The Ecstasy - John Donne - A Level AHEAD Teaching Pack

Poetry Teaching Pack Series – A Level AHEAD Two lovers lie on a bank and their souls step out to negotiate. It takes Donne the length of the poem to conclude that the bodies were needed all along, by way of armies, alchemy, a grafted violet and the intelligences of the spheres. Whether this is metaphysics or the most elaborate seduction in English poetry has never been settled. This Teaching Pack provides a full suite of active learning activities, organised through the Connect – Activate – Demonstrate – Consolidate continuum. It offers flexible, differentiated tasks ranging from C grade through to undergraduate level, enabling teachers to tailor lessons precisely to the needs of their students. The pack is organised around the long argument rather than around isolated the still tableau of the opening, the arrival of the imagined onlooker, the negotiation of the two souls into one, and the return to the body that the whole poem has been travelling towards. The violet, the armies and the spheres are read as stages in a case being built, and the question of what the poem is finally for is left open for students to argue. Drawing on the structure used across the A Level AHEAD series, the pack Learning and Teaching Activities – a modular route through the poem using the four-phase learning continuumDetailed Implementation – step-by-step guidance for each activity, including close reading, modelling technique, contextual integration and debateStudent Handouts – annotation frameworks, essay planning sheets, creative tasks and comparative plannersTeacher Interactive Online Activities – including quiz and activity suites with full answers and complete paper versionsAlternative Activities – additional annotation, comparison, debate and essay challenges for varied classroom contextsThe pack is built for precision, rigour and ease of use, supporting AO1–AO5 through structured close reading, contextual understanding, comparative work and critical perspectives. It is fully editable and adaptable for classroom teaching, homework, revision or independent study. About the Author Andy Hurley is a former Head of English, Headteacher, Principal Examiner and Estyn Inspector with over 30 years’ experience delivering high-quality advanced-level teaching. He is the owner and content creator of A Level AHEAD, a specialist English Literature resource website. Visit www.andyhurleyahead.com for more details.