Emily Dickinson: Complete Leaving Cert Poetry Pack (Higher Level) – Paper 1 + Paper 2

Everything you need to teach five Dickinson poems for the Leaving Cert: student workbooks, teacher slides, poetry notes, a revision and essay-writing workbook, Paper 1 Question B and composing tasks, feedback sheets and a teacher guide. Fully editable.

Teach Emily Dickinson from first reading to the timed exam essay with one complete, ready-to-teach pack. I wrote it for my own Leaving Cert classes, and every lesson follows the same simple pattern: students meet the poem before any explanation, do the thinking themselves, and write something every lesson.

The pack covers five poems:

• ‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers

• A Bird came down the Walk

• I taste a liquor never brewed

• I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

• I heard a Fly buzz – when I died

WHAT’S INCLUDED

For each poem

• Student workbook (24–26 pages, Word + PDF): vocabulary, technique retrieval, comprehension, true or false, personal response, annotation, zooming in on quotes, themes and ideas, purpose verbs, Lego sentence builders, key moments, a model answer and past Leaving Cert questions.

• Teacher slides (29 editable PowerPoint slides): they mirror the workbook page by page, with answer slides for every activity.

• Poetry notes (2 pages, Word + PDF): summary, structure and tone, key quotes, themes and personal response.

• Paper 1 Question B task with TAPS planning, a scaffold, an annotated model answer and examiner tips. Each poem links to a different text type: podcast, feature article, verbal pitch, personal letter and promotional article.

Pulling it all together

• Revision and essay-writing workbook (34 pages, Word + PDF): master quote table, retrieval practice, comparing the poems, the threads that run across them, marking with PCLM, Pick Your Essay, essay plans and model essays.

• Revision slides (35 editable slides).

• Paper 1 composing: a personal essay task linked to the poems, with planning pages and an annotated model.

Feedback and planning

• Six PCLM feedback sheets (one per Question B task, plus one for composing), with student self-check, teacher marks, a grade grid and “Try this” next steps.

• Teacher guide with two routes through the pack: the poetry route (Paper 2 only, about 4 weeks) and the integrated route (Paper 1 + Paper 2, about 6 weeks), with week-by-week plans and a one-page poster.

FORMAT

44 files: Word (.docx), PDF and PowerPoint (.pptx). Everything is editable, so you can adapt it for your own classes.

WHO IT’S FOR

Leaving Certificate English, Higher Level. Suits fifth year for the first teaching of the poems and sixth year for revision.

Created by Clare Madden, The English Teacher.

For use by the purchasing teacher and their own classes. Please don’t share the files or upload them elsewhere.