A Time to Speak and a Time to Listen Teacher's Guide

The A Time to Speak Teacher's Guide supports teachers as they read and explore with pupils the wide range of poetry in the A Time to Speak anthology. In particular, it gives assistance as teachers strive to meet the new demands of the English curriculum, which stresses the value of reading and discussing poetry and learning it by heart.

Part One of this book provides, for every item in the anthology, a set of concise teaching notes that will help the teacher to develop pupils' appreciation of the poem in question - and to do so, as the title suggests, using activities that will enhance pupils' speaking and listening skills.

Specific guidance helps the teacher to read each poem for maximum impact. This will be much be much valued by teachers who are now being encouraged to teach children to read aloud with appropriate intonation, but may have little experience of doing so themselves. Pupil activities fall into four categories, each indicated by an icon for quick reference:

• speaking
• listening
• interacting
• performing.

Part Two, Poetry for Pleasure, looks at the collection as a whole, helping both teachers and pupils to look at recurring themes, styles and techniques and to explore their own preferences.

Part Three looks at 12 topics, each of which might provide the focal point for a school assembly that draws upon the anthology content. It also provides an 'open theme' guide, where pupils and teachers choose their own subject, and are then guided through ways in which the assembly might be presented.

Part Four provides a useful set of photocopy masters that support Parts Two and Three.