Reading and responding to 'Ozymandias' by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I can read a classic poem and can share my personal response.
Reading and responding to 'Ozymandias' by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I can read a classic poem and can share my personal response.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- 'Ozymandias' is a sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley that describes a ruined statue of a once-powerful king.
- This poem explores the themes of life and death and the passing of time.
- A sonnet is a form of poetry with fourteen lines, which usually follows a rhyme scheme.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley is one of Britain’s most famous poets.
Keywords
Poem - a piece of writing that uses creative and rhythmic language to express thoughts, feelings or ideas, often with a specific structure or pattern
Theme - the theme of a poem is the underlying message or central idea that the poet wants to convey, exploring topics or universal concepts that can be found throughout the poem
Sonnet - a specific form of poetry that consists of 14 lines and follows a strict rhyme scheme, often expressing deep emotions or ideas
Common misconception
Pupils may think that this poem is inaccessible because the language is difficult to understand.
Teach pupils that poems can be easier to understand once we work out the meaning of each line and explore the vocabulary used. This is modelled in LC1.
To help you plan your year 3 english lesson on: Reading and responding to 'Ozymandias' by Percy Bysshe Shelley, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 3 english lesson on: Reading and responding to 'Ozymandias' by Percy Bysshe Shelley, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 english lessons from the Poetry inspired by big and small objects: understanding form unit, dive into the full secondary english curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.