why not dip into this thoughtful anthology, or if you would like some uplifting music, here is a YouTube playlist of the songs Year 8 students selected.

Douglas Allan

Teacher of English, Class Tutor 7DAL