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KS3 · Year 7 - Foundations · Term 2 - Voices Across Time · Week 3
Pages: Refugee Blues - W. H. Auden
Auden's 1939 ballad for Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. The blues form gives the poem a slow, sorrowful rhythm.
Lesson 1
What students do
Read all 12 stanzas; note the "my dear" refrain.
Task
List three places refugees are rejected (consul, committee, public meeting).
Success criteria
Can list three rejections with line references.
Lesson 2
What students do
Discuss the blues form: three-line stanzas, repeated phrase, sad mood.
Task
Pair-share: what effect does "my dear" repeated 12 times have?
Success criteria
Explains one effect of the refrain to a partner.
Lesson 3
What students do
Model varied sentences: simple + compound + complex about the poem's mood.
Task
Write three sentences of different lengths about the poem's mood.
Success criteria
Three sentences with full stops, capitals, varied length.
Lesson 4
What students do
Model inference on "Saw a door opened and a cat let in: / But they weren't German Jews, my dear".
Task
Use "This shows…" to explain the comparison of refugees and the cat.
Success criteria
Inference connects the cat image to the refugees' treatment.
Lesson 5
What students do
Plan a paragraph using a quotation bank from the lesson.
Task
How does Auden present rejection?
Success criteria
Paragraph names a feature (refrain/contrast), quotes, explains.
AI marking - try this with the English Hub feedback engine
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