Steven Jackson is an English teacher at Queen Anne’s School, Caversham, and is currently Head of Key Stage Three for English. He has also organised several English A-level enrichment programmes, including teaching ‘The Forms of Poetry’ and ‘Scenes from Shakespeare’ for English Oxbridge preparation. He has been published in The English Review, and as a poet and prize winner at the Brian Dempsey Memorial Competition, the Ver Prize, and Marsden the Poetry Village Competition.

"These approaches provide a valuable framework which enables rather than inhibits textual exploration and the development of an argument. But it is the richness, clarity and accessibility of the discussion of this process, the variety of poems used as stimulus, and the wealth of model answers and essays which make the book successful… the book would be useful for independent study, but equally its messages and examples could be valuable stimulus for the teacher of poetry."-- Gary Snapper, Editor, Teaching English

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1 – Who Is Involved?Chapter 2 – What Is the Situation?Chapter 3 – What Is the Central Theme?Chapter 4 – Practical Criticism and the 5-Part EssayChapter 5 – Three EssaysChapter 6 – Answering an Essay QuestionChapter 7 – Comparing PoemsChapter 8 – Exploring a Group of PoemsAfterwordBiographies of Featured PoetsGlossary of Key TermsIndex

Steven Jackson is an English teacher at Queen Anne’s School, Caversham, and is currently Head of Key Stage Three for English. He has also organised several English A-level enrichment programmes, including teaching ‘The Forms of Poetry’ and ‘Scenes from Shakespeare’ for English Oxbridge preparation. He has been published in The English Review, and as a poet and prize winner at the Brian Dempsey Memorial Competition, the Ver Prize, and Marsden the Poetry Village Competition.

"These approaches provide a valuable framework which enables rather than inhibits textual exploration and the development of an argument. But it is the richness, clarity and accessibility of the discussion of this process, the variety of poems used as stimulus, and the wealth of model answers and essays which make the book successful… the book would be useful for independent study, but equally its messages and examples could be valuable stimulus for the teacher of poetry."-- Gary Snapper, Editor, Teaching English

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1 – Who Is Involved?Chapter 2 – What Is the Situation?Chapter 3 – What Is the Central Theme?Chapter 4 – Practical Criticism and the 5-Part EssayChapter 5 – Three EssaysChapter 6 – Answering an Essay QuestionChapter 7 – Comparing PoemsChapter 8 – Exploring a Group of PoemsAfterwordBiographies of Featured PoetsGlossary of Key TermsIndex