Identifying key themes in 'The Listeners' by Walter de la Mare
I can identify and justify the key themes in ‘The Listeners’.
Identifying key themes in 'The Listeners' by Walter de la Mare
I can identify and justify the key themes in ‘The Listeners’.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Asking questions about a poem can help identify key themes within it
- There are several key themes in "The Listeners" including, the unknown, the supernatural, isolation and solitude
- The Listeners portrays the strangeness of the world, and humankind's inability to fully understand it
Keywords
Theme - A theme is a central idea that the poet intends the audience to engage deeply with.
Imagery - Imagery involves the use of vivid and sensory language to create vivid mental pictures, enhancing the emotional impact of a poem.
Justify - To justify means to show or prove something using evidence.
Sensory chart - A sensory chart is a table where readers can note down sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and textures in a poem.
Common misconception
Pupils may think that imagery appeals to just one of the senses.
Through interpretation, imagery in the poem may fall under more than one sense.
To help you plan your year 5 english lesson on: Identifying key themes in 'The Listeners' by Walter de la Mare, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 5 english lesson on: Identifying key themes in 'The Listeners' by Walter de la Mare, 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 'The Listeners': reading unit, dive into the full secondary english curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Licence
Lesson video
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Starter quiz
6 Questions
Cloud Soup
Kate Wakeling
Elina Braslina
The Emma Press
Exit quiz
6 Questions
tactile
gustatory
olfactory
auditory
visual
an idea that the poet intends the audience to engage with
the use of sensory language to create mental pictures
to show or prove something using evidence
is a table where readers can note down sensory information