The World's Wife: A Teaching and Learning Guide

Subject: English Literature
Level: Secondary
Age Group: 16 - 18
Order Number: 5220

'The World's Wife: A Teaching and Learning Guide' is a resource pack for teachers and students of A-level English Literature. It provides teaching and learning materials for Carol Ann Duffy's collection of dramatic monologues. The pack includes readings of individual poems, useful handouts, suggestions for classroom activities, and questions for classroom discussion. The material has been designed to fulfil AQA Assessment Objectives. The resources place a particular emphasis on the significance of context. They enable students to see for themselves the kind of narratives and ideologies that Duffy is challenging. The materials illuminate the ways in which form, structure and language inform meaning. They solicit personal responses from students and demonstrate how Duffy represents and subverts prevailing attitudes towards women. The classroom activities enable students to place the poems in a contemporary context, to develop their analytical skills and to appreciate the relevance of Duffy's poetry to their own lives. The questions prompt students to consider the collection as a whole: to make connections between the poems and identify recurring themes, patterns of imagery and effects. The individual readings focus on those poems that offer the most fertile lines of inquiry. They make cross-references to other poems, drawing connections across the collection. They encourage students to engage with a range of interpretations and to consider how meaning might change over time. Each reading is followed by suggested activities and questions relating to that particular poem.